What To Use To Waterproof Air Dry Clay

Over the years, we've had a lot of fun creating air dry clay sculptures. We love this versatile medium because anyone can employ it and yous don't even demand a kiln or oven! To help you lot become the most out of your clay, we've put together a listing of our elevation tips below.

1. Comprehend upwards to forbid stains

Sculpting with clay can become messy, so make sure you cover up your table to brand clean-upward that trivial fleck easier. Nosotros'd too recommend wearing old clothes or an apron to avert any unwanted stains.

2. Prepare your air dry out clay

We're oft asked how to brand clay soft, preparing your clay is an of import part of the sculpting process and it'll brand working much easier. Once you've taken the clay out of its packaging, knead it to brand it shine and soft. This is referred to as 'workout'. This procedure combines all of the tiny platelets in the clay to spread them evenly and brand it more workable.

3. Use a board or banding wheel

Building your sculpture on a wooden board or banding wheel means that you lot can motion it around while you work, without needing to lift it up. This will besides help if you're looking for a way to end clay from sticking to the table.

4. Choosing tools

Not sure which tools to use? In general, yous'll mainly apply wooden tools for shaping and smoothing, while steel tools are a great go-to for precise modelling, detailing and removing dirt. Cheque out our quick guide to air dry clay tools for some more handy tips.

5. Create an armature for extra back up

In some cases you may need to create an armature to support your sculpture (remember of this as a skeleton). For instance, if your sculpture is thin in certain areas or top heavy, it could need a little extra help to keep it stable. Yous can construct your armature from wire, booker rod or sealed timber attached to a base of operations board. If y'all'd like to see this in activeness, cheque out our lion caput sculpture tutorial.

half dozen. Majority larger works

If your sculpture is larger than a fist, we'd recommend building information technology effectually foil or polystyrene. As the water in the dirt evaporates and the dirt hardens, and so the air dry dirt shrinks. So bulking not only makes big sculptures lighter, it besides helps prevent cracks from forming due to shrinkage (less clay means less shrinkage). Some other benefit of bulking is that you'll have leftover dirt for other projects!

7. Minimise keen with a wet mix

If you notice some cracks appear in your dirt, don't panic. The reason this sometimes happens is because as clay dries, moisture evaporates out of it which causes information technology to shrink and it can scissure as a result.

Here's how to get rid of cracks in air dry clay:

1. Let the clay dry out completely.

2. Once dry, create a moisture mix of clay (utilise the same clay you're working with) and fill up the cracks.

three. Later you've filled all of the cracks, simply let the clay dry again.

Information technology shouldn't crack afterwards this and you will exist surprised at how unnoticeable the repair work is. If videos are more your cup of tea, bank check out our how to set up cracks in air drying clay video.

eight. Wrap clay for multiple sessions

Sometimes you won't have enough time to cease your sculpture in one session. To keep your slice workable for the side by side session, wrap it in a clammy tea towel and and then wrap it in cling film to make it airtight. If you use this method properly, the dirt can stay workable for upwardly to 4 days!

ix. Store off-cuts in an closed container

When it comes to how to store air dry clay mail-project, it'southward pretty like shooting fish in a barrel. Wrap the left overs in cling film, put it in an airtight container, and shop information technology in a cool dark place. This air dry dirt tip will save y'all a lot of wastage if you don't it all at once.

10. Relieve dried-out clay with water and a zip lock bag

Sometimes stored dirt dries out because you either forget almost it or don't get back to information technology in time. If this happens, we have a fiddling trick that you tin can apply to reclaim it. Cut up your clay, place information technology in a zip lock purse and add together some fresh water to information technology. Adjacent, lock the bag and exit it for ii days. Once 2 days has passed, knead your clay until it'south smooth again. If you're looking for more than ways to revivie your old air dry out clay, check out our handy how to video.

11. Making air dry out dirt waterproof

If you want to put your sculpture outside, yous'll need to 'seal' it to protect information technology from the elements. You'll also demand to seal air dry out clay before painting. Y'all can do this using a glaze of either acrylic gloss medium or a mix of equal parts PVA glue and water. Below are the steps we use to seal air dry out clay sculptures after the clay has dried or watch you lot can watch our how to video.

one. Use a pigment brush to embrace the entire sculpture with acrylic gloss medium or a mix of PVA glue and water.

2. Permit this dry, and so requite your work a glaze of greyness acrylic pigment (nosotros recommend using acrylic paints because they assistance seal air drying dirt to protect it from moisture).

three. After the grey coat has stale, give it two coats of the last colours.

Are you lot curious about why we included a grey base of operations coat in the previous tip? The reason we practise this is to create a neutral base tone and so that the final colours are richer and more vibrant. We generally use a mix of Lamp Blackness and Chinese White to make our grayness base of operations coat, y'all can lookout man how we pigment air dry clay in our how to video here.

Nosotros'd love to see your sculptures, so tag @montmarteart on Instagram or Facebook to show us what you've created!