SELF PORTRAIT: Represent Your Face in Clay Challenge Results

Our first 2012 Challenge - Self Portrait: Represent yourself in Clay!
Make your SELF PORTRAIT, a face cane of yourself, sculpt yourself, make a face mask, or somehow do YOU in polymer clay. What a challenge! Creations were due at the April 2012 meeting! View the results here. Read more here.

Not everyone participated in this challenging challenge....but the results were fantastic! Techniques ranged from a face cane to a complete life-sized sculpt and included a large sculpture with not only polymer clay, but also glass, paper clay, brass, wire, shells, beads and more!


Mary DeWerff (welcome back, Mary!) brought her face cane pendant. She said the eye (hazel) and lip colors are hers, the rest she questioned. But we all agreed the translucent flower canes surrounding her face cane were a great representation of her curly blond hair, which surrounds her real face.

Kim Keane took the minimalist route - using the wire and resin techniques we learned from Eugena Topina a few years ago. This piece does look like Kim - reflecting her easily recognizable pieces and frequent use of black clay and resin.

 Deb Williams - who has an great gift for sculpting animals and faces - did herself in clay. The eyes are glass beads but this has way more gray hair than Deb actually does. What a great, realistic-style face!

New member Carol Hale (who by-the-way is an accomplished doll artist who repairs and restores porcelain dolls - as in replacing lost and broken fingers! ) created a 3-D sculpt of herself, complete with one of her dogs. The hat brim is so delicate she protected it with tissue while curing so it would not brown.

Another new member, Donna Veran Ford brought two pieces she did in school with kiln-fired earth clay. The first is a life-like face mask which really looks like Donna. It seemed to be very close to life-sized.

Donna's second piece is more of a sculpt of her alto-ego....also done in earthen clay....Donna as a fish! This piece was fired then painted, and has an iridescent shine.

Robin Young brought in a work-in-progress. Obviously fish are close to her heart and this fish sculpture contains many of her favorite things, not only polymer clay but also paper clay (for its light weight), wire, brass (steampunky clock parts, gears, keys etc), beach glass, sea urchin shells, and beads.

 Front view - find the eyes....we want to see this when it is finished!!

Michele Wineland found a way to use polymer clay and have not only her own self-portrait, but everyone's with her clay framed mirror. Brilliant!!