Pattern for a Baby Unicorn Sculpture
$12
Make this baby unicorn with Apoxie Sculpt or air dry clay, and he’ll be treasured for years.
My downloadable PDF Patterns come with full instructions.
There’s no waiting for your pattern to arrive, and no shipping costs, so you can start on your project right away.
Click here if you’d like to know more about how the patterns are delivered. And remember – if you have any problems downloading your files or putting your pattern together, just let me know. I’m always happy to help. 😀
How to make your unicorn:
- Print the pattern on copy paper or full-sheet labels.
- Attach the pattern pieces to cardboard.
- Put the pieces together to form the armature for your bunny.
- Add rounded shapes with crumpled foil and hot glue. The instructions show you how.
- Cover the armature with a very thin layer of Apoxie Sculpt, like I did, or use either traditional paper strips and paste or the air dry clay recipe that you can find in the Art Library on this site.
- Paint him with acrylic paint.
The baby unicorn shown above was made with one pound of Apoxie Sculpt. In fact, there was enough left over to make his friend the Mini-Bunny, too.
I painted mine with chalk paint, which gives it a nice soft coat – but any acrylic paint will work. You can see how I made the solid white coat a little more interesting in the video below.
$12
How I Painted My Baby Unicorn:
To make this sculpture you will need:
- A small piece of corrugated cardboard, and some light card stock cut from a cereal box
- Glue stick
- A printer
- Scissors
- Bendable wire. Wire from a coat hanger would work well.
- Aluminum foil
- Glue gun and protective thermal thimbles to protect your fingers from the hot glue.
- Small piece of tape.
- Latex or Nitrile gloves if you’re using the Apoxie Sculpt.
- Sculpting tools (or find anything that works that you already have around the house.)
- One pound of Apoxie Sculpt, or a batch of the air dry clay recipe that you’ll find in the Paper Mache Art Library.
- Acrylic Paint (I used Waverly chalk paint from Walmart, but you can use any acrylic paint.)
- Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid (optional.
- Brushes
- Sandpaper (optional)
- Matte acrylic varnish
$12
Do you have a question or need help with your pattern?
If you have a question about putting your pattern together or painting it, leave a comment below or on the Daily Sculptors page. I read all comments and answer them as soon as I can, usually within a few hours. Some of my readers might ideas for you, too — we have a very supportive community on this site.
Downloading your files: To see exactly how the downloading process should work, click here. If your pattern doesn’t download correctly and you can’t see the solution on that page, let me know right away so I can help. This is a one-person business, but I check my inbox regularly and will respond as fast as I can.
Amazing form and anatomy of the unicorn. I realize this is a foal and a bit smaller throughout its anatomy, the abdomen is a bit flat but your line is still amazing. I would’ve loved to see some pink undertones beneath the thinner areas of fine white hair and around the ears and brought more contrast against the black or salt and pepper mane. Thank you for sharing. Love your site! My First time here! I’ll be back.
If you make one, I’d love to see how it looks with those changes in the coat. They sound lovely. I do hope you’ll hurry back.
Dear Jonni, I wish you would make a pattern for a giraffes head like you did for your baby elephant. That was so much fun to put together and made it so much more realistic than if I tried just newspaper to get its shape. I know how busy you are but can You? Please
Oh dear – I made those using a computer program, and I’m not sure I could remember how to use it. But we all saw your zebra, so we know you can make a beautiful giraffe, too. Try using the crumpled foil instead of crumpled paper – it will feel more like you’re working with clay because it doesn’t fight you quite as much as paper does. I made my giraffe years ago. If you want to see how the armature was made click here.
And when your giraffe is finished, be sure and let us see how it turns out.
Oh my goodness Mrs. Good!!! I did my first paper mache animal about 15 years ago.
I never used patterns. I probably sound very ignorant right now 😀 but I honestly had to look at at this video to understand what it is that you are selling when you mentioned “patterns”.
You share so much valuable information in all the videos I have seen like why selling your art didn’t work out, or how to make cement sculptures, which is how I recently came across your site (thru YouTube.)
You are so honest and open about everything, and you are a very charming, likable person. I love your site and videos!
Thanks, Yvette. I couldn’t find anyone who used patterns inside of their paper mache sculptures until I started doing it. I think I might have invented the idea, although it makes things so much easier I can’t imagine why people weren’t doing it before. Thank you so much for your kind comment about the site and the videos – I’m glad you’re enjoying them!
Oh, and by the way, for a complete course on how to use patterns and even make your own, be sure to check out my book Make Animal Sculptures with Paper Mache Clay. 🙂
beautiful work
Thanks!
I just love the, Jonni.
Thanks!
GREAT job! Thanks for sharing how you make your artworks! amazing idea !!
Absolutely adorable, I love this little fella and bunny, and your tips for making proportioned animals, so clear. I hope you complete the Pegasus and how you make your wings will be fun to watch. Can’t wait for our rainy season to end now, it has to be a Spring thing for me just due to lack of space in the house. Ultimately I want to make yard installations, fantasy creatures that blend into the garden path and beds. Now to the drawing board. You do such great work, very inspiring. Happy New Year!
Thanks, Susan. I love the idea of fantasy creatures peeking out in a garden, as if they were actually living there. What material will you be using to make your garden sculptures waterproof?
Jonni, I love the unicorn! So beautiful!
Thanks!
GREAT job! Thanks for sharing how you make your artworks!
You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re enjoying the site.
Happy New Year Jonni. I hope 2017 is a good one for you. x
Thanks, Cherie. Happy new year to you, too! Do you have any big projects planned?
Not at the moment. We are planning to retire to a small cottage in Wales… If we can find one that we like enough to give up our home here for.
That sounds exciting. Just looking will be fun, even if you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for right away. Good luck!
Jonni, My what a masterpiece! You are really talented and you put so much thought into your sculptures. I loved your explanation of how you do the various poses and was delighted to realize that I do that too and never realized it! You obviously imparted that wisdom without even directly addressing it because I learned everything from you. The pattern is sure to be a hit and congratulations on completing it….wow, 35 pages! If you are ever inclined to do yet another video on this baby unicorn, have it about the paint job. You did a masterful job. White is very difficult to do because it is never all truly white and it is difficult to make white look realistic like you did on this guy. Where will this sculpture reside? And in case I have not thanked you recently, thanks for all you do.
Thanks, Eileen. I did have the camera turned on while I added the paint, but my videography skills seem to be going down instead of up, and I’m not sure if I have enough footage to make sense. I will try, though, because I’ve never painted anything this way before, but I’m so happy with the results that I’ll be using the same methods a lot in the future. In fact, I’ll pull up the files now and see if any of it is useful. (I should know which buttons to push on my cameras by now, but I obviously don’t. I should take a class. I’ll put it on the list… )
As soon as the varnish that Rex suggested arrives, I’ll probably finish them and put them on top of my bookcase.
Eileen, I posted a video showing how the unicorn was painted. It’s a very simple technique, really, using Chalk paint and a stencil brush. You can see the video here.