Sculpting the Duolingo Character With Polymer Clay

Duo is a character owned by Duolingo, the languages teaching application/game. Please note that all links included are not ads. Detail on how to do the steps are in the video. Before you start, try to remove all dust from your workspace for a better end result. Attention: USE ADULT SUPERVISION WHEN CUTTING OR USING THE OVEN!!

Supplies

Materials:

1. Polymer clay (green, lighter green, white, grey{or any color of your choice}, orange, darker orange,Black, a mixture between brown and orange)

2. Wire

Tools used:

1) Taper Point Clay Shaper

2) Oven

3) Scalpel

4) Black Permanent Marker (thin if possible) (or sharpie)

5) Tracing paper

6) Tissues

7) Clean table

8) Needle

9) Pencil or pen

10) Rolling Pin

11) ”Duo drawing powerpoint” Presentation

12) Pliers

13) Empty toilet tissue paper roll

14) Plastic box used for: protecting open clay from dust ,and storage

15) Glass tray for oven

16) Ball stylus

Step 1: (Preparation): Get the Clay and Powerpoint/PDF

Mix all the necessary colors if you don’t have them already. Then open the PowerPoint presentation that I have attached. Change the zoom to fit the size of Duo that you want. I used 73% zoom.

Step 2: Draw on the Tracing Paper or Print

Draw Duo from the front view and one of the side views on tracing paper. Draw the face in detail, wings, feet, and eyes then cut your drawings to use them later in this instructable.

Step 3: Start Sculpting (the Body)

Get a piece of green clay and get the front and side view drawings. Shape the green clay into a cylinder larger than the width of the drawings. Place the drawings onto the “front view” then “side view” of the clay and cut the shape of Duo’s body using the scalpel, then sculpt (push in) the sharp edges into smooth curves. You may need to use the scalpel to cut the edges.

Step 4: The Facial Disk (face)

Using the same method used in the making of the body (put the drawing on the clay, cut it, then make the hard cut edges into smooth curves). Cut the facial disk out of some light green clay. Place the facial disk on the body.

Step 5: The Beak

Use some orange clay to make a ball. Sculpt the ball into the upper part of the beak and cut it to make the sharp biting part. Get a piece of darker orange (or the rest of the orange mixed with a little bit of black). Mold the dark orange clay into a cylinder. Flatten the cylinder (don't make it too flat). Use the ball stylus to make a groove. Fill the groove with a brown and orange clay mixture. Cut the bottom part of the beak. Place both parts of the beak into their places.

Step 6: The 3 Little Feathers

Using the rest of the light green clay, cut 3 tiny semi-circles and place them in their places.

Step 7: The Sclera ( the White Part of the Eye)

Flatten a piece of white clay. Use your scalpel to cut the shape of the eye. Place it in its position. We will be drawing the iris after baking (you can make it out of clay if you want).

Step 8: The Wings

Cut the wings out of the rest of the green clay, but make sure to make the wings are thinner than the body (not too thin). Using the same method used in the making of the body (put the drawing on the clay, cut it, then make the hard cut edges into curves). Cut the wings and attach the them by squishing a very tiny piece at the end of the wing onto the body and flattening it using the modelling tool.

Step 9: The Legs

Make a small cylinder of orange clay. Cut it into many equal pieces. The pieces should be the same size as the feet in the drawings. Sculpt the edges to make them into smooth curves. Then cut 2 equal little pieces of straight wire. Attach the wire onto Duo in the place that the legs are going to be. Then attach the feet onto the wires.

Step 10: The Stand

Use a toilet tissue paper roll as a guide and stuff it with clay, tissue, or aluminum foil for a height of ½ cm. Then remove the tissue roll. Make a hole inside this stand using a needle. Coat (cover) it using a clay with a color of your choice. I chose grey :) Cut the clay through the same whole made earlier. Make the stand wire as a base circle with a line standing up. Stick the wire (stand’s skeleton) through the hole. Attach the Duo on this wire.

Step 11: Baking

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the creation in a glass oven tray. Then place the creation in the oven for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes are done, leave it to rest for approximately 6 minutes. Then carefully remove the creation from the glass oven tray.