Blossoms and bundles: Polymer Clay Bowl DIY

I haven't used polymer clay for a few years. The last time was when I was making things for terrariums and it wasn't quite what I wanted. Back then I thought you only used colored ones, I didn't know you could paint and glaze it! This was so much more fun! This is a very simple diy that I made for when I want to separate out some succulent and cactus starts. So I made little echeveria to go on top to show kind of what it would look like with a real plant in it. But I suppose now I have a fake plant that I don't need to take care of. (It's very strange.) I made two bowls, the echeveria, and some beads for my weaving projects out of one package of clay. I was really surprised with the results and the quality, especially since I only somewhat new what to do. But when I was reading up on polymer clay it seemed to me that you could use it very easily with a multitude of mediums. I'm very interested to see how watercolors work on it.

I used the sculpey brand, it was the cheapest on amazon with good reviews and I had a great experience with it. I hardly used any glaze so that should last me for a lot of projects.

I also used basic metallic craft paints and some black craft paint (plus some greens and yellow for the echeveria.) And of course a few paintbrushes. I also needed a small sheet pan that I lined with wax paper just to protect the pan while I baked the clay.

First I just took about three lines of the clay and broke it off.

Then I just worked it all together until it was incorporated well.

Then I smoothed it out into a nice ball.

Next I just used my thumb to push an indent in.

Then I used my thumb and forefinger to pinch around the sides. I mean, really I'm just making a small pinch pot.

Here I am just smoothening out the edges and evening them up. I wanted them to have texture so I didn't make them fully smooth, but I didn't want any crevices for soil to get stuck in.

Now in this picture I'm using my thumb to press down to make a wider bottom.

I flipped it over to smoothen out the bottom and the lower sides.

Last I took a paintbrush end and made a drainage hole.

You can skip this step if you are using this for something other than a live plant. Or if you have an air plant, you can skip this step too.

Now I'm starting on the Echeveria.

First I made five balls of clay about the same size, then five more a bit smaller, then five more a bit smaller again.

Then I formed the leaves.

I stuck them together doing the biggest five first. I used a paintbrush to help press down the ends together.

Here is the last of the first fifteen that I made all pressed to the other two layers.

Then I took three little bits and added them to the top. I used a stiff paintbrush (using the brush end this time) to push in the cracks and to smoothen out bumps.

I also made some beads by rolling clay into balls and sticking a paintbrush through them.

I set all the clay projects on a small baking pan lined with wax paper to protect the pan and baked them in the toaster oven. My directions said to bake for 1/4 in thickness, so I doubled the time since most everything was thicker than that. The echeveria did just fine in the spots that were thinner.

After they were done baking and had cooled I drew designs on the bowls with a pencil, and then painted everything. I did use a few shades of green on the echeveria to mimic a real plant, but it would have been neat to use a different color like a purple with some red.

After I painted everything I put them all on the tray to glaze them. Glazing the top first, letting it dry, then glazing the bottom and repeating. I put the beads on paintbrushes to glaze them.