Quirky Crafting using Air Dry Clay

One of the things I’ve become rather obsessed with over the last few years is air dry clay. It started when the boy had a set for his birthdays, we’d sit there and create little Minecraft style characters in general, but he cottoned on quite quickly that he could get the figures he couldn’t find in the shops if he asked me to create them for him. I made him the bone piranha plant from Super Mario and it turned out better than I expected so I started thinking, is this is a hidden skill I didn’t even know I had?! I even made Mr Quirky a Marshmallow Man (from Ghostbusters) keyring for his birthday one year!

I decided to have a bit more fun with it, buying more and more packs so I could create whimsy kawaii creatures, funky trees, I tried to create myself, my boy, anything I wanted, it became a form of therapy, it’s calming and relaxing. I even tried creating my parents to give them as a gift, I made them in a sitting position so they could sit on the end of a plant pot or something. They don’t look exactly like them obviously, they are caricatures, but it’s based on them!

I haven’t played with clay much in the last year, but a month or so ago, my sister asked me if I could create a cake topper for my brother-in-law’s 40th birthday. She asked if I could incorporate them as a family, my sister, her husband and their two little daughters. They live on a farm and initially the plan was for them to sit on hay bales, but then we decided that a patchwork picnic blanket was more their scene as they often go on picnics and it would give a base for the characters. I thought giving the girls cow print dresses was a cute nod to the dairy farm they own and run. What I didn’t realise at the time was that my sister’s plan was to make a cow print cake for the topper to sit on…great minds eh?!
I had to create them gradually, this was by far the biggest project I had worked on and there was more pressure than before as I wanted to get it right. I have documented some of the process in pictures, I’ll add them here.

And here’s the end result, I was asked at the last minute if I could add a Tregroes Waffle and a bottle of tomato sauce, as my brother-in-law is a big fan of both. I was pretty proud of myself, it’s not perfect, I’m sure art and clay experts could do a much better job using better tools etc but I don’t think this is too bad considering I’m quite an amateur when it comes to this stuff!

There are loads of different sets you can buy if you fancy giving air dry clay a go yourself. It’s not just for children, it’s something us grown-ups can enjoy playing with too. Life is stressful enough, and this is something you can work with in a relaxing way in front of the tv if you want to, as long as you have a tray of some sort to work on. It does dry quickly so make sure you keep things sealed. I personally prefer the pots as they keep everything as they should do, but if you want to buy the packs (you do get more for your money) make sure you store them in an air-tight container so that they don’t dry out. I like looking for sets that have peach, brown, black and white colours in the mix as they are the ones I use most. But it depends what kind of things you want to create so buy a pack and see where your imagination takes you!

You can also get little sets that show you what you should create and it has the colours you need in the kit to create that animal or creature etc. This might be a good starting point and they certainly would make fabulous stocking fillers for you know when!

If you do end up giving this a go, please do send me pics or videos of your creations, I’d love to see them!