Wanderlust Week 25: Air-drying clay plaque

This Wanderlust lesson was published a few weeks ago, but it took me this long to get my hands on some air-drying clay. The waiting was quite excruciating, especially waiting for the clay to dry - it took three whole days before the plaque was ready to paint. I so loved Kasia's lesson that I closely followed her tutorial with  a similar composition, elements and colours. This project is tied to the art journal page we made back in January, using the same sentiments.

Here's a photo of me getting ready to paint my plaque earlier today. I used my Ecoline watercolours: lemon yellow, turquoise and prussian blue. I had previously made impressions with those metal charms and polymer clay tile, so they would be easier to stick down once the plaque was painted. The word 'GROW' was stamped into the wet clay along with some background textures. It's supposed to be a bit irregular and not a perfect rectangle!

This is what it looked like after I'd painted it. I just loved how the watercolours soaked into the porous surface of the clay. I applied several coats for stronger colours:

I used Diamond Glaze to attach the charms and beads. It worked surprisingly well - those babies are not going anywhere! I filled in the grooves of the letters with Pebeo Moon Fantasy paint (metal blue) to make the letters pop and give them some shimmer. I carefully added a few tiny drops with a toothpick and guided the liquid along the grooves. This is the finished plaque:

And here's my hand holding it to give you a size reference:

This was a really fun lesson - a bit different from some of the stuff I've been making lately. I missed out a step where I was supposed to distress it with some gesso, but I think I like it this way for now. I can always add that later. Happy Friday! Hope you have a good weekend!