Blog: Paper Clay

A Look Back – Cool Stuff You May Have Missed 22 – Paper Clay

A Look Back – This time I’m looking at some things I’ve done with clay over the years. Sometimes I’ve used paper clay to make 3D elements for mixed media work and assemblage pieces. Other times I’ve created small clay bowls and plates using rubber stamps and foam stamps for texture and pattern. Read on and I hope you try some of these project ideas!

A Look Back is a blog series to show you some projects and posts that you may have missed – sometimes going WAY back in the archive. I think it will be fun to revisit a few ideas that we haven’t seen for a while. I’m excited to see how a little look back might inspire something new in the future :)


Back in 2012 I participated in a little Altered Brush challenge and created a clay heart as part of my finished piece. Check out the original post here. Paper clay takes all kinds of acrylic media well, so you can paint it and adhere things to it quite easily. And you can make any sort of collage element that you need – your imagination is the limit.

 

Also in 2012 I experimented with creating small circular clay collage elements that I used in this mixed media canvas. Need real dimensional elements for your work? Paper clay is easy to work with and lightweight.

 

Then in 2013 I used a leftover clay piece in this assemblage for the Whatevers group. The Whatevers would create mixed media pieces inspired by old photos and part of the fun was making up a little story about the people in the photos. Check out the original post here to see the full piece including the vintage photo part :)

 

One of my favorite ways to use a product like paper clay is to make small bowls and plates. They aren’t foodsafe, but for trinkets, rings, or keys they make a beautiful decorative object. I like to roll out my clay and then stamp patterns into it with my rubber stamps. Then once it is dried you can highlight those designs with acrylic paint. Check out this 2015 post here.

 

An equally cool way to adorn paper clay bowls is with my foam stamps and moonlight duo ink pads. I showed this method on Day 27 of my 2019 Foam Stamplifier Challenge. I loved using my Far Out, Groovy, and Jazzed foam stamps for this one because the simple marks work so well with the simple form of the objects.


I hope you enjoyed this look back and are inspired to try a few of these ideas using your mixed media supplies and tools along with paper clay.

Here are some of the supplies we used:

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Paper Clay Play

FiestaPlate_NatKalbach_02

A couple months ago I was looking for some little bowls or plates that I could use for dropping of my bling in the evening but nothing really made me truly wanna spent money as colors or shapes weren’t what I was looking for.

So I remembered a tutorial that I had seen a long time ago on Pinterest on using Paper Clay and Lace to make your own little bowls and decided to give it a try with my newly arrived Stamp Sets. The Paper Clay I used doesn’t need any firing or heating and just air dries. Easy peasy :)

KaffeeKlatschPlate_NatKalbach01

For this bow I rolled a piece of Paper Clay to a little ball and then rolled it out with a rolling pin to a flat wonky circle. I then stamped into the clay with some of my Kaffee Klatsch Stamps. You don’t need to press to hard to get a nice sharp impression. I found a bowl where I liked the shape on the bottom as a guide – since I wanted mine to be not a high bowl and a bit quirky – and pressed the top onto the clay to cut out a nice circle. Next I  formed the clay circle into the bottom of the bowl.  I let everything in the bowl dry for 12 hours and then carefully took the new paper clay bowl out. Since the moisture in the paper clay mostly is evaporated by then it shrinks a bit so that it is easy to get it out of the template bowl. It was still a bit moist on the bottom since now air could get there so I just put the paper clay bowl upside down and let it dry for another 12 hours.

I did the same steps with this plate – just using a plate as a template and the Fiesta Stamp set for the Impressions

FiestaPlate_NatKalbach_01

Once they both were dry I used Liquitex Soft Body paint thinly over the surfaces, waited a couple seconds and then using a paper towel rubbed some of the paint off again, so that the impressions were more colored and more prominent. That way the texture really popped off. For the plate I used two colors to and blended them. I painted outside of the bowl and the bottom of the plate and then everything dry again. I applied some Liquitex Transparent Raw Amber Acrylic Ink over the circle impression of the bowl to have it pop up even more and to give it some patina and let that dry again. To finish everything off I coated the bowl and plate with Liquitex Pouring Medium which gave it a nice shiny glossy and glass like look and feel. I coated it twice leaving a couple hours in between for curing.

Done :) Hope you like this little crafty fun project – I also made some christmas ornaments using the same technique…there is a lot of potential in this – you just have to play . Here is the full supply list:

nSupplies



Comments (11)

  • AmyO'

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    I have some Paper Clay in my stash from long ago – I’ll be digging it out this weekend to see if I can still use it – I love these!

    Reply

  • Stephanie

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    Great project. Thanks for the tutorial

    Reply

  • andrene

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    OK I am so doing this. Hope mine turn out as beautiful as yours!!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    That dish is so sweet and I love the new stamp on it.
    It’s nice to have a place to place one’s rings and such at the end of the night (or while washing yucky pots and pans).

    Reply

  • Petrin Diaz

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    Oh, Nat…so long not writing, but always take time to read all your publications…Love thiis “little idea”…and will try asap, as soon as i can. Thanks always for your kindness! lovely colors!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      So good to “see” you again! thanks for your sweet words!

      Reply

  • Kathy Gledsdale

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    Oh these are gorgeous, I adore them, thank you for sharing the idea.

    Reply

  • Win Dinn

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    Love these, and I love it that you made it rather than buying something that was less then appealing – living the art-ful life!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Win! I agree, making something your own instead of buying is always double the fun!

      Reply

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