New Drying Stand

When I first started making paper beads I used a florist's block

 Well that was fine as they were cheap and replacable, but not that good looking.
I have purchased some air dry clay, to make some beads with and wasn't getting on very well with it, until I had the idea of making myself a permenant stand out of it.  I shaped it with one of those round silver cutters and using my toothpicks made holes in it.

 I did have problems with the 1st one I made as the holes were too big and the toothpicks wouldn't stand up right, but I just rubed some more clay onto it and made the holes smaller, when it was completely dry I sanded it and painted it using acrylic paint.  Now I have a very durable stand, I made another one too as I wanted to have one for the 1st coat and one for the 2nd coat.