Over the weekend, I attended a clay-making class by Forever Blooms, that taught you how to make flowers using an air-dry clay known as Claycraft. It was rare to be able to have to have the time to attend a craft class (ever since Junior J came along, I've only attended one scrapbooking class, and I've yet to finish those layouts!), and I must say it was a good break for me (my in-laws very nicely babysat, as hubby had to go to work).
I admit that making those roses were challenging. We had to roll out the clay into thin petals, in just the right shape and size. As I rolled and re-rolled the clay, I kept thinking I should have just stuck to working with paper, since I couldn't seem to get the petals right! Thankfully, we all more or less got the hang of it, and our teacher was pretty patient with us. We ended up making 3 roses on our own, complete with stems (made with clay too), and it was rather therapeutic spending a morning working with your fingers, while chit-chatting with a friend.
The clay itself was interesting, since it has to be kept moist to remain pliable (my extremely dry hands seemed to drain moisture from the clay since it kept cracking...). The clay dries in about 24-48 hours, so there is no need to bake it (unlike other clays like Fimo). Since the clay is supposed to be non-toxic, I'm now trying to think up projects for the little boy to do with this clay... and I'm also thinking of making some flowers to embellish some scrapbook layouts too!
Have you worked with air-dry clay before? What did you create from it?
Those roses are so pretty!! :)
ReplyDeletehow are you there? hope everything are alright till the big day:). cheers!
ReplyDeletewow! very nice roses! =) The petals look amazing.
ReplyDeleteI don't really use clay very often, but there was one time a family friend showed us how to make 'soap' flowers. The roses were probably much easier to make since the petals are smaller, and we placed them in sea shells. They dry after that and look very, very nice and cute. Unfortunately, the soap was apparently some special recipe and I never did get to find out how to make the soap. Still, I think the same effect can be done with your clay, just on a much smaller scale =P
Dotz: Thanks! It was rather fun making them too!
ReplyDeletePC: Thanks for asking, my dear... so far so good, just the usual aches and pains... Hope you've been good too!
Evergreen: I found it quite cool how they actually use the lines on your palm to create the vein-like patterns on the petals... :)
ReplyDeleteOOh, and I assume you'll have to carve the soap to make those flowers? They must have been so pretty!
Oh we didn't carve the soap. It was soft, so we handled it like clay. We just pinched small bit of it off, then pressed them with our fingers to get them into the petal shape, then put them together, much like the clay ones.
ReplyDeleteEvergreen: Wow, soap soft enough to mold! :) That's certainly special, and must have smelt pretty nice too!
ReplyDelete