DIY Succulent Ring Holder

I was organizing my apartment the other week when I started to find a lot my rings. Everywhere. Some were on my dresser, others were on my entry table, some were in the bathroom. No wonder I had a hard time finding them all of the time! Practically every surface in my place had a ring on it. I needed to find a solution so I could store them all in one place, so I looked on Pinterest to see if I could find any cute ideas. I saw some ring dishes that had small cacti in the middle, and I thought to myself, “I could make a succulent ring holder just like that.”

I went to my local craft store, picked up a pound of oven bake clay (I had no idea how much I was going to be using, but I only ended up using half a pound), some green and white paint, as well as some finishing glaze.

It took me a couple of tries to figure out how to make a succulent shape. I found that the easiest way was to start with the center leaf, and then add the other leaves around it, almost like if you were making a bouquet of flowers. I also kept one of my rings next to me so I could check that I was making the leaves the correct size. Other than the center leaf, I created three different layers of four leaves each (13 leaves in total), making sure each layer was stable and connected to the layer before it. (Side note: make sure all of your leaves can stay on their own and don’t droop. If they are not thick enough to stay on their own, they may break off in the oven).

I also created a base for the succulent to sit on. I started with an oval shape, and then created a small indent where the succulent would sit so that it would almost look like it was planted.

After I was happy with how they turned out, I turned on my oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit (or whichever temperature your clay says to use). I placed both the plant and the base onto a metal baking tray and popped them in for twenty minutes.

I actually had two leaves partially break off while they were in the oven, so I used super glue to reattach them, and it looked good as new.

Once the plant and base were cool, I painted the base with two coats of white paint, and I mixed the two green colors I bought in order to do two coats on the plant.

It was starting to look more like a plant! In order give it a little more detail, I used some more white paint in order to create little dots all over the leaves.

Once the paint on the succulent and the base was dry, it was time to glue them together with super glue.

After the glue dried, I started to apply the glaze with a paint brush. It goes on milky, but then dries clear and glossy. I think this was definitely a good touch since it made it look more like a piece of ceramic.

The glaze takes about 24 hours to fully dry, but once it did, I wasn’t disappointed! While my plant isn’t the most realistic looking, and sometimes reminds me of a green octopus, I’m really happy with how it turned out. My rings now have a home!