Clay Art: Ravenclaw Crest Ring + Crafting tips!!

Hi Guys!
I'm back with an awesome d.i.y. poject I've been working on for a while!
To show off my Ravenclaw pride,
I decided to make this Ravenclaw ring.
I'm sorry I don't have a tutorial for you,
but I hope these photos and the discription and tips I will give still help you!
Let's start!

 
To start with I needed an example, so I used the picture above as an inspiration.  I changed the colours a bit, simplified the design and changed the proportions, so it was possible for me to make it ;-). I used blue, white and black clay to make the ravenclaw crest. I also mixed red and yellow to make orange for the claws. The silver along the border I mixed using white and a bit of black. I made the bird using white clay, and than coloured it using silver nailpolish.

The next step is to take your example and divide it into 'parts'. It's way to hard to make everything in one step. I made the blue background first, so I could measure out the bird and make sure it would fit on the ring. It shouldn't be too big, because it's still a ring and not a necklace or something big. I used an old ring I had but broke.   

 So after deciding on the size of your ring, just start to make all the little parts and when your finished with that, you can start the detailing. It's best to make the basic shapes and go on with adding more details until you're satasfied. I first made the body of the bird, then the tail, the legs, the wings, the claws and after that I just put it all together. For the next step I used a toothpick to get the texture of feathers and a dotting tool to make a dent for the eye. For the wings I rolled out some tiny bits of clay and lined them on top of the wings using tweezers. After that I added the beak and little black sphere for the eye.

 When I was finished with that I lined the borders of the crest with grey clay (that I mixed myself) using tweezers. After that I layed down the finished bird on top of the blue background. I didn't attach anything to the ring yet! Time to bake everything!

While the crest was baking, I started to work on the metal frame for the ring. I cleaned the surface on which I was going to stick the crest. After that I took out the old rhinestones and coloured the hollows that they left behind blue (using nailpolish and a toothpick). 

When the crest is done baking, it is time for paint! I painted the bird silver, and added a little wite dot on the eye. When everything dried up, I glazed it.

 Now for the most important part: attaching your little artwork to the ring in way that it won't fall off. Firstly, I decided where I was going to attach the crest to the ring. After I was sure of the placement, I used superglue to quickly stick it together. When that was done drying, I covered the whole back of the ring in nailglue, and I let that dry very well. To top it all off, I used a transparant topcoat. Now it should stay in place!

   I hoped you enoyed this little post! I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in while, but I've  been very buzzy with school. Luckily the holidays are upon us now! I promise that I will post articles with regularity (which means I will post on monday, wednesday and friday). So look forward to more reviews and all that good stuff!
Back to topic! I wish you a lot of luck wih your little D.I.Y. Project, and I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed making it!
What your Hogwarts House?
xXx Me