It’s school holidays in November and our Christmas tree is up to welcome Christmas. I hadn’t been able to sleep these nights as thoughts of making a gingerbread glass house had been nagging me as I closed my eyes in bed. Eventually, I decided to have a go.
These are the things that you will need:
- Oven baked clay
- Carving tools
- Shape cutters
- Penknife
- Cutting board
- Rolling pin
- Glass jar or mason jar
The brands of the oven baked clay that i got from the art store are Sculpey and Premo!. They are from the same manufacturer but for different purpose. Sculpey is much softer compared to Premo!. It maintains tooling and detailing beautifully. Once cured, Sculpey bakes hard and takes on a matte, bisque-type finish. It’s easy-to-use and stays soft until you bake it.
On the other hand, Premo! needs conditioning until it gets soft and flexible . Once conditioned, this clay is soft enough to blend easily but firm enough to hold fine detail and for specialized techniques. It’s perfect for caning, mokume gane and mica shift.
As for the rolling pin, i did not own one and I use a cylindrical glass to help me flatten the clay. You can get the clay conditioning machine if you are serious into this as it will make flattening the clay a lot easier and to the thickness that you desire.
For the glass jar, I decided to use the smallest jar that my mom gave me after she finished her pickles in it. You need to keep in mind to select the jar whereby the lid is made of metal as you need to bake it later on, and that is if you decided to work your clay design on it.
After a sleepless night and a day, I completed my gingerbread house. As the jar is the smallest that I have, these clay candies are rather small and intricate. I got better making them after some practice but probably need to invest in a magnifying glass soon. Nevertheless, making these tiny mint candies, candy canes, lollipops and M&M chocolate candies relived the child in me. My kids love to eat these candies so it was hard to tell them these can’t be eaten. My 4 year old son kept buzzing around me for the M&M candies!
Here are some pictures of my completed work. I lit it up with a battery operated tea light candle. It’s now perfect for the living room or bedroom! As expected, my little son kept bugging me to make him a gingerbread house every time he sees it in my display box. Well, probably one day but with Bouncing Clay! My grand plan is to create a village, so there are more jar houses to come!
Georgie Twinkle 