I think my love of jewelry has been well documented here, so it should come as no surprise to you that sometimes my baubles get in the way of my work. That is, often my many rings and/or bracelets get in the way of my typing and I end up slipping them off for a few hours of the day. I keep reaching for a cute little ring dish in which to safely store my accessories atop my desk, so rather than go out and buy one, I decided to make my own.
What better to hold onto my jewelry while I’m typing away than a pretty pink clay hand (painted with a bright red manicure, of course)? This project was a perfect undertaking for this relaxing long weekend, and I can’t wait to place this pretty and useful objet d’art on my desk at work this morning—and then slip off a few rings and hit my inbox hard.
For this project, you’ll need the following:
• Sculpey clay (I used white, pink and yellow but the possibilities are endless!)
• red acrylic craft paint
• small paintbrush
• X-acto knife
• oven-proof bowl
1. Trace your hand on a piece of paper. Make any tweaks you like to the shape (I moved the thumb a little closer to my fingers so it formed more of a bowl shape. Cut out.
2. To make your dish in the perfect shade of soft pink, start with a big chunk of white clay. Then, shave off about a pea-sized chunk of yellow and pink clay. Make a long snake out of the white, pink and yellow clay, then roll them all together. Keep rolling and twisting and kneading until all three colors are totally combined. At this point, if you want to adjust the color at all, you can add more pink or yellow or white clay and mix it in. One of the great things about this project is that the color is totally customizable, so if you want to make the dish match your skin tone, all you have to do is mix brown, tan, white or pink clay together until you’ve reached the perfect shade.
3. Roll out the clay until it’s nice and thin, about 1/8″. Place your hand stencil atop the clay.
4. Using the X-acto knife, cut around the hand stencil, making sure you cut all the way through the clay. Remove excess clay until you’re left with just the hand.
5. Flip your oven-proof bowl upside down and carefully lay the clay hand on top, making sure to smooth out any ripples.
6. Bake according to clay package instructions. Let cool completely.
7. Using the red paint and a small paintbrush, paint on the fingernail polish. You may need two coats to get a completely opaque layer. Let dry!
