Sure! It's incredibly simple though
First off, I use Sculpey III for my models; it comes in packs of either6 or 30 colors, so all of the colours you could possibly need, fromtransparent to white to black, are all there. Sculpey is really easy towork with.
Firstly, I slice off the amount of clay that I want to use using ablunt knife (it's actually the knife that is a part of my nailclippers!). Then, because Sculpey can be a little hard at first, I sitand I knead it, generally rolling it over and over again into a sausageshape until it's soft, warm and pliable.
Once it's at a workable softness, I roll it into a fat sausage shape.Then, using my blunt knife again, I cut it into sections. I use roughly1/3 for the body of the bear, which I then roll into a pear shape -basically make it into a ball, and then roll one end slightly narrower(I like my bears to be pretty chubby with big bottoms, so they've allgot a bit of a pot-belly thing going on!); you could always just makeit into a fat, stumpy cylinder.
Then with the clay sausage that's left, I take just under half to makethe head - from that half, I squeeze off two smaller, equal-sizedpieces for the ears, and, sometimes, a piece for the nose, too; itdepends on how the bear will look.
To make the head shape, I roll it into a ball and then pinch out oneside so that it's almost traingular, but with big rounded corners. Or,if I'm going to have a bear with a defined nose, then I'll make thehead practically round and then fix the nose ball to the front (I dothis by flattening a little piece by squeezing it out and then blendingit into the head, so that it is secure).
Then with the ears, I pinch out a little bit so that it's flat, same asthe nose, and then smooth the flattened bit onto the head. To make theindent with the pink lining, I use a little piece of wire (but you caneasily use a sharp pencil or pen) to make an impression, then put in asmall ball of pink, which I then flatten out using the wire/pencil.
For the eyes and nose, they're really easy! I just make three smallballs; two black eyes, and either a pink or black nose. For the eyes, Imake two little impressions to just give them a bit more of a securehold, while the nose is just firmly pushed into place. And then you'vegot a teddy bear head!
Now, for the arms and legs. Cut the remainder of the sausage into fourpieces; make two slightly larger than the others, for the lower legs.then roll these out into sausages, and attach them to the body bygently squeezing them on at the hip and shoulder level. (I'd recommendmaking them sit down, as you need a lot more clay to make them balancestanding up).
To fix the head onto the body, I normally cut a little piece of wire,about 1.5cm long, which I push into the top of the body. I then justpush the head down onto that so that the head and body are touching -this just adds a little more strength, otherwise I think that theirheads will easily roll off, which we don't want!
And that's it! You've got a teddy bear
If I'm going to mix a special colour (if you look closely at the yellowteddy bear, you might be able to see that he has a marbled effect - hewas created from a mixture of yellow and silver clays), I'll soften uptwo colors in the same way as mentioned above, and then mix themtogether. I've found that the easiest way to do this is by making twosausages and wrapping them around each other , then rolling them intoone big sausage, doubling up and wrapping them around each other again,rolling it into a sausage and so on. To make one smooth color does takequite a bit of work, but marbled effects are easy
Once you've mastered the basic bear, you can easily do all sorts - I'vegot bears holding things (like the one holding it's teddy bear in thepicture!), with patches, wearing clothes and so on!
You bake Sculpey in the oven - all it takes is a glass/smooth surfaceto place it on, and the exact time and temperature to bake it at islisted on the packet, off the top of my head I can't remember what theyare
They're very hot when they come out of the oven, but oncethey're out they're pretty solid.
