Cauldron Place Card Holders

These little cauldron place card holders are a fun Halloween decoration for spooky dinner parties.  They are made from polymer clay and can be customized with different colors of potion.  The cauldrons themselves can be made from a variety of metallic colors to match your theme.

To make each place card holder, you'll need:

• Aluminum foil (about 4" off the roll)
• Stiff wire -- I used 10 gauge copper wire but you can use floral stems
• Needlenose Pliers
• Wire Cutters
• Polymer Clay in the color of your choice to be the "potion" -- about 1/8th of a 2oz block
• Black Polymer Clay -- about 1/4th of a 2oz block
• A thin pointy object such as the end of a small craft paint brush
• A thin, smooth rod, such as a screwdriver, to wrap the wire around when creating your card holding loop

First, make a foil core.  It's possible to use polymer clay to serve as the core but I didn't want to waste clay.  Create the core by simply wadding up your foil into a ball.  Don't press it too tightly.  You want the ball to be about 1.25" across.  Then press the ball down on two sides to create a flattened disk.  The disk should be about 1/2" thick.  Poke a hole in the center of your disk.  You can use the end of your wire to do this but I used a toothpick.

Cut a 6" length of wire.  Using pliers, make a rough loop in one end and then bend the wire at a 90 degree angle to the loop.  This way, when the loop is laying flat on a surface, the wire is sticking straight up in the air.

Pull the straight length of wire through the hole so the loop acts as a stopper at the other end.

Roll your colored clay, about 1/8th of a 2 oz block of clay, into a ball.  Flatten it until it is about the diameter of your foil disk.  Pierce through the center of this clay with the end of the wire and pull the disk down over the foil. Smooth the edges of the clay down over the sides of the foil.
(It is possible to make the loops in the wire that will hold the card in this step instead of later.  See the last step for details.)

Bake this at the temperature and time specified by your brand of polymer clay, in a glass baking pan.  I line the bottom of my baking pan with paper.

Once this foil and clay creation has cooled, it's time to form the cauldron around it. Gather about 1/4th of a 2oz block of clay and roll it in your hands until it's soft and pliable.  Pinch off enough to make about a 1/2" ball of clay and set this aside.

Form the larger clump of clay into a ball and flatten it into a disk until it's about twice as wide as the foil disk.  Place the foil disk in the center and work it up and around the foil piece, as shown.  Pull the clay around the top and smooth the top edge.  Then press the clay to taper away from this edge and create the flared top of the cauldron.

Divide the rest of the remaining black clay into four equal sections.  Set one aside.  Roll each of the other three sections into a ball.  Place the balls on the bottom of the cauldron, evenly spaced, to serve as legs.  Then press the cauldron down, pushing in on the already hardened colored "potion" in the center of the cauldron, until it's level and the legs are pressed on well.

To create the handles on the sides, divide the remaining clay in two.  Roll each section into a ball and flatten slightly.  Press the end of a paintbrush or chopsitck into the the center of one disk and then, keeping the point in the clay, place it against the side of the cauldron and press the point in slightly to secure the handles.  Pull away the point.  Repeat to create a handle for the other side.

Retro Futuristic Alien Antennae

My daughter insisted I use this shadowy photograph.

These alien antennae feature moving parabolic dishes which swing around as the wearer is grooving during Ludo's Summer Concert Tour, Space Dracula's Basketball Expo.

These space-themed accessories were built from polymer clay over bamboo skewers and attached to a headband.  I really enjoyed making them!  The hardest part were the parabolic dishes which I formed around the concave base of a shot glass which was liberally dusted with cornstarch.

I liked the idea of a retro futuristic scheme so I pulled the colors from 1950's cafes.

Bag End Fairy Door

The fairies of Middle Earth should be right at home living behind this tiny version of the door to Bag End.  This door was made from polymer clay using a variety of techniques.

TARDIS Fairy Door: A Home for Fairy Time Lords

This fairy door, perfect for fairy Time Lords, is a mini replica of a TARDIS door.  It's just over 3.5" and made from polymer clay.  I spent far more time on this door than I had anticipated, building up layers, referring to photos, cutting pieces, carefully placing things, and just generally fiddling around with it.

I used liquid polymer clay to cover the tiny signs which were printed onto plain paper.  I simply dabbed the liquid on both sides of the paper, smoothed it out with my fingers, and cooked these briefly on baking parchment paper.  The smooth blue clay on the surface of the door itself was just a little too tidy so I brushed liquid polymer clay onto it to finish, creating striations with the bristles.

Green Gem Potion Bottle

This potion bottle is one of my kids' favorites.  It features a green gem, created using my Faux Gemstone technique which is set into a large black blob-like medallion made from polymer clay.  The medallion features tentacles which wrap around the bottle somewhat.  Two of them have been extended and wrapped around the neck of the bottle.  A similar green gem was set atop the cork stopper.

Although polymer clay does not permanently adhere to glass, the clay here has not been glued to the glass because it is wrapped around the glass, keeping it in place. 

The contents of this bottle are simply green colored water and vegetable oil.  The oil seems to have taken on a greenish color since I filled the bottle several years ago.  The strange bubbles in the top layer of the contents are the result of my shaking the bottle prior to taking the picture.  I have glued the cork permanently in place, making this a display bottle only.

Knotwork Potion Bottle

The purple started out as an eight-sided spice jar.  I started out by covering it in a layer of polymer clay.  To accomplish this, I rolled out the clay and covered the jar with the single sheet.  Then I poked this layer with pins.  Using my hands, I pushed the clay up against the jar tight while excess air was pushed out through the holes.  Then I smoothed over the surface to hide the holes.

I stamped out the design on another piece of clay and attached it to the original piece before firing.  To do this, I rolled out the piece of clay and dusted the surface with cornstarch.  Then I dusted the surface of the stamp with more cornstarch and pressed it into the clay.  I blew off as much cornstarch as I could before adhering the stamped section using a little liquid polymer clay.  I smoothed down the edges of the added piece using my finger. 

The bottle was then baked and the stamped section was later highlighted by covering it in black acrylic paint thinned with a little water and cleaning it off the top surface before it dried.  The neck was wrapped in twine and the twine ends finished with beads.  A brown polymer clay "tag" is also hung from the neck.  I intend to replace this with a piece of wood labeled using a wood burner.

Home is Where the Hearthstone Is

I made this World of Warcraft hearthstone plaque for my husband.  It was a pretty simple project involving creating a one-time mold using modeling clay and hardware store plaster.  Once it was set, I used a blue fabric paint to color the jewel-tone engraving.  I plan to make more but each will be slightly different due to the modeling clay molding process.  Check out the instructions and make one of your very own!

Gold Potion Bottle

This is the first in my series of potion bottles, created out of a variety of elements.  I use a lot of polymer clay but I've been known to use other substances including egg shells to create the look I'm after.

The base is a clear glass Christmas ornament.   I bought the cork at my local hardware store from the bulk bins.  The hardware store's bulk bins have inspired a number of projects of mine.  I covered the ornament in gold polymer clay by carefully pressing pieces of clay all over the surface and smoothing out the clay as I worked.  This was baked and other clay embellishments were added using liquid polymer clay to bond the baked and fresh pieces:

• A twisted rope of clay formed into a circle allows it to stand up.  Another was added to the neck of the bottle.
• A slightly different shade of gold polymer clay was rolled out, coated with cornstarch, stamped with a cornstarch dusted rubber stamp, and placed in the center before baking on the clay.  (Once baked, I was able to rinse off the cornstarch which worked as a mold release.) 
• I added a silver-backed flat glass marble made using my Faux Gemstone technique.