Week 6: A Valentine’s Day Photo Holder

Here’s a simple project that uses scrap clay, a little wire or a paperclip, and either a little red, white, and pink clay or some acrylic craft paint.

1) Partially unbend and kink the end of a paperclip or, twist a double loop in a 6″ piece of wire. Trim it until the tales are only 1.5 to 2″. Kink the ends a bit.

2) Slightly condition your lump of scrap clay – I used a round chunk about 1.5″ across – and then cover it in a thin sheet of your base colour. For me, that’s a nice red sheet at #5 on my pasta machine.

3) Trim your sheet to neatly wrap and smooth out any join lines and air bubbles.

4) Add your wire to the lump and heal the hole up around the wire stem. Add a little liquid clay to the join if you have it.

5) Roll out a few scraps of clay in fun Valentine’s Day colours at a nice thin setting. I like Sculpey 3 Ballerina Pink, Premo White Glitter and Blush Pink.

6) Use small heart and circle cookie cutters to cut out a few shapes from your sheets. Decorate your base with them.

7) Bake according to package directions. Because this is a thick chunk of clay that’s going to be a while in the oven. Time it to go in with other pieces or bake it with two other projects (yes, you can bake it more after you take it out).