DIY Clay Bowls

Many of our Pinstrosities happen when directions are missed or there are substitutions made in the supplies or ingredients. Sometimes though a pin is just hard and it makes you sweat. Lexidh found one of those pins and gave it a good run. 

The Original Pin

http://www.gatheringbeauty.com/2014/06/diy-stamped-clay-bowls_18.html#.U69tpigx87d

"I decided to try the [above] pin, making clay bowls. Looks so easy, doesn't it? And the instructions on the page are so clear, right? Wrong. Instead of using one stamp over and over again in a pattern (something I'd mess up at once), I used a big background stamp. Other than that I followed the instruction to the letter, even bought the right brand of clay (from Greece!). Didn't really go so well as I'd hoped... "

The Pinstrosity

"First I tried with two bowls, one of which was too big to make a small bowl inside... "

"Can't put much in it without it going over the sides ;P" 

"So, kinda my bad. But as you can see from my other try, don't think that 'overnight' or even 'next night' or 36 hours is enough time in a warm, dry room (my hydrometer doesn't even want to measure how dry it is in my crafts room), if you take it out and flip it over to dry upside down the bottom will sag, and you end up with something roulette-board-shaped... It just drops down in the middle!"

"But I'm a stubborn lady, so my next try went much smoother."

"I used a paper dessert bowl (not coated with plastic) to shape and dry it in. It didn't stick to it at all, just dried evenly and stayed in it's shape. It took a few days, but it's worth it! After sanding down the edges I sprayed with a few layers of clear lack, which gave it a better finish, and it isn't so prone to leave marks on stuff. The finished product isn't smooth, but it doesn't feel like you could use it as blackboard chalk." 

​

"I'm very pleased with the end result, but the original pin has a few pitfalls, as they often do."

Even when you follow the directions, some pins can be tough. Some of them take a little thinking through to make sure it'll work out (as with the right size of bowls for Lexidh's first try). I'm so glad Lexidh kept pressing on though and worked to figure this out!

I really really want to try this out. I have this battle going on in my head right now. I thought the clay would be super expensive, but it's only $7.61 on Amazon. So that didn't work as excuse to not do this. I'm in the middle of a HUGE decluttering campaign in my life and I'm being extremely picky with what I buy and bring into the house when I'm trying to get so much out of the house. I don't have an immediate need for these bowls, but they look so fun! Maybe I can come up with a need...but probably not.