Creating beautiful pieces of art doesn’t have to be hard. If you’re looking for homemade home decor, this easy clay vase is simple. I created these vases with young children, so anyone, of any age can be successful in making these clay art pieces.

I love working with clay because mistakes can easily be corrected and when it dries you are left with a piece of art that you can hang onto for many years. If you are creating this project with children, it makes a great gift for any occasion.

I used air dry clay and bought it at a local dollar store, but you can use any that you find. As long as it is clay that will dry, and harden, it will work for this project. Once you’ve made one, and notice how easy it is to make something beautiful, you can alter the directions to make a vase for a special holiday or event. You could even make a set!

Below I describe how to create this simple vase design with a few simple supplies, such as a straw. You can add any extra details to your creation that you wish. You can even use rubber stamps to press into the clay to add special designs or images. Once you’ve got the basic design, let your imagination take over.

Once you begin creating with clay, you won’t want to stop! Grab more clay ideas with Hands-On Teaching Ideas popular collection of 33 Easy Clay Animal Crafts or try a new sensory art project with Easy Paper Mache Art and the steps for How to Make Slime without Glue.

Clay Vase for Kids Materials

The materials for this project are fairly simple and inexpensive. 500g of clay allowed me to create at least four vases. You will need:

• Air Dry Clay
• Rolling Pin
• Clay Vase Template (Free Below)
• Cookie Cutter (Optional)
• Toothpick
• Parchment or Wax Paper
• Straw
• Paint
• Gloss (Optional)

Start by warming up your clay by rolling and generally playing with it. If it gets dry, add a few drops of water until it returns to the consistency you want. Generally if it cracks as you roll it, it is too dry. Don’t use a lot of water because it can quickly become like mud. A few drops go a long way.

Making Your Vase

Roll out your clay on parchment paper so that you have one long piece and a round piece. Place the pieces on the free template page and then cut around to create the rectangle and circle. I had a circular cookie cutter that was roughly the same size as the circle, so I used that, but you can simply cut around to get the shapes.

Each of your pieces should be less than a centimeter thick, anything thicker will be hard to form into the vase shape. Make sure that it is at least 0.5 cm thick because if it’s too thin it will also break.

Adding Details

Once you have the pieces for your vase, use a straw to create holes/circles on the vase. You can use the straw, or a smaller circular cutter to create the inside of the flower. Make sure to press through the clay and remove the piece that you press out.

I created a flower design, however, you can use the straw to create a pattern of holes all over the rectangular part of the vase. The circles look beautiful with a flameless candle inside as it lets the light through.

Avoid putting holes in the edges of the rectangle because there will be some overlap when you put your vase together.

Once you have the holes in the rectangle, you’re ready to put together the vase.

Use a toothpick to gently scratch the edges of the circle and one side of the rectangle (as shown above). Scratch so that the clay is rough, but do not scratch through the clay. Also, scratch the one bottom side of the rectangle so when placed on the circle the parts of the clay that touch are both scratched up. This etching will help the vase stay together and keep the pieces attached.

Roll the rectangular piece into a cylinder shape and place on top of the circle. Next, smooth out all of the pieces that you attached using your finger and small drops of water. Once everything is stuck together, use water on your finger to smooth out any other imperfections.

Easy Clay Vase Results

Once your vase is done, let dry for approximately 24 hours. The color will usually change slightly to a lighter color which can help identify when it is fully dry.

Once dry, you can place a flameless candle inside the vase and place anywhere around your home. You can also choose to add paint, or gloss to add to your clay lantern or match a room.

Adding a layer of white paint before you add color can help make the paint colors more vibrant. Let kids paint the vase to match their bedroom or make a special gift for someone special.

You can create a collection of vases and even make them larger or smaller. Clay is a great medium to use and these easy clay vases are a great place to start.

Download the Free Template Here

If you want to use the free printable template shown above, you can download it below. The template helps make the project easier and faster as a guideline for the clay sizing.

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