22 Feb How to Make a Clay Model of a Piece of Broken Stone

Today we are continuing our progress through the book A Manual of Clay-Modelling by Unwin. We’ve made it to the 5th model, where we will be making a clay model of a piece of broken stone. We grabbed our broken stone from the side of the street.

As it’s supposed to be, this model was definitely the most challenging to date. It introduced a couple of new skills; instead of assembling our clay shape and putting it onto the armature, this time we were directed to build up around the armature. We also began working with varied shapes, instead of circular shapes.

Materials Needed

• The book, A Manual of Clay Modelling by Hermione Unwin (or free online HERE)
• Modeling Clay (the book suggests red terra cotta clay)
• Clay modeling tools (this kit includes many tools, along with a sponge and wire to cut the clay)
• An modelling board with an armature – hopefully you’ve made this with us already
• A bowl of water.
• An apron or paint shirt to protect your clothing
• Newspaper, or plastic covering to protect your table
• A piece of broken stone

Happy Handicrafts Video: Let’s Make a Clay Model of a Piece of Broken Stone

We spent a little extra time with this model, working at getting the different shapes accurate. It was also a bit of experimenting to get the texture of the stone right. The book suggests using your finger or dabbing it with a small piece of soft clay. This is the technique we used. I think in the future, I’ll look for an object with a little more texture. Maybe a rough cloth pressed against the surface may have resulted in a little more accurate final product.

Let us know what you used! We can use all the help we can get!

For this only being our 5th model, I’m very impressed with how well Luci did this!

I hope you’re enjoying our clay modelling series! (If you’re just finding us, you can get started HERE.) If you’re a homeschool family looking for help with handicrafts, I encourage you to visit our YouTube cannel, Happy Handicrafts, We recognize that not all family love handicrafts. This subject, meant to be one of the “riches” can actually be a stress. So this is where we step in. We’re crafty so you don’t have to be. On our YouTube channel, we collect all of our handicraft videos to share with you. We’ve divided it into Playlists, designed for you to be able to choose any handicraft you like. Each Playlists begins with simple projects and advances to the more complex, making it ideal for young and old alike.