So far I have made several projects that feature trees. Making trees with polymer clay is time-consuming, but extremely rewarding if you manage to create a realistic look. I study reference photos for colour, texture and proportions. Then I look online for examples from others. But almost without exception, other people's projects are painted. Nothing wrong with that, but for me the challenge is to get it done without using paint.
With polymer clay you can make any color you want, and by using different techniques you can apply certain patterns and structures. Then why would you paint? Mainly because it's faster. I want to show that there are also techniques that may take more time, but certainly give a good and colourfast result. For example, when making the bark of a silver birch. I used that technique for the first time in micro scale (World in a walnut: Camping) and because of the beautiful effect I decided to do a project on a macro scale.
I used this project for my first attempt at making a tutorial:
