Valentines Day Bowl

Success!! So after the miserable failure that was the first bowl, I decided to err toward simplicity. I found a cute tiny metal bowl marketed for making individual cakes, and I used that as my form. I then decided to "decorate" it by using food coloring while mixing the dough, instead of paint.

While it did burn, leaving the inside an odd brown color, I'm still happy with the overall appearance. I think it might have been interesting to even use several different dyed pieces to weave or fold together, for some color variation. I added my color when I did the water, but I also wonder how it would have looked if I had added it after the dough was formed. Maybe a marble would be pretty.

There's lots of variations for this one, and I think it allows for a wide variety of gifts and pieces. Hope you have fun experimenting!

Problems with Salt Clay

So I thought I'd present one more problem I had with salt clay that you might have also. At the same time I made that bowl, I was also baking a flat round piece that I was going to paint and present as another gift.

However, it came out of the oven bowed, even though the cookie sheet stayed flat. If you do want to make something flat, I'm thinking you might have to weigh it down with something, or maybe flip it half way through the bake time.

Also, the instructions I was using recommended baking for 9 hours. The original bowl and the round piece were both left in for about 10, and the bowl I'll post about tomorrow was left in for 11...and burnt. I still like it, but that might be some useful information to know.

Hope your projects come out more successful than mine!

Ugly Bowl

So here's another testament to my not-always-perfect creative eye. This little beast was supposed to be my Valentines Day gift to my boyfriend...Until it turned out ugly. I was using instructions from my book and it had this cool idea to embed things into salt dough before baking it.

So I was going to make my boyfriend this cool bowl he could leave on his desk for change or paper clips or that sort of small thing, but the only bowl I could find as a form was too big! But I decided maybe it would be ok anyway, so I made it (remember the salt dough recipe?) and started baking it with an embedded chain around the base.

Half an hour later, I check its progress and the whole thing is slipping! I had to add more clay to the base of the bowl, entirely covering the chain, just to maintain its shape!

Even after fixing that, all the rest of the embeded pieces fell out, and I had this very plain, way too big bowl. AND it cracked! So I decided, to make it more than a clay bowl, I would add a different kind of embellishment-- Cloth! Cloth ribbon to cover the crack, some cording to add to the top...Ta Da!! Hideousness!

I will have to try again, because this thing is way too ugly to force on anyone.

Salt Dough Ornaments

I am so excited about Christmas!! Today we made salt ornaments, 4 cups of flour, 2 cups of salt, and 2 cups of water-- but a half batch would have been plenty! I got lots of ideas from here but some of my favorites are where i painted the ornament a solid color and then sprinkled things on them. Watered down paint looks great with salt, and regular paint looks really cool with flour sprinkled on them. I also love doing garlands of salt dough ornaments, but I had to be careful to make sure they're not too heavy. This was a really fun family activity; there's nothing harmful in the dough, and it's really entertaining. Plus, it's a cheap way to decorate a tree, and having ornaments on the tree made by the children makes them feel important!! All together successful :)

Clay Crafts

So yesterday my brother and I fired some things we had made out of stoneware. I made a couple of ornaments for Stacey's birthday, a little black bud vase, and a tiny clay kitten for my boyfriend's stocking (he said he wanted a cat, but didn't trust his roomies around one :p). Alex made the pencil holder.

We tried some new things with the glazes this time. I cut patterns into my pieces before glazing them, and the shiny glazes fell into those cuts very well, while the flat glazes didn't really make that element pop. Also, we used tape to make some designs. My brother's pencil holder has a cool, very subtle design in it, because he taped off sections of it before painting the glaze on.

My brother and I were lucky to fall into a tiny kiln and 50 pounds of stoneware clay, but if you're not so lucky, there are storebought clays that bake hard in the oven and fabulous salt clays that can be mixed with spices like cinnamon to smell good AND look good. The kiln is a good grown-up toy, but the salt clays are fabulous kid crafts, and can be used with cookie cutters and regular kitchen supplies. Take a look at one of my favorite blogs for more awesome salt clay ideas!

Another (more expensive) idea is to find a store that sells unpainted clay items to paint and fire in store, like Paint A Dream. It's fun, no mess, and gives kids an item to take home that they made. However, pieces range from $18 and up, and the pieces aren't ready for several days after they're painted.

I'm so excited about Christmas...I hope your preparations are going great!