Wednesday 30 November 2011

Autumn Leaf Bowls

Just time to fit in one last craft the children have been doing for Autumn before the season changes, this time we have made leaf shaped clay pots or candle holders. My eldest children made some like these when they were very small and I can remember some children making them when I was at school. So we thought we would have a go using a pack of air drying clay after seeing some recently which reminded me of how pretty the bowls looked.


First thing we did was print and cut out some leaf templates and chose one each, then we rolled out the clay to the required thickness. We rolled ours out quite thin but I think if we make some more I will leave the clay slightly thicker as I was terrified that the children would break them.


My husband put the leaf template onto the clay and cut round them all and we added a few leaf details onto the clay. For more realistic looking veins you could press real leaves into the clay and cut around them.


The cut out leaf was then placed onto a bowl, so that it curled around it and left to completely dry, we used several different sized bowls so that each leaf had a unique shape. There is a lot of waiting to dry in this craft so a little patience is required.


After the clay has dried it was possible to paint the bottom of the leaf while it was still on the bowl, we used acrylic paint for this. After the painted base has dried you can remove your leaf bowl and paint the inside, we started to paint them in Autumnal colours but the children decided to add extra colours to the inside of the bowls.


This is what we ended up with, after adding a little extra sparkle as it is coming up to Christmas. My daughter's one is mostly red, my son has added a little blue glitter and I painted mine red and lightly sprayed it with gold paint. They are not quite finished yet as we will be adding a couple of layers of varnish to make them a little stronger and easier to clean.


It looks very Autumnal with a candle in it, although we are now seeing the start of Winter. My son also made some casts of dinosaur footprints with the left over clay, just like the fossil ones.



11 comments:

  1. These are really cool! I may have to try them out!

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  2. The children loved making these, even though there was a lot of waiting around for things to dry. Thank-you for reading :)

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  3. How wonderful! :)

    I think the lady of the house should open an online shop too . . . *hint, hint*

    Ok, may not have been too subtle, lol.

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  4. thank-you, funny you should say that 'the lady of the house' has been considering options lately... LOL ;D

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  5. These are lovely - I especially like the light gold spray on yours.
    How sturdy are they? I have had mixed results with getting air drying clay to make anything long-lasting.

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  6. They will probably last quite a while on a shelf, but I should imagine if the children drop them or are too rough with them they will break. We will be giving them a couple of coats of varnish to hopefully make them last a little longer.
    We have also just bought a different type of clay for our next projects, it came in a big bag from the art shop, apparently it is better as it contains acrylic and can be air dried or made a little harder by oven baking. So I will see if this makes a big difference.

    Thank-you for reading :)

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  7. Really nice!I like your work!Nice to meet you!

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  8. These are absolutely beautiful! We are All Year Round Blog Carnival co-hosts and we've featured you here http://littlehomeschoolblessings.blogspot.com/2012/10/all-year-round-carnival-september-round.html?m=1 .

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  9. Thank-you for featuring us, I'll pop by and check out the carnival :)

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  10. I love this! I made one today and it looks lovely, and so simple. Thank you for sharing.

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    Replies
    1. Thank-you reading and commenting to let us know how you got on, I am so pleased it looks lovely.
      Just so readers know about the strength of these I actually still have them on the shelf, still looking good after 6 years :)

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