Keep your jewellery organised and stored in style with a handmade clay crescent moon ring dish
Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2021 is treating you as well as it can be so far and that you had a good Christmas. Our Christmas, like a lot of peoples here, wasn’t quite what we had been expecting, it was a lot quieter, and we spent a lot more time on Zoom. Having said that, it was the first Christmas that we have ever spent entirely together, we ate lots of delicious food, had a good rest and it was really lovely to be in our new home. It doesn’t take much for me to get a bit stir crazy though, and so I started some beginner embroidery kits (I’m now hooked!) and got the clay out to do another project.
My clay face ring dish has proven to be pretty popular on Pinterest and ring dishes are something I really enjoy making, so when I discovered this moon trinket dish on Oliver Bonas, I knew instantly that I wanted to make my own - albeit a slightly more minimal and rustic version. I really enjoy making things out of air-dry clay, it’s far more forgiving than polymer clay and with a bit of water you can create a clay pulp to hold two separate clay pieces together. I wasn’t 100% sure this was going to work, but it did, and I love how it turned out. If you fancy a go, follow the steps below, and let me know how you get on!
First of all, work some clay in your hands to warm it slightly, use a bit of water if it starts cracking, and then roll it out onto a plastic surface. Roll out the clay until it’s your desired thickness and diameter.
Take something circular that is the size you want your dish to be, place it on the clay and cut around it with a craft knife. Put clingfilm on the inside of a bowl, place your circle of clay in this, and press down so the clay takes the shape of the bowl.
Take some more clay, warm it up and roll it out to whatever thickness you want your moon to be.
Use a smaller circular object (like a glass) to cut out a smaller circle from this clay. Take the same glass, and place only half of it over the clay circle. Cut around this, to leave a crescent moon clay shape.
Cut off some small pieces of clay, chop them up into small pieces, and create a pulp with water.
Use the pulp to bond your moon to the centre of your ring dish. I find it helpful to use a paintbrush to add the pulp and to put it into any gaps.
Leave this to dry on a radiator for a day or two.
Once dry, lightly sand anywhere that needs it and paint all over with white acrylic paint.
Using some glue or size, add faux gold leaf to the edges of the dish and to the moon.
When the glue has set, use either a sealant or some watered down glue to seal everything in place.
