Over the past few weeks G has been making tea light holders with me out of air dry clay. We started by making a few as a test to see how it worked and turned out. It is quite simple and anything to do with clay is good with G.
We started by taking an air dry clay (we like this one) and rolling it into a ball - about palm size. We then took a tea light and pushed it into the middle firmly, until it was even on the bottom and pushed it around sideways a little to be sure there was extra room for the tea light to go back in when it dried. G dipped his fingers into water and smoothed around the tea light a little bit.
We let them dry a few days with the tea light still in it, and then took it out, turned over the now mostly dry clay, and let the bottom dry too.
G painted the clay with a craft acrylic paint - we found one that said it was for ceramics and was shiny. He did two coats.
Once that was dry he took a brush and dabbed glue on the holders and then sprinkled glitter on that to stick. After they were all dry we lit them! G loves the sparkles in the candlelight.
They look nice and festive. We are making some more with different colors/shapes and less glitter for gifts.
To make the clay base even it does require working together with little ones more closely in the first molding phase, but the painting and decorating is no holds barred! :) Fun!
22 comments:
Denise...These are fantastic...what a festive candle holder...I love the glitter/sparkle. G did a fabulous job decorating and family & friends will love them for gifts!!!
You've already inspired me to do air dry clay with my kids (I think it was the leaves you guys made) for Christmas gifts...but these are cool too!
Yesterday my son and I made some 3D clay snowmen and some flat ornament shapes. I tried cutting the clay with cookie cutters, but then the shapes stuck to the work surface (a plastic tray and a metal pie pan). If you use cookie cutters, do you have to slice the shapes off the work surface with a thread, or is there something I'm missing?
Thanks Tiff! :)
anthromama - I usually roll the clay out and then lift it to release before lying it gently on the work surface so it isn't too attached. I also like doing it on freezer paper or waxed paper, so that we can lift the paper up to get items off if they do stick a bit. I usually oil our cookie cutters very lightly before we start if we are making flat shapes (like ornaments) so the edges are clean. :)
They are beautiful!
Thanks for a great idea :)
So pretty and the sparkles are great! Your tea lights look like they might be scented some yummy flavor or maybe beeswax??
These are great. I love their fluid shapes that little hands can make intuitively.
hmmm...we have some extra sculpey. Maybe we'll try making some of these with that. What a great idea!
They're beautiful G!
These are great! We have a big bucket of air dry clay around here. I love this idea. :)
G did such an awesome job, the sparkles are just the right touch.
These candle holders would make such great gifts. Thanks for another great idea.
How beautiful! What a fun project to do together. Thanks for the Congrats and visiting my site. Your 4 yr old reminds me of mine.
B
OOOO! So pretty and simple!
those are sweet, would make great gifts!
These are fun! Who wouldn't want one of these under the tree?! Thanks for your inspiration and gentle words.
we made these today, along with clay ornaments. thanks!
Great idea!!
These are nice. Someone sent me the link to this after my own post about preschool clay. I like the idea of a tea light holder. So much more useful than the generic pinch pot. And using glitter? Pure genius.
This is GREAT! I think I'm going to try it with my 2nd graders as a gift for their parents this year for Christmas! It shouldn't be too hard to do alone. I usually have the moms come in and help with art projects but when it's a gift I don't. Thanks so much for the idea!
These are really great. I love to see moms and kids working together on things.
God Bless,
Steph
How much clay (in weight) would you need to make one? would like to do this with the children i work with. thankyou
zoe - not sure. and different clays may have different weights, actually. a terra cotta air dry clay would probably be heavier for the same "amount" of sculpey or crayola types. for these, the quantity is just a bit bigger than a golf ball per candle.
Great idea. We're making the actual candles too. Do you know if the dried clay holders would withstand the hot liquid wax?
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