As I run workshops for young folks, I keep having to come up with new ideas so they keep coming back to take part.
Sometimes the ideas just ping into my head and sometimes I have to dig deep to find things that inspire me enough to make.
Now, this is a surprising one, especially as you might have read my previous blog about my awful attempts at pottery, but I picked up a block of Air-Dry clay and a tub of Wilton Alphabet Cookie Cutters.
Rolling out the clay to shortbread thickness, I then looked about for things to texture it with. I am SURE I have texture plates somewhere... just cannot find them!
The first thing I used was some hessian sacking.... BIG MISTAKE, the clay was suddenly covered with tiny brown hairs that took ages to pick off. I used bubble wrap and lace for other pieces, along with just jabbing other pieces with various tools to create a pattern.
I also wanted the clay to be painted at the same time - normally you would need the clay to dry before painting it, but then I would need to make parents buy paints to take away which seemed a bit unfair.
After a chat to some colleagues we came up with the plan of mixing acrylic paint with PVA glue which would form a kind of thick glaze which wouldn't be too wet and which shouldn't hinder the drying out stage afterwards.
And you know what? It worked!
What a great idea and such a fantastic result.
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