If you make something out of clay – say, a sculpture of some sort – do you need to fire it to keep it? Is there another way to preserve it if you don’t have a kiln? Can you, just, like.. sculpt?
If not clay, is there something similar that I could pick up (at a reasonable price) and make some stuff out of without it crumbling three days later?
I don’t have time right now to sign up for a sculpting class at a studio, but I’d like to spend some time playing on my own.
Anyone? Anyone?
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What about Sculpy? You just oven-bake it to set it.
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Look up educational supplies, some clays aimed at children require only air drying, others oven baking. The feel is not quite the same as proper clay and certainly no grog (spelling?) equivalent but it’s close enough to try simple basic techniques like pinch pots, coiling or slabs. It is quite a bit pricier than proper clay too and you don’t get the fun of trying all the different glazes you get in a class. One thing to remember is that you should always keep the first piece you make using each technique so that when you become more proficient and curse the way things aren’t turning out quite as well as you wanted you can dig up hat first pinch pot you were so proud of at the time and realise how far along you’ve come (my first coil pot was a monstrosity that slouched in the kiln, even the cat thought it was awful and put the poor object out of its misery with a well applied jump on the shelf).
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Clearly, the next time I have some extra money in the bank I’m going to head to Michaels and see the various clays and polymers in person… (But probably order online!) Who knew there were so many options?!
I have a specific project in mind, however, so.. we shall see what would work best!
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