Angelfish Ornament

I love homemade ornaments. We gave our Christmas tree a nautical theme this year with these colorful Angelfish. Made of polymer clay, they’re easy to make and they look great on our tree. You can use any color of clay to make these. Here is how we did it!

  Supplies:

Polymer clay, 2 colors of your choice

Copper craft wire

Pencil with a dull point

Needle nose pliers

Scissors

Wax paper

Before you begin:

This one has three colors!

Use a sheet of wax paper to protect your surface 

Make the fish:

Roll a section of clay into a thick log about 1 ½” long and 1/2″ thick. Do the same with your second color choice of clay so that you have two logs of clay. Placing the logs together, stretch them to twice their length. Then twist the double log in the center and roll back on itself.   Repeat the process two more times. Then roll into a ball – should be about the size of a golf ball.

With your palm, press the center of the ball into a flat disk about ¼” thick. Smooth disk with your fingers. Gently tug at sides into a triangular shape. With your pencil point, make an indentation to form the mouth.

To make the eye, use a tiny ball of one color of clay. Then press a smaller ball of the other color of clay on top, or use black clay for the eye.

Orange and blue are a nice combo.

For the tail fin, use your two colors again to pull a small section of each, and press together to form a ball about the size of a grape. With your thumb, flatten the ball into a disk and tug at the sides to elongate and shape the tail. Gently press the tail onto the body (the underside) of the fish, careful not to smash the clay. Do the same for the other two fins, placing them at the bottom of the fish and just below the eye, as seen in the photos. Next, use your pencil to etch long, straight lines onto the fins.

Use your needle nose pliers to twist the copper wire into a loop. Cut the loop from the rest of the wire and gently press it into the top side of the fish.

Bake following the instructions on the clay packaging. After the fish have cooled, hang them with a pretty ribbon on the tree. As an option, you can use the pencil to etch the year into the back before you bake. Or, you can add the name of the person who  made the fish.

I hope you enjoy these fun and beautiful Angelfish for your tree. Happy Holidays!

Products I use:

My favorite polymer clay is the Sculpey brand. It’s soft and easy to mold with my hands. Here is the link for Sculpey at Amazon.com.