Make Your Own Clay Shape Cutters

It's Tool Tip Thursday and Rubina (Gemini Arts and Crafts) has lots of ideas for making your own clay cutters.  Supplies needed for this project are an aluminum sheet or tin sheet, scissors, pen, ruler, glue (steel bond), a wood block, hammer and nails to insert in the wood block to help get shape and curves of cutter.

Tips for Storing ADC - Update

I often get asked "How can I store my unused air-dry clay so that it doesn't dry out?"  Over a year ago I posted a collection of storage tips.   Today's post is a repeat with some updates!

One of the pros of air-dry clay is that it air dries. No need to bake!

One of the cons of air-dry clay is that it air dries! Long-term storage is always a problem.

Any exposure to light and air will start drying the clay. Some brands start drying faster than others, especially some of the polymer-based clays such as Model Magic, Hearty and Cloud Clay.
  

Design Your Own Cutters

Do you ever want to design and make your own clay shape cutters?   I just noticed there's a "Make Your Own Cookie Cutter" kit that can be purchased with all the gizmos and supplies needed to make your own.

Tutorial Tuesday

Well, gosh, it's Tuesday again already!   Time to catch up on the newest tutorials posted at my AirDryClay Tutorial Directory.

How to Use a Doll Face Push Mold

Animal Print Safari Earrings

Make Your Own Petal Cutters

Make this Cute Jester Clown

Enjoy!

Tool Tips

In the following videos, craft artist PJHornberger shares her tool tips for working with Creative Paperclay and other air-dry clays.

How to Use Amazing Mold Putty

A few different videos demonstrating Amazing Mold Putty with some tips for getting better detail and making a 2-part mold.

Make a Tool Caddy

Do you need something in your workspace to hold all your sculpting tools, paint brushes, markers, etc?  This tool caddy was originally designed for keeping colored pencils organized but could be modified to store any number of things!    I especially like the stair-step levels that keep the back row accessible!    The following video shows, step-by-step, how to make your own "storage station".

Air Dry Clay Name Tags or Ornaments

Stephanie shows us a no-calorie way to use candy molds. She uses air dry clay (Creative Paperclay) to create name tags or ornaments.

How to add detailed stitches to clay figure

The following video demo from a guy in Sweden called Guldies shows us how to add whimsical stitches to a sculpt.  Detailed, dimensional and authentic looking.  The sculpture he creates in this video is quite wild, whimsical and colorful!

For very small stiches, you can use one of those marking wheels used for transferring sewing patterns or use the Cutter/Embosser tool shown here made by Wilton for creating stitch marks on cake fondant.  It's an inexpensive plastic tool with three detachable wheels for cutting and embossing 3 different patterns (wheels store in the handle).   I have one and it works great!

How to Make Clay Carnations

Here's another step-by-step tutorial for creating clay Carnations.   This tutorial by Priya Nanthakumar uses air-dry clay to create the flowers.   About a year ago, we posted a Carnation tutorial which adapted a sugarcraft tutorial to air-dry clay.   The methods used are slightly different in each tutorial but both result in a quite realistic Carnation.

Here's a few tips when following this tutorial:
Author recommends oil paints to pre-tint the clay but acrylic paints may also be used.   Artists quality oils and acrylics will give you stronger reds and dark colors than craft paints.   If you want pastel pinks or yellows, craft acrylics could be used instead of the tube paints.

How to Make a 'Smile' Tool

How to make your own tool to impress a mouth shape into clay.

How to Make Clay Peony

 

This 4-part video demo from Mayen from Way Beyond Cakes shows us how to make a very realistic Peony flower.   She describes this as a "beginners" flower and demonstrates every step in the process in detail.   Mayen is crafting with gumpaste in this demo, but the process is the same for air-dry clay (just use white glue instead of edible glue).    The softer brands of air-dry clay or cold porcelain are usually the best choice for clay flowers.

How to Wrap a Styrofoam Ball with Clay

Many air-dry clay projects call for Styrofoam shapes as armatures for figure modeling.   Quite a few people have mentioned they are having trouble covering the foam with clay without getting cracks or trapped air.   In the following video, Haydee Miranda demonstrates the proper way to wrap a Styrofoam ball with cold porcelain.

Spanish is the language spoken in this tutorial but I think you can follow along even if you don't understand what she's saying!

Photographing Your Clay Creations

Taking professional-looking photographs of small-scale objects can often be a challenge. I think the key is having good lighting and a plain background. Of course, a deluxe camera would be nice but it's not necessary. The photo above of some 3 inch tall clay snowmen was taken with a moderately-priced Kodak digital camera that I've had for a few years (7.1 megapixels). I think the photo came out pretty good for an amateur photographer! ;-)

I'm no expert, but this is what I did when I took the photo of the 2 snowmen above.

Tips for Storing Your Air Dry Clay

I often get asked "How can I store my unused air-dry clay so that it doesn't dry out?"

One of the pros of air-dry clay is that it air dries.  No need to bake!
One of the cons...is that it air dries!  Long-term storage is always a problem.  
Any exposure to light and air will start drying the clay.  Some brands start drying faster than others, especially some of the polymer-based clays such as Model Magic and Cloud Clay. 

I've had pretty good luck with the vacuum bag storage systems.  These storage bags are made for food storage but work great for clay!!   

Free Cutting Tool Ideas

Minmie1412 shares with us her ideas for making your own cutting tools for crafting with clay.   Leaf cutter and heart shape shown in this video.

More 'make yourself' cutting tool ideas in previous post
http://newclaynews.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-make-your-own-clay-cutters.html

Build Your Own Armature Stage and Armature Jig

Finished Stand with Armature

Chuck Needham has prepared a step-by-step tutorial for creating your own "2-bit Sculpting Stage".  It's a lazy-susan style armature stand made of wood and easy-to-find supplies.   Suggested dimensions are for a 1/6 scale figure and can be adjusted based on your own favorite scale.   

Instructions are also given for creating an armature jig in various scales along with instructions for making an body armature using the jig.

Armature jig and partial armature

I came across this tutorial at a Spanish-speaking forum, however the tutorial and downloads are in English.  Go here for tutorial:
http://porcelanaenfrioooak.ning.com/group/todomasillaepoxi/forum/topics/arma-tu-propia-rueda-y-tabla
The same tutorial is not currently available on the writer's website (Chuck Needham, 2 Bit Studio)

On the same page, following Chuck's tutorial, are instructions for making an armature using an image reference.

Customize a Face Mold for Santa

Air-dry clay can be used with push molds just like polymer clay.  Today's tutorial from Polymer Clay Express shows you how to customize a Polyform (Sculpey) face mold to create a Santa face.   The completed face can be used for an ornament, package topper or a Santa doll.    Tutorial:  Customizing "Grandpa" to make a Santa ornament    Even though the tutorial was written for polymer clay, the steps are essentially the same with air-dry clay...just don't bake and let it air dry instead.    You can leave the clay in the mold while drying, if desired.    

The tutorial doesn't make it clear that flesh colored clay must have been used to start with (it looks white in photos) because it skips the step to paint the flesh color and goes right into antiquing.    For air-dry clay users, you can tint the raw clay in advance or paint with acrylics after it cures.    I prefer multiple THIN layers of paint for the skin tones.    

Only the very soft air-dry clays are available pre-colored and other brands must be pre-tinted or painted.   Some soft clays may work OK in the push molds but many soft brands do not hold detail well.   It will look OK at first, but as it dries it sorta 'puffs-up' and detail gets lost.      Clay brands such as Creative Paperclay,  Delight and LaDoll may work better.   Those clays also allow more customizing because re-shaping and blending of seams is easier.   Please leave comment if you have any questions!

Glue Tips from Doll Artists

Today's post over at Art Dolls Only has a bunch of glue tips of interest to crafters and doll artists.   Tips such as "PVA glue is perfect to help air dry clay to stick to the armature better"  will be found here:  Tips and Tricks Friday: A Tacky Subject      A number of doll artists answer the question: "What is your favorite glue, and how do you use it?"  


If you don't find an answer to your question there, try the glue finder tool at Michaels "Glue It to It"

Easy Way to Make a Doll's Head Using Push Molds

Would you like to make clay dolls but find the task of sculpting the face a little daunting?   Especially the small features on a miniature doll!    A push mold might be your answer!    The face shown above was created with a 3" push mold.  Imagine making a Santa stump doll with this face, a beard and a festive robe!  For a miniature, the small 3/4" face molds should be a good size for a 1" scale doll.

In the following video, popular clay artist and instructor Maureen Carlson shows us how to make the best use of a push mold when creating a doll's head....plus how to customize the character's face!

She's demonstrating with polymer clay using her own molds (some of which have been discontinued since video was originally made).  Air-dry clay can also be used with push molds in the same manner as polymer.  There are a number of different push molds available for making dolls, flowers and other things (not just Maureen's).  You can also make your own push molds.   I'll guess we'll have to cover that topic another day!   ;-)

If you're looking for something more challenging or more creative than the easy-to-use push molds shown in above video, Maureen also makes and sells "Puzzle-Face" molds for creating faces similar to those shown below.

Puzzle-Face molds are also push molds but the facial parts are molded individually and then assembled onto a "blank" head.  Facial parts are also interchangeable.   The nose from one mold can be used with the mouth from another, etc.  Seems like there would be endless possibilities for giving them your own unique look!  In the following video, Maureen shows you how to get started with a Puzzle-Face.