Thank you to Disney Consumer Products for sponsoring this post. 
Maleficent is my favorite Disney Villain. Maybe you saw the Maleficent headband I made when her movie was released? My love of Maleficent was one of the reasons I was so excited when The Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants was announced. A chance to see Maleficent’s daughter? Yes, please!
Apparently I wasn’t the only one excited. My Facebook feed on July 31st was filled with posts from my friends-my adult friends-talking about how they were counting down until the premiere. One was even putting date night on hold until after the movie.
Of course dealing with excitement in my case means crafting. I decided to make some pencils for Mal-Maleficent’s daughter-to take back to school.
Maleficent Staff Pencils
To make your own DIY Maleficent pencils, you’ll need:
- Black Pencils
- Black Polymer Clay
- Green Marbles
To make your own Maleficent Staff Pencils, start with basic black pencils and remove the erasers. I used my jewelry pliers to do this. If the metal that holds in the eraser pops off, that’s fine. If the metal stays put, that’s fine, too. We’ll be covering it all up anyway.
I promise you can do this project, even if you’re new to polymer clay. You’ll want to work on a non-porous surface to avoid staining. I’m using a metal tray table as my work surface. The first step in working with polymer clay is conditioning it. You can do this by rolling it in your hands until it’s soft and pliable. You can also use a clay “pasta” machine. They’re pretty inexpensive and if you plan to do a lot of polymer clay projects it’s a good investment. Consider it totally optional, though.
I recommend using a polymer clay that is designed for detail work so it will have a little flex in it after baking. Since we’ll be working with such thin bits of clay you don’t want anything that’s going to be brittle once it’s cured.
Once the clay is conditioned, you’ll want to completely cover the top half of the pencil, including the base of your green marble. You can do this by rolling the clay flat and then using your fingers to work everything into place. 
Once you’re done, your pencil should look something like this. There are tools for working with polymer clay to help you avoid getting finger prints into the clay, but we’ll be covering it up so it doesn’t matter for this project.
A word about the marbles I’m using: I tried a few different things, but the flat green marbles I found in the floral department worked the best for this. I was looking for something traditionally round, but the flat marbles actually looked more like the real staff once I was done, and as a bonus they were much easier to hold in place with the clay. 
Now is the part where you’ll channel your inner kindergartner and make lots and lots of clay snakes. Make lots of them in different sizes and wrap them around the pencil. They’ll look best if you taper each end before you place them on the pencil. 
Keep layering your clay snakes until you’re pleased with the results. This is totally a “you can’t mess this up” project. I promise.
Once you’ve finished wrapping your pencil, you’ll want to bake them in the oven at 210 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. Keep a close eye on things and when the clay looks matte it’s more than likely finished baking.
If you prefer a glossy look, glaze with polymer clay glaze. You can also leave your pencils just as they are straight from the oven.
If needed, you can glue the marble into place with some E6000 after baking. The marble may or may not stay in place without glue depending on how you wrapped your clay.
My Maleficent Staff Pencils are surprisingly sturdy once they’re finished. I don’t know if I would leave them banging around in a backpack, but they’re definitely going to hold up in a pencil cup on your desk.
Want to save these Maleficent Staff Pencils for later? Click on the photo below to add to Pinterest!
