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I have heard of air drying clays before, but never paper clay. This intrigued me and I thought I'd like to try it ot. The clay I purchased was by Creative; other brands are available like DAS and Karugaru.
So
what can you do with Paper Clay? Like polymer clay you can make lots
of items with the clay like models, doll making, jewellery,
scrapbooking and lots more. The paper clay has some advantages over
polymer mainly it doesn’t need to be baked in an oven, its
lightweight, it can be painted, moulded over wire, Styrofoam shapes,
and you get more for you money. The disadvantages are it can take
from 1–3 days for the clay to dry, it can crack while drying and
there is only one colour - white.
The
clay itself wasn’t as white as I was expecting, more a pale grey or
ecru, It also has a spongy texture. I cut a piece off my block and
started to smooth it over some Styrofoam shapes to form a body. And
I used some of my sculpting tools to smooth and shape some features.
I did find the clay started to dry as I was working so I found it
helpful to have a small bowl of water handy to dip the tools or my
fingers in to help smooth out the clay. When I had finished sculpting
I placed the finished model on to a playing card and left it to dry.
This
is my moon gazing hare I also made, for this one I used more water to
help smooth out the body. When I finished my hands were covered with
clay which washed off very easily, more so than with polymer, and
left no residue or dryness.
Both
of the sculptures have now dried and they are not as smooth as I
would have liked but I will sand the surface to get them smoother,
paint them and give them a protective coat of varnish.
I
would certainly use the paper clay again; the models I have made are
really light which I think would be an advantage in jewellery for
making beads.
Vic
x
Interesting stuff! I wish i was good with the modelling clay. x
ReplyDeleteLove your moon gazing hare Vic.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! Never knew that stuff existed, thanks for writing it up :)
ReplyDeleteIt is great fun to play with, I might let my kids have a go with it next. :)
ReplyDelete