Sculpey Holiday Ribbons
Design by syndee holt

I live where the holidays mean long walks on the nearby beach in 70 degree weather. All those cute little holiday snowmen and snow scenes ornaments just don't seem to fit our beach lifestyle. We also have very primary colors in our living room, so one day while supervising my middle school-aged son create yet another biology model in clay, I had revelation - if we could do the DNA double helix in clay ribbons, why not make coiled ribbons for the tree? The clay is flexible, durable, colorful- and- I had a 24 color set of glitter - yeah, now where is that tree?

Materials:

• Premo! Sculpey in assorted colors- I used Cadmium Red, Purple, Gold, Green, Orange and Turquoise.
• Sculpey Clay Gun - use either a circle pattern or half circle for the coils and a medium ribbon for the long ribbons.
• Art Institute Glitter or any heat-tolerant glitter
• Index cards or pieces of stiff paper, scissors, tape

Note:

If you don't have a clay gun, you can use the noodle setting on a pasta machine or simply roll long "snakes" of clay as evenly as possible.

Directions:

• I used pieces of paper varying from 4 to 6 inches square to create my cones for the molds for my ribbons. I taped the edge together with regular tape. The tape does well in the oven for about 6 bakings, but by then, the paper holds it own shape. I use large index cards for work surfaces in all my clay work, so I recycled some of my messier work cards for cone duty.
• Extrude your clay in the shape you like the best. I experimented with several shapes, but decided I liked the half circle the best. One full barrel of clay will yield one ribbon. I also don't worry about cleaning out barrel too much between colors, but I make about 6 of each color before switching colors.
• Once you have an extruded length of clay, start wrapping it from the bottom of the cone to the top, creating a small loop of clay at the top end to accept your wire hanger.

• Dust lightly with glitter if you wish. (I apply glitter at a separate work area, so I won't have glitter in my clay work for the next three months!)

• Bake as directed on your clay package and allow to cool before removing from the paper mold.

LONG RIBBONS:

• I have some wooden dowels that are 1 inch in diameter and 14 inches long that I used as the molds for these. Extrude as flat ribbon and wrap around the wood dowel. I overlap the end that I start to help hold it to the wood.

• Dust with glitter, if desired, and bake according to package directions. Allow the clay to cool on the dowel and then just simply twist lightly and the clay will release from the dowel. I use these pieces to drape over the top of the limbs and to help disguise the light wires, I even used colored wire to create my wire hangers in contrasting colors to the ribbon coils. Storage of the ribbons is easy - I just put them all in a box.

This is one holiday that we won't hear glass bulbs crashing to the floor all night as the cats climb the tree!