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‘Worms’ in polymer clay

As I’m a bit of a perfectionist (you may have noticed!) I really struggle with quick crafts, because I want everything to be as good as I can possibly make it. Sometimes that’s not healthy: when even my relaxation time is spent being very careful and striving for excellence, I put a lot of pressure on myself. So one of the things I’d like to do this year is to spend more time making ‘fun’ things without caring as much about how ‘good’ they are. And this is my first attempt at that.

Many years ago, I used to love making teeny tiny things with polymer clay – I once made a complete set of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (and Splinter the rat) that were each about 1cm tall! I thought it would be fun to try something more like that again – something quick and fun and colourful; almost the antithesis of my 3-years-in-the-making R2-D2 sculpture.

A bit of background for the non-gamers: in the late 1990s, there was a series of multiplayer games called Worms (Worms 2, Worms Armageddon, etc etc). Each player controlled a team of cute worms and took turns to try to annihilate each other by arming their own worms with a selection of outlandish and hilarious weapons. Crazy cartoon carnage ensued. Worms has recently made a comeback with new releases for consoles and iPhone, but 1999’s Worms Armageddon on PC is still a great game too.

Okay, enough talk! Here’s the action shot as the Worms go into battle on my computer keyboard:

Worms (polymer clay) by planetjune
Click through for the bigger pic at Flickr!

And because some of the details don’t show up too well against the black keys, here’s a posed shot of all the pieces:

Worms (polymer clay) by planetjune
Click through for the bigger pic at Flickr!

WormsΒ L-R:Β no weapon,Β shotgun, dynamite, bazooka, grenade, no weapon
Back: health crate, mystery crate, oil barrel, super sheep (it’s a weapon!), homing missile, bazooka, mine

A couple of hours well-spent, I think – they just crack me up, especially their little expressions, and the super sheep with his billowing cape πŸ˜€

28 Comments »

  1. Alon said

    Hi, do you sell those figures?

    • June said

      Sorry, no – in recent years, my design work has kept me too busy to have time to make items to sell.

  2. Homing Missile said

    omgee that’s very nice

  3. Ashley said

    Will you ever have any of these for sale? My brother is incredibly hard to shop for and these are absolutely PERFECT!

    • June said

      Hi Ashley, you can commission me to make some for you, but not in the immediate future, I’m afraid – I’m in the process of moving to South Africa, and it’ll be months before I have access to my polymer clay supplies again!

  4. Rose said

    Its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Not Hero turtles. Sorry had to make sure you caught that. These things are soo Funny! And super sheep a weapon!!!?

    • June said

      In the UK they renamed it to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles – apparently the word ‘Ninja’ is too violent for British kids to be able to handle πŸ™‚

  5. kel said

    Those are fantastic!

  6. GG said

    You can get Worms on XBOX Live Arcade now πŸ™‚ And by that I don’t mean parasites in your intestinal tract! lol

  7. Mercedes said

    Awesome! My husband used to play Worms back in the day.

  8. Anji said

    Came over from Sprite Stitch to tell you that a) these rock and b) my boyfriend has just demanded that I make some for him. He’ll even buy me the polymer clay. πŸ˜‰

    Out of interest, how do you get them looking so smooth with no fingerprint marks on them?

    • June said

      Thanks Anji! To smooth out the clay after shaping it, I rub my finger over it very very gently several times. You can rub out all your fingerprints that way; you just have to smooth your finger over it so gently that it doesn’t change the shape you’ve made – it takes a delicate touch!

  9. falwyn said

    “First blood!” Love it!

  10. olivia said

    You’re amazing with the polymer clay. I saw the R2D2 as well, WOW!

  11. June said

    Rikke: hehe! I didn’t have enough worms to do all the weapons – I guess I’ll have to do a banana bomb in the next batch!

  12. Rikke said

    Nice! πŸ˜€
    But where is the banana bomb?

  13. Lynn said

    Those are too cute! We love Worms. Such a cute, fun game. Makes me want to drag it out and play again.

  14. oh i am in awe of you.
    June your work is amazing maybe when i am all grown up πŸ™‚ I ll be like you

  15. Meredith said

    Oh, they came out so cute! I was wondering what you were doing when you said you had gotten an idea from my “Concrete Donkey” tweet! I love the little Super Sheep! πŸ™‚

  16. Robyn said

    I don’t remember this game but these are adorable.Love the sheep.

  17. June said

    Oh no, Jana, I hadn’t considered people might think I had bugs in my clay! Gross! I’ll add quotation marks to the title so it’s a bit clearer πŸ˜€

  18. Jana said

    LOL! When I saw the title “worms in polymer clay” I thought you LITERALLY had found WORMS in your clay! LOL! Crazy me!
    Oh, June, they are amazing! HOW can you make something so TINY so incredibly detailed?!

  19. Kara said

    Yes, perfectionism can be a curse. Often I have to tell myself to just do the work and not worry about judging it (others will do that – ha ha)! Glad you are taking some of that pressure to be perfect off of yourself this year by doing quick crafts like these wonderful worms. Happy New Year!

  20. Mary-Frances said

    My husband is a HUGE fan and so of course recognized them immediately. I’ve always love the sheep!

  21. Debbie Buckland (NZ) said

    oh now that is just awesome!

  22. foosel said

    Those are simply awesome! Thanks for sharing πŸ™‚ Keep the gaming goodness coming πŸ˜‰

  23. Jenn said

    those are so awesome! my husband is a HUGE worms fan (old school ps) and got a kick out of explaining the super sheep to me.
    good for you working on fun crafts, I know it’s easy for me to forget the fun sometimes!
    Any tips for a newbie interested in trying out playing with clay? Thanks! Jenn

  24. Magrit said

    First, best wishes for New Year !
    And wow, I love the First Help !

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