Lesson 4

Adding Stitch to Paper Clay Vessels

Unlike with the paper mache vessels, with paper clay, you need to have pre-planned for stitching on your vessel.  You can make holes after the fact but it isn’t easy and you definitely run the risk of damaging your vessel – a fine drill bit will work but you don’t want to do it too close to the edge of your vessel or too close to other holes.  It can take out more clay than you anticipate on the other side as the drill bit exits so making the holes while the clay is wet or damp is the best solution.

Piercing holes for a border edging

The edge of your vessel remains a delicate area, so you will need to manage it with care.  As the clay dries, it can crack.  You want your clay to be a uniform thickness if at all possible.  The edge can be the most delicate area when releasing your vessel from the mold.  When you are making your holes with your awl, make them at least a ¼” from the edge of the clay and ¼” to 1/3” apart.

Remember to pierce the holes from both sides of the vessel. If you paint your vessel or varnish it, you may need to use your awl again to make sure that the holes have not been clogged with paint or varnish.  Spin the awl, or use a drilling motion –DO NOT PUSH.

Stitching the Edging

Once all the edging holes are complete, it’s time to do a Blanket/buttonhole stitch around the edge.  I use the term Buttonhole and Blanket stitch interchangeably even though I believe there is a slight difference between the two.

All knots are on the inside and secured with full strength PVA, then the tails are trimmed.  I use crochet cotton #10, mainly because I then went on to crochet an edging into the buttonhole stitch.  Perle cotton, or embroidery floss would work as well if you were not planning to crochet.

One thing that you can do if you wish is crochet – that is completely optional.  For anyone interested, this is how I began to do the crochet work on my vessel edging.  I used the loops that I created with the buttonhole stitch as the foundation row for my crochet.  I held the tail of the crochet thread along the edge of the vessel and wove it in as I crocheted along the vessel edge so that there would not be any loose threads.  You can see all this in the accompanying videos below.

PBV Paper ClayVessels and Crochet part 1                how to begin

PBV Paper ClayVessels and Crochet part 2                continuing around the vessel

PBV Paper ClayVessels and Crochet part 3                skipping stitches, freeform crochet

PBV Paper ClayVessels and Crochet part 4                changing thread colour, finished vessel

 

I’ve included some How To Crochet videos if you want to brush up your skills.

Video – Beginner’s Single Crochet 6:19 is where the actual crochet stitching starts

Video – Beginner’s Double Crochet  1:43 is where the actual crochet stitching starts

If you didn’t wish to crochet, you could use the buttonhole stitches as link stitches to allow you to couch fibres to the edge of your vessel.  You could take decorative fibres that might be too thick to stitch through the paper clay and couch them to the vessel using the legs or loops of the buttonhole stitch as anchor places to attach the fibres.  Additional touches of PVA could also be used to secure the fibres if necessary.

PBV Adding Cord to Paper Clay Vessel

You could also choose to do a form of needle lace using the buttonhole stitch as an anchoring stitch for your work.   Another possibility is to do a type of string art stitching using the blanket stitch as the anchor stitch for the “string”.  See the video example below.

The decoration on the edge is up to you and your imagination.

PBV Alternate Stitching for Paper Clay Vessel

Additional Information for Working with Paper Clay

As I’ve continued to work with paper clay, I’ve learned a few more things:

I took Janis’ suggestion and got a silicon art mat for rolling out my paper clay.  It has made a difference.  I no longer have to tape down parchment paper which seems to defy masking tape and will crease and leave creases in my paper clay.  The art mat (not baking sheet)is smooth, large enough to roll a reasonable piece of clay, and easy to wipe down with water.  It rolls for storage (around my rolling pin) when not needed.

Since trying it, I have become really fond of the glass bowl as a mold. I am able to make regular shapes and irregular shapes depending upon whether I cut a circle to place inside the glass bowl or simply use an irregular piece of paper clay and fit and piece it as I want the vessel to appear.

Using a glass bowl, lightly dusting the inside with cornstarch and pressing my paper clay inside the bowl to form my vessel is working extremely well.  I can still use my awl to make holes from the inside to the outside – they will barely be pinpricks showing on the outside at first but that is not a problem.  Leave the vessel to dry for at least 24 hours (possibly more depending upon drying conditions).  When the inside appears whitish (somewhat dry and hard enough to keep its shape), lightly press down on the edge of one side of the vessel.  If the vessel begins to move within the glass bowl, you can gently continue pressing on the edge (as long as it does not deform) until the vessel slides up the side of the glass bowl and you can remove it.  At this point, you can widen the holes from both sides and turn the vessel over to dry on the other side.  If extra cornstarch remains on the back of the vessel, it can be gently brushed off with a soft brush.

Adding embellishments to paper clay vessels definitely seems to work best if you wait until the vessel has been released from the mold and is dry.  Now that I am creating more of my vessels by making them inside of my glass bowl, the outside of my vessel is the last part of the vessel to be released from the mold so it makes sense that I can’t add embellishments until I have released it.  Earlier though, I was making vessels on the outside of my plastic and silicone molds (and will continue to use those shapes).  I discovered that the flexing that happened during the release process created enough stress to cause embellishments to detach from the vessel (even if the precaution of adding glue had been used). 

When I waited until after removing the vessel from the mold and then added the embellishment – with a bit of glue – it adhered beautifully.  I did use a bit of “delicate” (purple) painter’s tape (from which I had removed a bit of the tackiness) to make sure it remained in close contact with the vessel during the drying process.  I didn’t want it to lift during shrinkage.  That was just on the ends because the pieces were long feathers, and I was leaving it overnight. I was able to remove the tape easily, with no damage to the embellishment or vessel.

I painted the vessel using copper acrylic paint and gave the feathers a watered down black acrylic wash so they would stand out.

 

I used a copper metallic perle thread and black crochet cotton for the stitching.  The larger spacing for the holes around the vessel meant that the spacing for the crochet was larger to start with than on other vessels.