Recently, I decided to get my hands dirty with a little project I had been wanting to do for a while at home. At the end of last year, I started playing around with air-dry clay thanks to a birthday gift from my boyfriend. He got us a DIY kit to make a cat-shaped chessboard together. After that, I had quite a bit of clay left over, so I wanted to make the most of it by creating other things. That’s when I decided to make these mushrooms to use as decorations for plant pots or anywhere else I wanted.
I started by taking a walk in a park near my house to gather some tree branches from the ground. I picked out some really nice ones that would help create exactly the atmosphere I had in mind for these mushrooms.
After shaping the mushrooms using air-dry clay and a little water to make it easier to mold, I immediately attached them to the branches while the clay was still wet and let them dry for two full days.
Then, I lightly sanded the surface to ensure a smooth finish before moving on to the most fun part—painting! I marked the little dots and painted them using acrylic PVA paint. Finally, I sealed everything with a spray varnish for crafts and then just had to choose where to place them.
I tested them in this plant pot in my backyard and inside this old teapot. Of course, the teapot itself is already gorgeous, but I think the whole composition turned out super fun, with a strong dopamine décor vibe. That’s it!
Working with air-dry clay, like cold porcelain, requires a lot of patience—it’s not as easy as those internet tutorials make it seem. But I think the result turned out really cute, and it’s a project I’d recommend to beginners since it’s not too hard to sculpt.