Eggsellent Easter clay tiles and decorations

I spotted these on Pinterest when I was searching for ideas for things to make for Easter and then Mati got some air drying clay for her birthday and she was desperate to make something so this is the result......

hopefully you can tell which one was made by the 3 year old and which one by the 33 year old?!

....and here is how I made them.....

First I cut out an Easter egg template. I just did this free hand but there are plenty on line
I rolled out the clay using two pieces of plastic bread as guides and an olive jar as a rolling pin! The guides are useful to ensure an even thickness, you probably don't want it much thinner than 0.5cm or it will crack when it dries, 0.5-1cm is ideal. A couple of pieces of wood is ideal but as you can see plastic toast will do! Once the clay is rolled out draw round the template with a pencil or old pen but don't actually cut it out.

Now the fun bit.....

There are three ways to add pattern and decoration to a clay tile. Pressing/drawing into it, Building up onto it and cutting out. You can use almost anything to press into the clay to create patterns. The pasta bows worked really well and tin foil created a nice texture. Mati was really interested in what marks the different objects made and came up with some ideas of her own of things to use. She especially enjoyed drawing into the clay with a cocktail stick. You don't want to press things in too hard so they get stuck! There are loads more things you could use. I'd love to hear and see anything that works especially well if you give this a go. I thought magnetic letters could be good.

To build up pattern onto the tile you need to scratch (a few lines in different directions) into the surface of the shape you are sticking onto the clay and into the tile where you want to stick it. Then apply some water to both surfaces and press the shape firmly onto the tile. You need to then smooth the join down using your finger or the end of a spoon or similar.

Too much water will make the clay unstable and crumble or break when it dries. Children of all ages love the feel of clay mixed with water so just put a very small amount of water in a cup to use and then let them play with clay and water after you've finished making the tiles!

We just rolled up small balls which Mati was able to do. She also cut out and moulded some more random shapes to stick to the tile. You could roll out some more clay - or use some of the clay round the tile and cut shapes out from it to stick down.

Once the decoration was finished I made a hole in the top of each tile using an old Biro and cut the egg shape out using a sharp knife. We didn't do any cutting out but you could cut shapes out using a sharpish knife. The advantage of cutting the egg shape out after the decoration is done is that it keeps the edges nice and sharp and the pattern tends to continue right to the edge of the egg which looks good.

Every teacher knows some children will finish the task quicker than others...so here is the extension task!

These are egg decorations for hanging up on an Easter tree or around the house. They are smaller and a bit thinner than the tiles (but still no thinner than 0.5cm) Again I cut out a template and after rolling out the clay drew round it four times. We decorated the tiles and cut them out. Then I made holes in them using a cocktail stick to put ribbon through to hang them up.

We left the tiles and decorations to dry. They have taken longer to dry than I thought they would, the decorations which are thinner are dry now (48 hours) the tiles look like they will be dry tomorrow ( nearly 3 days) Once they are dry my plan is to paint them. A Good Friday activity I think...! I'll show you how that goes.

There are lots of great air drying clay ideas - you can see what I've found so far on Pinterest as well as what else I've been looking at and go ahead and Pin stuff from here if you like it!

Painting the tiles.....

and here is how I did it.....

I used acrylic paint, the advatages of acrylic is that it gives good coverage, it creates bright colours and it isn't easily absorbed by the clay - so you don't need to use several layers. It is also shiney when it dries so it has a glazed look. Acrylic paints also dry quickly. If you don't mix the colours and use them straight from the tube they can be a bit harsh. It can also be tricky to get out of clothes - you need to soak them straight away. Ready mix paints would work well too or water colours for a much more sublte effect.

I gave my tiles a layer of white paint first to make the colour I applied after to be brighter.

I added colour to different parts of the tile and used techniques like dipping the end of the brush into the paint to creat dots etc.

With the small tile I mixed blue, yellow and while to create a duck egg blue and built up thin layers of it onto the tile making them gradually lighter by adding a bit more white each time.

For mati's tile I put a bit of each colour paint onto a plate and let her mix and apply the colour. An art teacher's pet hate is students using colours straight from the tube and having to look at 30 paintings with exactly the same colours in each....so putting paint onto a plate/palette encourages children to mix colours and to see what happens when you mix blue and yellow etc. I tried to help mati not apply to too thickly so you could still see the marks she made in the tiles and also not to add too much water so the tiles didn't go soggy again.

We also added some sequins after with PVA glue. Another idea would be to add them when the clay is wet, you could also add buttons and beads.

Easter is over and the chocolate has probably all been eater but you could adapt this project for loads of other events; stars at christmas, hearts for valentines day, leaf shapes in autum, or just random shapes or traditional square tiles.