Hello, my friends. It’s been a while. Yet again.
I dislike prefacing all my posts with apologies for my absence, but I’m still getting my act together. (I hope. Trying anyway…)
Every time I sit down at the computer to write, I find myself out in the garden, barefoot, planting and weeding, mulching and thinking. Or curled up on the sofa reading stories with my kiddos while it rains outside (it’s been raining a LOT).
I’d like to say we’ve been doing loads of art, but besides chalkboard drawings and some clay modeling, the art making has been rather sparse lately as well.
So today, while a 10-year-old friend is baking with the kids in the kitchen, I thought I’d write about an air dry clay we tried, oh, a couple months ago.
But it’s good stuff! I’ve been to write about it for the last two months. 🙂
The white clay is called Sculpt-It
and it is easy to model with, dries well, and doesn’t break as some air dry clays do. Plus it takes paint well. I bought ours from Discount School Supply for $10 but it might be available in arts and crafts stores as well.
Daphne mostly poked things into her chunk of Sculpt It clay. Such as toothpicks…
…and beads.
She really enjoyed working with the clay!
Maia, and a friend of hers from school, rolled and shaped the air dry clay.
Maia made a rose.
Both 7 year olds created small containers with decorated lids (that’s another rose on top of this one).
Daphne was inspired by the big kids and wanted to make a little box, too. So, long after Maia and her friend had moved on to other things, Daphne stayed at the table and worked carefully on shaping a box. So much for the three year old attention span.
Here she’s making a pinch pot out of the clay (with some guidance from me) for the bottom part.
She then made a lid and added another little bowl on top, decorated it with beads, and then filled it with even more beads.
Once the clay sculptures had dried, the kids painted them with acrylic paint. I think tempera or another paint would work okay as well but am not sure.
I had bought the Sculpt-It air dry clay just to experiment. I didn’t have big expectations but wanted to give it a try. I knew how much we loved regular clay (which we let air dry) and Model Magic (even though it breaks too easily after it dries).
But this air dry clay worked really well! It was easy to work with—not too stiff. It dried well. The finished sculptures were sturdy. And the dried surface took paint easily. I will definitely buy this again.
Air dry clay we’ve tried so far
- Sculpt-It Air Dry Clay (Love it; best for finished product)
- Regular pottery clay (we let ours air dry even though it’s supposed to be fired in a kiln)
- Crayola Air Dry Clay (feels almost like regular clay in use; can break and crack a bit after drying)
- Crayola Model Magic (LOVE it for the texture as we work and play; prone to breaking after dry)
- Homemade air dry clay (A budget-conscious DIY version; can break a bit once dry)
Have you worked with air dry clay before? Do you have a favorite brand?
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