Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Hey guys :)

Today I want to show you how you can decorate a very pretty frame with polymer clay that is inspired by an old manuscript.

Tools and Materials:

polymer clay
picture frame (make sure it's bakeable)
clay shaping tools
roller or pasta machine
blade or x-acto knife
liquid clay
gold leaf
black alcohol marker


Instructions:

First decide on a design you want to have. I wanted to have a sort of piece of parchment with the phrase 'home is where the heart is' and a lot of flowers and vines around it. Look at some pictures on the internet for inspiration. Pinterest is a really good source for this :) Here my Pinterest board for this project.

So to imitate a manuscript, mix some sand colour and white with translucent. Don't worry if you get any lint and dirt on there. This actually helps to achieve an aged look. Mix everything together and roll it out. Then roll out another sheet of translucent really thinly and place it on top. Roll it out again, making sure, it fits your frame.
Place it on the frame decide how big you want it.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Cut it to size. It's nice to have some ragged edges to make it look worn.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

To have a really pretty illuminated initial I made a square template with some indents and placed it where it should go to see where to write everything else. Then I indented all the other letters of the text into the clay in Gothic script. It's a little hard to see here. I recommend practicing the letters first, if you're not used to this. You can also make some lines first to know where to write out your letters

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

I placed my template for the initial on some clay and cut it out. Take some gold leaf and carefully put it on the clay and smooth it out with your fingers. Make sure to also cover the sides. I recommend a short pre-bake of 10 minutes at this stage because the more you move the sheet with gold leaf, the more it cracks.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Now cut out a very pretty initial from red or blue clay or whatever colour you like. Check the internet or my Pinterest board for shapes of pretty initials. Place your initial on your gold-leaf clay, attaching it with liquid clay.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Position your finished initial piece on your frame, again using liquid clay underneath. You can also make a design into the initial. I chose some simple leaves that I indented with my clay tools. You'll see it better once I add the colour. You can then pre-bake the whole frame again to make the next step easier. This way you don't have to worry about distortion. Unfortunately, I got some air bubbles under the big parchment sheet, that went upwards in the oven. But don't worry, if this happens. Just put something heavy (like a big book) on top of your frame once it's out of the oven. It will even out this way.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Now the vines. Around the texts of manuscript folios you often have these beautiful floral decorations. To imitate those, start with rolling out some black clay into very thin snakes and put them on your frame in swirls. To help them stick, first trace the swirly vine with liquid clay and then put the snakes on top.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

I discovered that it's easiest to start at the end of the swirl (check the picture). Simply stick the end down and then let the rest sort of fall into place naturally.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Here you can see again how I start a swirl. I also made a cute heart on the right side.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

I made the same leaf design on the heart as on the initial. Also make small swirls attached to the bigger swirls and simple stems so add flowers and leaves later.
Here I also have already coloured the letters in black. I used an alcohol marker for this.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

For the flowers, roll some logs in the colours you want the flowers to be, and you'll also need a sheet of black clay.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Wrap the logs into the black sheet, cut the excess and smooth out the seams.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Reduce your new canes to the size you want your flowers to be by rolling them on your table and carefully stretching them. Then pinch one side between your fingers to create a teardrop shape. Cut slices from that, three for each flower, and attach them on your frame with liquid clay.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

To make the golden leaves, I covered some clay with gold leaf again and cut out the shapes with a very small cutter. I made the cutter from the metal part of a paint brush on which I pinched one end with pliers. To see in detail how to make these small cutters check out my circle cutter tutorial.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

Bake your frame one last time according to the instructions on your clay package or for 30 min at 100° C. Then colour the inside of your initial and heart with white acrylic paint.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

You can also paint a border around the golden leaves with a black marker. Put varnish on the whole piece to protect it and that's it.

Tutorial Manuscript Frame

So what do you think? I'm quite pleased how it turned out :) I hope you like this tutorial and give it a try. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments :)

See you soon