DIY Niffler Locket

Hey guys!

This my second Niffler inspired project in a row. I am absolutely charmed by this adorable creature!!! I got my inspiration for this project from Pintrest and was in love with it. More over I had an plain boring chain lying around and I thought it was a good time to transform it to something interesting.

If any of you want to know what a Niffler is: It is described as a: "Long-snouted, burrowing creatures native to Britain with a penchant for anything shiny."

Check out this video.

Here is a really quick and simple tutorial for all those potterheads out there!

So...... Let's get started!

Here is the list of all that you will need for this project.

Raw materials:

1. Black polymer clay (I am using a mix of proto and premo.)
2. Orange polymer clay (I used proto orange mixed with a little translucent premo and sculpey white. For the orange try mixing one part red and one part yellow if you don't have the shade.)
3. A old (or new) chain with/without a small stone locket.

Tools:

1. X-acto knife or any other sharp blade.
2. Any sharp pointed tool to pick up and attach small pieces without crushing them. (you can use toothpicks, safety pins or needles for this)
3. Any ball tool for merging and blending the edges. I am using a ball tool.
4. Fevicol or any other clear dry school glue.

That is all! This probably my simplest 'ible so far!

Let's start.

Not much to be said so I will launch into the steps immediately!

Steps:

1. Start with a piece of black clay about the size of a baby tomato. This is going to be the body. Press it down slightly and roll with your index and middle finger while applying constant pressure on the middle finger. This way the piece will kind of like a tear-drop (without the pointed head).
2. Now slightly bend it into a Beartie Botts every flavored bean (jelly bean) shape. The fourth image shows this step. This way it will look like the Niffler is slightly bent and will make it look more convincing that it is actually hanging. If it was straight it would look really awkwardly stiff.
3. Now roll out a smaller piece of clay in black for the head. This must be at least half the size of the body. Roll it into a ball.
4. Press it down on a flat surface so its basically a ball with one side flattened. The bill and eyes will be attached on the flattened area.
5. Attach the head to the body. The flat side of the face should be aligned to the inner curved side of the body. Using the ball tool blend both the pieces together. (Just press and and pull downwards).

At the end of this step, your model should look like the last photo. So now let's attach the hands and legs.

Let's give the troublemaker its hands and legs and tails!

Steps:

1. Roll out four more pieces of clay. Two smaller than the other pair for the arm. I have included the body in this picture to give you the sense of comparative proportion.
2. Just like how you rolled out the body into a tear-drop shape, roll all the balls to form the limbs.
3. Bend the legs slightly (again like a bean) and attach it to the body. It should look like the third image.
4. For the arms, just slightly (very slightly) bend it inwards and attach it below the head. There really isn't much to it. Just ensure you blend the behind part of the arms just like you did for the head for adding strength. (Optional: you can use wires to attach the arms and head if you want extra strength. Just press the wire through the body till it comes out from the other end and press the arms onto the wire on both sides.)
5. Roll out black clay into a sheet and cut out a small triangle. The fifth image shows the tail piece along with the body. It will give you an idea regarding the size again. As you will notice the top edge of the triangle has a slant edge. (place the blade at and angle and then cut) This will help while attaching in the next step.
6. Place the triangle near the lower part on the behind side of the body. Merge the tail to the body. After that slightly curve it outwards like in the last photo.

Now orange will be the new black. Lets add the bill and fingers and toes using the orange clay.

Take your orange shade and let's begin.

Steps:

1. Roll out five balls of orange clay (1 for bill, 2 for hands and 2 for feet). The bill piece must be slightly bigger. Keep the other 4 pieces aside for the next step.
2. Mold the bill piece into a tiny prism. I just pinched it with my fingers and pressed it onto a flat surface. Using the blade, cut one side so as to flatten one end while the other is more rounded. The third picture shows this.
3. Add the bill to the face of the Niffler. The flat side of the prism will attach smoothly to the flat of the face.
4. Using the ball tool, merge the ends of the bill into the face like in the sixth photo. The process of merging is just the same as what we used for the tail and head.
5. Add two tiny flattened circles of clay just above the bill on two sides for the eyes.
6. Roll out an extremely thin snake of the black clay (I took a photo of this step too but the snake was soo thin that it was practically useless to show it to you guys. You couldn't even find it!!)
7. Bend it into a a bracket shape or a curved shape and place it on top of the orange disks. press it gently to attach firmly.

Time for the hands and feet.

This step requires a bit of patience and needs to be done with a lot of care. We will continue to use the orange clay.

Steps:

• Feet
  1. Roll out a small tear drop shape and press it down so as to flatten it. Cut the wider end so its slightly slant. This will be the base of the feet.
  2. Roll out a snake and cut same sized pieces from it for the toes. The second picture shows the comparison of the sizes.
  3. Roll those pieces into oval-egg like balls and attach them to the base. Keep repeating this step until there are five tiny toes.
  4. Attach this feet to the Niffler's leg. Slightly bend the toes forward and using the blade make small cuts on the feet to the the folds and creases. The fifth picture is a reference to how it should look.
• Hands.
  1. Roll out an orange ball and press it down.
  2. Using the blade cut out the sides to make a square. The roll out thin snakes for the finger and add four of them to the rectangle. This is just like how added the toes.The eighth picture shows this.
  3. Put the pointed tool in the middle and roll the fingers around it to make a half a ring. Look at the ninth picture to get an idea. Don't make it into a complete ring, just half because the thumb will complete it!
  4. Roll out the thumb and attach it to the other side of the square (not the side of the fingers) and then bend it across to complete the ring. At the end is will look like a fist holding on to something.
  5. Attach this to the arms of the Niffler's body. To do so, use a sharp tool and make many holes of the place you want to attach the hand and them press the hand on to it. This will ensure it sticks stronger.

Note: Ensure that the fist you make has a hole large enough to fit your chain through it after you bake!!

This is just a simple step. I could have merged it with the previous step but it was getting too crowded... so anyways lets add some fluffy texture.

Steps:

1. Take your pointed tool and just begin poking around gently to make many small dots.This gives a very light but nice texture. Its optional though.
2. Make a small cut along the bill to make the mouth. Make the ends raised so it looks like smiling.

Now bake it according to the instructions of your clay. I baked mine at 130 degrees centigrade for about 27 minutes.

Almost there....

Steps:

• After you have baked it, just pass the chain through it.(Most chains have a ring at the end. Remove that ring as it normally is too big to pass through. Then you can attach the ring back later.)
• As I had a small stone-locket, I first passed the plain chain through the first fist, added the stone and then passed it through the other fist! You don't have to do this step if you don't want to. (Sorry these images are a bit dark. It was raining and the lights were out...sorry)
• To keep it in position, add some glue into the fist so it doesn't keep sliding around and this also strengthens the fists.The last image shows this.

And you are done!

Flaunt your love for the series with this cute locket!!

Thank you so much for reading. I really hope you enjoyed and will give this a shot!

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think about this 'ible. Give it a <3 and feel free to ask for any doubts and clarifications! I will reply as soon as I can!

Love you guys,

Ahona