Discovering 2014: Clay Texture Tools

Discovering 2014 is a personal goal to complete a daily project every day throughout the year!

My day seven project (yay, one full week now!) was to make some Clay Texture Tools, using the project from this pin by PolymerClayWeb. Mine look no where as nice as theirs do, but they are definitely functional and will work nicely for the Clay Medallion project coming up next week!

The basic tools you need for this project is clay and some random baubles (preferably oven-safe ones). I ended up selecting a variety of random beads and metal findings, but you could also incorporate other objects from around your home (like bolts, stranded jewelry pieces, etc) as well. It will be easier if all of your objects are oven safe, but if not, you can make do with glue.

Roll out some of your clay and check out what impressions your objects make to make sure you'll like the final product. I didn't end up using all the objects I grabbed since some of them didn't make a very good impression.

Roll the clay into a handle shape that works well for you, then gently push your objects into the end caps. Aside from the large blue tool I made, the rest of mine were double-ended to maximize my clay real estate.

If any of the clay is not oven-safe (or you're just not sure), remove them before sticking it in the oven. I baked mine at 275°F for 15 minutes, but check the instructions on your clay's package in case yours differs!

I guess you can't really tell the difference, but here's the ones I didn't have to apply glue to after they cooled down from coming out of the oven.

Here's a couple that needed glue. I didn't have clay glue like PolymerClayWeb suggested so we'll see how it's working out when I get to put them all to the test next week.

Then it was time to test out the non-glued ones! I think these will do quite nicely and am please with the results. :)

Tomorrow's project should be Incense Cones. However, the "arctic freeze" or whatever that weather event is dubbed, has postponed all UPS deliveries for the past two days in my area, so I may not get the base ingredient in time. One way or the other, some project will be done!