Slip and Score

Here's a tip from the Creative Paperclay blog for attaching pieces together!  With Creative Paperclay you can create a slip just like they do with traditional kiln-fired clays and use it to bond Paperclay pieces together.

Working With Air-Dry Clay: Art Dolls

"Spring" by Tireless Artist

The Tireless Artist shares her tips for working with air-dry clay when creating art dolls plus some additional tips for saving and restoring "old" clay.

To quote the artist (Dorote): "I can’t describe happiness and excitement when I discovered art dolls. I think this is most complicated and interesting art ever. The doll artist has to be also a sculptor and a painter and hairdresser and couture and also needs knowledge of working with different materials and making different accessories. Doll making is my full time occupation now."

Tips for Storing ADC - Update

I often get asked "How can I store my unused air-dry clay so that it doesn't dry out?"  Over a year ago I posted a collection of storage tips.   Today's post is a repeat with some updates!

One of the pros of air-dry clay is that it air dries. No need to bake!

One of the cons of air-dry clay is that it air dries! Long-term storage is always a problem.

Any exposure to light and air will start drying the clay. Some brands start drying faster than others, especially some of the polymer-based clays such as Model Magic, Hearty and Cloud Clay.
  

School Grade and Artist Grade No-Bake Clays

Self-hardening, no-bake, air-dry clays have been around a long time, but these were mostly 'school quality' clays intended for children and not suitable for detailed sculpting or fine art. In recent years, many "new" clays have become available and that's what this blog is all about...the "new" clays!    Due to the rising popularity of air-dry clays, now we have clays that are a much finer quality and are suitable for fine art.  However, the quality and characteristics vary greatly from brand to brand and the artist must do their own research before buying.

Color Mixing Guide

Some brands of air-dry clay can be purchased pre-colored, but many are available as white (or off-white) only.  These can be pre-tinted or painted after curing.  Just about anything that has pigment in it can be used to pre-tint air-dry clays.  That includes acrylic paints, oil paints, pigment powders, pastel chalks, food coloring pastes and similar products.  Just add a little color into some clay and knead until mixed in.  It may sound like extra work, but it's actually quite handy to be able to mix your own colors as needed.  

Clearing Up Some Mis-information About ADC

Happy Independence Day to our friends in USA!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm going to take an opportunity today to rant a little!   Hope you don't mind!  I'm tired of seeing websites passing out mis-information about air-dry clay and I want to set the record straight.

I do a lot of searching and surfing for new air-dry clay information and tutorials and in the past week or two I've come across a number of websites writing about air-dry clay but they don't really know what they're talking about.  These sites are passing around bad information.  It's become my new pet-peeve!

Tool Tips

In the following videos, craft artist PJHornberger shares her tool tips for working with Creative Paperclay and other air-dry clays.

Tips for Working with Creative Paperclay

Creative Paperclay is a unique air hardening modeling material that requires no firing in a kiln or baking in an oven. It is clean, odorless and easy to use. It feels similar to an earthen clay; however, it contains no clay in it at all!

A page full of tips for working with Creative Paperclay from the people that make Paperclay can be found at paperclay.com

        

Fast Drying Tip

Chicken Lips (David Everett) is in the business of making cute and clever characters with Creative Paperclay and needs to speed up production time....so here's his tip for getting your Paperclay to dry a bit faster.

Note:  Drying TOO fast (such as oven) is NOT recommended for most ADC creations.  Air dry clay needs to dry evenly inside & out.   Also, Styrofoam is often used for armature with air-dry clays and heating Styrofoam in oven can create toxic fumes!   Not good !

Types of Modeling Clays Explained

Figures made with air-dry clay (paperclay) by Tine Kamerbeek 

There are a few different types of clays popular with today's hobbyist that don't require a kiln or any special equipment.  The 3 basic types are oil-based, wax-based and water-based.*   We can also categorize them as heat-cured, self-hardening, air-dry or non-hardening.

*Note: There are also ceramic and stone-based clays, but these usually require a kiln to be cured and aren't included in our discussion.

The most popular heat-cured clays are the polymer clays.   Polymer clays are oil-based and must be heated to cure, however, a home oven can be used and a kiln is not required.   Polymer clays are available in many brands and many colors.  Most are very stiff when first removed from package and must be kneaded before using.   Polymer clay will be plastic like, waterproof and very durable if cured properly. 

Wallace and Gromit
are made of plasticine
on metal armatures

Wax-based clays are the plasticine clays. This type of clay stays flexible and never hardens. If heated, it will melt.   Plasticine is what's generally referred to as "modeling clay". It's also known as "Plastilena", which is a brand name.   Plasticine is often used to create clay animations because the flexible clay allows the figure to be re-positioned over and over. Air-dry and polymer clays are sometimes used for non-moving body parts.

The air-dry clays are mostly water based formulas, both commercial brands and homemade clays (cold porcelain and papier mache).  Because the water content evaporates as it cures, projects created with air-dry clay will shrink a certain amount.  There are hundreds of brands all with different characteristics and the shrinkage rate varies.   The finer quality brands of air-dry-clay harden to a matte, smooth, durable finish but must be top-coated and sealed because air-dry clay is not waterproof (with a couple of exceptions).

The New Clay News is all about this last type of clay.   If it's no-bake, air-dry or self-hardening...we'll talk about it and search out artists and tutorials!   Many new brands and new formulas of air-dry clays have recently become available and this "new clay" is increasing in popularity every day.  There are also a few new polymer-based air-dry clays sometimes referred to as "resin clay".   Two-part epoxy clays are included because they are also self-hardening.

So, you can see there is a lot to learn about air-dry clays.  If you are used to working with polymer clay and want to try air-dry clay, it will take some practice and some experimenting before you find the one that's just right for you.  Air-dry clays are not all the same and which brand would work best for you depends a lot on what you want to make with it.   The best way to learn is to join our Air-Dry-Clay Yahoo Group, where we have many generous members willing to share their expertise and experience.

The clay artisans in the Air-Dry-Clay Yahoo Group use and discuss all the commercial brands of no-bake, air-dry, self-hardening clays plus homemade clay recipes such as cold porcelain and papier mache. This includes brands such as Creative Paperclay**, Delight, Makin's Clay, LaDoll, Hearty Clay, Deco ClayCraft, DAS Pronto, Apoxie Sculpt, Lyra, Artista, Angel, Aves, FormoFit, Darwi, Flumo, Lumina, Celluclay, Sculptamold, Cold Porcelain, Crayola Model Magic, Crayola Air Dry Clay, Sculpt It, Paverpol and many more brands.

How to Personalize Ornaments and Charms

In the following video, Glenn & Debi from Deb & Co show you how to personalize Christmas ornaments with simple, easy to learn techniques to give your ornaments a professional look.  The lettering techniques are demonstrated on cured polymer clay ornaments, however, personalizing air-dry-clay ornaments and charms would be done the same way.    

They also show a few ways to correct errors when working with permanent inks.    I haven't tested these correction methods with air-dry clay, so I recommend doing a test on a cured sample of your own favorite brand.   The various types/brands of air-dry clay may react differently.   You also might try top-coating & sealing the ornament first, then write your personalization ....and then seal again!

How to Wrap a Styrofoam Ball with Clay

Many air-dry clay projects call for Styrofoam shapes as armatures for figure modeling.   Quite a few people have mentioned they are having trouble covering the foam with clay without getting cracks or trapped air.   In the following video, Haydee Miranda demonstrates the proper way to wrap a Styrofoam ball with cold porcelain.

Spanish is the language spoken in this tutorial but I think you can follow along even if you don't understand what she's saying!

Tips for Storing Your Air Dry Clay

I often get asked "How can I store my unused air-dry clay so that it doesn't dry out?"

One of the pros of air-dry clay is that it air dries.  No need to bake!
One of the cons...is that it air dries!  Long-term storage is always a problem.  
Any exposure to light and air will start drying the clay.  Some brands start drying faster than others, especially some of the polymer-based clays such as Model Magic and Cloud Clay. 

I've had pretty good luck with the vacuum bag storage systems.  These storage bags are made for food storage but work great for clay!!   

Glue Tips from Doll Artists

Today's post over at Art Dolls Only has a bunch of glue tips of interest to crafters and doll artists.   Tips such as "PVA glue is perfect to help air dry clay to stick to the armature better"  will be found here:  Tips and Tricks Friday: A Tacky Subject      A number of doll artists answer the question: "What is your favorite glue, and how do you use it?"  


If you don't find an answer to your question there, try the glue finder tool at Michaels "Glue It to It"

Mixing colors into air-dry clay

The majority of air-dry clays are available in white only and must be pre-tinted before modeling or painted when cured.  Sometimes a combination of both!  We've talked about many different things you can use to pre-tint your air-dry clay:  Acrylic paints, pastel chalks,  cake colorant and colors especially made for using with cold porcelain.   Guess what?   You can also use colored markers, as shown in this video from SmallEffort.

Tools & Materials for Cold Porcelain Flowers

Trynys Design shows us some of  the tools and supplies used to create her cold porcelain flowers.   I thought her canning jar method for clay storage was a great idea!    The materials shown in this video can also be used with many commercial brands of air-dry clay.  You'll have to experiment.  Some air-dry clays are just too sticky or too soft to hold any detail and trying to use "detailing" tools is pointless.

Tutorial: Clay flowers-Make this festive rose arrangment

This flower arrangement is very striking. I like the red, green, white color combination.   This would make a lovely decoration for the Christmas holidays.   Maybe if I get started on making an arrangement like this now, I might finish it by December!  LOL  


Deco Clay was used to create flowers shown in demo.   Homemade cold Porcelain, purchased Craft Porcelain, Delight, Daisy, Hearty and Makin's Clay are a few other clays suitable for this project.


See tutorial at Craft Ideas for All


Red, white and green clay will be needed.   For cold porcelain and clay brands that aren't available pre-colored, tint your white clay with a little acrylic paint, with color paste made for cake decorating & sugarcraft or with colorants made especially for cold porcelain.    


If you're not familiar with colorants, Wilton Icing Colors, shown here, is one example of colorants that are available in paste form from cake decorating suppliers,  at Michaels and online at Amazon.   Jars of paste colorants can be purchased as individual colors or as sets. 


Colorants specifically for cold porcelain are not readily available in USA, but you might find a supplier on the web. 

Fetcher: Figure Modeling with Hearty Clay

Fetcher

'Fetcher' is one of the comical pack-rat characters seen in one of my favorite claymation movies, 'Chicken Run'.    For my first project with Hearty Clay, I thought I'd try to re-create Fetcher.   Following are the steps I used to create him and the problems I ran into!   (This is a follow-up to my Hearty review posted yesterday)

Hearty Clay is soft, pliant and easy to work with.  Ready to use right out of the package.  Cured Hearty is lightweight, firm and a little flexible.   Because this clay is very soft,  it does not hold detail well when modeling.  Definitely not suitable for making fine-featured dolls, but OK for whimsical figures, flowers, push molds and such.

#1 Armature

Step 1 is making the armature.  This figure is about 6" tall, which is large enough where it will need some support.  First I made a 'stick' figure of wire.  Then, to save on clay, I filled up parts of it with rolled up aluminum foil.    Next, I used floral tape to wrap everything up and hold it together.  I usually use white floral tape, but I happen to have a roll of brown that needed using up!   Wrapping the wire with floral tape (or any tape) helps the clay stick to the armature. 

#2  First layer of clay for 'pants'

Photo #2 shows where I have applied the first bit of colored clay to my armature.   Hearty Clay stayed moist enough to handle for quite a while, even after going thru pasta machine a dozen times to custom mix the colors I needed to match the movie character.   The pants for my 'Fetcher' figure had a lot of wrinkles in the clay as I worked, so I used water to moisten and smooth the surface.   But!  When I wet the surface to smooth it, the color in the clay transferred to my hands.....so hand washing is important.   I didn't see any color transfer on my hands from clay out-of-package,  just when water was added.

Lots of shrinkage around tail and cracks on back of knee and elsewhere

Twenty-four hours have gone by and my first application of Hearty Clay to the 'Fetcher' armature has dried.   It has a matte suede-like appearance that looks soft but isn't.   I think it's attractive.  It was easy to mix the colors and easy to apply clay to the armature.   The only problem I had was a lot of shrinkage and some cracking when dry.   It shrank quite a bit and pulled away in the length and around the tail.   Cracks are not too bad and mostly my fault for wetting surface too much when trying to smooth it.  One of the reasons given for surface cracking is ..."when there is an excess of water or when there is water added on top, varying the degrees of humidity in the same mix".    Well, I DID get surface pretty wet....and it DID crack...no surprise!   But it looks repairable.

Cracks repaired.

The photo above shows the cracks and gaps all filled in and repaired.   I just took some fresh clay in the same color and blended it in.    It was easy to patch and you can't even tell where the cracks used to be on back of knees.  (Those cracks you see around the tail and around the waist are just rough edges.... I haven't finished that part yet!)

Beginning of final layers

For the next step I added more clay for his shirt and shoes.  This is just a base layer and will be built up with more clay and more detail as I work.

I found in working with Hearty Clay that building up thin layers of clay seems to work best.   Hearty is very easy to work with, but thick layers of clay seem to crack.  For most air-dry clays, adding clay in layers or sections seems to work the best, especially when working with an armature....but it seems especially important for the soft air dry clays like Hearty Clay.  The thinner layers allow the clay to cure more evenly.   Uneven curing causes cracking.

   

Here's the finished 'Fetcher' character!   I didn't have any more trouble with cracking once I learned to limit use of water for smoothing.    What looks like cracks around the sleeve and neck edge of his sweater, isn't.  It's "torn".  Fetcher is a pack rat and he is wearing a sweater made from a recycled argyle sock...with 'torn' edges for neck and arm holes!

Sorry, I forgot to take more photos as I was finishing his head, his sweater and other details.   The main focus was to discuss Hearty Clay and I wasn't even thinking of step-by-step photos as a WIP demo!   But, if you have any questions about how this was done... I'll try to answer!  ;-)

More About Lumina Clay

Lumina® is an air-dry polymer/resin clay that does not require heat to cure.  It is translucent, waterproof and dries flexible.

We posted about Lumina last April, with a short review of the translucent air-dry clay by Camille Young. Yesterday I came across this extensive review of Lumina by Mixi at Kawaii Frenzy. Mixi provides lots of photos, including a demonstration of how the light shines through very thin pieces.

Lumina is also said to be waterproof.   Read the full review here: http://kawaiifrenzy.com/Blog/2010/08/lumina-clay-review/

On this page Mixi talks about experimenting with different products to color Lumina  http://kawaiifrenzy.com/Blog/2010/08/lumina-clay-coloring-tutorial/

See this page to follow Mixi's experiments using Lumina in molds and testing it's flexibility (it's quite flexible when cured).  http://kawaiifrenzy.com/Blog/2010/08/lumina-clay-tips-and-tricks/

I recently bought some Lumina myself, but haven't had a chance to give it a try yet.   When I do, I'll be sure to share my own personal experience with it.   If you've used Lumina, please tell us your own pros and cons!

Embossing Set by Walnut Hollow

In addition to the new, crank handle clay extruder from Walnut Hollow that we talked about yesterday is their clay embossing set.   Like the extruder, this also comes in a plastic storage case.    Even though I already have some of these tools, I like the convenience of the kit...so this is definitely going on my wish list!!  ;-)

Kit contains tools for embossing, stamping, cutting, and texturing all types of clay. Take a look at the video below and you'll see!

Each set includes the following:

·         160 Alphabet/ Number/ Symbol Tiles with a Tile Holder and Applicator

·         4 Texture Sheets

·         4 Clay Stamps with 1 Clay Stamp Handle

·         8 Clay Cutters

·         Storage Case to Hold Everything

·         3 Project Ideas with Instructions.