Clay Beetle Magnets

I was recently sorting through my craft room (a tricky but rewarding task!) which reminded me about the large tub of air dry clay I have, which I'd like to use more of. Somehow I came up with the idea to make some bug magnets, specifically beetles, as I also unearthed a few little blank magnets.

Projects where I don't have to go out and buy anything new are the best.

To make the magnets I started by shaping the clay. I rolled a piece into an oval which I cut in half to make two beetles, each with a flat side and a curved side.

I added detailed on the front, including sticking some extra bits of clay on for the head. I also pressed the magnet into the back of the clay to leave an imprint to show where I would later glue it.

I used black coated wire for the arms and legs which I pushed through the clay. This was a bit tricky as the wire didn't always come out the other side where I wanted it, so it often took a few tries.

I gave the clay a couple of days to dry and then painted it completely with black acrylic paint.

Then it was time to add colour. Using nail varnish was the perfect thing for this project as I think the metallic, shimmery colours really look like the colours of a beetle.

I got out my nail varnish stash and picked out a couple of matching colours. I used the in-built brush to paint directly on top of the black paint, starting with the darker colour and adding highlights with the lighter one.

After the nail varnish had tried I used Gorilla super glue to stick the magnet to the back of the clay.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I think they look great! And, aside from the time it takes for the clay dry out, this is quite a quick project which is always a bonus.

Clay Cartoon Figurine

I've been doing a few cartoon style illustrations recently and got the idea to try making a 3D figure in the same style. As I've done enough self portraits over the years I decided to make a miniature version of my boyfriend.

I got my air dry clay out and starting moulding but quickly discovered that having a sketch of the figure would help me keep everything the right size. When I've made figures in the past out of Sculpey I've constructed a wire skeleton first, but as this model would be pretty bulky in comparison the only structural element I added was a bit of a wooden skewer through the neck and down one leg to put the head on.

Once I'd added all the details I left my model overnight to dry out. As it's been particularly hot here in England recently I thought I might have a few issues with cracking which can happen when clay dries out too quickly. When I went back to the model I found the head had detached from the neck. Lucky I put that wooden skewer in!

To fix this, I cut the skewer down so the head would touch the neck again and used watered down clay to glue it together.

To paint the figure I first covered it in a coat of white primer...

... and I painted it with acrylics.

And now I have a little craft room companion!

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Air Dry Clay Dish

I've made a few different dishes out of Sculpey before but decided to play around with air dry clay for this project. The main reason for this is I had the idea to paint a scene on a dish which I would want to seal with spray varnish, which doesn't always work well with Sculpey.

I bought a small glass dish from a charity shop for 45p to use as a mould for my clay dish. I rolled out some air dry clay and pressed it into the glass dish. I trimmed the edges with a craft knife and went over them with a wet finger to make them smooth.

I gave the clay a couple of days to dry out before painting it. I painted a base layer of white emulsion first and then used acrylic paint to create the scene, which was based on one of my photos from Cromer. Considering I've painted on baubles before, painting on this slightly curved surface was no problem.

 To finish the dish a spray both sides with varnish and then it was ready to hold some shinys!

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Clay at Camp

One of the guys at camp last week had an idea to do some clay work using the soil from the field we were staying in, as it was mostly clay anyway.

He'd taken some lumps of the soil, removed big stones, and added water so it was ready for us to work with.

There were plaques, bowls, beads and models made.

This is the creepy face my cousin made.

And this is the little dish I made.

I'm thinking about coating it in PVA glue to make it more durable.

Our hands looked like we'd been using a bad fake tan by the end of it but I was really impressed with how we had an afternoon activity and produced some lovely things for no money at all.