Make some Easter chicks using foam clay

Looking for something to do with the children during the Easter holidays? FIONA CROOKS SMITH from Rainbows of Newbury, Inch's Yard, shows you how to make these cute foam clay figures

FOAM Clay is a fabulously squishy modelling material with a textured finish that is fun to create and model with, but is also ideal for coating/modelling around craft items, such as polystyrene shapes. It is air drying and amazingly light once dry. It comes in a variety of colours, some with glitter, and even a glow-in-the-dark version. There is also a smooth version called Silk Clay.

The instructions are for an Easter chick, but the possibilities are endless. Use your imagination to create your own creatures.

What you need:
Small polystyrene egg shape;
Foam Clay in yellow and orange (or pink and purple or green and red. It’s your chicken so anything goes.)
Optional items - Pair small push-in eyes, wire legs, push in hanger, black felt pen

1 Pull out a small blob of foam clay and knead well

2 Push foam clay onto egg shape, smoothing and pressing as you go until whole egg is covered in a thin coat. Don’t make the clay too thick – it will take longer to dry and your shape will be more easily distorted.

3 Once covered, put your egg shape to one side and make the chicken’s features – two wing shapes in yellow, a small beak and a comb for its head.

4 Push in eyes (if using).

5 Apply the wings to each side of the egg shape – just push them into place and smooth with your fingers. The clay sticks to itself nicely. Add the beak and comb.

6 Push wire legs well into the polystyrene. Adjust until chicken will stand.

7 Alternatively, push a small hanger into the top of the chicken’s head for a hanging ornament.

8 Leave to dry. Clay dries to touch-dry within a couple of hours, but it is best to leave for 24 hours to ensure it is thoroughly dried. If adding features with felt pens, ensure clay is completely dry before doing so

Fiona Crooks Smith is co-founder and owner of Rainbows of Newbury, an arts and crafts supply shop in Inch’s Yard.

Rainbows is a treasure trove of crafting goodies selling a multitude of yumminess, including decopatch supplies, DMC embroidery threads, King Cole knitting yarns and patterns, Decoart paints and mediums, Gutermann sewing threads, ribbons and braids, buttons, general haberdashery, beads, jewellery-making supplies, foam and silk clay and other modelling mediums, polystyrene, maché and wooden shapes and objects to decorate, and SO much more.

Fiona arranges both children’s and grown-up crafting parties, and ad hoc workshops and taster sessions on decopatch, basic jewellery making, needle and wet felting, block printing, mixed media paints and mediums, learn to knit sessions and much more. ‘It is always worth asking’

9 Inch’s Yard, Market Street, Newbury, RG14 5DP rainbowsofnewbury@gmail.com 01635 34180
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