Finishing the Fairy Door in a Magical Polymer Clay Tree

A fairy door, made from magical wood or not, is not enough to entice the fairy folk. And so, with the wooden bookend constructed, and blue wood complete, it’s time to decorate the door to bring the entire piece together.

I personally found this process to be the most challenging so far. I love getting carried away with tiny details on a single piece, but get stuck bringing a project together in terms of decoration and creating and overall cohesive theme. Feedback and suggestions will be especially appreciated on this via the comment section below.

Want to follow along? Below is a list of required supplies. These can be picked up at your local craft store, or purchased on amazon using my referral links below. (I receive a small commission if you use my links, at no extra cost to you)

• Premo polymer clay in the following colors: Black, brown, white, translucent, granitex, copper.
• Baking paper – be sure it’s oil free parchment paper
• Pasta machine to blend clay and roll sheets
• Standard sculpting tools <- blog post on the tools I use
• Aluminum Foil for texturing
• Dedicated oven – I use a deni table-top convection oven

My goal is to sculpt the entire door and surroundings as a single unit, bake it, then secure to the wooden bookend. I’m wary of sculpting the individual components because I worry that if I glue them to the wood separately they will eventually fall off.

And so I decided to create a wood texture clay ‘canvas’ on which I will attach the door and surroundings. I used the same method as the blue wood, only this time I stuck to browns and neutral colors.

I used Baking paper to trace the bookend and cut my clay to size. This way I have an idea where to place the individual components, while also having the flexibility of moving the piece around as I work.

I positioned the blue door under and inch from the bottom. This will allow for a ‘door frame’ and nearby step.

The door frame will be a pattern of rocks combining the following clay types:

• Granite Premo – dark or light
• Translucent Premo
• Premo Pearl
• Black and White

I cut random sized chunks and placed them around the door to get an idea of how much clay will be required. I then mixed the clay till the colors were nearly blended. I cut the partially mixed rock ‘blob’ into smaller pieces to complete the blending process. The partial blending resulted in slight color variations among the smaller pieces for a more natural look.

I cut similar sized chunks of clay and created various shaped ‘rocks’ which I placed around the door.

The door hinges and knocker are a mix of brown and copper Premo polymer clay, shaped into metal hinges. I used a needle to poke holes and fill in with tiny black dots of clay to represent nails securing the hinges to the door and rocks.

After completing the frame and hinges I decided the wooden background looked too shallow and empty. Using this awesome tree as my inspiration, I added another marbled mix of browns and grays in random sized flat chunks around the rocks.

I smoothed the chunks together giving me a ‘lumpy’ but smooth background. With a makeshift texture tool of crumpled foil, I then proceeded to hack away at the ‘wood’.

I added the final ‘cracks’ by running my tapestry needle tool through the wood with a purposely shaky hand.

I plan to add some moss once the frame is baked to add a bit more life into the tree.

I used the same technique to create the 2 ‘steps’ starting with a strip of brown marbled clay, textured with my crumpled foil, and adding rocks to the middle as a pathway leading up to the door.

Into the oven they go.

While it bakes, I have a question for you, how many fairies should be sculpted onto this bookend? Let me know by leaving a comment below