How To Make a Pretty Clay Trinket Dish

On Etsy, these pretty little clay trinket dishes kept popping up and catching my eye. Instead of paying ten pounds or more for someone else to make one, I thought I'd have a crack at doing one myself! So, here's how to make a clay trinket dish of your own.

How to make an air dry clay trinket dish

You will need:

• 1kg packet of air dry clay (I use DAS white clay)
• A used medium candle jar/small bowl
• Cling film (optional)
• An old chopping board (to roll your clay out on to)
  
• Acrylic paint
• Clay rolling pin 
• Small knife (use with caution, obviously!)
  
• Paintbrush
• A small amount of water

Method:

1. Open your packet of clay and break a chunk of it off.
2. Roll the clay out onto your chopping board (if it's really dry and not very malleable, add a dash of water to it to get it to loosen up slightly).
3. Roll the clay until it's about as thick as a pound coin.
   
4. Get your jar or bowl and turn it upside down - you can add cling film to the bottom of it before they clay to make it easier to remove, if you wish.
5. Lift the clay that you've rolled out on to the top of the jar or bowl. Cut around it so that it's roughly circular in shape. Smooth it right out and if it has jaggedy edges, add a little water to the end of your finger and run it around the edge until it's smooth.
6. Leave for 24 hours to dry.
7. Remove from the jar or bowl. It probably won't be fully dry yet, so leave it alone for another day or two. When it's dry it will turn a lighter colour.
8. Once it's dry, the really fun bit starts! You can paint it any colours you like. For mine, I chose a monochrome mix.*
9. Leave the paint to dry and assess whether it needs another coat. 
10. Then you can varnish it with something like Mod Podge to protect it. And you're done!

*To paint it the way I did, paint the whole dish white to begin with, then use some masking tape down the middle and paint one side black. On the remaining white half, get a small paint brush and dip it into black paint and use it to 'stamp' on to the dish.

It's something that does take up a little bit of time each day for a few days, but it is really fun to do - and they make great presents too!

 _

Have you ever made your own trinket dish?