Air drying clay tea set

We recently used air drying clay to make a tea set. Alex loves any opportunity to play with clay and Jasmine has been asking me for a tea set for a while. So this was the perfect activity. For me too ... as it brought back all the fun memories of pottery classes when I was at school. We used the pinch pot method to make the tea cups and a tea pot. You can see a clear explanation of the pinch pot method over at The Chocolate Muffin Tree blog. They made some cool pumpkin pinch pots.

We've tried a few different brands of air drying clay this year - some white and some brown and the cheaper versions seem to be just as decent quality as the more expensive ones. Obviously, a little care needs to be taken when handling the finished products to avoid breakage.

Our clay dried very quickly with the warm weather, it was ready to paint in two days. Alex chose the paint colours for us. We used acrylics. I have some gloss enamel so thought about finishing off the pieces with a coat but for now we are happy with the matt finish of the acrylic paint. We don't plan on putting liquid in the cups so don't need them to be waterproof.

The kids' and their teddy bears have been enjoying a number of outdoor tea parties and picnics.