Creative play for children is an important part of any child’s development and growth, as it helps to increase their motor skills, imagination, concentration and cognitive capabilities. It will also help to increase the child’s hand eye co-ordination, planning and ability to follow instructions.
There are lots of things that you can do to encourage this, such as arts and crafts, drawing, painting, building bricks and clay work. All children love being active and when they are not able to get out in the fresh air then these activities are great and children can often be enthralled for hours.
Creative play and in particularly clay work, is an ideal medium for children that find it difficult to pay attention, sit still or communicate easily, such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or Autism. Clay enables the child to occupy their hands and provides a focus on something without having to look at someone directly and/or express their emotions and feelings in non-verbal communication. Clay work is often a favourite with play therapists and can been found in most therapeutic centres.
Air dry clay is a fantastic medium to work with for
anyone from young to old and beginner to professional. It is available in a
huge range of consistencies and textures and is great for very detailed fine clay work, through to large clay sculptures. It is usually a water based clay
that will harden when it is exposed to air. Due to the vast variations in this
clay, the strengths, durability and curing processes varies considerably with
each one. Here are a few of the more popular air drying products and which clay craft they
are ideally suited for making.
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Activa Activ-Clay is 100% natural fine grain material
for finer detailed creations. It is lightweight, moist clay that can be carved,
sanded, drilled and painted and is available in white or terracotta. This is
suitable for children and adults and all skill levels. It is ready to use
straight from the packet, is non toxic and accepts multiple finishes.
According to the manufacturer it air cures to a good strength, will not
crumble, and features a low amount of shrinkage and can also be cured in a
kiln.
Ideally suited for: hand building, wheel throwing,
sculpting and kids clay.
There are a huge range of oven baked clay's available and it would be almost impossible to review everyone in this post. So here are details and ideal uses for are few of the more popular heat cured clay's, to start you off.
Fimo Professional; Effects Polymer Clay is stiffer than some of the other polymer clay's and remains flexible after is has been baked in the oven. It is great for more detailed work such as cane work, miniatures, flower sculptures and doll figurines. It is also perfect for making jewellery and because of the wide range of colours and effects available it can produce some very beautiful and realistic jewellery pieces.
Air drying products are now starting to be taken seriously by professional artist and it is no longer seen as just for schools and children. This is clear by the vast amount of fabulous creations and tutorials available. It’s great for adult crafts and professional sculptors, as well as kids and teen crafts.
Unlike traditional clay's that need to be fired in a kiln at a high temperature, or polymer clay's that need to be cured in an oven air dry clay is a mainly water based, which is simply clay mixed with water. It therefore cures in the open air at room temperature, so must be kept in an air tight container when not in use. It is usually inexpensive and it is generally very easy to use and pliable.
Clay work and sculpture isn't just for the professional artist, all you need is a few basic tools and a little imagination. In fact you don't even need that much imagination, thanks to social media! Pinterest and Instagram will provide thousands of clay art projects and tutorials at you finger tips.
Clay artists have a never ending choice of clay sculpture materials and in fact many are not technically clay but can create very similar sculptures and art projects as the professional ceramicists and sculptors.
The 3 basic types are oil-based, wax-based and water-based. They are usually categorize as heat-cured, self-hardening air-dry or non-hardening. There is also ceramic and stone-based clays, which need to be cured in a kiln at very high temperatures.
