I had this “clay” in the cupboard for a while (a kid’s game purchase which wasn’t appropriate to give in the end – Dinosaur Safari Kit). Kids are supposed to make dinosaurs from the air dry clay.
The modelling clay came in half a dozen fluoro colours. it was an interesting sensory experience, becuase it was very rubbery. Making houses has been on my agenda for a while, but the last time I tried to just mould the clay (not rubbery at all) into house-shapes, but it just didn’t work properly. Also tried to do too much, carving out windows from the clay.
This time around I went for slab construction, and that worked better. by the time I’d made about 8 or so i was getting the hang of joining things (pity that it’s unlikely that I’ll use this particular material again).
I’m not particularly enamoured with what came out, and I have plans to re-organise and redecorate these in a different way. It seems that I can sharpie and pen on them, i’m yet to try paint. At the moment they are a little licorice all sorts!
Nice things:
- rubbery texture of the clay – at the beginning I wore gloves, by the end i realised I didn’t need to have them on
- the dry houses (which took less than 4 hours to harden) can be cut with scissors (which I’ve already done so the houses sit flat
Next time:
- slabs worked well, maybe next time I don’t add the windows – maybe draw them on?
- assume the first 6 are just tests – last time i did this with clay i did maybe 2 and i abandoned, this time because the clay came in coloured packets i did one then another until it became obvious i just had to do them all, and as discussed, it got easier to work with over time. Also, that probably says more about my process than anything else.
How I’ll continue with these
- maybe shave off some of the windows
- calm the colours down – can i do a white undercoat (or any other colour)
- if i can’t paint, I know i can sharpie and pen – add some clapboard / tiles / other textures
- my fav is the black one with just a single pink heart window – can i make them all black?
