Inspired by this tutorial on www.creaturecomfortsblog.com (which in itself is a really adorable blog), and given my current fetish with all things made of clay, I decided to have a go at making a little air-dry clay mobile of my own for my little one’s bedroom. I recently put some sticky stars on her ceiling and she loves to stare at them from her cot (“oooooh, DAR!”) so I thought I could do with a bit more ceiling decoration. So here’s how I did it…
Materials
Air dry clay (I use Das)
1 wooden dowel measuring about 40cm
Fine sandpaper
Pen & Crayons
Varnish
Bakers twine
1) Before rolling out the clay, make the templates for the basic shapes for your mobile on paper and cut out. I made clouds, birds, butterflies and bees.
2) Roll the clay out to about 5mm thickness, cut around the templates and poke holes with a cocktail stick for where they will hang (I actually messed up here by only putting holes at the top of each shape rather than the bottom as well – so I had to drill them in once dry. Stuuuuuuupid…). Set the pieces aside to dry overnight.
3) Once dry, take some find sandpaper and gently sand down the clay all over to create a smooth finish. This is much easier than smoothing whilst the clay is still wet (it took me a long time to work this out!)
4) Decorate the clay using water colour pencils and ink pen on both sides.
5) Varnish each piece, unless you want a matte finish of course. Varnish does give greater strength and durability. Thread the pieces together with bakers twine.
6) Attach the twine to the dowel and hang the mobile in place.
All finished! So now Amelie says “dird” (bird) as well as “dar” (we’re working on “cloud”…)
Tia xx
p.s. If you like air dry clay check out this post on making your own clay ring and this one on making a clay house candle holder
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