Sunday, May 25, 2008

Air Dry Clay Tips


I'm currently doing a small experiment with the ADCs, fluidized them, harden them up, and so on. I also experiment on my own sand clay recipes too! :) But there will not be any new item from the experiment to show here yet. I'll have to wait until next weekend to be able to 'play' again.

OK, now let's talk about ADC tips. You know that ADC dry up when it exposes to air. However, they clay drying rate also increase once you mix the color to the clay. It doesn't matter how tight you seal your bag, it dries. I think it's kind of chemical reaction between the clay and color compositions which speed up the drying process. But this doesn't mean the clay will dry in a heart beat. I mean, normally you may keep the clay for months while the colorized clay will only last for a few weeks. So, it's good to make a plan on making things and amount of clay to be colorized for each use.

Clay and tools, with Fimo and other PC. Once it comes to time you play with tools, you will need cornstarch or talcum powder to powder/coat you tools to prevent the stickiness and gluing effect between the clay and tools. What about ADC? It's not much different. With ADC you can also use talc or cornstarch or dense/rich hand cream - in many CP recipes/tutorials the suggestion is cold cream.

Now, get ready, grab stuff around and see if you can use some for your mini making/sculpturing 'tools'. Have fun! ;)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

heyyy can you teach us how to make simple flowers/ roses ? YOURS ARE FABULOUS! i love your miniature cakes!

Rachel said...

Hi there,

Thank you for your kind comment. :)

For flowers, I suggest you to try the same techniques used for life size flowers. Start out with size you feel comfort to work with, practice until you satisfy with the result and reduce the size down.

There are several free tutorials on life size flowers with slightly different in technique used. Hunt them down and don't give up after the first tries.

And there are good tips, not just from food & related. Make a tour and you will find treasures.

merrisa said...

hey!
whats the difference between polymer clay and ADC clay?

Rachel said...

Hi Merrisa,

Polymer clay is mainly artificial clay which needs to be baked to make them set and harden while ADC is air dried. With ADC you need to let the clay dry under ambient condition, no oven needed.

Anonymous said...

I found this page through random search. I hope that you can still answer my question as you seem very skilled in your art *admires*. I want to start working with ADC and I wonder if I can take days to make my project? I know that I probably won't be able to finish it in one sitting, so how do I stop my WIP from drying out in the mean time? If it starts to get dryer, can I still normally apply the clay by adding dapping on a bit of water or do I need something else? I hope that you can help me.

Monique

Anonymous said...

Monique, if you need to do something else and you have unfinished clay project all you need to do is cover it with wet towel, then you can go back to it later. But make sure it will not take you so long because it's either that your project will melt with the wet cloth or the cloth will dry up together with your project.

Unknown said...

hi Rachel,

I am begineer and your blog sure makes it interesting... where do I get Japan Luna clay? Also if you can post your ideas on the alternatives for clay tools, it will be great. Professional tools are really expensive and I cant afford them :-)but still i want to try this out...

jordan said...

hi rachel,

can i dye white air dry clay with food coloring, also i have a daughter who is intersetid in makeing food for her dolls any suggestions?

thanks you can email me at dramaqueen1999@starband.net