Marbled Clay Jewelry Dish

Friends, if you haven’t heard, this year at One Artsy Mama, we’re doing something new called “Material of the Month” where we choose a particular crafting material and feature projects using that material on Fridays. We’re also opening it up to you so that you can share your own projects with us in a special Facebook album {you can read more about it here}. January’s material is Clay, and I’m really excited to share this tutorial with you today for a Marbled Clay Jewelry Dish!

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Materials:
– Sculpey Premo! Polymer Clay
– Clay tools or rolling pin and plastic knife
– Muffin Pan
– Krylon Gold Leafing Pen

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Step 1: Break off pieces of various colors of clay you’d like to use for your dish. For one of mine, I used White, Purple, Blue Glitter, and Turquoise. For the other, I used Leaf Green, Green, White, Ultramarine Blue Hue, and Turquoise. Roll a long thin piece of each color and twist them together. Then, smoosh the clay into a ball {that’s a technical term} and mix it with your hands until you get the desired marbled effect. There’s no right or wrong way to do this part; whenever it looks the way you like, move on to step 2!

Step 2: Roll out the clay to about 1/4″ thickness. I used a clay roller that’s in my Sculpey Essential Tool Kit, but you can also use a rolling pin or a jar…just make sure whatever you use doesn’t come into contact with food.

Step 3: Cut your clay into a circle using a cookie cutter, the top of a glass, or anything you can find that’s the size you want. Again, remember that while Sculpey is non-toxic, it’s not food safe, so use something that you won’t be using again later in your kitchen.

Step 4: Turn a muffin pan upside down and center your clay circle over one of the muffin spots. Drape the rest of the clay down the sides and make a few tucks to create the rippled edges. Place the pan in the oven and bake according to the package instructions on your clay. Mine baked for 15 minutes at 275 degrees Farenheit.

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Step 5: Once your dish is cooled, simply remove it from the muffin pan and use a Krylon Gold Leafing Pen around the top to create a pretty edging effect.

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These dishes will each look completely unique, based on the colors, the marbling, and even the shaping you do. For my first attempt, I tried to create a very symmetrical pattern with the ruffling, while for the second, I let it happen more naturally and got a totally different effect.

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You’ll have a bit of marbled clay left over when you cut your circle shape, so feel free to put that to good use too! I rolled mine together and stuck it in a jewelry cabochon mold to create this matching pendant. Way more fun than letting it go to waste, right?

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What do you think? Is this a project you’d like to try? You can’t really go wrong with it, so it’s a great place to start if you’ve never really worked with clay before. Stay tuned for lots more clay projects coming later this month, and be sure to share photos with us of your own creations featuring this material of the month!

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31 Comments

      1. So-how much clay in total did you use for each dish? Was it a half a block of each color, so 2 about blocks per dish if using 4 colors?

        1. It depends on what size block you’re using. In total, I used between 1-2 oz of clay per bowl.

  1. Love your dishes – we tried to make the purple one using the exact same clay colors, but ours didn’t come out shiny. Did you add something afterwards? Thanks for the idea.

  2. These bowls are very pretty. Doesn’t seem too challenging to have a class of 2nd graders mix their own colors, and I can bake & foil them. What do you think?

      1. It’ll be their Mother’s Day art project. As long as the Sculpey is not too tough for them to knead we should be fine. I’ll cut and roll out different colors and let them pick which they like (we only have an hour class time) . Then they can twist and make ball and flatten it out. We’ll cut the circles, then I’ll take them home to bake & finish. Crossing my fingers.

  3. Dad Review – I was looking for a fun activity for mothers day with my son. He loves playing with Play-do so I figured this would be good. Definite win, and all the moms and grandmas that received one as a gift loved it! Couldn’t believe it was a kids activity and thought we bought them. I used a gloss finish just to give it a little more shine.

    1. Wonderful! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out! The gloss sealer is a fabulous idea too. Yay for dad crafting!

  4. Just pulled these out of the oven, and they are gorgeous! Very pleased with how the turned out, and how easy they were.

  5. How much clay do you think each dish weighs? I want to make this for a group of 20 kids but I don’t want to under or over purchase clay.

    1. They’re very light. If you’re using the blocks of Sculpey, each bowl probably uses about a half a block.

    1. I’ve never personally had problems with air bubbles. Did you use Sculpey clay? I also roll it nice and flat after mixing the colors, but before draping it over the pan. That step should help eliminate any extra air.

  6. How much sculpey clay do I need per dish?
    I’m thinking of having 19 Kindergarteners make these for Mother’s Day!

    Too pricey perhaps?

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