Thursday, July 7, 2016

Sherlock Tree: Mind Palace Ornaments





It's time for Christmas in July and this year we're making a Sherlock-themed tree. Every Thursday this month we'll show you how to make a Sherlock themed ornament. We do this in July so you have plenty of time before the holidays to plan and craft. A big thanks jewelry maker extraordinaire Pattie Tierney who gave us the idea last year while we were doing the Crime Scene tree

I'm calling our first ornament the Mind Palace ornament because it reminds me of the letters that swirl around Benedict Cumberbatch's head when he is solving a crime as BBC Sherlock. To make this ornament you need to head to the ceramics studio and buy a specialty item. If you don't want to make your ornaments out of clay, you could also make them out of cookie dough for a less permanent ornament. 

The first thing you need is a carved rolling pin. I used this one called Crazy Words. You can find it on Etsy.  

Other materials:

  • Clay
  • Plain rolling pin
  • Circle cookie cutter
  • Glaze
  • Mat to roll the clay on
  • Straw to make ornament hole
  • Wax solution
  • access to a kiln







Step One: Roll out your clay will a regular rolling pin. The clay will get stuck in the fancy rolling pin if you use it too early. Once you get the clay to the height of a pencil laying down on the table get your embossed rolling pin.

Step Two: Firmly roll the embossed rolling pin across the clay. I was standing when I did this. You want to make sure you can see the letters. 



Step Three: Use the circular cookie cutter to make your ornament. 




Step Four: Use your straw to make a hole at the top to use to hang the ornament. Make it a little bigger because your ornament will shrink a little in the firing process and so will the hole.



Step Five: Fire the ornaments in the kiln. You can see that I made a plate as well. 



Step Six: Coat the backside of the ornament with the wax solution.  Make sure you don't get any on the front. Anything coated with the wax will repel the glaze. 

Step Seven: Coat the front with glaze. We dipped ours into a vat of glaze at our nearby ceramic studio. 

Step Eight: Fire Again. 




Step Nine: String raffia through the hole to you can hang your ornament. And you are done. 




Some on back next week for more Sherlock fun. 



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