Autumn is here and in Australia that means one thing, FOOTY!!!!! Or for those of you not from these parts Australian Rules Football.
We love our footy in this house and the first game of the season sees our team, The Essendon Bombers play and I wanted a little something to cheer the team on.
Enter the awesome folk at Wholeport who sent me their wonderful polymer clay to play with. So I twisted up some clay in my team colors and shaped it into a bangle. Look at those colours!
Then Elizabeth decided she wanted something pretty in blue so she made a lovely plaited bangle.
This is one craft supply that will have the imagination working and the kids quiet while kneading their clay.
Then I thought I would try one of those clay covered pens in my team colors..sadly this did not work out
First Attempt was the red and black, I used the recommended pens I have seen all over the internet and it melted.
Second attempt was the green and yellow, I tried lowering the oven and the pen melted again.
Third Attempt I tried a different style of plastic pen with the lower oven temp, this worked much better but the pen still warped.
I gave up with the oven and tried the steam method. Wholeport's clay does not have to be baked, it can be steamed or boiled. Attempt number 4 was steamed, sadly then pen melted again. On the plus side the steam method did cure the clay and I think going forward this will be the method I will use. I actually used the baby bottle steamer and it worked great and since it normally has plastic in it, it's made me certain is has something to do with the pens.
I didn't try the boiling method because I have teflon pots and I am unsure if it is safe to use with them and (fingers crossed) I'll never use the baby bottle steamer for bottles again so it is not going to matter how it gets used.
If you're entertaining kids over the Easter period grab yourself some polymer clay and have some fun. I will have more projects to share with this clay after the holidays.
Thanks for reading
Mel xo
