Last year I made DIY clay ornaments to give as Christmas gifts. I did some experimentation prior to the important day but still struggled. I have tried an air dry polymer clay by Sculpey, as well as a generic brand of terracotta polymer clay for beginners. The glaze I used was a double glaze specifically for pottery. I also tried Mod Pod, and acrylic sealer.
Maybe the attempt to use acrylic paint instead of a different type of paint on the clay could have been a mistake, I am not sure.
The main issue was that whenever the glaze dried, no matter what the ornament came in contact with it stuck to the object and pulled away from the clay ornament and pulled the paint right off. It is frustrating, I have also had this happen with other projects I work on with acrylic and clay.
My process:
- I use an oven drying process of 250F for ~20 minutes for the clay ornament to completely dry;
- Wait for it to cool completely;
- Sandpaper to give clear coat something to stick to;
- Wait for clear coat to dry
- Paint it with white acrylic paint as a primer base
- Wait for it to completely dry;
- Sandpaper to give acrylic paint something to adhere to;
- Repeat steps of acrylic and sandpaper until desired amount
- Paint it with acrylic paint;
- Wait for it to completely dry;
- Add glaze;
- Wait to dry;
- Add an additional coat of glaze;
- Wait to dry.
Further investigation and input:
First few searches on Duckduckgo for "diy Christmas ornaments" use an already colored polymer clay, or using natural color of the clay, and using textures on the clay to give it festive look. Also when acrylic paint is used, it is not entirely covering the whole ornament. Some use glitter, I am not a huge fan of glitter because of micro plastic. Another option to use instead of glitter is using colored sand to decorate ornament. This doesn't entirely answer my original question, but it gives other options instead of using a sealer or clear coat on ornament.
How do I prevent paint and glaze from peeling off of clay Christmas ornaments?