Crafter's Cafe

Volume 1: Faux Howlite

Materials: White clay Cheese grater Paint brush Gray acrylic paint (I used Dolphin Gray by Apple Barrel by Plaid) Foiled work surface (Yes, this is messy!) Spray bottle with Water 400, 600, 1000, 1500 grit sand paper Buffer (I used a Dremel with a buffing wheel) Before you start, condition the clay and put it in the freezer for about an hour to make it firm!
Step 1: Cover an old baking sheet or paper plate with foil. Take the clay out of the freezer and grate the clay over the foil. I used both ends of the grate!
Step 2: Once the clay is all grated, spread it out on the baking sheet. This will allow you to get the clay all covered with the paint. (???)
Step 3: Take the gray paint and drip some on the clay. Now lightly spray the clay/paint with the spray bottle of water. Use the paint brush to brush the paint and water mix over the grated clay. Let it dry over night, or if you don't want to wait that long, a few hours will be fine! You can still do this even if the paint isn't completely dry!
Step 4: Once the clay has dried, take some of it and squeeze it together. Don't be surprised if it doesn't really stick together well! You really have to smash it together to get it to stick! You don't have to be careful about squishing it because you will eventually sqeeze all the clay together to form a smooth ball.
Step 5: Shape the clay into whatever shape you want (in the example at the right I used donut shapes) and bake (see baking instructions on clay wrapper).

Step 6: Once the clay has cooled, spray the bead with water and start sanding with the 400 grit and work your way to the 1500. Sanding it helps to get the paint off the surface so you can see the veining better, and it just makes it look better! You want to sand it so it is smooth. Finish it off by buffing to a shine!

Jenny Cox
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