I've been busy making decorations for the tree, this year its going to be a white theme. These were pretty easy (and messy) to make so I thought I'd write how to make them.
To begin with you will need:
Some Air Drying clay (whatever colour you want the decorations to be)
A rolling pin
A selection of cookie cutters
An easy to clean surface, as its going to get messy! maybe some newspaper as well
And a bowl of water to rehydrate the clay if it starts drying out
For finishing touches:
Sandpaper
Maybe a small file
Some pretty ribbon or string to hang the decorations with.
First off grab a handful of clay and mould it into a ball
Roll it out, making sure to keep it all the same thickness
Decide how thick you want the decorations to be, the thicker they are the longer they will take to dry
Start cutting the clay with the cutters, being as economical with the placement to make the most of the clay.
Remove the excess clay and find a straw and make some holes at the top big enough to fit the string or ribbon through.
If you want get something flat and neaten the edges, but you don't have to as we have sandpaper to neaten the edges once they are dry.
Move them on to a tray or a surface that is not going to have cats sit on them or something and let them dry for 24 hours. You can tell they are drying as the edges will start to become whiter. Now I found that some of the decorations the edges started turning up as they were drying, so every few hours I would turn them over.
Once they are completely dry thread your string or ribbon through the holes and then get your sandpaper and neaten those edges!
and if you have snowflakes like mine a small file is useful for getting the middle bits
Here is a comparison of the wet and dry clay for anyone who like me panicked and thought the clay wasn't white enough when it was wet.
Half a pack of DAS 500g makes this amount of decorations. Now you can paint them if you wish or leave them natural like mine.
Any left over clay remember to put in a grip seal bag or an air tight container as it will dry out and become useless.
Yay now you have pretty decorations to hang on the tree or wherever you want!
This is what I have been working on in the last week, A watercolour commission of my friend's dog Oscar. A4 hot pressed Arches watercolour paper and Winsor and Newton artists watercolour paints and some white Gouache. I also realised that its been many months since I have done any painting, maybe I should make it my new years resolution to paint more, maybe a little painting each day like Inktober.
