As I get older, the things I want to do to celebrate my birthday are getting more like a refined children’s birthday party and I not only love this for myself but for those who come along. It is so much fun!

I’m writing this very belatedly seeing as my birthday was in June. Every year when I’m asked what I’d like to do for my birthday, I am a bit agog. I’m never quite sure. Especially as I like to spend it with my family which means catering to a wide range of age groups.

As my Pinterest is full of pottery-related future makes, I scoured the internet to see if there were any classes that fell on or around my birthday and, lo and behold, I found someone would come to your home. I fired off an email and within a day or two, it was all booked.

On the day itself, Rach arrived as planned and brought with her all that a group of five of us would need to make something. There was clay and a huge range of tools. We were all armed with ideas or photos of what we’d like to make and Rach set about helping us to do that. We’d opted for the air dry clay class which limited us slightly but also meant that we could keep our makes with us to dry out ahead of painting them at a later date. Fun fact for you: the clay is the same clay you can fire in a kiln. Rach said that it’s smoother and less likely to crack when dry, than the air dry clays you can buy.

When I showed Rach this Pinterest clip of a clay ceiling pendant that I’d like to try and make, she suggested we make two, just to be on the safe side. Thank goodness we did as when I picked up one to paint it, it snapped because I’d rolled it too thin! Thankfully, the other one survived and is now proudly hanging in our hallway.

This was such a cool and memorable way to spend my birthday. Our makes ranged from a tea bag holder, an egg tray, two mice, two initial plaques and my ceiling pendant. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves – all ages did, from 9 to 67! If you’re getting a bit bored of your birthday as you get older, I really would recommend you spending a bit of time thinking about how an ideal day would flow and then work to make it happen that way. Sometimes we need to just break out of the routine of it all and plan something we can look forward to.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN CLAY CEILING PENDANT

You will need:
Clay
Tool to make lines
Sponge
Rolling pin
Baking paper
White acrylic paint
Baking powder
Paint brush
Varnish

1. Work the clay to get it warmed up and smoothed out. As I mentioned above, Rach brought normal fire-able clay with her.
2. I laid out a sheet of baking paper and rolled the clay into a rough circle shape about 5mm(ish) thick. I didn’t want it to be a perfect circle, I liked the rustic-ness of the rough circle better – like in the Pinterest clip – because it felt more floral. With a damp sponge, I worked out any creases so that it was smooth.
3. The circle cutout in the middle is really important; too small and the light fitting won’t fit through, too big and you won’t be able to attach it. You have to also bear in mind that as clay dries it shrinks slightly. With that in mind, I unscrewed the fitting from the hallway light and lightly traced around it. I made sure to do it ever-so-slightly less so that as it’d shrink it’d (hopefully) dry back and fit perfectly – it did!
4. I used a sharp tool to score random lines. I didn’t care that these differed in depth or thickness or that they sometimes met. You could use a toothpick to do this or a cocktail stick.
5. Then, I balled up some more baking paper and rested them under the baking paper which had my clay pendant on top of it. Again, I did this a bit randomly so that the pendant would undulate.
6. I left it for weeks to dry in a non-humid room. Then, armed with white acrylic paint and some baking powder, I set about decorating it.
7. Again, I took quite a relaxed approach. I mixed some of the white acrylic into a small Tupperware pot and then mixed in about flat teaspoon of baking powder. The reason I added baking powder is because I was really going for the rustic theme and wanted that added texture. You really could miss that step and you’d still end up with a bloomin’ lovely pendant.
8. It’s a game of patience, this clay-pendant-making-malarkey because once one side is painted, you need to wait a while to be able to paint the other side. I left it two days to be on the safe side and then another two days for the second side to dry before I then varnished one side. Yup, had to wait for the varnish to dry on that side before being able to varnish the second side but by this point I was not going to mess this up for myself even though I was chomping at the bit to get it done. By the way, I used a matt clay varnish for this.
9. Once it was fully varnished and properly dry, I then hung it. I’ve been admiring it ever since. It’s like a recurring dopamine hit every time I see it – looking particularly splendid when the light is on. A sense of satisfaction that keeps giving!