entering the crafting world

I've always been a collector of cute miniature shoes. So, I decided over the weekend that I should make little shoes out of clay and attempt to sell them. Handmade crafts are very popular, and I've discovered many of my favourite artists over on Etsy. I'm hopeful that once I get this whole thing going, people will be interested in my work.

Last night I painstakingly sculpted a little shoe out of clay. All through Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and 4 episodes of Newly Wed Newly Dead. I even etched out a little pattern around the shoe. I was about to bake it in the oven so that afterwards I could paint it, but silly me, I hadn't noticed on the label that it was non-drying clay. I figured, okay maybe it doesn't dry, but it surely must be able to bake. It's clay after all!

I put my beautiful shoe in the oven and watched it for about 4 minutes or so. I observed that it looked like it was sweating. I took it out of the oven, and yeah, non-drying clay doesn't bake. Sadly, I will not see the fruits of my labour in a completed shoe at the moment. I'll have to head to the store in the next few days and pick up some clay meant for such things. C'est la vie.

As you can see from my picture ^, my pretty little shoe is going to remain in its clay state forever.