How to make a Pixie

I may be shooting myself in the foot because once people find out how easy it is to make a pixie, I'll never be able to sell another one. I hope you enjoy making them. I'm not going to put any restrictions on selling the pixies. However don't copy the tutorial as your own.

To make one, you just need some flesh colored clay(I use ProSculpt Light), I suggest not using SuperSculpey. It tends to darken to much. The other tool and materials you need are a needle tool, a blade, two beads for eyes, a fuzzy yarn, a tool with a taper point(tooth pick works fine) and your fingers. And a cane for the wings. A few good tutorials for simple canes are a lace cane, I would such using translucent as the center color, or an angel wing cane. The cane just needs to be about about .5 to 1 inch wide.

I start at the bottom and build up upward. Make make a small, about 1/2 wide teardrop ball,it should look just like a Hershey's kiss. That will be the pixie's body. Then come the legs, start with a log, they will be about a 1/2 long. Make the top of the leg a little point. This reduce the bulk when we connect them to the body. Let them widen out to foot. Use your fingers to make the foot. Start by pressing on the top and then molding it. When they are done attach the legs to the body.

Next comes the arms. The arms are made pretty much the same as the legs, 2 logs with a point on one end. You probably want them a little thinner than the legs, but not much. Flatten the end where the hands will be just a little bit. You still want then to be kind of thick. We're not going to separate the fingers but we will add a thumb. You just need a very small snake. Attach it on the side of the hand, making it kind of look like a mitten. Then, using a needle tool, draw line to indicate fingers, to make it easy, I usually just add three fingers.

Attach the arms to the body, you can position the anyway you like but the legs should really stick straight out. Now you can see why we made the ends pointy, it eliminates the bulk. The pixie won't have a neck but we do want the body to narrow to the top. Add a belly button using a taper end tool. With a toothpick, you may want to rotate it a little to widen it up.

Then comes the head. This is where it gets trickier. Make a ball about 1/2 inch wide. The size of the head will determine how old the pixie looks. A larger head makes him look younger. Heads are exactly round. Pinch the top of it gently to flatten the face where the eyes will go. It should look something like this.
The side where it bulges out will be the face. The pushed back part are where the eyes will go. First add a nose. Just a very tiny ball, right where the checks start to bulge out. Using a needle, put the beads in for eyes. Put the beads in side ways, so the hole is not facing out. Go in from the outside of the head. This will leave a small dent near his eyes, leave it there, we'll be using it.
This is a finished pixie head, there are few more steps to get there. On the sides of the eyes, use a needle to add some crinkles where the dent was. Use a needle to draw the mouth in. Now come the ears. Make two teardrops for the ears. They can't be too they'll break off. Position them of the head, level with the eyes. I always need to adjust the size of the ears once I get them one. Just pinch the points a little for emphasis.



Ears are one of the most complicated parts of the body. Use your tapered end to make a hole in the ear, this also helps hold it on. Then very gently etch two lines just inside the edge it you want to get fancy.
Now it's time to attach the head to the body. Just gently but firmly press it onto the body. You don't want to mess up any of the features but you don't want it to fall off either. This pixie looks a little pale. I add a little bit of pink blush with a Q-tip for some color.

Now it's time for the wings. Cut 4 slices of whichever cane you decided to use. Make them a little thick for strength. Pinch each one so it looks like a teardrop. Position then as below, then squeeze the points and edges together.
Before attached to the pixie, I connect the 2 wings. I keep the wings simple. I just press the unbaked wings to the back of the pixie. They're little enough and thick enough not to have bake them first. Here's what the pixie looks like from the back.
Now it's time to bake the pixie. It should take about 45 minutes. Follow the manufacturer's instructions. Wait for your pixie to cool off completely. To do the hair, just use a very fuzzy yarn, not an eyelash yarn. Rub a little glue on it's head and them use a 1-2 inch length of yarn, just glue in on. That's it. You're done.

You now have a cute little pixie to keep as your own. I hope you enjoy it. My pixies are available at FantasyClay.Artfire.com