Give a present that extra personal touch with these string-tie decorations. Simple to make, they can also be reused or kept as a memento.
Level of difficulty: Easy
Materials:
- White air-dry clay
- Acrylic paints
- Water
- Polyurethane gloss varnish (optional)
If you don’t use white clay, you’ll need to undercoat the clay (once dry) in either white primer or acrylic.
Tools:
- Cookie cutters
- Knitting needle
- Lace
- Rolling pin
- Sandpaper
Method:
When shaping, always keep your clay moist by sprinkling on a bit of water.
- Knead the clay, and roll out to a depth just short of a centimetre
- Take the lace fabric and lay it across the clay. Then taking the rolling pin, gently roll across the lace, pushing its pattern into the clay.
- The clay should now have a textured pattern like the lace. Taking your chosen cookie cutter – press and cut out your designs.
- Using the knitting needle place two horizontal holes in the middle of the design, about a centimetre apart.
- Leave to dry, suggest 2 days.
- Sand down the edges till smooth.
- Now it’s ready to paint. Block colours work best, but base the colour on the occasion; birthdays, Christmas etc. In this example gold was used as a generic all-rounder.
Optional: Apply a coat of gloss varnish to help the textured-surface really stand-out.
