Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Handcrafted Marbled Heart Shape Dish

Welcome to our first Creative Craft Hop of the new year hosted by Sara @Birdz of a Feather! We are so glad you're here!

If you're coming over from Donna @Modern on Monticello, HELLO! Wasn't her fabulous Evergreen Winter Wreath gorgeous! At the end of my post I'll share the next stop on this hop, but be sure to visit all of the other stops, too, for some amazing creations!

Just in time for Valentines or any special occasion, try making this lovely red and white marble heart dish out of oven bake polymer clay! You won't believe how easy it is! And they're so many ways to use the dish! Perfect to hold wrapped candies, jewelry and trinkets! Or use as a decorative accent anywhere in your home! It's also great for gift giving! There's something extra special about a handmade gift - one that comes from the heart - see the play on words, lol! So let's get started with what you'll need to make one!

Disclosure I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, this post may contain links. I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you! The affiliate money I earn helps pay my crafting expenses. Thanks so much for your support!

Materials:

Heart shape template/cardboard
Craft knife/craft scissors
Sculpey oven-bake polymer clay - white 8oz/red-2oz
Rolling pin
Craft mat/parchment paper
Oven safe bowl
Sanding block or sandpaper
Sculpey Glaze

How To:

Start by making a heart-shape template out of printer paper. You can fold a sheet of printer paper in half, drawing half of a heart shape on it! Then cutting it out and opening the paper to reveal a full size heart shape. How cool is that! The heart template is about 10" high and 8" wide. A great size for a heart shape dish! Next, draw the outline of the heart template onto a piece of cardboard for a sturdier pattern . . .

then cut out using a craft knife or craft scissors.

After cutting out the cardboard template, it's time to start kneading the clay.

The last time I used oven-baked clay, I had a very hard time kneading the clay to make it soft, as you can see here . I thought a newer pack would be easier. But in reality, it wasn't. Before, I had tried stomping the parchment covered clay with my shoes on. That was rough! This time, I used my rolling pin to pound it into softness. I made a lot of noise, but it worked.

I was able to roll the clay into two coils after pounding it out.

Then it was time to do the same to the red clay.

It didn't take me as long to roll the red clay into coils. I used just two ounces of red clay. Then I twisted the white clay coils together with the red clay coils. And rolled them together into a ball . . .

so I could roll it out with my rolling pen.

Not liking the looks of that marble clay roll, I smushed the clay together again into a ball to . . .

roll it out again.

The second roll was looking a bit better. And I probably should have balled it up again to blend more of the red, but the white clay was beginning to look pink from the red so I decided to go with the design I had.

The rolled out clay should be about 1/4" thick to make a dish. Lay the cardboard template on top of the clay and use a craft knife to cut out the heart design.

Once the heart is cut out, remove the excess clay and save it to make smaller hearts. You can see a pic of the smaller ones later.

Place the heart shape clay in an oven safe bowl, following the package directions to bake - "heat oven to 275 degrees and bake for 30 minutes". Using a bowl lets the heart shaped clay dish curl a bit instead of laying flat.

I made two smaller heart shaped dishes out of the leftover scraps and placed them in smaller heat resistant bowls. Then baked them all together in the oven.

Make sure to allow the oven-baked clay hearts to cool completely once they are finished baking.

Once the clay hearts are cooled, use a sanding block or sandpaper to remove any imperfections along the edges and elsewhere.

And finally, apply a satin glaze by Sculpey that provides a smooth seal to set the clay and cover any imperfections.

Here's how it looks as a candy dish!

And for one of the smaller versions, a place to lay jewelry while washing hands, etc. You can probably come up with lots of ways to use the heart shaped dishes!