Colouring Clay

Many clay products such as polymer and foam clay can be purchased pre-coloured. Stone based air dry clay’s are usually white, grey or terracotta. If you want to colour your clay there are two main techniques; 

• Pre- cured - wet clay
• Post cured - dry clay

Colouring some stone based clay pre-cured doesn't always work well so it is important to experiment with a small piece of clay and colour pigments beforehand. 

There are an abundance of pigments that can be used to add colour and shimmer to your creations. In addition to using tempura and acrylic paints, air dry clay can be coloured with marker pens, inks, chalks and dyes. Glitter glue and metallic powders can also be added for extra sparkle and great effects. Remember that air dry clay is porous and the finished creation should be sealed with a varnish.

Before adding a colourant to uncured clay knead the clay to soften it making it easier to accept the colour. Gradually add the colourant a small drop at a time, making sure you work it in fully before adding more. Continue adding a few drops at a time until you are satisfied with the shade. Colouring clay can be very messy so be sure to work over a surface that can be easily cleaned or thrown away, such as plastic sheeting or newspaper.

Creative Play - Clay for Kids

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. 

Glazing and Varnishing Clay Creations

In order to preserve your beautiful creations it’s a good idea to coat your clay in a glaze or varnish once it has been air dried, baked and/or decorated. Some clay’s such as cold porcelain and stone air dry clay have to be glazed to ensure it keeps out moisture and dirt. Other clay’s such as polymer don’t always need to be glazed but by adding the right type of varnish it can produce a professional finish or shine to your creation.

There are many different brands including Fimo, Sculpey, Gedeo and many others, which all offer different finishes for your clay work. Some leave a matt finish others a satin finish and others a glossy finish. Not to mention the different sizes and prices of each product. If you use the wrong type of varnish the finish may look fine to start with but could soon start to peel or become sticky later. Others may start yellowing or cause the paint or clay to react and loose the colouring.

Clay Work With Cold Porcelain

Cold Porcelain is similar to most air dry clay’s and is great for making different clay projects, especially flower sculptures, jewellery, figurines and cake toppers. It is also great to use with moulds as it retains fine detail and is easy to remove from the mould. It is now becoming more and more popular with professional clay artists and craft people. It is also a great craft clay to use for beginners for their clay art projects. This clay is perfect for making delicate flowers and petal sculptures as it can be stretched and rolled extremely thin, which results in very realistic looking floral effects.

Which Air Dry Clay?

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.

Popular Oven Baked 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.  

Clay Work with Oven Hardening Clay

Oven hardening clay is a very versatile modelling material that is hardened by baking. This clay is a man-made material that will not dry out when exposed to air for a long period of time, but bakes at a fairly low temperature to a hard, often pliable surface that can be painted and decorated. The most popular heat-cured clay's are the polymer clay.

Polymer clay's are oil-based and therefore must be heated to cure, however, a home oven can be used and a kiln is not required. The baking process varies with each brand so it is always important to check the packaging instructions for each clay. To give you a rough idea, Fimo recommend you bake the clay at 110*C/230*F for 30 minutes. This will also depend on the size and thickness of the clay creation.

Oven Thermometers
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 It is a very good idea to purchase a oven thermometer because if the clay isn't baked properly it could burn or be brittle when cooled. This is a much quicker process than air dry clay, which usually
takes at least 24 hours to dry. Polymer clay will be plastic like, waterproof and very durable if cured properly. Polymer clay does not harden completely until it is cool so will feel soft to touch when it is taken out of the oven.

Another positive factor for oven baked clay is that it comes in a wide range of colours and effects. This is great if you don't want to paint your creations or you are making a specific creation that needs a certain surface effect such as marbling or granite. If you do want to paint the clay after it has been baked then acrylic paints are one of the best to use, although your clay creation will need to be varnished once the paints dry, in order to protect it.

Clay Work With Air Dry Clay

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 Clays

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.