Hey, kids, wanna read about something fun? Well, too bad! This post is about sanding!
One thing you’ll notice if you hang around long enough is I’m a bit of a hobby hopper. One month it’s macramé, the next it’s embroidery. And don’t get me wrong, I absolutely intend to return to these eventually. But the current thing I’m stuck on is making little air dry clay trinkets. I’ve experimented with some templates, made some pins and magnets, and I’d like to make some charms for jewelry.
The most fun parts (for me) are creating the templates (or selecting shape cutters) and painting the pieces. The most necessary part, of course, is forming the clay. The part I’d like to argue isn’t necessary but sure does make for a better surface is sanding. It’s a very messy process, and one I have trouble just sitting down and sitting still to finish. My process is basically thus:
- Get all the dried clay pieces arranged
- Realize I don’t have any sandpaper and instead dig out an old emery board from the depths of the medicine cabinet
- Sand one or two pieces, all while keeping Olive (my dear sweet cat) from jumping up into my workspace and knocking things around
- Decide I’ve had enough of this for the last five minutes
- Pour the collected clay dust into an empty bottle to reconstitute or turn into slip later
- WASH HANDS WASH HANDS UGH DUST DUST DUST
- Wander off and do something else for, oh, an hour or so
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
But, I mean. I can’t argue with the results.
Before:
After:
Still some divots, but that allows for the handmade look I like.
Before:
After:
Well, would you look at that!
Got a handful more of these to go, and then I get to paint them all! (My favorite part!!!!) And then I get to decide which I want to make into pins, which I want to make into magnets, and which I’ll try something new with.