Making Christmas Ornaments

Glass and Polymer Clay Ornaments with Decoupage

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know, it's only October and kind of early to be thinking Christmas already but it will be here before we know it.  I'm trying to get a jump on it this year so I have started by making these ornaments.  I start with a clear glass ornament ball and remove the top hanger.  Using Super Sculpey polymer clay, I make strips about 3/4" wide.  I use a large rubber stamp with a lace pattern on it and press the texture into the clay before applying the strips to the glass ball.  I cut two circles for the top and make a wire hanger and poke it through the textured circle and put a plain circle on the bottom to hold the wire loop and place it on top of the neck of the glass ornament.  To bake the ornaments, I lay a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil on top of a muffin pan and gently make indentations with the foil in the muffin openings for the ornaments to sit while they are baking.

Ornaments are baked at 275 degrees for 15 min.

Once the ornaments are cool, I paint all of the clay with an undercoat of black acrylic paint, working it well into all the textured areas.  Once the black is dry, I dry brush with either silver or gold acrylic paint to highlight all the raised areas of the lace pattern in the clay.

Once the metallic paint is dry, I fill in the clear areas of the ornament with Gallery Glass paint doing half at a time and letting it sit until it is dry.  It can take several hours for the glass paint to dry thoroughly.  Once it is dry, carefully turn it over and fill in the clear area on the other side.

Blue gallery glass paint with silver

Green gallery glass paint partially dry with gold

Once all the paint is dry and cured over night to prevent denting, I decoupage old time images on the circles.  Once the images are dry, I give them a light clear coat with decoupage medium to seal.  These ornaments make great gifts.  Sometimes I substitute photos printed on plain paper to personalize.