Post by Neyjour on Nov 1, 2017 0:13:26 GMT
The caps and bases are made with Crayola Model Magic, and the stems are toothpicks.
I started out by cutting toothpicks in half, then pinched off small pieces of the Model Magic, rolled them into balls, and then gently pressed them down onto the cut ends (not the pointy ones!) of the toothpick halves. Then gently squeezed the top portion of the clay to give them a "mushroom" shape.
After the Model Magic was dry, I twisted the caps off (they're barely stuck on, so they come of very easily) and glued them back onto the toothpicks with hot glue. This is where I made a mistake. I should not have used hot glue. If you look at the picture, you can see that some of them have a bulge under the cap. Even though I used tiny little blobs of hot glue, it still oozed out around the toothpick when I pushed it back into the cap. When I do this again (which I will after finishing these up - I'm going to use them as just a test for how to paint the bases) I'll probably use either PVA Glue or Super Glue. Super Glue is liquid enough that a drop should pool down into the hole under the cap, and not "blob" out when the toothpick is pushed back in. With the PVA Glue, I would roll the end of the toothpick in the PVA (and then roll of any excess), and then push it into the cap hole. When I make these again, I'm going to test out both methods.
I then painted the caps and stems, and gave the caps a coat of varnish. Although, next time I think I'll use varnish on the stems as well. And maybe even the bases, once they've been painted.
For the bases I pinched off some more Model Magic, rolled them into balls, and the started shaping them on a porcelain plate. After that was done, I started placing the mushrooms. Make sure to cut the stems to different lengths, and push them all the way down until you feel them hit the plate. Also, instead of just pushing them down, give them a twist while pushing. That helps to avoid making a larger hole/gap around the base of stem (unless of course you want that effect). I then used the pointy end of a toothpick to texture the base.
I'm not sure how secure the stems will be, even though I pushed them all the way through the Model Magic. Once the bases are dry, I'll try pulling them out to see. If they come out easily, I'll just glue them back in with either PVA or Super Glue.
If anyone else has made toothpick mushrooms, please post photos (I'd love to see them!) or share any of your tips/techniques for making these little guys look good!
Oh, one other thing... the Model Magic bases make these extremely light. I plan on gluing them to a much larger terrain base, so weight/stability wasn't a concern for me. But if you plan on keeping yours as little scatter terrain pieces, you might want to base them on something heavier.