DIY CLAY BROOCH
DIY Clay Brooch
Easy artisan way to style your summer outfit!
Make your summer outfit look even more special with handmade DIY clay brooch! Warm weather is already here and so is the time to throw away layers of clothes and dress in something simple and chic! I love all things handmade and so it’s also obvious on any accessories I choose. If you’re a fan of stylish yet minimalist details, you’re likely to enjoy this project. Making a DIY clay brooch is really easy and the options are endless! From shapes to colours you can make whatever really highlights your taste and style. Plus it’s such lovely craft to take to the garden or make on a sunny balcony, you only need a couple of affordable tools!
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Decorating options
One of the options to decorate your DIY clay brooch is by using nail varnish. Most probably you’ll already have a couple at home so you can use a few drops in a water to create lovely marble-style coating. Another simple option is acrylic or ceramic paint covered with a layer of spray varnish. If you’re an artist you’ll have no problem finding these tools, otherwise you can easily get acrylic paints or a spray varnish in art stores or online. Don’t worry about having some left over, you can always use them again to make DIY wrapping paper, handmade Christmas gift tags and so much more! Personally, I prefer the air dry clay white and then paint. However, you can easily make the base any colour you like by mixing paint directly into the clay.
Last great way to decorate air-drying clay is texture! Simply press stamps, plants, fabrics or lace doilies into a ‘biscuit shape’ clay brooch and roll over with a rolling pin. You can also make a smooth base and create texture by adding small pieces on top – for example creating a textured polka dot design by making 15 small balls and pressing them on the surface of your brooch.
More creative handmade projects:
- Natural Beeswax Lemon Candle
- Simple Felt Flowers
- Felt Bear Handmade Toy
- DIY Denim Apron
- Upcycled Shirt Maxi Dress
Did you enjoy this project? Save it for later to one of your ‘DIY & Crafts’ or ‘Summer Accessories’ Pinterest boards!
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DIY Clay Brooch
You’ll need:
- air dry clay
- nail varnish in preferred colour (we’ll use grey and silver shades for marble design)
- a glass of water
- wooden toothpick
- regular tailor’s safety pin (alternatively a glue gun and pin back clasp for brooch)
- tools for clay shaping (optional)
Instructions
To make your DIY clay brooch take around 15g of the air dry clay (roughly one tablespoon) and press in your hands repeatedly until it becomes soft. Then form a ball and press on hard surface to make a nice, biscuit-shaped brooch. It should be approx. 0.5 cm high and you can form it easily into a smooth round-shape form. Alternatively, you can take a bigger piece of the clay and roll with a rolling pin once the clay is soft. Then use round or various shape biscuit cutters and cut out any shape you desire. This is especially useful if you’re making multiple shapes or need them all to be the same. This is also the time to use any fabrics, plants or stamps if you’re planning to decorate the brooch with texture.
Adding the pin
Once you have the desired shape and texture on the brooch, add a small piece of soft clay to the back of the brooch as shown. This is to make sure that the safety pin can be securely placed. This option is good if you’re using a regular safety pin like I did. However, you can also skip this step and use the proper glued-on brooch safety pin once the clay is dry. I didn’t have one so I used the regular tailor’s safety pin and it worked just fine!
Marble-style design
Leave the brooch for a couple of hours in a sunny place to dry completely. Turn it upside down after an hour to make sure it dries properly from both sides. Once the brooch is dry and hard, add the marble-style design to it. Take a glass of warm-ish water, it shouldn’t be hot or cold but a room temperature. Take the nail varnish – I used one grey and one silver – and add a drop of it to the water surface gently. Use the toothpick immediately to move the drop around before it forms a sticky coating. Repeat with several drops until you’ve created a marble-like design on top of the water.
Then take the brooch, hold it by the safety pin and dip quickly into the water collecting the coating on the front surface. Take out of the water immediately and turn the brooch design upwards. Leave to dry again in a sunny place.
Did you enjoy this project? Save it for later to one of your ‘DIY & Crafts’ or ‘Summer Accessories’ Pinterest boards!
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