Clay Help Needed?

Question

I'm having a few friends over tomorrow and we agreed that I would make clay for us to play with. So, I need a recipe for clay. It's needs to be baked in the oven to harden and to be able to be painted.

Thanks!

Also, it's fine if they clay is air dried, as long as it hardens.

Answer 1

There are loads of air-dry "clays" that you can make at home. They may take as long as 24 hrs. to dry though... you can speed many of them up in a low oven.

All air dry clays (and other clays too) can be painted. You'll probably want to use something permanent and easy like craft acrylics. Or most clays can also be pre-colored before shaping (usually by mixing with acrylic paints, etc.).
If you paint over dried clay rather than building the color into the clay before shaping, you won't need to use a sealer if you've used acrylic paints... though you can still use a gloss sealer over dried acrylic paint (or over dried unpainted clay or pre-colored clay) just to give the surface a shine if it doesn't have one already.

"Salt dough" is probably the best known homemade clay --there are various recipes which vary from each other only a little. It can sometimes be a little sting-y though from the salt. Here are some recipes:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLC,GGLC:1969-53,GGLC:en&q=salt+dough+recipes

There are also other homemade clays that use other grains like cornstarch or "hard" gingerbread, or use things like paper pulp or even sand.

There is also another type of homemade clay that's really nice to work with and can take a lot of detail which is called bread clay.
Here's a recipe for that one:

BREAD CLAY
6 slices white bread
6 tbsps. white glue
1/2 tsp. detergent (liquid?, clothes or dishes?)... or 2 tsp. glycerine
food coloring
Remove crusts from bread, and knead with glue.
Add either detergent or glycerine.... knead until no longer sticky.
Separate into portions and add food coloring if desired.
Shape.
Brush with equal parts of white glue and water if you want a glossy finish.
Allow to dry overnight to harden.
Paint with acrylic paint if you want as well, or if you didn't color the doughs.
Can also seal at this point with clear nail polish
.... or seal with white glue (or yellow wood glue)... starting out with a light coat... let dry... then use a heavier coat



HTH= and have fun!

Diane B.

Answer 2

For polymer clay, my favorite tool was a vintage nail pusher tool, with a pointed end on one side and a gently curved flat side on the other. There are tool sets you can buy for this at craft stores. I would suggest not investing in a lot of tools, just start working and you'll find most of the tools you will need around the hosue. Dental tools can be helpful, I had some from an army surplus store that I liked. Also, exacto knifes are great. Another great tool for polymer clay is a pasta machine. Don't buy a new one like this, you can find them all the time at yard sales and thrift stores. Run some scrap polymer clay through ti several times to clear out any old flour, and know that you can never use it for pasta. I always liked to bake my pieces on marble or granite tiles. These were also great for cutting pieces, leaving them right on the tile and baking. This way I avoided distortion of my pieces. I did a lot of separate pieces then assembled them, so this kept my pieces nice and flat. For baking beads, I took small hardpaper boxes, like that jewelry comes in, cut notches in them and cut pieces of heavy gauge wire that would suspend the beads over the interior of the box and the notches would hold them in place. Get a book, there are lots out there now. I haven't done polymer clay in a while, but my favorite bood (and one of the few available when I was doing polymer) is called "the new clay" and it views polymer as more of a fine arts meduim than a 'craft'. Good luck!

Answer 3

we used to make it out of flour, salt n water. i think it was 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and water to moisten, maybe a cup, but add it slowly. if u add to much water, add a little flour.

these r some actual recipes i found, rather than just from my memory

http://www.gigglemoose.com/salt_dough_recipe.htm
http://www.ancientnile.co.uk/saltdough.php
http://familyinternet.about.com/cs/recipes1/a/blsaltdough.htm

Answer 4

put salt dough into a web search and see if you come up with a recipe.