With Easter coming up, today I want to share with you guys how to make adorable Easter bunny pendants using polymer clay.

Before diving into the tutorial, I want point out a common mistake polymer clay newbies tend to make — they shape polymer clay only by fingers. If you are making something simple for kids, this approach is probably fine. However, if you want to make delicate polymer figures, you have to understand how to use the sculpting tools. Believe me, they are soooooo much better than your fingers!

Therefore in this tutorial, in addition to the regular step-by-step instruction, I will also talk in detail how to use sculpting tools with mini videos. Hopefully this information can help you to make not only Easter bunny, but also all the fun projects you want to try in the future. 

The bunny images used in this project are created by an amazing Japanese artist mokarooru. Check out the artist’s Instagram account here.

Material Needed:

• 1 inch round bezel pendant tray 
• Fimo Soft polymer clay (see color recipe below for detail)

Polymer Clay Color Recipe

• Light Purple (for flower):
  • 0.1g Fimo Professional Purple (No. 6)
  • 0.05g Fimo Soft Pacific Blue (No. 37)
  • 3g Fimo Soft White
  • 3g Fimo Professional Dolphin Grey (No. 80)
• Light Green (for leaves):
  • 0.05g Sculpey Souffle Jade (No. 6323)
  • 0.2g Fimo Soft Apple Green (No. 50)
  • 5g Fimo Soft White
  • 5g Fimo Soft Sahara (No.70)
• White (for background): Fimo Soft White
• Light Sahara (for bunnies):
  • 1g Fimo Soft Sahara (No.70)
  • 2g Fimo Soft White
• Carrot (for carrot):
  • 0.3g Fimo Soft Tangerine (No.42)
  • 2g Fimo Soft Sahara (No.70)
  • 3g Fimo Soft White
• Pink (for cherry blossom): Fimo Soft Blossom (No. 21)

Step 1. Preparing the Canvas

Stuck a piece of white polymer clay to the pendant tray. Then smooth the surface using your thumb. It is recommended to wear a finger cot in this process to avoid leaving finger prints on the clay.

Bake the piece in the oven at 110C or 230F for 30 minutes.

Step 2. Drawing the Image

While the clay is baking, you can prepare the image. Adjust the image to the proper size and print it out on paper. Then scribble the back of the image with a pencil.

After the clay is fully baked, you can trace the image onto the white polymer clay as shown in picture 6. It will leave light pencil sketch on the pendant surface.

 Step 3. Shaping and Sculpting 

Following the pencil sketch, add polymer clay pieces to the white surface. Then using the rubber tool to smooth the visible seams and create curves as needed.

Using a needle tool, create the eye sockets and mark the mouth. Add the flowers at the background. The color I am using for the flowers are light purple and light green. 

Add the bunny eyes and refine other details as shown in picture 5 and 6. To add more visual interests, I also used a yellow bead as the flower center.

Color the bunny using watercolor. Apply light pink to the cheeks for extra cuteness. To make the figure more dimensional, add warm brown to the bottom of the long ears and the feet. 

Understanding the polymer clay sculpting tools

The sculpting and coloring tools I used in this project are summarized in the following picture. I’ll explain their function one by one and show you a few mini videos on how I use them. 

No. 1 Rubber Tools

Rubber tools are used to smooth the polymer clay. If you look at real animals or people surrounding you, there will be no visible seam between their limbs and torso. Therefore, if you want to make your sculpting realistic, you need to smooth out any visible seams that doesn’t exist in the real world. That’s why you need a set of rubber tools.

Rubber tools come all kinds of shapes. What I used most are the pointy and flat one as shown in the picture above. You can use the pointy one with force to get rid of the seam; then the flat one to smooth the surface completely. Here are the short videos on how to use them.

In addition to smoothing, the pointy tool can also be used to shape the clay. You can see how I used it to shape the bunny face in the following mini video. 

No. 2. Needle Tools

You can use needle tools to make indentations on the polymer clay. The straight one has a finer tip. Thus, it can be used to work on really fine details. The curved one can create more natural looking indentations. You can see how I use it in the following video.

No.3. Wire End Tools 

Those strange looking tools are used for removing polymer clay. The metal part on the top is functioned as a knife, but not as sharp. The shape of the metal will determine the shape of the clay. As you can probably imagine, the curved one will leave a curved surface and so on.

You can see in the following video how I carved out the bunny belly using those tools.

 No. 4 Watercolor 

Watercolor is my go-to option for coloring polymer clay — both figures and flowers.

Most of the time, when coloring the polymer clay, we only want to enhance the underlying color, or add subtle shadows here and there. If you use vibrant color such as oil paints, the figure will probably look unnatural. The watercolor, on the other hand, is subtle and soft, which makes it an ideal media for coloring the clay. 

When you are coloring polymer clay, blend a little watercolor with clear water using a small paint brush. Then apply it to the surface. If the area becomes too wet, you can use a sponge to absorb the water. This will also help to blend the color.

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