Polymer Clay Bacon!

Last Christmas Aaron and I acquired our first Christmas tree yet had no ornaments to offer our magnificent evergreen.  It was ingrained by my childhood that a tree should be filled with homemade ornaments so we threw together a small decorating party where I pulled out my craft stash, popped popcorn to string and put some cider on the stove.  The party was a success and I couldn't imagine a better dressed tree complete with a homemade space-themed tree skirt.  I think my favorite adornment was the Reptar-esque, pipe cleaner tree topper.

Another favorite was a creation of my own, polymer clay bacon!  Super quick, super easy, and in my opinion, pretty ingenious as clay food goes.  Today I'll show you how to make your very own to give to the bacon lover in your life this holiday season.

Materials:
*  red, burgundy, and white polymer clay
*  something to roll the clay out, ex: rolling pin, pint glass
*  a straw or pen tube


Step 1.
After softening up your clay start rolling out "snakes".  This is easily done by rolling a piece of clay against the table with the palm of your hand.  I'm pretty sure most of us mastered this technique in preschool.  Note the width of the snakes, you'll be smashing them flat so you don't want them to be too thick.  Also I recommend variation in the thickness to add more character to your bacon.

Tip:  Work with the white clay first since the red clay leaves red residue on your hands!

Step 2.
Line your snakes up side by side mixing lengths and colors.  Press them gently together as you go, you don't want to smash them into each other too much, the next step will take care of that.

Step 3.  
Use your rolling/flattening apparatus (I used a very sophisticated tool, a pint glass)  to roll your piece flat, you'll roll it back and forth a few times to your desired thickness.

Step 4.
Cut the length of bacon you want, trimming the ends and so forth.  I cut mine in half to make two pieces but all this depends on how long you made your snakes in the first place.

Step 5.
Use your straw or pen tube to put a hole at one end of your bacon.

Step 6.
Give them some waves!  Don't be too hard on them but use your fingers to create body.

Step 7.
Bake your bacon according to the directions of your clay package then string your work on yarn, ribbon, jute, etc. and hang it on your tree! I unfortunately don't have a tree this year so it will be gracing my wall.

Pretty easy huh?  And it would be super easy to make a bunch of these all at once.  Happy Holidays!