The Figurines

“The figurines”

For my uncle Nick’s wedding his fiancée (my aunt Jenn) asked me to make figurines for the top of their cake as a surprise but out of clay so they could keep them. I have never made figurines bigger then and inch out of clay, but I gave it ago. It was a lot of fun but I realised I really need to practise, not quite as skilled as I had been when I used to make figurines every weekend. Basically I made a tinfoil inner structure of the figurines in order to make them lighter for the top of the cake as well as ensure they had good structure so the head wouldn’t fall off and things like that.  Once I finished the inner structure I got nude, black, white and red clay. The bride was wearing black ( her favourite colour) which actually made things a lot easier because with white you have to be so careful your fingertips are clean and you don’t get smudges otherwise it looks dull and messy. I rolled out the balls of clay making them really soft and then placed them over the foil in the correct places. For the hair I rolled thin spaghetti strips of black and draped them on the girls head and for the guy (yes his hairline is meant to be receding) I just rolled out a small ball and placed it around his head. As a finishing touch I made a rose, for those who cake decorate it would be much the same as making a fondant rose, you roll a piece in the middle to look like a cone then flatten out petals and place them around the cone, loosely to give the effect of a delicate rose.  For the figurines I went with a more cutsy look then actually trying to make replicas of the bride and groom, for the faces just little balls of white clay then even smaller balls of black on top and gentle press them on to the face to have bubble eyed people, I have always hated mouths but I eventually got them, I think it’s pretty self-explanatory as what you see from the picture of how you do them. I hope you enjoy.