I need to make pigs, chickens, ducks and horses help

Here's a few I did out of fondant and a few piped royal icing chickens; hope you can see the detail. I did the bodies of the sheep in black and then piped royal icing "fur" overtop of the black. The cows were all in white and then I drew in the color with food markers. The pigs were in pink fondant and the chickens were piped.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/652148/normal_elephant_in_a_barn.JPG

(edited to add the normal size photo and not the thumbnail)

What I did with mine was started with fondant but recommend 1/2 fondant 1/2 gumpaste to dry faster. I got the colors needed then made mostly balls diffrent sizes then turned them into a body then a head and feet I used a tooth pick to make the eyes and indentions for the feet and curled the tail for the pig the sheep I did started with a color then made little white balls for the sheep then made the swirlys on the balls with a tooth pick glued the ears feet and tails with gumpaste glue.. i attached the head with a tooth pick and used dowels and cups to support them to dry. i also used piping gel for the eyes. I tried to post the picture but it won"t show you can look in my gallery.. hope this helps.

If you can get your hands on any Polymar clay books they are perfect helps.
Get some good pix of each animal and look at each element.you will be able to figure it out once you make one or two. They are made pretty much the same way - just slight differences.

j-pal, i was admiring your animals and then noticed the elephant in the barn. My 3 year old was very curious as to why we could not have an elephant in our barn. ?????

I just made a farm cake last week. And if I can do it, anyone can! I used fondant mixed with Tylose for the animals. I used Aine2's method for the duck (check it out on you tube!) and just winged it for the rest. I basically rolled balls and smooshed them together. The pig's ears were tiny balls rolled into a tear drop shape and then indented. The sheep's ears were more of a log crimped at both ends and then indented. The sheep's legs were pretzels. I made most eyes by just dipping a cake tester in black food coloring and then just dotting it gently. If the animal needed a mouth, I used a really sharp knife to make a line or tiny scissors to snip a mouth.
Again, I am the least artistic person I know and I did it soooo...

Hey J-pal and Skirt, what did you guys made your barn of? I'm going to make a barn cake, and i'm thinking i'll form the barn out of rice krispies. Yours look great.

the comment about the polymer clay is right on. I sculpt with polymer clay and it is very similar to using fondant. I made a barn cake and my barn was the cake the rest was a decorated cake board.

j-pal, I love the elephant, so cute.

Thanks, tastyart!

hazelnut77 - my barn was cake... it was the Wilton house pan - 2 actually, back to back, with straws down through the cakes into the bottom cake, and a few straws through the middle into both cakes to help hold them together.

Because it all had to fit on the base cake, I used RKT to make the barn. That and I don't have a house pan...
The rice krispies worked great, they were easy to cut into shape and easy to ice with BC (no crumbs!!). It can also be an alternative for that one weird person at the party that doesn't eat cake...

Can't wait to see your creation!

Wow you all did a great job. I just did a jungle theme cake and I feel like it took a long time to do the animals. I'm new making animals, but in general, how long does it take you all to make each one?

I use MMF mixed with Tylose powder too. I hire my husband to do all my fondant figures - he is an artist and uses clay as one of his mediums.
I really like the mud he put on these pigs (though my cake came out like cr@p)!

I've done lots of these-here is a link to mine: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1187659

They are straight fondant-I use Satin Ice.

Good Luck!

I've made quite a few critters out of either fandant or polymer clay. The more you make, the faster you get. Good news is you can make them ahead of time. The fondant takes a while to dry. On my animals I went with a cartoony look. It's much easier to pull off and faster. I've also learned to never put any kind of armature(ie. toothpicks) inside the critters to hold them together. The kids at a party will eat anything that is not glued down. The thought of downing a chunk of fondant sounds terrible to me but the kids fight over them.

Thanks for the tips ladies!

hi all, ive done cows, rhinos giraffes crocodiles, gorrillas, snakes, hippos and the list goes on! the easiest way to do any animal or anything for that matter is to break it down to basic shapes and start there. for example a cow starts as a oval (body) ball(head) 4 sausages(legs and arms) small ball (mouth) then work from bottom up, place legs on bench in potition with the help of some fondant /gumpaste glue (dilute a ball in boiling water and allow to cool acts as glue) add body, i pop a toothpick or some florist wire in the top of the body then a dab of glue then add the ball for the head, now glue on the arm sausages then add the pink small ball to the head as the mouth. now you have the base of you cow now you can worry about embelishing with horns, ears, eyes, spots, pop some black on the pads of the feet and hands and poke some nostrils in the mouth area, use a piping tip upside down to indent a mouth and there you have a cow!! simple, they key is to break it down into basic shapes!! hope i helped

I was just on Wilton's website looking for something else and saw that they have instructions for a bunch of animals. It could give you some ideas or starting points.

i've done alot of sculpting with polymer clay, if you go to www.sculpey.com
you can find the basic break down of some of the animals you're looking for
in their projects section, most of them are in the nativity scene part, ie.. sheep,
cow, horse etc, i imagine these same priciples can be used with any other type of medium
hth

theres a picture of a country wedding in my photos.... maisie parrish's books inspire me when modeling ... i use fondant and g/p mixed... i use speghetti to hold my figures together.... and strong sugar glue.hth on this cake... i won a blue ribbon and best of show ribbon last year at the n.c. state fair