DIY clay pencil holder

Tidy up your desk with this easy DIY air hardening clay pencil holder.

DIY Clay Pencil Holder

Step 1. Shaping the clay.

The desk organiser is quite large so we are using half a block of the 2 kg block of clay. Cut the block of clay in half with a ruler. Fashion the clay into a ball. Fill a dish with some water and work the ball with your hands until it is very smooth and round.

Step 2. Inserting the pencils.

While the ball is still pliable take the pencils you want to store in the organiser and gently press them into the clay ball. It's best to press them into a depth of about 2 cms. Place them evenly apart. In our project we fitted 12 pencils into our desk organiser but 24 pencils could be fitted into it if required. Let the clay dry.

Step 3. Undercoating.

Once the clay is dry remove the pencils. Squeeze some Lamp Black into a palette and coat the clay with a thin coat.

Step 4. Top coating.

The final coat will be metallic, so squeeze out some metallic acrylic paint and create a thin coat over the black with a soft brush. Just put a little bit of paint on the brush and scrub it onto the surface. This is called scumbling and it allows the dark undercoat to come through.

Once you finish with your clay, wrap it up and keep the remainder in an air tight container for another project.