Supplies. Crystal Mushroom Tutorial. * Molly Stanton

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1 Crystal Mushroom Tutorial * Molly Stanton Mushrooms and the Fair Folk have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship throughout mythology. Anyone who stepped into a fairy ring of mushrooms might just be transported into Faerie. Mushrooms are also powerful symbols of healing and magic. They spend much of their time hidden only to burst into colorful and otherworldly life when the conditions are right. Mixing them with the beauty and metaphysical properties of crystals can create a beautiful healing talisman...or just a pretty necklace :) Supplies You may be looking at the polymer clay packs pictured and wondering what the heck they are. This is my new favorite polymer clay. Pardo clay from Germany. I love it so much you can find a series of blog posts about it on my website. It is strong. Really strong. And flexible. The transparent colors

2 Are super transparent. For the project I am using the transparent blue, transparent aqua, and a nontransparent forest green. No sweat of you don t have the Pardo. The only place I have found in the US consistently is Joann Fabrics online at Search pardo clay and revel in all the awesome colors! The other things you will need: wooden paddle tool Needle tool Small watercolor brush Ball stylus tool Wire cutters, round nosed pliers, flat nosed pliers 22 gauge wire Dark blue acrylic paint Pearl-ex powders in duo blue and spring green Crystals with a side drilled hole (available at most major craft stores. 4 mm Swarovski flat backs a dark blue 6 mm blue lace agate flat back cabochon (or any glass/stone with a flat back) Poly-fil for baking X-Acto knife or metal clay cutter. Wire Base A C B D The first step is he secret to having a really solid and sturdy piece. Using the wire to both make an armature to support the mushroom and also to make the loop that will allow the pendant to be worn. Begin by cutting a piece of wire about 4 inches long. Better to have too much than too little. Next, pass it through the Hole on in the crystal leaving a very long tail and a shorter tail of about 1 inch. Note that the long tail is folded over the center top of the crystal and bent at a roughly 90 degree angle. Then grip the wire with a pair of flat nosed pliers as shown in step B. With either your round nosed pliers or a second set of pliers grab a hold of the short tail and pull it around the long tail to make a wrapped loop ( c ). Add a nice bend to the wire so the mushroom stem will look cute and you have completed this step.

3 The Stem The stem of the mushroom will be sculpted to cover about half the crystal. Begin with the transparent blue clay and roll it into a ball a bit smaller in diameter than a penny. In step B you can see that the ball is rolled into a long teardrop shape. Also note I ended up covering the wire with a bit of florist s tape. As I worked on the project, the clay was slipping C A Blend edges with paddle tool B D Around and became really difficult to work with. Wrapping a bit of florist s tape on the wire helps solve this problem. It is optional, but I often have some on hand for just this issue. Once the clay is rolled out to the length you want. Use an X-acto knife to cut it in half lengthways. Looking at step C you can see that you take the two halves and sandwich the crystal and wire between them. Use the curved edge of your paddle tool to blend the seam. You may need to use your fingers to pinch the edges together around the base of the crystal so the seams meet. Finally use your fingers to blend any lumps away. The Cap For the cap two clay colors are used and blended together. The same translucent blue and the opaque dark green. 75% of the clay blend is the transparent blue, 25% is the dark green. You can have some fun with this by leaving it partially blended and giving your mushroom a psychedelic swirl, or you can blend it fully for a more single color effect. The translucent colors of Pardo also look really wonderful with glitters blended into them.

4 C A B D To begin the shaping on the cap, roll the clay into a sphere. Then roll just one end to form a fat cone shape. Press a hole into the fat end as shown in figure A. Figure B shows the side view of the cap at this stage. In the following step the shape of the top of the mushroom is refined more. We want to widen out the hole so it has smooth edges and so the cap tapers more at the edges. To accomplish this, use your thumb to sweep outward (like the arrows in Fig A). Next gently pinch the very outer edges a the way around to make the edge taper. These steps should widen the cap quite a bit. You ll end up with something that looks like Let s give the cap a little character by adding some splits and some texture to it. Use your X-acto and cut a few splits along the cap. Vary the spacing and depth for some visual interest. To make the edges smooth, use the paddle tool and paintbrush to run over any harsh edges. The cap looks much more magical now! Time to add the gills! Depending on the sixe of your cap, you will need a varying amount of translucent aqua clay. You want a thin, flat disk of the clay that reaches just short of the edge of the cap. Lay the disk on the cap and press the center to connect it to the top of the cap. Use the X-acto to cut the gill clay to match the cuts you made in the cap.

5 Attaching the Cap Slide onto the stem Press down gently 6 mm cabochon applied with a disc of clay. Using the needle tool, draw gills feathering blue clay up into the green cap Needle tool texturing dusted with pearl-ex applied with watercolor brush. Duo Blue color Time to decorate and brush on pearl-ex powder! First use the needle tool to blend the blue clay down onto the crystal. Next with the aqua translucent cay make a small disc just bigger than the cabochon. Press the cab and disk onto the stem. The other decorations are Tiny balls of the aqua pressed onto the stem. Because the mushroom is small, the details are more subtle. On the cap the 4 mm dark blue Swarovski crystal is also attached with a dark green disk of clay. The tiny balls of clay that flank it are made of the aqua color used on the gills. You will see from the next set of pictures a ruffle was added just underneath the cap. Roll out a snake shape and press it flat. Wrap it around the stem and use your needle tool to blend the edges down onto the stem. The clay used was the aqua used for the gills. The mushroom is ready to go into the oven. This is where the poly fil is helpful. Place a small handful of it on the tile or pan you will bake on and lay the mushroom on top. It will keep the piece from deforming in the oven. Cure the piece according to the package instruction. Dust edges of cap with dark green pearl ex Add a thin strip of clay here and texture with needle tool Press upward with finger

6 Finishing Glitter added to cap Water based varnish sealer Dark blue acrylic paint wash applied to whole piece. The mushroom spent about 22 minutes in the toaster oven. You ll note one thing about Pardo clay, it definitely darkens in the oven. Especially true of the translucent clays. But it is super strong once it is cured! Once it cooled off, a paint wash was applied. Mix a very watery mix of a tiny bit of dark blue acrylic paint and water. Brush on a small area and wipe some off with a paper towel. The paint will stay in the low spots on the piece and pop out the detail. Continue over the entire piece. Next I added some glitter! Use a water based sealer for this. Just brush on some of the sealer and sprinkle the glitter gently onto it. The final step in the process is to make a wrapped loop at the top of the piece so you can add a ring to string it on a necklace. Wrap the wire around the round nosed pliers as pictured at the top. Grip the loop with pliers and pull the tail around the stem like you did in the beginning and use the wire cutters to trim the extra.

7 I hope you have enjoyed working this project. If you make some crystal mushrooms I d love to see them and share them! Drop me an Some of the shaping and blending techniques are shown in my youtube videos. user/elvenelysium/videos Coming with the March Full Moon...the first Moon Sprites to journey across the Veil from the Crystal Wood! They love to eat the crystal mushrooms you made! They ll only be available during the full moons of March, April, May, and June and only a handful can make the arduous journey across the veil to our world.