Steampunk Trunk

syndee holt

In the words of designer syndee holt, Steampunk reflects the intersection of the Victorian age and the industrial age. Steampunk encompasses fiction literature, jewelry, home décor and even fashion and lifestyle. It’s grand fun if you like clocks, gadgets and collage. This is a project that your kids will like to help with – from the fingerpainting of the Pearl Ex to the positioning of the brads and rivets.

Getting Started

Preheat oven to 275 °F. Test temperature with oven thermometer for perfectly cured clay.

Step 1

Lightly condition each block of black clay by rolling through the clay conditioning machine on the widest setting (#1). Then set the machine on a very thin setting (#7) and roll the clay through the machine. You want those uneven torn edges!!! Create about 4 sheets approximately 5” x 9”.

Step 2

Spread the Pearl Ex colors onto the surface of the clay using your fingertips, blending the colors like you would finger paint. Try to keep the areas of color random sizes – of course if you are using this technique on a smaller box, the areas of color would be smaller. Using many similar colors adds more richness to the overall product when you layer colors like this.

Step 3

Add a layer of Bake & Bond onto the box, this helps the clay adhere to the wood. Using the Lift ‘n Scrape spread the Bake & Bond on a workable section of the box and then cover that section of the box before spreading the Bake & Bond on the next section.

Step 4

Now the easy part: tear off pieces of clay and layer them onto the area covered in Bake & Bond, overlapping each section. Cover the entire box in this method. Don’t worry about fingerprints or marks because the next step will take care of that. You may cover the lid overlapping onto the sides and then use the Super Slicer to carefully cut the clay starting from the latch so that the lid will open. If you accidentally make a bad cut – it’s just more texture.

Step 5

Find anything you think is interesting to distress the unbaked clay and texture it! A Clay Conditioning Machine clamp is being used in this photo. You may also use rough sandpaper, texture sheets – ANYTHING that yields a rough, random texture. Rough sandpaper is always a favorite.