Clay Sunflowers

CLAY SUNFLOWERS

Air-dry clay is a wonderful way to make lovely and effortless clay flowers. These hand-built clay sculptures make wonderful gifts for those summer birthdays or celebrations! Once they dry you can use acrylic or watercolor paint to add color to your flower.

1. Select an air-dry clay from your local art or craft store. The Crayola brand white air-dry clay works great for making clay flowers. Air-dry means you do not need a kiln to fire your sculpture, it will air dry on its own in a day or so. (*If you prefer to make your own clay you can use the salt dough recipe at the bottom of the page.)

2. Grab a ping pong ball size chunk of clay and roll it around between the palms of your hands. This will form the clay into a small ball.

3. Once the clay has been rolled into a ball pinch and press it between your thumbs and forefingers to flatten it out into a round disk that is about the thickness of a cookie or half an inch thick. Set it aside. This will be the center of your sunflower. (*If you want an easy rounded petal shape you can repeat this step 7 or 8 times to create wide rounded petals, for a more traditional sunflower petal shape follow steps four, five, and six below).

4. Grab a quarter sized chunk of clay from the bucket and roll it between the palms of your hands until it forms about a two-inch long cylinder.

5. Pinch and press the cylinder until it flattens into a sunflower petal shape, create small points at either end of your petal. Set it aside.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have about sixteen to twenty petals.

7. Once you have made the center of your sunflower and all your petals turn them over and use a pencil or wooden skewer to make small lines or x shaped scratch marks in the clay everywhere you want to attach pieces together.

8. Next dip your finger in a little water and rub it over the lines or x shaped hatch marks. This creates what we call “clay slip” which acts like a glue to attach your pieces to each other. Attach your petals one by one around the center of your sunflower.

9. Get a small bowl and line it with a piece of plastic cling wrap. Flip your sunflower over again and place it in the bowl. (*The plastic makes it easy to remove the sunflower from the bowl once it is dry. The bowl will act as a mold to make your sunflower curved like a bowl).

10. Allow your sunflower to dry for 1-2 days. You may need to flip it over after the first day so the back side can dry. Drying times vary depending on the thickness of the clay and how warm or cool it is in your area. I like to place mine on a windowsill to dry.

11. Once your clay is dry you can remove it from the bowl and paint the sunflower with acrylic paint. (*Watercolor paint will also work, and you can seal it if you like with mod podge to keep the paint from re-wetting. Note these will not be food safe but can be great for storing jewelry, keys, coins, buttons, pins, or collectible items.)

12. Email a photo of your finished clay sunflower to garden@alaskabg.org if you would like to share what you made! We would love to see your finished project.

Salt Dough Recipe: 2 cups flour, ½ cup salt, ¾ cup water. Mix ingredients in a bowl with your hands until you get a nice clay consistency. This dough is naturally sticky and so you will not need to do steps 7 or 8 to scratch marks or make slip to attach pieces together. Just layer the petals around the edge of your plastic lined bowl and press gently. Add the center of the sunflower on top of the petals and press gently. Let the dough dry, you can set it in front of a fan if you like. It is dough so it will rise a little as it dries.