DIY Gold Nesting Bowls

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Make these DIY gold nesting bowls to gift to friends or family, or keep one for yourself. This is a great kids craft too!

diy gold nesting bowls. Makes a great gift or a pretty catch-all for everyday small items!

Hey there!  So, I have to tell you.  I’ve had these nesting bowls sitting on my kitchen counter for a couple weeks now.  I finally got around to finishing them up and taking pictures.  And you know what?  I’ve actually been using them in that time. 

They are so handy! Throwing little bits and baubles in there throughout the week.  I love working with air dry clay.  There’s no worry about using the oven and the final projects turn out beautiful. 

My idea with these was to create a set of nesting bowls and then gold leaf them.  I wanted them to have a vintage-y look to them.  I found this gold paint in my craft stash and I just decided to use that instead of gold leaf.  Soooo let’s get started!

Materials Needed

  • Air Dry Clay (I use this brand and love it)
  • Wax paper
  • Gold Paint
  • Set of small and medium rounded bowls or cups to form the bowls.  (I used a small glass vase and a stemless wine glass).

This project really takes no time at all.  The hardest part is knowing when to stop.  My perfectionist nature wanted every.little.crack. smoothed out.  But, at some point I had to call it quits.  It still turned out good and the gold paint helps hide the cracks.

And after all, we are going for a rather vintage look here. Right? I wanted mine to have a somewhat collected feel to them. Like I snagged them from a thrift store or something.

Tutorial for DIY Gold Nesting Bowls

Steps for making a clay bowl
  1. I learned that putting your air dry clay on wax paper helps it to not stick to the surface.  So I sandwiched the clay with wax paper and rolled it out a bit.  You can use a jar to roll it out.  It also helps to put water or lotion on your hands!
  2. Take your rolled clay and form a loose shaped bowl.  Use your lotioned hands to smooth it out and fix any cracks.
  3. You can use your hand to help shape the bowls too.
  4. Take your rounded objects and set the clay on top, gently forming it over the shape.
  5. I want a piece-y look to my edges.  So I made little rips at the edges.
  6. You can test your two nesting bowls to ensure that they fit right together.  Then just let them air dry for 48 hrs (check your specific clay instructions).

After 48 hours, you are ready to paint!  This is totally optional, but my brand of air dry clay dries to a grayish color.  I really wanted white.  So I spray painted them white.  Then I let the bowls fully dry before moving on.

diy gold nesting bowls. Makes a great gift or a pretty catch-all for everyday small items!

After the paint was dry, I took my gold paint and painted the insides and rims.  I let that dry for 24 hours.

diy gold nesting bowls. Makes a great gift or a pretty catch-all for everyday small items!

Now you have a set of gold nesting bowls!

Put a pretty ribbon around them and gift them to someone.  I was actually using mine to hold a faux succulent at one point.

gold tipped clay bowl with greenery

I will say this gold paint is super duper nice!  It dries to a beautiful, shiny gold color.

If you like this post – then check out my DIY Jewelry dish tutorial.

Thank you for reading guys!

xo Karen

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