For cooking the Doots, you will need a toaster oven, small aluminum tray that fits in the toaster oven or built in oven  and a piece of cookie sheet.  You will find inexpensive small aluminum trays and the cookie sheet at grocery stores.  

3 small pkgs polymer clay, any color, any brand (I used Granitex polymer and it was very easy to shape)

1 small sponge

1 small piece white cotton cloth from old handkerchief or other scraps

1 pkg toothpicks

1 soft sculpture 5" doll needle or 1 size 0000 knitting needle

1 plastic tray (save the plastic tray from a meat product you purchase)

1 floral foam brick found at Michael's, JoAnn's and Wal-Mart stores in the floral dept

1 jar Golden Fluid Acrylics Iridescent Micaceous Iron Oxide
3-5 colors, small jars, Jacquard Lumiere Paints  (I used the bronze, rose gold, turquoise, purple and olive)
(Both products can be found at Michael's craft store or online at ArtCity and Jerry's Artarama.)

1 can Latex Matte or Glossy spray finish or equivalent

General Information

Read the directions on the polymer clay.  You will need a toaster oven or built in oven to cook them in.  You also need a small aluminum tray to put the doots in.  You can use  cookie sheet for the bottom of the tray to set the Doots on. 

Roll each polymer piece into a ball, roll it around until the piece is soft.  Pull off pieces the size you want for a head, body, and legs.  One piece is used to make the legs, one piece to make the body, and one piece for the head.  Tiny pieces are added for arms after you put the rest of the body together.

Look at my examples:  One of my Doots is larger than the other two.  The large one is about 3" across from one leg end to the other and 2 1/12" from the bottom of the body to the end of the head.  The smaller Doots are about half the size of the large Doot.

Make some samples first before making your final Doots.  The head is just a little round ball and when you flatten it onto the body, it will be flat where the head touches the body.  For the legs, roll a piece so it looks like a spiral shape, each end being a leg and the ends are feet.  The body is a round piece that gets worked into a drop shape, the thinner end is attached to the head and the wider end is pressed onto the leg center.

You can form all the shapes with your fingers; tools are not required.  None of these shapes have to be exact, their Doots, and Doots come in all sizes and shapes.

Look at my samples of each body piece.  These examples are for you to get an idea of how they look and piecing them together.

Here is the Doots before I painted them.
Here is the Doots after I painted them and use the matte finish.

I made my larger Doot with a separate head, however, that is not necessary.  You will have a stronger piece if the whole Doot is worked together.

For arms, pull off a tiny piece of polymer and roll it on your work surface.  It should look like a small piece of spaghetti.  Stick one piece on each side of the body and gently rub in the edges.  You can set the arms any way you like.  For the large Doot, I did not actually make arms.  I just worked a fold on each side of the body to look like arms.  I sued a tooth pick to form the folds.  I smoothed the arm folds down after I made them using my fingers and the toothpick.

Make sure the whole Doot is not loose in any area before piercing it with a long needle and make sure the hole is wide enough for stringing through later.  You are going to pierce the Doots so you can string them and wear on necklaces.  Start from the bottom of the body, bringing the needle up through the body and the head.  Bring the needle all the way through the Doot.  Then check each end of the Doot.  Smooth around the opening at each end where the needle disturbed the polymer.

Put the cookie sheet piece in the aluminum tray.  Place the Doots on top the cookie sheet.   Put the tray in the toaster oven.  Follow the polymer instructions that came with the polymer to cook the Doots.  Do not stand next to the toaster oven or build in oven while the cooking process is going on.  Polymers have chemicals that are dangerous to breathe.  When the time is up for cooking them, turn the oven off and leave it to cool.  When the polymer is completely cool, you are ready for the next step.  For a built in oven, after cooking the polymers, set your oven for self-cleaning and leave the room until finished.  For toaster ovens, hand wash out the inside with a damp cloth. Do not touch the heating elements.  If you decide you want to do a lot more with polymers, purchase a toaster oven for your polymers, do not use the family toaster oven for continuous polymer cooking.  Left over residue can affect foods you cook.  Do not use a built in oven if you do not have a self cleaning element.

If you make this a project with your children or grandchildren, make sure you do all the cooking.  Also make sure they clean their hands after each process.  It is especially important to clean your hands after working with the polymers.  Use a good cleanser  to clean your hands, not just hand soap.  Those using polymers occasionally do not need to worry about health problems.  People who work with polymers on a regular basis, daily or weekly, have more to worry about as far as chemical dangers. 

Do not cook the polymers after you paint them.  Once After the polymer pieces are completely cool, use a small sponge to dab the black Micaceous Iron Oxide all over them.  Let them dry.  After they are dry, if you see spots where the black does not cover the polymer, dab it with the black until all the polymer pieces are completely covered.  Let the piece dry.  This is messy stuff and you will end out with it on your hands.  Wash your hands when you are finished.  You can't use the same sponge for the next step.  This material is used to cover the polymer and prepare it for the Luminere paints which will create a Raku type finish.

You will need to set each Doot upright so it can dry and not have the black come off.  You can put a toothpick through each Doot and set the toothpick onto the foam brick so they are vertical while they dry.

Keep each Doot on a toothpick and work around it.  Use the cotton cloth to dab  3 to 5 different colors of the Lumiere paints onto the Doots.  If you do not have a cotton cloth piece, use another sponge.  Make tiny dabs at a time so you don't overdo it.  Work some of the colors over bits of the other colors so they blend here and there and yet other areas show each color.  Use a cotton cloth to rub some areas to smooth out the edges where the colors meet.   Set the Doots on the foam brick when you are not working on them.  Once you are ready to let the Doots dry, set them on the foam brick again.

When dry, take the foam brick outside with the Doots on them, spray them with Latex matte or glossy finish.  Let the Doots dry.  The matte will leave the piece looking more vintage and the gloss will leave a shiny finish.  I used the matte finish on my pieces.  These spray finishes should be permanent.

Your Doots are ready to be incorporated into a necklace.  What fun! 

I also had a clay vase I made some years ago and fired.  I never got to paint it.  I used the same material to paint it and it looks like an old Raku vase.  I am working a bead crochet rope from one side of the vase to the other.  Take a look:

Now that you know how to use these materials, you can make all kinds of fun items and create the Raku look! 

Enjoy, Lydia, the Beadwrangler