Rilakumma Polymer Clay Charm Tutorial

I've always loved the cute characters created by Sanrio & Sanrio-X and it's become increasingly popular to make these into charms using polymer clay. You can make them into keyrings like the macarons or just them on zips!

I thought I would make Rilakumma (Japanese for bear) as it's one of my favorites so here's a tutorial for a really simple bear head charm! I could be completely wrong but I assumed that Rilakumma in brown is male and Rilakumma in cream is female? I'm going to show you how to make the female one!

You'll need:

Polymer clay (Fimo Soft) in baby pink, white and cream
Black acrylic paint
A toothpick
Eye pin
2 black & 2 pink 2mm crystals (optional)

1) Start by rolling your cream clay into one 2cm oval shape and two 1/4 cm balls. This will form the head and ears.

2) Position the ears on top of your larger piece of clay to make your bear shape!

3) Take 2 small equal size balls of pink clay and flatten them onto your bears ears making sure they are not too thick or as large as your ear base.

4) Take a small piece of white clay and shape into a flat oval.

5) Stick this onto the center of your bear head and push an eye pin into the center of the head. Bake according to your clays instructions. My Fimo Soft goes in the oven at 110° for 30 minutes. Once baked, allow to cool.

6) Using a small blob of black acrylic  paint and a toothpick, paint on eyes and mouth and allow to dry. 

7) Alternatively, you could use 2 tiny flat back black crystals for the eyes and 2 pink ones for some little flushed cheeks! You can also repeat the exact same process in brown, yellow and white to make the male Rilakumma.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial! Do you have a favorite Japanese character? Would you like to see more charm tutorials?

Lisa X