Bread Dough Clay Mobiles

1. Remove the crusts from each slice of bread. Tear a piece or two of soft white bread into pieces and place in the blender, or wad the piece up a bit and you can often put in four or more pieces at a time. Turn on the blender until you have fine crumbs (figure A).

2. Measure crumbs into a bowl and add the white glue. I use 1 Tbsp. glue to 1 cup of crumbs (figure B). Mix with a craft stick and then with your hands until you have a smooth clay.

Note: I wanted my hearts to be really white, so I added a bit of white acrylic paint to the glue before mixing it with the bread.

Tip: Spray the measuring spoon with cooking spray and the glue will easily slide off.

3. Roll out with a rolling pin. To make it all one thickness, stack some playing cards on each side so everything will be even (figure C).

Note: I just discovered the pasta machine! If you have one, it works perfectly for rolling out your clay.

Tip: When you're not working with the dough, keep it in a Ziplock bag to prevent it from drying out (figure D).

4. Cut many heart shapes with cookie cutters (figure E). Make some solid. Make some with a smaller heart cut-out in the center. Hang a small heart inside a large one.

5. Allow to dry overnight. Turn them every now and then so they will dry evenly. Place a book on top of any that start to curve up.

6. A hanger can be made by fashioning a large flat "doughnut" of the clay (figure F) or hanging the hearts from an embroidery hoop. I wanted more hearts than the hoop would hold if I hung them just around the edge, so I cut a circle of foam board to fit in the center and covered both sides with anaglypta (embossed white wallpaper) (figure G).

7. Poke four evenly spaced holes around the outer edge of the foam circle (figure H).

8. Cut four long lengths of fishing line, pull them up through the holes, pull them all together a few feet above the hoop and tie a loop (figure I). Hang this over a push pin over a doorway to hold everything up so you can hang the hearts without asking for help.

9. Hang more hearts on the extending lengths of fishing line hanging below the embroidery hoop (figure J). Add more that you pull up through the center and knot or secure with a button on the top of the foam board. You can hang one or two or three or more hearts on each length of line. At all times keep checking that the hoop is hanging evenly.