This post brought to you by Sculpey.
Yesterday I revealed my daughters Mermaid Room. I had such a fun time creating the space for her and one of my favorite projects (I know, I keep saying this, but I can have several favorites!) is the adorable cabinet knobs and fan pulls I made out of Sculpey Clay.
I wasn’t finding anything I really loved when searching for nautical cabinet pulls for the hutch my grandfather built. I started to wonder if I could possibly make some out of clay, since I had just finished making the adorable fish fan pulls (tutorial coming soon). A quick search showed me that I could, but everyone was using special hardware that I didn’t have. I then started wondering if I could possibly just use a screw and thread it into the clay… and guess what? As I kept looking at all of the clay knobs in an image search I stumbled across a post by my kid craft contributor, Twin Dragonfly Designs. She had done just what I was thinking, but with Superhero Knobs! I quickly sent her a message to see how well it worked and if they held up and she said YES! So I decided to give it a go. It worked out perfectly and the little whale duo are just so adorable! If you are interested in making your own set, you can follow along below!
Materials Needed
Sculpey Premo! Clay (this is a higher quality clay that bakes hard and is long lasting)
Screw that will fit the depth of the door and still have at least 1/4″ to fit into the knob
Paint/Paint Brush (optional)
Clay Sculpting Tool or Dowel
Clay Poker Tool or Toothpick
First, condition your clay until it is soft and malleable. (This means pulling, rolling and flattening the clay so that it is workable!)
Roll a ball that is about 1.5″ in diameter. Smooth the ball with your fingertips to eliminate prints.
Using your sculpting tool or dowel, squish a small section of the ball to make a tail – see picture above.
Carefully with a finger tip, smooth the clay again.
Using the sculpting tool, create a little groove to finish forming the tail.
Use a poking tool or toothpick to create two eyes.
Use the poking tool to create the mouth.
Place your screw into the door that will be housing the knob. Measure the length of screw that is exposed – I simply used a piece of scrap paper and drew around the screw!
Bring your screw back to your project and insert the screw into the back of the whale a bit more than the length you just measured. Carefully pull the screw out. — Make sure you aren’t wiggling the screw or turning it or anything – simply push it in and pull it back out.
Flip the little whale over and add a small piece of clay that you shaped like a fin. Repeat for a second whale, making sure he faces his partner.
Bake both pieces following the directions on the box – mine went in at 275 degrees for one hour.
Once cooled, I painted my little guys blue and installed them onto the doors like you would any other knob!
As you can see, they look absolutely adorable on the cabinet.
And obviously the entire cabinet got a makeover! I enlisted the help of my friend Krista and the two of us painted the hutch to match the room. I cut a scallop stencil out of cardstock with my Cricut Explore and used a pearl purple and white glitter paint and a foam pouncer to stencil the doors.
I used the same process as above to make Octopus Door Pulls for my daughters closet! There are just endless possibilities for custom knobs with this technique!
I’ve really loved working with Sculpey Clay – it’s the only clay I’ve used the last two years. It comes in such a variety of colors and is really easy to work with. Before you leave, check out the rest of my Clay Projects!
oh my goodness this is so adorable!!
Thank you! I was so happy with how they turned out!
I love polymer clay projects!! They turned out so cute Kim!!! Thanks for linking to my Superhero Knobs! xo
Thanks for the awesome inspiration!
My goodness this is so freaking cute!!! (Disregard previous comment, I hadent read this post yet)
When I clicked on the checkout my other clay projects this is the only one that comes up.
Hi, how did you put the screw back into the whale after it had baked and cooled?
I used Gorilla Glue. I added a dab into the hole that I made and then inserted it onto the screw that was through the hole on the door.