I love pretty mugs. No matter what I am drinking, whether it be coffee, tea, cider, or even hot cocoa, it always seems to taste better in a pretty mug. Recently, I was trying to come up with an idea for a clever way to gift someone some hot cocoa. That’s when I came up with this idea for a hot cocoa mug decorated with oven-baked clay.
Materials You Will Need:
- Solid-colored mug
- White Oven Baked Clay
- Red Oven Baked Clay
- Silver Oven Baked Clay
- Blue Oven Baked Clay
- Yellow Oven Baked Clay
- Clay Conditioning Machine (optional)
First you will want to run some of the white clay through a clay conditioning machine. This will allow you to get a long, flat sheet of clay. You will want to make sure that this sheet of clay is large enough to wrap around the outside of the mug.
Trim the sheet of clay into a long rectangle. Smooth the edges of the sheet clay.
Next, you will want to roll a long string of red and a long string of silver clay. Twist the silver and red strings together. You will want to do this on both edges of the strip of clay. Gently press the twist into the strip of clay.
Next, you will want to roll another long strip of green clay. This will create the wires to your holiday Christmas lights. Place them in a sort of free form, making twists and loops across the width of the strip of clay. Gently press into the base strip of clay.
To create the actual light bulbs you will want to remove a small ball of clay from the yellow, blue, and red blocks of clay. Pinch the ends of the clay balls to form a teardrop shape.
Once you have completed the entire clay strip, it is time to attach it to the mug. Gently wrap the clay strip around the middle of the mug. Make sure that the strip is straight and then it is time to put it in the oven.
You will want to bake the mug on a ceramic tile or pizza stone in order to keep it heating evenly. You will want to bake it at about 275 degrees for 20 minutes to harden the clay. Once you have baked the mug, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool.
Once it has cooled it is ready for gifting — or after seeing how cute it turned out you may just want to keep it for yourself!
*Note: You will want to hand wash the finished mug and immediately dry it. Do not put it in the dishwasher as this may ruin the clay.
