Here the mushroom cap is the cat's whole head: a wide magenta dome with golden spots, two orange ears on top and a grumpy little face of two black lines and a dot on the front. It sits on a short white body with golden patches and two front legs dipped in pink, and every colour sparkles with glitter kneaded right through. The steps knead in the glitter, build the body and cap over crushed foil cores, seat the cap on oven-bake clay adhesive and bake it on a foil ring. The picture is here for inspiration: follow the steps as a guide, then change the colours, the spots or the face to make your own version.
The pictures began as AI-assisted concept images and are here for inspiration. The steps are a guide to making your own version, so change the colours, size or details as you like. Clay brands, ovens, glues, finishes and hardware behave differently, so follow their product instructions and bake a scrap before a batch. Some product links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Check listing details, dimensions, materials, and fit before you buy. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosures
What gives it this look: the cap is wider than the body and there is no neck, so the dome reads as a head with the face tucked low on its front, just above the rim. On a figure about 9 cm tall the cap is about 7 cm across and the body about 5.5 cm wide. The eyes are straight black lines about 8 mm long, about 2 cm apart, with a black dot between and below them; the ears are small orange triangles on the crown. The golden spots are big, about 1.2 to 1.8 cm, with one at each lower corner of the face. The glitter covers everything, including the white, so the whole cat looks sugared.
Lookbook view
Build the cat on the ceramic tile you will bake it on, so you never lift the soft figure and the base stays level. Knead the glitter into every colour before you start, and roll a scrap of white between your palms after the magenta and orange, because coloured specks show on the white body. Roll the black thread for the eyes early and leave it somewhere cool, so it is firm enough to lay in a straight line.
Condition the white, magenta, yellow and orange separately, then knead glitter into each by hand: flatten the clay into a pancake, sprinkle a pinch of glitter over it, fold it in half and knead, and repeat until the sparkle is even all through and as dense as in the picture. For the golden spots and patches, knead about one part orange into three parts of the glitter yellow. Mix all of each colour you need in one go, so the sparkle looks the same all over. Roll glitter clay with the acrylic roller, not a pasta machine: Sculpey's machine instructions ask for clay with added glitter to be kept out of the rollers, where the particles can lodge in them or scratch them.
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Crush heavyweight aluminum foil hard into two dense shapes: a short block with rounded corners and a flat bottom for the body, about 4.5 cm wide, 3.5 cm deep and 3 cm tall, and a wide dome with a flat underside for the cap, about 6 cm across and 3.5 cm tall. Each is about 6 mm smaller all round than the finished shape, so the clay wall can be 6 mm thick. Pack both tight: loose foil leaves air pockets under the clay that can bulge or crack it in the oven.
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Roll the glitter white into a sheet about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick, with a 6 mm guide strip or an equal stack of playing cards under each end of the roller. Drape it over the body core, trim the overlap and smooth the seams from the top down so trapped air escapes at the bottom edge. Flatten the top a little to give the cap a seat and press the base flat on your tile. Roll two white logs about 1.5 cm thick and 2 cm long for the front legs, film one side of each with Bake & Bond and press them side by side down the front of the body with a small gap between, feet on the tile. Press a thin magenta cap onto the tip of each foot for the pink toes.
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Cut two or three golden patches about 2.5 cm across from a 1.5 mm sheet, with soft irregular edges, and lay them over the sides and back of the body, one high on the right shoulder as in the picture. Press them on through parchment and smooth the edges down with the silicone tip, so they read as markings in the coat rather than stuck-on pieces.
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Roll the glitter magenta into a sheet about 6 mm thick, wrap it over the cap core and ease the extra round to the flat underside, pinching it closed there. Smooth the top into a wide, even dome and curl the rim under a little all the way round. Turn the cap over and press a shallow seat into the middle of the underside with your thumb, about as wide as the top of the body, so the cap sits centred and cannot slide.
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Cut slices from golden logs about 1.2 cm and 1.8 cm thick, roll each into a ball, flatten it into a disc and press six or seven onto the cap in mixed sizes, on pinpoints of Bake & Bond, with the biggest on the crown and two at the lower front corners either side of where the face will go. Leave the middle of the front clear for the face. Pinch two orange triangles about 1.5 cm tall for the ears and press them onto the top of the cap, one each side, on a film of Bake & Bond, smoothing their back edges into the dome.
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Put a drop of Bake & Bond on the flattened top of the body, lower the cap onto it, centred and level, and press down lightly in the middle through a square of parchment. Look at it from eye level on every side: the rim should overhang the body evenly all round, because a lopsided cap can tip the cat over in the oven.
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Add the face on the lower front of the cap. Roll a black thread about 1 mm thick, cut two pieces about 8 mm long and lay them as short straight eye lines about 2 cm apart, tilting the inner ends down a little for the grumpy look in the shelf picture. Set a black ball about 3 mm across below and between them for the nose, and press it flat with the ball tool. Dab a trace of Bake & Bond where each piece goes, lay it on with the needle, and tap it down through parchment so the lines stay crisp.
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Crumple a strip of foil into a loose ring about as tall as the body, slide it round the body and let the cap rim rest on it without denting it: clay softens a little in the oven before it hardens, so an overhanging rim with nothing under it can droop. Tent a sheet of foil over the figure without letting it touch, which Sculpey suggests to keep white clay from browning. Bake by the instructions on your Sculpey Premo packet, going by the thickest solid clay, the legs, since the foil cores are not clay. Check the oven with a thermometer beside the tile, and let the cat cool fully on the tile before you take the ring away.
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Leave the cat as it comes out of the oven for the soft, sugary sparkle in both pictures; the glitter is in the clay, so it needs no coat to show. If you want more flash, brush one thin coat of Sculpey Satin Glaze over a baked offcut of the same glitter clay first and check it dries clear and not tacky before you coat the cat.
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What you will need
Everything here is used in the steps above. The clay and glitter are for this figure; most makers already own the tools, so tick those off first.
About two 2 oz (57 g) blocks of magenta and one and a half of white make a cat about 9 cm tall; half a block each of yellow and orange covers the spots, patches and ears, and a crumb of black makes the face.
For the two crushed cores and the ring that props the cap rim in the oven. The cap is the cat's whole head and wider than the body, so without a core it would be a thick lump of clay to bake through.
The body and front legs. Keep it clear of magenta and orange crumbs, which show on white.
The magenta cap and the pink toe tips. Its pearl shimmer adds to the sparkle of the glitter; every colour here is Premo, so one packet's bake instructions cover the figure.
Mixed with a little orange for the golden cap spots and the patches on the body.
The two ears on top of the cap, and a little kneaded into the yellow for the golden spots.
A crumb makes the two eye lines and the dot under them.
Kneaded into every colour but the black, fine glitter spreads evenly through the clay and gives the all-over sugary sparkle in the picture.
A drop under the cap and a trace under the legs, ears, spots, patches and face pieces joins raw clay without pressing hard enough to dent the dome.
Tick what you already have, then get only what is missing.
The silicone tip smooths the legs into the body and polishes out fingerprints; the ball end sets the dot under the eyes.
Lays the thin eye lines and dabs the trace of adhesive under each small piece.
Rolls the 6 mm white and magenta sheets for the body and cap. Roll glitter clay with a roller, not a pasta machine.
Slices the golden logs into equal pieces so the spots in each size match.
Build and bake the figure on the tile, so it is never lifted while soft and the base comes out level.
A small square laid over the spots, patches and face pieces lets you press them down without fingerprints.
Sits beside the tile so you bake at the temperature on your Premo packet. An oven that runs hot shows first on the white body.
For a cap or ear that comes loose, or a crack to mend after baking.
If the cap or an ear comes loose after baking, a thin layer on both baked surfaces holds it back in place; mixed with dust filed from a baked offcut, it also fills a crack.
Each one walks through a technique used in this piece, in full detail.
A polymer clay mushroom is a domed cap with a socket pressed into its underside and a teardrop stem seated in it. Make a desk toadstool from a quarter bar of clay per piece, an earring charm with the eye pin set before baking, or a pick for a plant pot.
Small figurines look simple until the base wobbles, the cap droops, or the face gets smudged while you are still shaping the body. This guide covers the order of operations that keeps polymer clay characters stable with cleaner features.
Bake flat pieces on a glossy tile and move them onto plain card only for a matte back. Hold curves, limbs and overhangs with fiberfill, crumpled foil or an oven-safe glass form, bake round beads on skewers, and leave everything on its support until it feels cool.
Custom range
Ask for a build pack to make it yourself (a supply list and a making plan for your version), or ask the studio to make the finished pieces for you.
More small desk figures to make next, with different shapes, textures and faces.
Pin it to a board, copy the link, or keep it saved here while you make your own version.
Tag Clay Bake Studio on Instagram or TikTok so we can see how you adapted it.
