Leaf Sprite Pendants

I'm taking a little detour from working on Sidera to pick up a project I had started earlier. Before I began working with air dry paper clay, I did some research to see what I could do with the stuff. I ran across this tutorial for leaf pendants. This was interesting to me because a while back, I was experimenting with homemade paper mache "clay" and wanted to make some leaves like this, but was unable to get my home brewed product to work in such a way. As it was (technically still is) fall when I ran across the tutorial, I decided to hurry up and press some leaves into my new clay before they were all gone. I did not follow the tutorial for painting, which suggests using water colors. I like to use gesso and acrylic paints for several reasons: 1) I find that applying water color can mess up the surface texture of the clay because it is so...watery, 2) I like the added protection that several coats of acrylics gives the clay, and 3) colors seem more saturated when applied over white gesso versus added directly to the clay.

Here is what I have done with the pendants so far. The yellow/orange/red leaves where the ones I painted before starting Sidera. The other leaves now have faces-- they are Leaf Sprites or Green Men pendants. These will be put on chains and possibly some on hemp with coordinating beads and/or stones. I like the faces so much that I'm thinking about adding some to the orange leaves and repainting. That's the wonderful thing about paper clay-- you can rework your piece after you thought it was finished!