How to Make a Cocker Spaniel Out of Clay

Cocker spaniels are one of America's favorite family pets. Funny, since they once stopped breeding cocker spaniels because they were too aggressive. Making a cocker spaniel out of clay isn't too difficult. Just grab some clay and start molding the cocker spaniel however you think it should be molded.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Clay rolling pin
• Sculpey III clay
• Black seed beads
• Coffee stirrers or sharpened pencil

Making a Cocker Spaniel

1. 

   Knead clay until soft and warm. This will aid in better clay handling.

2. Next, shape all your pieces. The dog head should be a half inch in diameter. The neck is a disk three eighths of an inch thick. The body should be an inch and half long, and an inch thick. The Circles for the hind legs should be five eighths of an inch in diameter. The back feet should be little teardrops about a half a centimeter long. The front legs should be an inch and half long. The ears should be teardrop shaped and an inch long. The muzzle should be two eighths of a centimeter long and wide, and the stubby tail, two eighths of a centimeter long and one eighth of a centimeter wide.

3. 

   Attach the head to the neck and the neck to the body. Using a coffee stirrer, smooth all pieces into each other to create one solid piece.

4. 

   Next, add the muzzle to the head and smooth using the coffee stirrer as you did in step three.

5. Now, and the remaining two disks to side of the dog’s back end. Smooth the disks into the body like you did in step three. Add the two small teardrops to the bottom of the now smoothed disks, but do not smooth the feet. Next, add the two long pieces to the shoulders (the portion of the body close to the base of the neck) and smooth those pieces in.

6. 

   Now add the two remaining teardrops to the sides of the dog’s head, and attach the stub to the backside.

7. 

   Now add the eyes and nose to your dog’s face. Take a small triangle and put it on the very tip of the dog’s snout; center your seed bead eyes.

8. 

   Take your pencil and create “fur” on your dog. To create fur, take the pencil and scrape the surface of the clay in circular motions, giving a nappy, curly fur appearance. Do this throughout the dog’s body, adding extra “curl” to the hind legs, ears, and the top of the head, and less texture to the face.

9. Place your figure on a foil wrapped pan. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees and bake figure for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool for two hours. Afterwards, apply Varnish to your figure for protection.

Tips & Warnings

• Black clay stains! Use rolling pin or knead black clay while wearing rubber gloves, or using saran wrap. If the rolling pin is used, coat your rolling pin with baby powder to make sure clay does not stick.