StoneClayCacheProject.pdf

Tiny Little Clay Cache

Create this tiny little treasure box from polymer clay and beads

By Christi Friesen

Everyone knows that treasure has to be kept safe - hidden and pro-

tected until you need it. And, conveniently, there are rocks lying around,

just waiting to be lugged into a nice, protective ring. Grunt and push

one more rock on top... ahhhh... safe and sound. And that’s a cache – a

protective box of rocks! But let’s skip the grunting and the lugging, and

instead let’s create a tiny little clay cache, just the perfect size for a tiny

little treasure.

This project starts with a

plain, small box, one that

can be covered with poly-

mer clay and embellished.

Any kind of box that can go

into the oven and not melt

will work, but I especially recommend a metal tin. The one I used is about 1.5” across,

and 1” deep (see Resources at the end of this project for more info). You can of course

use a different shape or size container if you want to.

Now let’s get the clay ready to use by conditioning it. Any brand of polymer clay will

work just ﬁ ne, I use (and recommend) PremoTM brand, it’s a wonderful sculpting clay!

Premo has recently come out with some groovy new colors, so I used them in this proj-

ect (you can use them too, you know you wanna! or you can use any similar color clays).

Condition clay by rolling, folding and twisting it in your hands until it is soft and pli-

able. If you have a pasta machine, you can feed the clay through the

machine’s rollers to accomplish the same thing (with a little less wear

and tear on your ﬁ ngers!).

For This Project You Will Need:

Condition some of the Gray Granite clay (one package), and some

Bright Green Pearl and Peacock Pearl (about a quarter of a package

each).

˛ Polymer clay : I use and recommend Pre-

moTM brand polymer. For this project I used Gray

Granite, Bright Green Pearl, Peacock Pearl and

White

Use a roller to ﬂ atten the Gray Granite clay (or just roll it through the

pasta machine at the widest setting). Set the other conditioned colors

aside for now.

˛ Metal container with a lid (I used a

round tin - aprox. 1.5” diameter and 1” depth)

Use your cutting blade

to cut one edge of the

Gray Granite sheet

straight across. Wrap

that edge around the

lower part of the tin,

right at the edge of the

lip. When the sheet

overlaps itself, just rip

or cut off the excess.

Press gently (or not so

gently, if you’ve been

having one of those

days) to connect.

˛ Accents : metal ﬂ ower beads with center

hole, aprox. 10-12 ﬂ owers; jade beads, 6-8mm,

round - aprox. 10-12 beads

˛ Headpins : silver or silver-colored (I used

ball-tipped pins) – 10-12 pins

˛ Tools : cutting blade, wire cutters, pliers,

needlenose tweezers (optional)

˛ Acrylic paint : dark brown (I used burnt

umber); brush and sponge for application

to create and sell your own work as inﬂ uenced by this project! (but please use a “inspired by Christi Friesen” in the display, because it’s just polite ;-D) It’s consid-

ered rather uncool to reproduce someone else’s work for a contest or in publication (that’s when your own creative innovations should shine!) but if you’re not sure

what’s cool or not, just email me, we’ll chat!

to create and sell your own work as inﬂ uenced by this project! (but please use a “inspired by Christi Friesen” in the display, because it’s just polite ;-D) It’s consid-

Ok, now let’s worry about the length. Well, not really worry, let’s just get

rid of it! Bunch the extra drape of clay together like a candy wrapper (think

saltwater taffy) and pinch ﬁ rmly. Use a cutting blade to slice the excess clean

off.

Just use your ﬁ ngers or a tool to

press the cut clay a little ﬂ atter and

smoother, then press the bottom of

the tin down onto your work surface

to ﬁ nish the ﬂ attening. Press gently

until the tin sits level. (You can slice

away more clay if there’s any uneven-

ness).

Now repeat the process for the top of the tin.

Ideally, this leaves a little space between top part of the tin and bottom, right where the two join, that is not covered with clay. If

yours doesn’t have that little gap, clean away some of the clay to expose the join otherwise your treasure box will be permanently

unavailable for treasure.

Ok, good job! Now set that lovely little lid-

ded lump aside for a moment and let’s make

some leaves.

You’ll need three colors for the leaves. I

used equal parts of the Gray Granite

and Bright Green Pearl and a half part of

Peacock Pearl and mixed them together!

(Use the same process to mix as we did for

conditioning.)

Divide the mix into three chunks. Keep one

chunk just as it is. To another chunk, add

White clay and/or more Gray Granite clay to make a lighter color. To the other, add more Peacock Pearl to make a more peacocky

color. There, how do those look together? Yeah, I think so too.

Now make a sandwich. Would you make me one too,

while you’re at it. Oh wait, I mean, make a sandwich

using those clay colors. Just pinch off some clay and

ﬂ atten it with your ﬁ ngers. Add another ﬂ attened bit

of another color. Now more ﬂ atten bits. Mix it up!

Keep adding and then pressing down the stack to ﬂ at-

ten the layers until you have a stack of about 8 – 10

layers. If it’s not already, stack should be squeezed to

about half an inch thick or so.

Use your cutting blade to slice through the stack. If you can, cut at least 7 slices from the

stack, each about as thick as a nickel.

Pick up a slice. Gently press it all over to soften the cut lines (yes, you’ll get your ﬁ ngerprints

all over it; ﬁ ngerprints are our friends, they make such

a lovely texture!)

Pinch the edges gently too, so you can get rid of that

cookie cutter look.

Finally, gently pull one end of the slice, in order to taper it. Pinch off the tip to form a point.

Doesn’t that look leaf-ish?! Do that too all your slices.

to create and sell your own work as inﬂ uenced by this project! (but please use a “inspired by Christi Friesen” in the display, because it’s just polite ;-D) It’s consid-

ered rather uncool to reproduce someone else’s work for a contest or in publication (that’s when your own creative innovations should shine!) but if you’re not sure

what’s cool or not, just email me, we’ll chat!

Now, to arrange them on the top of the clay canister, just press the not-pointed

end into the center of the lid and position the leaf in a nice curl towards the

outer edge. Sweet.

Add all the leaves. Make some of them curl this way and that, just for funsies.

How’s it looking so far?

So, we’re supposed to be making a little stone cache, right? So, how about some

stones! Just roll out a bunch of little round pieces of the gray clay. Vary the sizes,

from as small as a cake crumb, to as large as a pea. Now just press them onto the

tin all over, ﬂ attening them a bit as you press them on.

Tah dah! Stones!

Hmmm, you know what those

stones and leaves need? Flow-

ers. Let’s add some! Beads and

ﬁ ndings make great accents to

embellish your clay creations. In this case, some metal ﬂ owers and some round jade

beads will be just the thing (of course, you may have something else that you prefer

– I’m ok with that!).

But you can’t just press beady bits into the

clay, once the clay is baked they’ll plop off.

Sadness. So let’s anchor them into the clay by

stacking a bead, then a ﬂ ower onto a headpin

(use a ball-tipped one if you have it!). Use wire cutters to

snip off the pin end (not the ball-tip end, that would be sil-

ly), leaving just about a quarter of an inch of wire exposed.

Now use pliers to bend a little hook in the end. That hook

is what will embed into the clay. When the clay hardens

during baking, it’ll lock that beady bit right into place.

To secure the pin into the clay, you’ll probably ﬁ nd it help-

ful to ﬁ rst add a little ball of clay (half the size of a pea) to

give the bent pin something to anchor into. Make the ball

out of any of your clay colors.

Press the bead/ﬂ ower/pin into the ball of clay. You may

ﬁ nd needlenose tweezers helpful for positioning. Press it

down ﬁ rmly into the clay.

Add as many ﬂ owers accents as you want. I added a

clump of them to the top of the box, and a few cascading

down the side.

to create and sell your own work as inﬂ uenced by this project! (but please use a “inspired by Christi Friesen” in the display, because it’s just polite ;-D) It’s consid-

ered rather uncool to reproduce someone else’s work for a contest or in publication (that’s when your own creative innovations should shine!) but if you’re not sure

what’s cool or not, just email me, we’ll chat!

Look it all over. Add stones to ﬁ ll any gaps. Add more ﬂ owers if you feel like it. Once it’s completed to your satisfaction, it’s time to

bake.

Preheat your oven to 275oF (130oC) (unless you are using a different brand of clay than PremoTM, in which case read the manufac-

turer’s directions and follow them). Use a dependable oven thermometer inside the oven to monitor the temperature. Once the

oven is ready, place your clay cache on a piece of clean, stiff paper (like an index card), and bake for 30-45 minutes. Make sure your

baking area is ventilated. Once it’s done, turn off the oven and let it cool completely. I suggest that you leave the piece in the oven to

cool, since polymer is still fragile as it cools.

Once it has cooled com-

pletely, the ﬁ nal touch is

to antique the piece with

some dark brown acrylic

paint to bring out the

details.

Use a paintbrush to add

paint to just an inch or

so at a time, since acrylic

dries quickly. Get the

paint down into all the

deepest bits. Now use a

damp, well-wrung sponge

to wipe the paint off the surface of the clay. Toss that sponge into a little bowl of water and use another damp sponge to wipe the

rest of the paint from the surface. This should leave color only in the deepest areas. Repeat until the whole box has been antiqued.

Let it dry.

Ahhhh. Perfect. Now really, the only thing left to do is to go

ﬁ nd a little treasure so that your clay stone cache can do its

job!

Christi Friesen is an award-winning artist. She is the author of nine

books on polymer clay, including her newest “Woodland Creatures”.

Protected inside her clay cache is probably a piece of delicious, deli-

cious chocolate. For more about her and her creations, go to: www.

CForiginals.com.

Resources:

metal tin, beads/headpins/ﬂ owers, tools (a kit is avail-

able for this project): www.CForiginals.com

beads, headpins, tools: your local bead or craft store;

online: www.FireMountainGems.com

to create and sell your own work as inﬂ uenced by this project! (but please use a “inspired by Christi Friesen” in the display, because it’s just polite ;-D) It’s consid-

ered rather uncool to reproduce someone else’s work for a contest or in publication (that’s when your own creative innovations should shine!) but if you’re not sure

what’s cool or not, just email me, we’ll chat!

to create and sell your own work as inﬂ uenced by this project! (but please use a “inspired by Christi Friesen” in the display, because it’s just polite ;-D) It’s consid-

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