Meet the "kids"!

Directions

To make the green guy:

• Roll a ball of green clay that is approximately 1 inch in diameter. Gently press the ball onto the top of your pencil.

• Create the nose by pinching the clay, using your thumb and forefingers. If you grasp the pencil in your hand and pinch from the bottom of the "face", you will create eye sockets.

• Now let's add some eyes. I rolled small balls of orange clay and flattened them. These were added to the head and then smaller balls of green clay were attached in the orange areas and I poked a hole for the "pupil" of the eye. The hole also helps anchor the pieces of clay to the larger head piece.

• The mouth is created by added a small curved coil of yellow clay.
• The wild hair is a small ball of pink clay that had been flattened on one side and stretched a little. Next I used my Sculpey tool (or a plastic knife) to cut out triangles of clay to create the spikes. Once this piece is curved to fit the head shape, you can gently curl the tops of the spikes if you wish. Attach this to the top of the head and your green kid is ready for baking!

• BAKING: I baked my kids on their pencils, but if you wish, you can gently remove the clay from the pencil and bake just the clay. Remember, bake at 250 degrees for 10 minutes! I bake my erasers on the same index cards I use as a work surface. I place the cards on a cookie sheet and place the sheet in the oven.

To make the blue kid:

• Repeat steps 1 through 3 above. To create the mouth, I added a small flattened ball of pink and then poked the hole for the mouth, so he looks like he is whistling!

• His beret is a larger ball of orange, flattened and attached to the head. Top this off with a small ball of yellow and your kid is ready to bake!

• Bake as directed above.

To make the yellow wild-hair kid:

• Follow steps 1 and 2 for the green kid.
• Use a pointed tool to poke holes for the eyes and use the side of the tool to create the mouth.

• Make small coils of blue, purple and a yellow clay about 2 inches in length. Twist these coils together.

• Now alternate rolling the coils smooth on your worksurface and twisting to make the coils tighter. When you are satisfied with your pattern, pinch off 2 inch pieces of the coil. Jumble your pieces together and there is your hair!! Attach to the head.

• Bake as directed above.