Easy Steps To Make Imitation Ivory

Did you know that you can easily make ivory on your own? No, you don’t have to travel far and look for elephant tusks for ivory. If you are an enthusiast or collector of ivory items, you can save a lot of money and let your creative juices flow by creating imitation ivory. As with genuine ivory, there are so many things you can make out of faux ivory: figurines, jewelry, accessories, and sculptures. Nowadays, more and more people are turning to synthetic ivory since buying and selling of ivory is banned in a number of countries. So how do you make your own synthetic ivory? The following are the six steps to make an ivory:

1. Gather all the necessary materials. Make sure you have all of them ready before you start making faux ivory. Some of the materials can be bought at the art supply store in your area. Here are the things you will need:

• Translucent polymer clay
• Tan polymer clay
• Yellow polymer clay
• White polymer clay
• Oven
• Knitting needle
• Baking dish

2. Mix the colors of the polymer clay to make your synthetic ivory look like a real one. You can add a small amount of yellow and tan polymer clay to the translucent and white clay. To make your faux ivory look older, you can add a bit more tan or yellow clay. Bake the translucent clay to make it look translucent.

3. Press and squeeze the polymer clay. Kneading the clay is important to make it easier to shape the clay according to your liking. The only limit is your imagination—you can choose to mold the clay into a letter opener, button, necklace, earrings, figurine, beads, or pottery. As you roll the clay into your desired shape, add the tan or yellow clay in small amounts until you achieve the ivory color that you want.

4. Create your desired object. You can imitate the design of your favorite figurine or sculptures. To make beads for necklace, make small teeth-like shapes. You can also carve designs on the polymer clay using a knitting needle. If you have the gift for drawing images, you can of course create your own design for your sculpture.
5. Place the ivory in the baking dish and bake it in the oven. Do it once you are done with the design of your ivory. Look for the instruction in the polymer clay for the temperature required for baking.

6. Wet sand your synthetic ivory. This step gives your ivory a smooth, polished finish. To make it look even glossier, you can apply varnish on the ivory.
See? It is very easy to make an imitation ivory on your own. This do-it-yourself project not only saves you money, but also gives you the freedom to create any object that you like. You may opt to buy synthetic ivory products sold in the market. These ivory products are mostly made of porcelain with an ivory finish.