Chinese Character Vase
By Katie Hacker

Want to add a touch of Zen tranquility to your home? Take a look at this simple, elegant vase created by Katie Hacker. Using a combination of polymer clay and rubber stamps, she transformed a plain store-bought vase into an upscale home décor accent.

Supplies:

• polymer clay: ⁷/₈" stone-look black ball, 2" black ball
• Chinese character rubber stamps: “Fortunate,?“Friend,?“Joy?
• metallic black pigment ink pad
• silver embossing powder
• 4"x3"x6" glass vase
• silver spiral paper clip
• 10" length of ⁵/₈" wide sheer gray ribbon
• 11" length of 1mm black leather cord
• beads: 2 silver pony, 6mm black faceted
• 1 lb. of white frosted sea glass pieces
• three 4"-9" stalks of lucky bamboo
• X-acto® knife or sharp craft knife
• stylus
• rolling pin or roller tool (such as a brayer)
• oven parchment paper, baking surface: glass or ceramic baking dish
• insulated or doubled baking sheet, or ceramic tile,
• clay blade
• tacky craft glue
• paper towels and moist towelettes,
• optional: food processor (to help condition the clay); pasta machine (for rolling flat sheets or pieces)

Instructions:

1. Flatten the stone-look clay to ¹/₈” thick using your fingers to make it into a rough rectangle. Stack craft sticks in the thickness you desire on the sides of the clay. Then, use a rolling tool or the smooth handle of an X-acto® knife to flatten the clay between sheets of waxed paper to an even thickness. You can use a pasta machine for smooth, uniformly flat pieces. (The #2 setting is about ¹/₈” thick and the #4 is about ¹/₁₆”.)
2. Ink a rubber stamp with pigment or permanent archival dye-based ink and stamp black characters by depressing it gently onto unbaked clay.
3. Trim each to 1 ³/₁₆”x1 ¹/₂”. Flatten the black clay to ¹/₈” thick. Trim it to 1 ¹/₂”x5 ¹/₈”. Use your finger to lightly rub embossing powder onto it. Press the characters evenly spaced on the black clay. Glue the black clay to the vase. Bake the vase according to the clay manufacturer's instructions and let cool. Baking the clay will heat set the ink, so use a moist towlette to remove any smudges before baking it.
4. Hold the ribbon and leather together and tie in an overhand knot. String a pony bead onto each leather tail and knot each end. String the loop onto the paper clip and attach it to the top left of the vase as shown. Glue the black bead to the end of the paper clip. Place the sea glass and bamboo in the vase; add water.

About Katie Hacker

Designer Katie Hacker is a multi-talented designer. Besides her numerous beading and jewelry-making books, she's also contributed to instruction books on crafts like rubber-stamping. This elegant vase is from her latest, Making Great Impressions, which features the fusion of rubber stamping and polymer clay.