Thursday, September 11, 2014

Crafty Thursdays: Book Chopstick Holders



The craft club got a little crazy in ceramics studio, and we made these super fun little book chopstick holders. The original design came from the amazing brain of craft clubbian and librarian Pat. You can see she always has books on the brain.

Because they need to be fired, you'll need access to a kiln and glaze to complete this one, although I suppose theoretically it could be done with Fimo. 
We haven't tried it with Fimo, so I can only speak to the traditional clay material. 

We're giving a pair of two of the yellow ones away, so go ahead and comment below and tell us your favorite type of Chinese food (I'm partial to beef with broccoli myself). US Residents only. 


Beef with Broccoli Lunch Special at Chef Li's 


And away we go...

Materials:

  • Clay
  • Glaze for the books, we used red and white
  • A pointed tool for cutting the shape of the clay and making the writing
  • A surface you can work with the clay on. We used clay mats, but I waterproof table plastic table cloth would work. 
  • A little cup with water
Step One: 
Roll out your clay until it's about the thickness of a sugar cookie. Then cut out a strip about and inch and a half wide. Your clay will shrink a bit when it dries, so you want to make it a little bigger. We make four books at a time to create a "set."




Step Two:
Cut a piece of your strip into the shape of a hardback book. We angled the sides a little as you can see in the photo. 




Step Three:
Cut smaller "pages" of clay to insert inside your book. Make sure they don't completely lie flat. You want to create the three-dimensional book look. Wet the top of the clay book cover and score it before you set the pages on top. This technique will help the clay pieces stay together after the firing process. 

Step Four:
Take the pointed tool and make little squiggles for stylized words on the book. 


Step Five:
Now you are ready to fire your project. 

Step Five:
Once your project is fired, you should glaze it. We glazed the pages white to create contrast and make it look more like a book.

Step Six:
Once it's glazed, it needs to be fired again. 

Once it comes out of the kiln for the final time, you have your book chopstick holder. Isn't that fun? 

Don't forget to comment below to win a set of two yellow book chopstick holders.






3 comments:

  1. Spouse always orders Cashew Chicken and I usually order Chicken with Snow Peas with an occasional switch off to Moo Goo Gai Pan or Kung Pao Chicken. Adorable book chopstick holders. Makes sense to me. If eating alone I would be reading a book.

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  2. Kung Pao Beef, because then I get the peanuts, peas and carrots - all yummy.

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  3. I love egg foo young and Kung Pao shrimp. I will try to make a set of these from craft clay because I don't have access to a kiln, but I would love to win a pair of the ceramic ones!

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