How cute are these tiny little scandi trees? I could make a whole forrest of these.

I had a request for a colander fruit bowl from a friend. My first attempt was much wider, but she was looking for something taller and narrower. This, of course, is upside down, but I neglected to take a picture before I added the feet.


I accentuated the seem with a second stamp.




This is the first bowl that was much wider. I still really like it and might end up keeping it for myself.




I really like the pattern of the holes on this one.

These turned out sooooo cute! I used the Christmas in July Mystery Box Cutters from De La Designs. Debi did a demo on Clayshare, but also provides step by step pictures on her web site. Making these was time consuming, but not actually hard. I can't wait to make a few more. I used the Gingerbread and Traditional house cutters. In this first go round I kept them separate, but I think in future iterations I might mix them.

I ended up making the gingerbread a luminary and left the traditional as a cookie jar.

I cannot look at this tree and not see Dr. Seuss characters winding around it. It's made by smooshing balls of clay onto it.

Ironically one of my snowmen "melted". I noticed him leaning and it was a cute lean, but one morning I came into the studio and he was on the floor. Sad. I did do something a bit different than I've done before - I let the pieces setup overnight prior to attaching them. I find that the bottom pumpkin can't handle the weight when its too wet and this clay was very wet. The baby snowman is because I had extra clay and so I cut 3 more of the smallest ones. I was going to make pumpkins, but then the baby snowman popped into my head.




This is how they look as they setup overnight.




I might try making some in laguna 60 with the intent of glazing them with snow. I love how the speckles come through on other things and I think it would work here.

Is it time for trees already? I need to make a few of these and they take so long that it is! I started by sitting and making just a lot of leaves. I think I made 40-45 of each size. That's more than I need for one tree, but less than is likely needed for two. It's not an exact science because the leaves don't go on the same way twice. I have a tv in my studio so I just sat for like an hour and made leaves.




Next I put clay around the form. It's important to have paper under there so you can take it off the form later and it still has something helping it stay in shape. The smoothing doesn't need to be perfect because it will be covered with leaves.




I start by putting leaves on the bottom and then add rows going up to the top.




Adding the leaves is actually a fairly quick process if you've made them all first. Probably only takes 20 minutes to add them all and shape it. I will let it setup under plastic for a bit before taking it off the form. I find if I take it off too soon the bottom sags a bit.