Super Mario Brothers Polymer Clay Sculpture

Welcome fellow instructable lovin' users!  Today you will learn how to create your own Super Mario Brothers Polymer Clay Sculpture!

Lesson Ideas for Art Education:

Recycling (using broken paper clips and jar lids)

Learning Modeling

Taking about armatures

Creating something 2-D into 3-D

Following Directions

Art Terms

Materials Needed:

Sculpey® III

White :S302 001

Black: S302 042

Emerald :S302 323

Sculpey® Tools (Mine came with the Sculpey® Crafty Clay Variety Pack I bought)

Paper Clips

Tin Foil

Jar Lid

Optional Materials:

Tooth pick
Needle Tool
Sculpey® Clay Conditioning Machine
Sculpey® Acrylic Roller
Sculpey® Clay Softener

Open up and bend paper clips into the basic shape of your sculpture, this is your wire armature. 

Next build up the shape of your statue using tin foil around the wire.  When you are satisfied with the basic shape you can move on to the next step.

Take a look at the statue you are making.  Since you will be laying the clay I want you to think about the process like this.  Your tin foil armature is your basic shape, or your naked little guy.  You need to put clothing on your Mario.  What goes first.  Well in our case Mario's shirt is the piece that is closest to his skin.  Roll our your red clay and cover the part of the armature it would show.  Go a hair beyond so you have a place for the next layer to attach to.

I liked the blue that came with my kit, but I just felt it was to dark, so I mixed it with some white to get a lighter color for his overalls.  I also mixed a light blue for his eyes which we will get to later.

Kneeded the two colors of clay together until you have a nice solid new color.

Roll our your Mario's Overalls.  Wrap it around your tin foil armature.  Once done it is time to move on, we will add details later.

Time to over Mario's toes.  I covered the are with the choclolate brown, then use the chocolate brown, a little bit of yellow and white to  create the color for the soul of his shoe.

Next I rollled out the beige and wrapped Mario's head.  I took larger balls of the same color to increase the size of his cheeks and create his nose.

To create his mouth I rolled out a piece of black, I mixed a small amount of red and black to make the color of his tongue.  I then rolled a thin coil for his teeth.  I cut the shape to the size I needed and pressed it onto Mario's face.

I then rolled out a piece of black and cut his mustache to size and pressed it onto Mario's face.

Using the same process as the mouth, I created Mario's eyes by rolling out white, taking the blue I mixed and placing it on the bottom part of the white, then adding black.

His eyebrows were made from creating a thin coil of the black and pressing it on to his face.

Mario would not be Mario with out his plumbers hat.  Roll a ball of red and place it on top of Mario's head, smooth is around until you get the basic shape.  Pinch up the top to create the top of the hat as well as it's brim.

Roll out white and put it over the hands of the armature.  You can then roll small couls to add the fingers to Mario.  At this point I also added ears sideburns and hair to Mario.

Mario is not Mario with out his monogrammed hat.  Just like the mouth and eyes I created the M off of the sculpture and attached it to the hat.

I also started to add details to Mario.  Using on of the tools in the kit I added lines to Mario's overalls.  I also added a little bit of clay to Mario's overalls and gloves to give more detail.

I added Mario's buttons and some small coils on his ears for detail then felt satisfied that Mario was complete.

I wanted Mario to be jumping on something, so I opted for a turtle.  I started by making a tinfoil ball the size of the turtle.

I then rolled out a thin slab of black to cover the turtle.

I then rolled out a slab of green to go on the top of the turtle.

I drew lines on the top of the green then rolled small coils to go down inside. 

I then rolled out white to go around the green top of the turtle.  I made areas where legs and his head would pop out and used small coils to cover his belly.

I used part of a broken paper clip to help secure the turtle to Mario.  The piece went down through Mario's leg and into the turtle.

Take Directly from Sculpey®'s Website:

Bake at 275 °F  (130 °C) for 15 minutes per 1/4 in  (6 mm) thickness.  DO NOT MICROWAVE. Baking should be completed by an adult. DO NOT EXCEED THE ABOVE TEMPERATURE OR RECOMMENDED BAKING TIME.

I took an old jar lid that I was going to throw out and covered the bottom in green clay. I place the turtle on the green grass then stuck it all in the over and baked Mario and gang at the temp according to the package.

After Mario came out I decided the lid needed to fit more with the cartoon look of Mario, so I added yellow clay around the base and baked it all again.

Using E-6000 I glued Mario in place to ensure everything stayed where I wanted it to.

After this I had a bright idea....but that is for another instructable!