Polymer Clay Serpent Bangle

These are the steps I took to create this polymer clay serpent bangle.

Made with Cosclay, aluminum armature wire, steel ball bearings and a Red Bull can.

I am using Cosclay and sculpting onto a 500ml Red Bull can.

Rolling out a long piece for the body.

Wrapping it around the can. Shaping it and pressing it down as I go.

Cutting a groove a long the center of the entire body.

A teardrop shape for the head.

Blending it onto the body.

Pushing some aluminum armature wire into the groove.

Closing up the gap over the wire and smoothing it out with my fingers.

The mutations on this serpent are based off of the online game Ovipets

and it was a lot of fun getting everyone's mutation suggestions.

For the eyes I am using steel ball bearings.

Using a ball tool to create the eye sockets.

Cutting in the mouth with a scalpel.

Shaping it along the sides.

Roll out and lightly flatten a piece for the tongue. Cut a slit, for the fork and place it into the mouth.

To add some texture to the body I am using the handle of my scalpel and rolling that over the snakes body.

For the diamonds on the body, I have rolled out a thin sheet of clay and cut diagonals with a flat blade.

Then again in the other direction.

I started placing them onto the head, using a combination of small and large diamonds.

For the tail I am rolling out short tapered pieces.

Giving them a slight curl to one end.

keep adding them until it looks right.

Moving onto the horns. To keep them consistent in size I press out 2 circles and cut them in half.

Roll each half out, with a point on one end.

Bring them together and twist them in to a spiral.

Figuring out the placement and using a ball tool to indent.

Place in the horns with a bit of bake n bond.

For the wings I am rolling out 3 large teardrop shapes and using a needle tool to create a line.

Then doing the same with 3 smaller teardrops.

Cutting a slot into the body, for the wings to sit.

I added 4 small flattened balls to hide the sharp join of the wings and body.

I then pressed them down with a ball tool.

Now for the long whiskers. I roll out my length, taper one end. And steeply cut the other end.

This end will be laying against the side of the face.

Find a nice, natural flowing position for the wishers to lay.

One last step before baking. And that is to empty out the can of Red Bull.

Now that it has been baked, I am carefully removing the sculpt from the can.

Note: I should have used a thicker gauge wire.
As it doesn't stay tightly clamped around my arm.

I am using a couple of coats of PVA glue as a base.

Then I am going in with a black acrylic paint.

Once the coat of black had dried, I mixed in some drying retardant and black Shimmer pigments.

The Shimmer wasn't staying on as well as I would have liked so . . .

I sealed it in with some more PVA glue.

The colours I choose are black, purple and bronze. 'acrylic paint'

Painted the purple details first.

I am used a small detail brush to do all of the bronze areas.

I also painted around all the diamonds with bronze and the little details on the wings.

The wishers were very time consuming and took a few coats until they finished.

I mixed some pinks in with the purple and I used this to add some depth to the piece.

I then added some black to darken the purple and used this to create the shadows.

Note: a toothpick works great for this.

I painted it around the creases of the horns, around the eyes and the deeper parts of the tail.

I used polyurethane gloss on the eyes and it is finished.

If you are into sculpting tutorials, then you might want to check out some of my other videos.

YouTube Nikita Maree