Cute miniature polymer clay zebras make adorable ornaments or jewellery pieces. Just like polymer clay giraffes, zebras are so easily recognisable that you can be a bit more creative with the shape and style of your miniature.
So how do you make a polymer clay zebra? I used a non-branded white clay (it was from this kit off Amazon) to make the zebra’s body, legs and head and used a ball tool to paint on the eyes, nose and stripes with black acrylic paint.
- I moulded the zebra’s body first by rolling a piece of clay into a cylinder and then shaped the top to make a cone.
- I made the legs in the same way but used smaller pieces of clay and attached these to the side and front of the body so it looked as though the zebra was sitting down.
- Next, I made a ball of clay for the head and attached two small triangular pieces of clay for the ears.
- Finally, I made the mane out of a long thin piece of black polymer clay and attached smaller pieces of clay to this.
- Once it had been baked and cured I painted on the features with black paint.
Below you can find out more detail about I made a polymer clay zebra.
Step 1 – Make the body
As it’s the first time I’d made a polymer clay zebra, I decided to use some non-branded white clay that I had to use up, rather than the good stuff! The non-branded clay I have is very sticky so it can be a little tricky to work with but as the design is quite basic, I didn’t have to work the clay much to get the shapes I needed.
Firstly, I took a large marble-sized piece of clay and rolled this out into a cylinder, shaping the top into a point. I flattered the bottom and top slightly so it wouldn’t fall over and so I could easily attach the head.
Step 2 – Make the head and legs
Making the legs is a very similar process to making the body, I took four small pieces of polymer clay (each piece was about a quarter of the size of the body) and rolled these out into cylinders before pinching the tops to made a cone shape. I then attached the legs so they were slightly tucked under each side of the zebra’s bottom, as the zebra would be sat down. I then attached the front legs just under the zebra’s chin.
I made the head by rolling a ball of clay about half the size of the body and attaching this to the top of the body.
Step 3 – Make the ears, eyes and mane
For the ears, I used two very small balls of polymer clay and made triangle shapes out of these. I used a small ball tool to create the curve of the ear.
The mane was really fun to make, I rolled out a long thin piece of black polymer clay and cut about a centimetre off the end. I then cut the rest of the rolled black clay into very small pieces and attached these to the longer piece of black clay to make the hair for the mane.
I made the zebra’s eyes out of teeny balls of black polymer clay and attached these with a ball tool. I had many attempts at creating kawaii eyes by adding little white highlights to the eyes but after about five goes I gave up!
Step 4 – Bake the zebra
I baked the zebra model in the oven for 30 minutes at 130° and let it cool completely before painting it.
Step 5 – Paint the stripes on the zebra
Painting the zebra’s stripes was super tricky so I used a ball tool to avoid random brush strokes. I went for a symmetrical pattern across the front and back of the zebra and then painted on a black snout. I had a baby wipe to hand which meant I could have a few goes at getting the stripes right as long as I wiped the paint off quickly!
So here’s the finished little guy! I think this style of the animal being sat down is one I can replicate for other polymer clay animals, provided that the animal is distinct enough to be easily recognisable.
What went wrong?
This is the first time I’ve tried to make a zebra out of polymer clay and although I think it looks OK for a first attempt, next time I’ll do a few things differently:
- Make the zebra’s muzzle out of clay – I painted the zebra’s muzzle on rather than making it out of polymer clay and while it looks ok, I think it might have been better and had more depth and detail if I’d have used clay.
- Learn how to paint miniatures – this is something I need to work on for all my miniatures! The zebra stripes were very tricky to paint, I tried with a brush at first but the bristles made the stripes look too feathery. I tried with a small ball tool which was easier, but they’re far from perfect!
- Look at a picture of an actual zebra – this seems so very obvious now but I was so intent on making a cute looking miniature zebra, that I didn’t bother looking at what an actual zebra looks like! I think this is the main reason I struggled so much with painting the stripes. I thought a zebra’s mane was all black so gave my polymer clay zebra a black main when in actual fact, a zebra’s mane is striped!
- Give my zebra a tail – it kind of goes from bad to worse as I also forgot to give my zebra a tail!
Polymer Clay Zebra Tutorial
If you want another step-by-step guide to making a zebra out of polymer clay (which has far better results than this one!), then I’ve searched YouTube and found this easy to try, step by step tutorial.
Further Questions
How to make a polymer clay zebra cane?
Polymer clay canes and slices are primarily used in jewellery making. Zebra stripes are a popular pattern to make in canes which can then be used as slices or to make beads. You can find out more about what polymer canes and slices are and how to use them with miniatures in this blog post What Are Polymer Clay Slices And What Are They Used For?
In the in depth tutorial below you can find out how to make three different zebra stripe polymer clay patterns: