My Clay House - Clay DIY's for any home!

Hello everyone! 🌼

I hope you are all doing alright as we are still in lock down, I can't believe it has been a whole week since the last post and slowly but surely I'm getting back into the swing of blog posts!

Over the past few weeks in quarantine I have been focusing my efforts on being somewhat productive and honestly I've been loving messing with clay so much. I personally have no experience with clay and have no tools to make clay decor with but I gave it a go and I love the way things turned out! Below I've listed a few tools that I used but they are only optional and you can totally get creative with whatever tools you want to use!

Tools:

🌼 DAS air dry modelling clay - I ordered mine from Ebay and got an amazingly good deal for the clay, I got 3 big blocks for about £7. I could no longer find the listing I used but there are some amazing deals out there.

🌼 Ruler or straight sharp edged tool

🌼 Any shapes you'd want to trace around (Labels, printed designs of box's)

🌼 Acrylic or watercolour paint

🌼 Any PVA glue or mod-podge

🌼 Rolling pin (Suggested for rolling out the clay)

🌼 Flowers or stamps for imprinting

🌼 A flat surface for rolling clay on

🌼 Either grease proof paper or some kind of smooth surface to protect your table

🌼 Some clean water

There are so many tutorials and videos on how to make things out of clay, but honestly I just went for it. Of course if your wanting to make vases and such you may need to watch some videos on how to mould the clay together and make a completely watertight space.

For starters here's some of the clay decor pieces I have already made, I understand these are not going to be for everyone and mine are a lot more rustic than others, but I really like how they came out!

These are two tags I previously made by tracing out a general tag shape and cutting it with a knife to be the correct shape. I then imprinted it with grass and rabbits ears, adding the lettering beneath to suit. These were then water coloured when dried and glazed with a thick clear layer of PVA glue. I then used gold furniture paint to go around the edges and around the inside of the hole I made for string. I don't actually intend on stringing these up anywhere as usable labels, I really just liked the extra detail and intricacy it added to the design.

I did find some kinks with the clay as I was using it, for example a lot of people told me to do whatever I was going to make fast because the clay would dry super quickly. However I didn't find this was the case, some of my objects took up to 3 days to dry fully and they weren't thick or super fancy, but in some regards it is a good thing because it did mean I could tweak the clay a few times whilst it was drying.

I also found that even though my clay was rolled flat and placed on a flat surface, as the clay dried it started to twist slightly and warp from being flat, which was totally fine because I actually loved the slightly more kinked look it developed over time. But these are a couple of things just to bare in mind, especially if you're hoping to make coasters or jewellery holders!

Another small thing to note is the clay is actually a grey colour when wet and when it dries it is an off white, definitely not a pure white so if you're looking for a pure white you will most likely want to coat it with some white paint after.

🌼 On to the DIY!

I started off by laying down a piece of old florist wrapping film, this is actually the perfect thing to save to roll clay on as its super easy to prize your clay off after you've rolled it out!

I took a very small chunk of clay and rolled it out to a size that would accommodate my template, I then used a pallet knife instead of an actual knife as I found that the waves in the belly of the knife were creating more of a crimped edge pattern that I wasn't a fan of, but using the pallet knife actually gives a really precise cut.

I then put my finger on the label and cut around it, I made sure to hold it down as I did so as sometimes the clay can move from under it if not held correctly.

Once I did this I made sure to keep my template over the top as I was thinking I might string these rather than putting them in plant pots so simply used a pen to poke through the existing hole. Then removed the little template label and made the hole a bit bigger. The best thing about using a pen is that it gives you this really crisp little edge around the hole which looks very polished off.

Now I didn't actually say what this name tag would be used for! I believe that when people donate you plants it is a lot more special than simply buying them because they have a story and history from within a home and the plant I am intending this label for came from an owner "Harold" So I thought it could be perfect to make a little name tag for my plant pot to really personalise it.

The plant was actually pretty close to being dead since we got it and we've taken so many little babies from it I can't believe how well its thriving.

I've had these simple letters for years now and they're mainly used for ink stamping but I use them for all kinds of things, especially clay crafts. I found the letters I needed and started from the last letter working my way back, this ensures that I definitely have enough room and the letters wouldn't end up completely skew wiff.

Once I'd punched the letters in I dipped my finger in a little water and rubbed it over the edges to smoothen them out and make them less straight and more organic. Once this is dried I plan on painting it with the same greenish-blue tinted watercolour and adding gold to the letters, edges and the inside of the hole 🌼.

I figured since I had clay left over I would make some more and not waste any clay! These are honestly so cute they would make a really nice home made gift for any gardener alongside some gloves and clippers!

I still had some left so I decided to make a cracked minimalist single long candle holder, I'm going to paint the cracks with the gold and the rest of it a cream colour to really help it stand out.

As for the tags I made 5 in total,

🌼 Thyme

🌼 Spider plant

🌼 Harold

🌼 Lavender

🌼 Cacti

Although I don't have any lavender in my room I'm planning on drying a bunch and tying around it with some jute rope and attach the lavender label to it. I also have a fair few plants that I haven't identified but I know they are forms of succulents and cacti so I simply made "cacti" label's for them.

These are some other pots I previously made, the one on the left is with acrylic paint and the gold furniture paint and the one on the right is simple watercolour and then they are both topped with a layer of PVA glue to give them a safe finish and shine. The PVA also helps the clay not be porous and means that the water will hopefully not leak!

As always, thank you for reading - I hoped you enjoyed! Feel free to leave a comment, like or reach me on social media!

I hope you all have a lovely day,

🍁 Stay smiling

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