Homemade Clay Ornaments

It might be too late this year, but consider getting crafty for next season. Homemade ornaments made from clay, sell. Especially if they're detailed, and painted in bright colors.

You can often find flour for sale pretty cheap this time of year, and just after Christmas. It will keep till next year for projects such as this.

For many folks, this may not be a viable suggestion, because it takes energy - heating fuel to do this. Your oven will be on at 250 ° for about 2 hours. There is another recipe for cold clay, and I will post that tomorrow.


Homemade Clay

Ingredients
4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup salt
1 teaspoon alum (can be found in the spice shelves at your grocer's)

Directions
Mix all 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Add tsps of water if necessary to make dough workable. In case you wish to color the dough before baking, you can divide it, and work in some food coloring to the different pieces. But if you're going to paint the dough, anyway, there's no need to dye it.

To manipulate the dough, you can use all sorts of instruments in the house: knives, rollers, cookie cutters, ice pick, pins, etc. Treat the dough as you would any clay you were molding.

Make sure the dough is no more than 1/2 inch thick, and don't forget to make a small hole for the ornament's hanger.

Bake at 250° for 30 minutes, then turn pieces over, carefully, and bake another 70 to 90 minutes. (practice with some pieces to see how your oven works.)

It will be okay to sand edges or any imperfections...using some fine grain sandpaper.

then you can paint and after the paint's dry - coat with shellac other protectant (even nail polish works!)