Meet a New Clay ~ Creative Paperclay

Creative Paperclay  is a very popular brand of no-bake clay because it is easy to work with and can be sculpted, molded or shaped.  It is odorless and very user friendly. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, which means my hand strength is very week, but I have no problems modeling with Paperclay.

Manufacturer's Description:   Creative Paperclay®  is a unique air hardening modeling material that requires no firing in a kiln or baking in an oven. It is clean, odorless and easy to use. It feels similar to an earthen clay; however, it contains no clay in it at all!   It can be sculpted, molded or shaped while it's moist and it accepts and retains fine details. It adheres
easily to wood, canvas, and most surfaces without glue!   When dried, it's similar to a soft wood. It is very lightweight and durable. It may even be carved or sanded after it has hardened.

Creative Paperclay can be rolled flat using a rolling pin, clay roller or pasta machine. Flat pieces can be rubber-stamped and cut out for embellishing scrapbooks. Pigment inks such as Yasutomo's ColorCubes or Yasutomo's FabricMates fabric markers work best for stamping in Paperclay. Water color inks will tend to bleed and leave a blurry image. See these tips for working with rubber stamps.

Flat sheets of Paperclay can be used to cover Styrofoam balls and other shapes, which is a nice benefit over polymer clay (Styrofoam should never be placed in an oven). You can also cover cardboard shapes, boxes, tins and more. Paperclay sticks well to itself and most porous surfaces. White glue can be used if you have any problem with it adhering.

Paperclay can be used to sculpt simple forms, small dolls or complicated figures with armatures. It takes detail well and dries to a durable finish. Once dried, it can be carved like wood and will sand very smooth. One of my favorite characteristics of Paperclay is that you can easily apply fresh Paperclay to a completely dried figure by simply dampening the join area. With a small amount of effort, your seams will blend invisibly.

Paperclay is also easy to mold. See this tips page for different methods depending on the type of mold used.

In the package, Creative Paperclay is an off-white color and dries to a soft white. The raw clay can be tinted with acrylic paints and many other things. Craft paints have less pigment and will dry to a paler color than  artist's quality paints. Brighter colors can also be achieved with cake colorants (powder or paste). Instead of pre-tinting, your Paperclay creation, once it's cured, can be painted with any type of paint or with pastel chalks.

Whether pre-tinted, left as white, or painted after drying, the finished object should be sealed to protect it from moisture or dirt.

Can you tell? Creative Paperclay is one of my very favorite modeling materials. It uses are endless.  You'll find many tutorials for Paperclay on my site at Air-Dry-Clay.com.    Any questions?

Photo credits:
~The doll shown at top is a 12" doll created by Angela Jarecki of Whimsy Moon. This doll demonstrates another use for Paperclay called "cloth over clay". Some doll makers also use a "clay over cloth" technique, using Paperclay to hide the seams in cloth doll.
~Paperclay dragon created by Marianne Reitsma .
~Marilyn Monroe,  Paperclay figure by Patrick Wise