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Tropical party – Cactus napkin holder

Tropical party – Cactus napkin holder
35 min Easy

This crazy cactus is two things in one: a practical napkin holder for your next tropical party, and a decoration.
Simply push the two halves together as required and they’ll hold on to whatever’s between them! But for the rest of the year it’ll also look great on a table, a window ledge or a shelf and its cheerful colours will brighten up your home.

Lisa Tihanyi

An article by Lisa Tihanyi

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Step-by-step tutorial

Cut a polystyrene sphere and a polystyrene cylinder in half using the knife.

Roll out one block of FIMOair in white into a sheet about 0.5 cm thick using the acrylic roller.

Cover the polystyrene sphere with FIMOair and smooth with your hands. To do this, simply dampen your hands with a little water.

Cover the polystyrene cylinder as well, taking care to keep the flat side as flat as possible.

Place the two halves of the sphere flat side down on the glass surface and use the modelling tool to scratch grooves from top to bottom, starting at the centre.

These will become the grooves that a typical cactus has. Use the modelling tool to enlarge the grooves.

It can help to use some water at this point, too.

Now take a piece of wire or a toothpick and pierce lots of tiny holes in vertical lines between the grooves.

Next cut the two half spheres off 2 cm from the bottom to create a flat surface. This will help the spheres sit more firmly in the pot.

Tip: Work in progress and left-over material should be protected against sun and heat and stored in an airtight container.

Then use several toothpicks or pieces of wire to fasten each half plant pot to a half sphere (cactus).

Now lie both on the glass sheet and leave to dry overnight.

The next day, turn them all over and “fill” the reverse with damp FIMOair again, so that everything holds together firmly.

Use damp clay again to patch any cracks that have developed. Lie the cactus down and leave to dry overnight once more.

Any uneven parts can be smoothed with the sanding sponges after drying.

Finally, you need to paint your cactus. To do this, mix the acrylic paint to create pink and turquoise and use to paint the cactus and pot.

Use a darker pink for the grooves in the cactus if you like. When it’s all completely dry, cut the wire into lots of little pieces and stick the cactus spines into the holes you‘ve created for them. Alternatively, paint toothpicks purple and use them for the spines.

DONE!

Material overview

What you need

ProductArticle no.Quantity
FIMO®air 8103 Air-drying modelling clay - Single product, white, 250 g 8103-0 1
FIMO® 8700 05 Acrylic roller - Blistercard containing an Acrylic roller 8700 05 1
FIMO® 8700 08 Grind'n polish set - Blistercard Grind´n polish set, 3 different grades of sanding sponges (fine, superfine, microfine) 8700 08 1
FIMO® 8711 Modelling tools - Wallet containing 4 different modelling tools 8711 1
STAEDTLER® 8500 Acrylic paint - Cardboard box containing 24 acrylic paints in assorted colours 8500 C24 1
STAEDTLER® 989 Synthetic brush - Blistercard containing 3 brushes: #2 round, #8 round, #8 flat 989-SBK3-3 1

Additionally required:

Smooth working surface (glass or ceramic), Knife or cutter blade, Wire cutters, Purple wire (or you can paint it), Polystyrene sphere (10 cm in diameter), Polystyrene cylinder (11-12 cm in diameter), Toothpicks

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