Week 22: Clay
Welcome to week 22 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?
This week's medium was clay. There are so many different types of clay. Since we don't have access to a kiln, any type of clay that needed to be baked in a kiln was off the list. That left oven baked and air dry clay.
Air dry clay is easy to use and it doesn't require any baking - hence the air dry name. The downside to using air dry class is the quick dry time. While it doesn't dry completely solid quickly, it does dry out enough to make it unusable in a short amount of time. Storing it is also a challenge since it dries out.
Oven baked clay - polymer clay - is a good combination of both air dry and kiln baked clay, I think. It's easy to use like the air dry clay without the worry of it drying out. It bakes in your home oven, no kiln required. If you have never sculpted anything before, I think polymer clay is a good choice to start with. Air dry clay is a good start also, but you have to work quickly with it.
So, we chose the polymer clay to work with. Since my youngest is a huge fan of sculpting things, we borrowed all of her supplies. Thanks, Little One. Since the kids were all out of school for the Thanksgiving break, we had lots of people collaborating with us this week.
We used Sculpey, which is available in a wide variety of colors and found in any arts and crafts store. It is a name brand polymer clay, but I think it's worth it. The Little One has used several different types of polymer clay over the years and we've found Sculpey to be the best. There are other good brands out there, but I wouldn't recommend getting anything cheap and generic, they don't usually bake well.
My kids used different colors of clay to make their creations, I used one color. I planned on painting mine with acrylic paints when I was finished. I've only ever sculpted things with polymer clay a few times with my Little One. So, this was the first time I've really tried sculpting something. Here's what I came up with. His name in Gnorman. Gnorman the Gnome. This is him after I baked him in the oven.
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| Gnorman the Gnome. |
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| Gnorman side view. |
And here's Gnorman all painted up. I've released him into the wild so he can live the gnome life.
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| Gnorman in the wild. |
On to rating clay...
Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.
Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.
Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.
Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?
Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium
So, for clay, my rating is: 19
Ease of use: 5
I think polymer clay is something that is easy enough for anyone to use. Trying to get the exact shape you want in 3D is a little more difficult, but I think it's definitely something that everyone can do.
Affordability: 4
For $25 on Amazon you can get a pack of 50 colors of Sculpey. They are small amounts of each color, but if you're making something small, you don't need a lot. Or, if you'd like to sculpt and then paint, you can get a large one pound block of clay for about $15. You don't need any sculpting tools, you can use things you have around your house - pens, toothpicks, plastic utensils, etc. If you would like to buy some sculpting tools, you can get a large set of 42 tools from Arteza for about $25. So, overall, I would say that if you're just trying out clay you can do it very affordably.
Accessibility: 5
Any arts and crafts store will have polymer clay. It's available just about everywhere.
Fun to Use: 5
I used to not like 3D art. But doing this 52 week art adventure has really made me stretch my artistic muscles. I enjoyed sculpting Gnorman, and I think he turned out pretty okay.
If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...
If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!
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