www.mieranadhirah.com: Making a Basic Cutie at Yenji Clay Craft....

Having been passing by Yenji Clay Craft all these time, at the IPC /Ikea Damansara (located opposite Spotlight and Popular Bookstore on the 2nd floor ) made me curious as to what was going on in there... All I know was that I always admire those gorgeous clay figurines which are all over the place and wonder how on earth could anyone create such a beautiful masterpiece, and well, at the same time I wondered if I could ever create one.....

My chance came when the kind people from Yenji Clay Craft invited me and a few friends to try out crafting a Basic Cutie... I was definitely game for it, given this heaven sent opportunity.....

Before we go much further, there are five major benefits why you, your kids or even your parents should be playing with clay:

1. It's therapeutic. Simply the act of molding clay in one's hands whether you're a child or an adult can be very calming. Remember those stress balls that were once so popular? Manipulating the clay can help relieve stress or even be an outlet for young children, adults and senior citizen to physically express their emotions.

2. It's an outstanding sensory development activity.Young children or even senior citizens and adults recovering from an accident or stroke need to work on fine motor skills and dexterity. Rolling, squeezing and forming the clay helps them in this area.

3. Playing with clay gets our minds busy in thinking about what we're going to create and how we are going to create it. This type of creative play promotes imaginative problem-solving skills.

4. Playing with clay can help senior citizens a great activity to while their time away and also help them to have a sense of belonging and develop friendships.

5. Clay crafting actually helps us, our kids and our elderly keep the mind sharp and stimulated.

6. Pride & Accomplishment. For our children, the finished and take home projects at the end of class are treasures to be cherished! They will learn to derive a sense of personal accomplishment from finishing a clay project.

Ok, there are 6, not jut 5... hahaha

And so I embarked on a few little lessons in learning the skills in crafting a Chibi /Anime character with simplified anatomy and proportions. It is definitely a great stepping stone for beginners to begin creating humanoid characters and lots of fun to learn....though there are challenging moments...

The normal fee is RM400 for up to 3 projects of your choice which is actually pretty cool. I have seen a little 8 or 9 year old girl crafting her favorite Disney characters - Rapunzel and Jasmine....

And yes, you can craft any character you want at all be in your loved one, your favourite idol, actor, actress, cartoon character and such in Chibi style...

Right now Yenji Clay Craft is having a promotion where you just need to pay RM200 , which is 50% off the regular fees of RM400 for learning a Basic Cutie, with the catch that you have to craft a Malaysian Cultural Cutie... easy!!! One of my blogger friends Qasehsu crafted her 'Oppa' Lee Min Ho wearing a Baju Melayu.... yeah... you can make your favorite idol Malaysianized if you so desire... or how about making Park Shin Hye with a sari or kebaya or cheongsam...

It is a very good deal for sure and I am so feeling like I want to let my daughter join and start crafting too...

Yenji clay is pretty well known throughout the country and even overseas! Most importantly, they are made from ingredients that are safe for people

My instructor/ Sifu was Mandy. She is probably the most patient instructor in Yenji IPC branch, considering everyone wants her attention almost all the time. She teaches both flower and figurine courses.

We started off with two blocks of clay, a skin coloured one and a white one...a bottle of sand and some cream...

Before we start molding the clay, we have to apply some cream on our hands... this is to prevent the clay from sticking to our hands

Then we start with the molding...this can be pretty tiring for beginners but it was kind of fun kneading the clay until it is soft and pliable...

When it was soft,Mandy poured half of the sand on the table and we had to mix the sand into our clay...

See how much fun blogger friend Lee Yann is having....

Once it was well mixed, we had to mold the clay into something like a potato shape...which will eventually be the head...Then you pinch off a bit from the back and put it in front of the head to form the nose...

Then we had to mold and flatten the clay using a flattening machine.... to make the smooth skin for the head....and stick it onto the head carefully pressing out the air pocket/ bubbles....

Then we made two little balls and pressed them with the ball end of the cutter to make holes...

Then stick the flattened balls to the side of the head... and make a smile for the head... Then tie/ tape two wires together ...

And make a small body there and legs...

When I was done with my body, legs and head, I had to do the base... using a circle wooden base and some black clay....

Taa daaa.... this was what I accomplished on my first day......Heaven knows the amount of times Qasehsu, Lee Yann and I bothered her with this and that during out 2-3 hours there on the first day.....

On my second day there, I was given the task of drawing eyes and eyebrow for my clay figurine...

Drawing eyes is not that easy...It takes a lot of practice before Mandy approved of our work.....We had to practice painting on a piece of paper before we could draw it on the chibi head...

After about 1/2 an hour and 5 attempts, Mandy gave me the clearance to draw the eyes on my clay figurine's head.....

Then I was given the task to make boots and pants for my clay figurine, since I opted to make a guy... the character from the K Drama, Faith the Good Doctor - Lee Min Ho's version of Faith the Great Doctor....

When I did the boots and pants, Mandy told me to smooth out the cracks using water... you wet your hands and smooth the clay where there are cracks and holes so they look less noticeable... then I had to flatten some blue clay to make an undershirt for my clay figurine... and that was the end of day 2....

For my third lesson, I had to make hands for my clay figurine....and believe me this is hard... Mandy makes it looks so effortless when she made the hands but when we try it out, it took a good 1/2 and hour to 45 minutes of practice before she passed it.....

Making the clothes was also not easy and this we had to rely on Mandy's help a lot... Mandy is really creative and she can just make the clothing and hair and all from just a picture.....so you have to get your picture ready for her to see all the time....

Day three ended after Mandy helped me with 70% of the clothing and left the other 30% for me to do... Here is a picture of my headless and hairless clay figurine with the finished product from another two blogger friends Baz and Wern Ling's projects... Baz made the one with the head scarf... G Dragon while her sister Wern Ling made the other one with purple suit..Top....

Day four - Finish the clay figurine..... Mandy put on the head to the figurine... and we made the hair.... and oh gosh... the hair!!! It took one whole block of black clay and a little bit more.... no kidding!!

Making it was fun and challenging as we had to do it all in parts..mold black clay into tear drop shapes, flatten it with our palm and chop it with a metal ruler to make hair waves...

And taa daaa.... the finished product!!! Introducing my creation, General Choi Young aka Lee Min Ho from Faith the Great Doctor... and yeah, yeah.. we forgot the bandanna... don't bring it up again... hahahaha

Learning to make this basic cutie doll has been a lot of great fun and we made some new friends as well as practise some creativity...I really had a good time and I do so want to join in more of these projects and enroll my mini me in too...So won't you come and join me and take up these new hobby...

I have had people who wanted to buy my project already since after finishing him I brought him around and two people asked if I was selling him....but no, I am keeping him....he's a keeper...hahahah