Sculpey Air-Dry™ Star Splatters Dish

Getting Started:

Please make sure your work area is covered. We recommend working on the Sculpey® Oven-Safe Work Mat, wax paper, or disposable foil.

Start with clean hands, unwrap and knead clay until soft and smooth. Wash hands after use. Wrap any extra clay in then wrapper and then put in an air tight container.

Amount: Because the clay is made to air-dry, try to open only what you need at the time and leave the rest still wrapped or sealed and stored. Pinch or cut off the amount you need and take more out as you go, even for larger projects.

Working: Knead your clay before you begin shaping it for your creations. Our polymer clay is already soft and pliable, but warming the clay with your hands is a good practice to spread the substance, condition the material and get a feel for what you’re working with.

Shaping: You can use a combination of your hands, crafting tools and multimedia materials to shape your clay into the design you desire, create unique patterns and textures and incorporate mixed media elements. Remember: you can create anything you can imagine! Just make sure the finished product is exactly what you want before allowing it to dry.Drying: Lay or stand your air dry clay projects on a nonporous surface with a clean and smooth finish in an area with low humidity. Let the projects remain untouched and undisturbed for about 24 hours to ensure complete hardening.

From the package of Model Air pinch off enough clay to make a two inch diameter ball. Condition the clay by hand and form it into a soft ball. If the clay is not soft enough or cracks easily, you can add a little water to make it softer and smoother. If you add water make sure it is kneaded in completely.

Roll the ball into a flat pancake with the Acrylic Clay Roller 3/16” thick.

Carefully press the pancake into the bottom of the bowl form using fingertip pressure. Make sure the clay is well seated in the bottom of the bowl. Smooth the sides and edges with your fingertips.

Muddle the background of the bowl with your fingertips so that it is not completely smooth. That way it will have a little random texture that will show up once the dish is painted.

For this step - making the constellation sign - you will need a diagram of the constellation that you are featuring in the dish. Use the tip of the paintbrush to impress the major stars in the constellation.

Allow the dish to dry thoroughly in the bottom of the bowl - at least 12 hours.

When the dish is very dry to the touch, gently pry it out of the bottom of the bowl form with one of the clay tools. If it’s still damp on the underside, turn it over and place it on the outside bottom of the bowl and allow to finish drying completely.

When the dish is completely dry, remove it from the form.

Squirt a little blue paint out onto a paint pallet or paper plate. Prepare a little bit of water that you can dip into. Make a thin wash of the blue paint and water and apply to the inside of the dish.

Wipe away excess paint with a paper towel. Apply more paint if you want to make the color deeper or wipe more away to make it lighter. Allow the top to dry.

Flip the dish over and paint the bottom side in solid undiluted blue. Allow to dry completely.

Use the tip of the paintbrush handle to fill in the larger stars of the constellation.

Use the fine line paintbrush to connect the stars in the constellation with very thin gold lines.

Paint the edge of the dish gold with the flat paintbrush.

Dip the paintbrush tip in the gold paint one more time and make very faint background stars in a random pattern by just barely touching the paint to the dish. Allow to dry completely.