Paper Clay Ornaments Using Springerle Molds
Ingredients and Tools

• Paper clay by Creative Paperclay® Company (available on our website)
• Cornstarch for dusting the mold
• Pastry brush
• Rolling pin
• Coffee stirrer straw to make hole in top of ornament for hanging.
• Ravioli cutter (available on our website)
• Acrylic paints
• Mug for cleaning brush
• Nylon brushes (medium and fine tip)
• Paper towels
• Springerle mold

Note: If you ever plan on using your molds for cookies, please only use non-toxic ingredients in your molds for crafting. For this “recipe”, we are recommending Creative Paperclay brand paper clay and corn starch because both are non-toxic. After this project the molds can be cleaned easily in soap and water, and you have no fear of any toxic residue when later baking.

Directions
Take a piece of paper clay about the size of a golf ball from the package. Wrap the rest of the paper clay in plastic wrap tightly and put the wrapped package in a small zip freezer bag, pressing the air out.

Dust your rolling pin and surface with corn starch. Roll out the paper clay to approximately the depth of the mold plus half an inch. Dust the mold and the surface of the paper clay. Lift the paper clay and place over the mold. Press the clay into the mold starting in the center and working out toward the edges in all directions. Add more paper clay as necessary to bring the clay over the edge of the mold. You want a “lip” of paper clay about 3/8 inch thick (more for a deeper mold) extending outside of the mold cavity so that you have a surface to “grab” to remove the molded image.

Flip the mold over and press hard against your counter surface to flatten the paper clay that will become the back of the ornament. I sometimes use a small rolling pin over the top of a very large mold to get more pressure. Gently pry out the paper clay image using your “lip” as leverage. Now cut away the excess lip using the rotary cutter.

Use your coffee straw to make a hole near the top of the image. I try to find some innocuous place at least 3/8 inch from the top. Alternatively, you can keep some of the lip at the top and make the hole there if you do not want to disturb your image. Start small with your hole and wiggle the stirrer back and forth until you have the right size for your string or ribbon. Pull away excess material loosen when making the hole. Let dry two days flat. After a day you can flip most images to allow drying on the back. Large thick ornaments may take as long as four days to dry. If warping begins to develop, press the image on a flat surface to “train it” to lie flat.

If you need to accelerate the drying, you can put the paper clay image on a parchment lined cookie sheet in the oven at 170 degrees for half an hour. Check it periodically for warping or discoloring. Do not flip the image or you will distort it. Use your judgment if you want to dry it longer. Warping is likely to occur using this method. We don’t recommend it.

It is best to let it dry naturally. Moisture from the middle of the ornament needs time to migrate to the surface. You will still need to allow at least overnight for an ornament to finish drying even when accelerating the process using an oven

You can also use a hair dryer to get the drying process started, but still allow natural drying overnight to complete the process.

You can paint the finished ornament with acrylics if you prefer. The metallic acrylic paints look spectacular on the ornaments.