Polymer Clay Emoji Faces Tutorial

Hello! Today I’m sharing this Polymer Clay Emoji Faces Tutorial! I’m going to teach you how to make 5 of the most popular emojis out of polymer clay. If you’ve never worked with polymer clay before, make sure to check out my Introduction to Polymer Clay post for the basics and some tips. Let’s get started!

Polymer Clay Emoji Faces Tutorial

Supplies:

• Yellow, pink, blue, white, black, dark brown, and red polymer clay.
• Clay blade or other cutting tool.
• Pink chalk pastel.
• Dotting tool.
• Soft small paintbrush.
• Needle tool.
• Small ball tool. Not pictured, you can also just use the dotting tool.
• Oven.
• Scrap paper.
• Porcelain tile or other work surface.

Tip: Red clay is especially prone to leaving color behind on your hands, so keep a baby wipe or wet paper towel handy to wipe your hands between colors!

Let’s start by preparing the bases for our emojis! I split a chunk of yellow clay into 5 equal pieces and rolled them into balls. Then one at a time, flatten the ball into a rounded disc shape. Now you just need to grab a yellow face base when you’re ready to make each emoji!

 

Smiley Emoji

The smiley emoji is a great place to start because he’s so simple to make!

Use your dotting tool to make two oval shaped indents where his eyes will go. Then roll up two small balls of brown clay into oval shapes, place them into the eye holes, and gently press them down into place with your finger.

For his smile, roll out a thin log of brown clay. Then cut off a bit, and roll the end of that thin, and curve it into a smile shape. Place it on the face, and press it down into place with your finger. It’s that easy! You’re cute smiley emoji is all finished, so let’s make another one.

 

Embarrassed Emoji

I love this emoji! It’s perfect for all kind of situations!

So here I’m using a metal ball tool to make large indents for the eyes, but if you don’t have this tool, you can use your dotting tool. It just takes a bit more patience to get the right shape. Now roll up two small balls of white clay, and place them into the holes and flatten them down.

Now use your dotting tool and make an indent in the middle of each eye. Then roll up two tiny black balls of clay, place them into the indents, and flatten them down.

Next, roll out a thin log of brown clay and cut two short pieces off of it. Use the end of your dotting tool to form them into a light curve, and place them above the eyes.

Flatten the eyebrows down gently. Now cut another piece of clay off the log, and this time make sure it’s perfectly straight. Place this where the mouth goes, and flatten it down as well.

One more thing! The embarrassed emoji needs some pink cheeks! Take your pink chalk pastel and scrape a bit off with a blade, and dip your soft brush into it. Then just gently dot some blush on those cheeks to make them look perfectly flushed. You’re all done with your embarrassed little emoji!

 

Heart Eyes Emoji

This next emoji is so in love! Or he just saw a box of donuts. I know I always get heart eyes looking at donuts!

To make the heart eyes, start by rolling two small balls of clay into matching logs. Cut the logs in half on a diagonal, as shown. Then turn the pieces so the two cut ends are facing each other like this.

Put the two cut ends together, and use your fingers or a needle tool to smooth out the join and create a perfect heart shape! This is the easiest way I’ve found to make any size heart out of polymer clay. Now just put your hearts where the eyes would be, and gently flatten them down with your finger.

For the smile, take a small ball of brown clay and roll it into a log that is tapered at both ends. Then form it into a gentle curve shape and place it on the face. When you flatten it down with your finger, it turns into a great smile!

 

Tongue Sticking Out & Winking Emoji

This emoji is so cute! It looks like it just got caught doing something silly!

Take your ball tool and make an indent on one side of the head for the open eye. Take a small ball of white clay and place it in the indent, and flatten it down. Then use the dotting tool to make a small indent in the center of the white, and fill that with a ball of black clay. This is the exact same way we made the eyes on the embarrassed emoji.

Now roll up a small ball of brown clay, and roll it into a log that’s tapered at both ends. Form it into a curve, place it down on the face, and flatten it down! You just made an upside down smile, which is the same as a closed eye!

Now make another smile shape out of brown clay, but this time make it slightly longer and fatter than normal. Place it on the face and flatten it down. See how big that smile is? That’s perfect! Now take some pink clay and roll it into a small log.

Flatten the log down, and cut off the end. This makes a great tongue shape! Place the tongue on the mouth, and flatten it down. Then take your needle tool and create an indent in the middle of the tongue. You’re all done!

 

Crying Emoji

Poor sad little emoji!!

Start out by using your dotting tool to create a long oval shape in the middle of the bottom half of the face. This is where the mouth will go, and helps us place everything else. Now roll out two small logs of brown clay, curve them slightly, and press them down onto the face.

Do the sea thing again with slightly smaller balls of clay to create the eyebrows!

Now take your needle tool and make an indent all the way down the face from each eye. I found the easiest way to do this was to just make four or five lines coming straight down from the eyes. Now roll out a log of blue clay, and flatten it down. Trim it so there are two pieces the width and length of the indents you made in the face for the tears.

Now press those pieces gently into the indents to create the tears! Next, take a small ball of brown clay and form it into an oval. Place this into the mouth space and flatten it down.

Finally, take a small piece of white clay and form it into a flat log slightly smaller than the mouth. Then cut it in half, and place it on the top half of the mouth to make the teeth! You want a little bit of the brown to shown all the way around the white if you can, so it looks like the teeth are inside the mouth. And we’re all done with the crying emoji!

Here are all the emoji’s on a piece of paper on top of a porcelain tile, waiting to be baked according to the clay manufacturer’s instructions! I used Sculpey, and baked them at 275 F for 30 minutes. Aren’t they so cute?

Do you want to make your emojis into charms that can be used for jewelry or keyrings? Check out my Polymer Clay Donut Tutorial for how to add an eye pin into the clay before it’s baked to make a charm!

With the techniques I shared today, you can make almost any of the classic emojis!! I hope you enjoyed this Polymer Clay Emoji Faces Tutorial!!

You might also like these Faces & Emotions Symmetry Drawing Worksheets!