I’m so excited to share how I made this magnetic pin bowl, it turned out just as I’d hoped! My mom gave me my first magnetic pin bowl this past Christmas and I’ve really been loving it. I’m in a group of bloggers all creating a craft with the same theme each month, and I was stumped on how to connect clay with what I normally make and enjoy (I attempted buttons and labels, as well). This diy magnetic pin dish will help keep your sewing room organized and it’s way easier to throw a pin in a dish than stick it in a pillow, although I still love sewing pincushions (check out my list of 25+ free pincushion sewing patterns here!).
These were heavily inspired by the tutorial over at A Beautiful Mess for marbled jewelry dishes.
I went with silver leaf around the edges and a clear, glossy glaze, and it reminds me of an agate. These are some of my favorite colors; you could easily use earth tones or cool colors for a completely different look.
I was really nervous after all that work, that the magnets wouldn’t work through the clay, but they did! Perfect if you have two tiny tornado children who knock everything over.
If you’d like to make your own, I’m sharing the tutorial below. It’s a little supply heavy, but I have plans to make some ornaments with the rest of my clay. I was just sifting through my ‘sentimental’ box and found an ornament that I made and painted, of our family dog growing up. I’m so excited to have renewed my love of clay!
Supplies
- Circular cookie cutter* (you can alternately trace something or use a glass and razor) – mine is 4″
- Clay* – you can see how much I used below for each bowl, so roughly one small block of each color and two small blocks of white (although I bought this bulk white*)
- Clay glaze* (optional)
- Acrylic roller* (you can also use a larger plastic glass!)
- Small, strong magnets like these* (please be super super careful with them if you have kids around, if swallowed they can be fatal)
- E6000 glue* or comparable strong adhesive
- Oven
- Baking sheet/pan
- Parchment paper
- Silver leaf paint – I used a pen like this* which was really handy (optional)
- Small, oven-safe dish
Steps
Step 1 – Break off your pieces of clay. You can see the proportions I used above, mix at your pleasure. Work the clay around to condition it until it’s no longer crumbly. 
Step 2- roll each piece of clay into a snake and twirl them together.
Step 3- roll it out flat! I used a pasta maker* to make it easy on myself, but a regular rolling pin will work fine. You can see how clearly defined the colors are, here.
And how blended they are after they’re put through a few times.
Step 4- Now roll it up into a ball, and roll it out flat one more time. (I aimed for roughly 1/4″ thick).
Step 5- Cut out your circle. If you’d like, you can gently press the magnets in the bottom so their indentation bake in.
Step 6- You can gently bend up the edges, or set it inside a small baking dish so the middle sags a bit while it cooks.
Step 7- Bake according to package directions, cool, and then silver leaf the edge if desired. You can see the difference in this photo.
Step 8- Glue the magnets to the bottom of the dish.
Step 9- Glaze! I am comparing Mod Podge Pearl* and the Sculpey glossy glaze in this shot. I felt like you could see brush strokes with the Mod Podge no matter what I did, and I definitely preferred the Sculpey glaze.
Let it dry and you’re done! Whip up a bunch and gift them to all your sewing friends, I know I am going to!
Anne Weaver says
Pretty!! I’ve featured your tutorial on Craft Gossip: http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-marbled-magnetic-pin-dish/2017/01/12/ –Anne
Cindy says
How thick did you roll out the clay before cutting it out? I do not have a pasta machine.
Stephanie - Swoodson Says says
The pasta machine was just for mixing it (and not necessary :D). I rolled it out by hand, to roughly 1/4″, I will add that measurement.
Joshua Parker says
What a great project. I know you mentioned to follow the baking instructions on the package, but I am wondering if the baking temp is lower than 176 degrees F? I only ask because the magnets seem thin enough to place within the clay for baking. Thanks.
Stephanie - Swoodson Says says
It was 275 (http://www.sculpey.com/product/original-sculpey/) – I read mixed reviews about baking with magnets, because I thought about that, and decided to not experiment. I have young kids at home so having them glued extra tight seemed more secure, even if they did adhere and didn’t lose magnetism! They were thin enough to play in it, for sure.
Joshua Parker says
Oh well, still pretty sweet project nonetheless. Thanks for sharing and can’t wait to try it out.
Beverly says
Too bad you can’t just download the instructions instead of having to reformat everything and get rid of all the ads. Takes way too long. The tutorial sited in the instructions are so much easier to visualize and you can just glue magnets to the bottom.
Stephanie - Swoodson Says says
I’m working on offering PDF downloads of my tutorials for newsletter subscribers this year! I make no apologies for running ads – it takes me several hours to write a post, photograph, and post it in addition to the costs of web hosting, supplies, etc, and ads are one of the ways I earn money. I always welcome feedback – thanks for reading!
Rose says
Most of us would want you to apologize but just to realize many of us are getting really fired of having ads jump right in the middle, or over the text. I have dropped a number of blogs for this reason. When I have to look at the same add 5-6 times in one article, or I can’t read it or get the directions — it has become very difficult and aggravating. If you go to all the trouble to plan, draft, writer and finalize a post, then do photographs plus spend money on the technical side — why should you want Google and it’s ads to overshadow and disrupt the flow? Not to mention aggravating your patrons. I believe all of you that do blogs, sites, youtube, etc needs to push back that ads must fall at the end of a page, on a separate ad page, and can’t repeat except once and must be subject appropriate. I was looking at a horse training site the other day, and up popped a buxom pin-up type beauty with her leather crop, skimpy outfit with most of her on view advertising some casino. I kept doing the report and inappropriate, etc but she kept appearing along with the jewelry ad (exact same one) 5 times. It was too much, I sent a message and I won’t be going back. If folks are so money driven to accept everything that gives them money, well maybe it’s not my type of site. The owners are the only ones who have the leverage. If it is allowed to continue, hard core porno will be next. It is the same with Etsy, it’s gone from only hand crafted to lots of mass produced items and there are many many inappropriate items that I find offensive. They are tagging this stuff to roosters ( the other word), kitties (same), horse, stud, filly, and a host of tags that can be flipped around from wholesome to dirty. . I ending up seeing them looking for gifts for animal lovers or even arts and crafts or vintage pieces for myself. I have complained but now they seem to have remove the vendor feedback where you could complain on things like this showing up in the wrong side of Etsy. It just concerns me for everyone — accepting an ad is the same as giving whatever it is the okay or approval endorsement. I hope folks will start pushing back soon. I heard that YT (or google) has been doing some surveys and are finding some interesting things like not many people hit on affiliated product links and don’t like them at all. I see many of those articles, and the article is awful — stuff that isn’t well written, isn’t accurate but it’s like they find a piece and change it around and try to put as many links as they can in it. SAD!
Sorry I don’t mean to rain on your parade but just felt the owners ought to know how some readers are beginning to feel. Obviously, we all have to decide whether we want to peek through ads or not. It is a shame though because there are some really good ideas and blogs out there. Thank you so much.
Stephanie - Swoodson Says says
Hi Rose!
Ads are definitely a trade-off; but they’re the main way I make money so I simply wouldn’t be able to share free tutorials & round-ups without them; it costs me money just to host my site, send my emails, not to mention the time I put into them instead of going into an office job :). Just FYI, site owners themselves do not approve specific ads, they are run through networks. If there are ever inappropriate ads that sneak through we certainly report them though! I’m always happy to hear feedback though, thanks for sharing!
Pamela says
I am of a far older generation and would like to congratulate you on your great idea. I am off to the craft shop for supplies. Wish me luck!
Stephanie - Swoodson Says says
Well thanks Pamela! Let me know how it turns out 😀
Kathy A. says
I loved your idea; what a great way to use up some oddball colors/scraps of clay. Have you ever mixed different brands of clay? I think these bowls would also be great on a desktop for paper clips or thumb tacks; may even make a couple of accessories to make a set–color around the top of a pencil can, pen holder, etc. Having arthritis and “fumble fingers”, this is definitely easier than picking up pins from a box. Pinhead colors could be co-ordinated with the clay colors!
Stephanie - Swoodson Says says
I haven’t ever mixed different brands – but I totally agree that they would be adorable for holding desk stuff! Thanks for reading!
Lara says
I made one of these a couple of years ago, and I LOVE it, it holds exactly what I need. I don’t have a pasta maker just for clay (only for pasta) so I mixed and rolled it completely by hand. It didn’t take that long. I actually got my kids involved in the mixing of the clay.
Stephanie - Swoodson Says says
Ohh I bet your kids had fun! Thanks for reading Lara!
FlorB says
Thanks for sharing that is truly handy..👍😘
Stephanie - Swoodson Says says
Glad you liked it, it’s fun to make! Thanks for reading!