Runamuck Studio Blog by Dennis Haynes

It's December, and in some places (not San Francisco where I live) there is snow and snow people.   Here is a tutorial making a fun snowman ("Mr. Blizzard").  The main ingredient is Creative Paperclay ®.

Ingredients for fun:
Creative Paperclay ® Modeling Material
3 sizes of foam ball
bamboo skewer
glue
wire hangers
hand-dyed bottle brush tree
mini garland
acrylic paint
glitter
wood base
floral tape
3" screws
decorations and trinkets that you already have


First I cut a smidge off the bottom of the largest foam ball so it would sit well. Then I skewered the balls together with glue between them.

Next, I opened the wire hangers up, straightened them and stuck 5 through holes I made in the middle foam ball with another skewer. (I had to then use a chopstick to make the hole big enough for the wires.)

I wrapped the wires with floral tape all the way to the ends and around the fingers to bind the wires together and finish the fingers. Bend the arms and position the fingers as you would like. Paint and seal the arms with browns to resemble branches.


I used a pasta machine to roll the modeling material and used a paint brush to paint glue on the balls right before adding the Creative Paperclay ®.  Keep water nearby (I use an old butter tub) to wet your fingers and tools when blending.  


Cover the entire body with modeling material making eyes, mouth or any other details you want.  I pushed a rubber heart stamp into the wet material to add a nice touch.  Let dry.


[Note: if you get any cracks as the material dries, simply paint some glue into the crack and  add some more paperclay.


When dry, sand and paint (gesso first if you like).  I added a bit of wire hanger pushed into the nose to support the large carrot (also made of Creative Paperclay ®).

I painted 2 coats of white acrylic paint.  I sprinkled glitter in the second coat of wet paint.  I painted the eyes and sealed with a matte finish coat on the arms and eyes.  I used some cut up skewer bits for the coal mouth.


I painted and sealed a wood base like a holly leaf. I pre-drilled 3 holes in the base and put 3 long screws about 3" long each from the bottom into the body of the snowman (with glue)  to secure it to the base.


Now comes the fun of "accessorizing".  I created a wreath from the mini garland, decorated the bottle brush tree and top hat. A piece of an old silk tie is his scarf.

This one took some time and we're keeping him! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  You can make just about anything with Creative Paperclay ®.