FOG Tuesday - Air Dry Clay

You may not have discovered this, but we found that not all air dry clays are created equal! Unfortunately, we were not able to try all types. 

We purchased two air dry clays — the Crayola™ brand and one from Dollarama here in Canada.

 Crayola Air Dry Clay

Overall I’m sure we would all agree that the Crayola™ brand was the better of the two commercial products. We tried the white version, but it also comes in terra cotta as well as a 3-pack of smaller tubs in coral, sunglow and emerald. It seemed more robust when dry and dried flatter than the Dollarama clay.

Dollarama Air Dry Clay

I felt that the Dollarama clay, when rolled too thin, warped when dry and was likely to break off along lines of design.

Both can be coloured with acrylic or Lumiere™ paints and highlighted with pearlescent powders or metallic rubs. It may be beneficial to seal the items with gesso before applying paint to the surface, particularly the Dollarama clay which, though touted to dry white, actually dried a light grey. 

Various techniques and finishes.

Both were quite easy to roll and form and could be reworked as required. Both took impressions made by Sizzix™ or Cuttlebug™ embossing folders, mould flexible mats, rubber stamps and other mark making tools.

Dollarama Air Dry Clay

Dollarama Air Dry Clay 

Although we put holes into many of the pieces so that we had a way to adhere them to other

projects, I’m not too sure how well they will stand up to that use, especially larger pieces. Their use as buttons and smaller items to sew or glue onto cards and fibre projects is likely a better use of these air dry clay pieces. One does need to remember that these would not be suitable for washed items as the clay would break down.

Leslie making buttons.

Vintage look plaque.

Two FOG regulars “cooked” up different home versions of air dry clay and we’ll have a better idea of their properties once the pieces are brought back for show and tell.

Karen's home made air dry clay.

Just a funny side note – if your diet is of any concern to you, then you might want to try the grey clay from Dollarama as it was labeled as being “Gluten Free”! Sheesh – do we really need to be told that or are there way more pica kids out there than originally thought?

Until next time…

Arts Club at the Library

We started with a simple brown kraft paper box from the dollar store, printed paper napkins, Mod Podge™, assorted ribbons, tags, flowers, buttons and each person had fun embellishing a mixed media trinket box.

My former high school teacher ears picked up this comment, “It’s like craft camp for adults” from one participant, which made me smile. Why is it that as adults we don’t let ourselves play often enough or think that some projects are too juvenile?

Most paper napkins, even the dollar store variety consist of three layers. These must be peeled apart as only the top printed layer is used. This project also works well with printed tissue (as in my sample) or any other printed paper that’s interesting – newsprint, old book or dictionary pages, foreign newspapers etc.

Distressed tissue paper covering.

Spread a thin layer of Mod Podge™ over a small area and either used the entire napkin in one piece, or tear the papers and Mod Podge™ them on as you go. Once the first layer is dry, it’s a good idea to give it another coat to seal everything. Depending on the look you want use either gloss or matte finish Mod Podge™. Before or after that final coat take a sanding block to distress the edges of the box and colour the corners with a stamp pad to give it an aged look.

Plain kraft paper box and works in progress.

Then the fun begins…the embellishing! It’s not a bad practice to employ a few simple design principles so that your project stays focused. The main ones in this project were colour, working in odd numbers, layering items and flow. Once the design is completed use a glue gun to secure the embellishments. The interior of the box can be left plain, covered with more napkin or painted. (as in Jan’s sample) 

Painted interior.

It’s all in the details…sometimes it’s not easy to see where a project can be improved, however slightly, by cutting a ribbon on the diagonal, trimming one piece shorter than the other two or subtracting an item to open up the design. One good way is to take a photo as this may show up those pesky threads of hot glue that always seem to be there or that the bird button is upside down to the rest of the design.

The brown kraft paper boxes come in a lot of sizes and shapes at Dollarama and other interesting shapes, also in the kraft paper finish, can be found at the larger craft stores.

Now there's nothing stopping you from picking up a box, a few supplies and pretending you’re away at summer camp!

Finished Projects

Finished Projects

FOG Tuesday - Stitch Day

A new warm up exercise for the new year.  Hand stitches are one of the hottest trends in mixed media and other art work. It seems they are being incorporated into everything, whether to add texture to a fibre or mixed media art piece, or onto paper and photos, or in journals and hand made books.

So, in response to requests for some unique, cultural stitches, our monthly FOG sessions will begin with a new hand stitch from another country. It will be fascinating to see where our FOG members take this.

January's stitch is the Hungarian Braided Chain Stitch, aka Braided Chain Stitch. This stitch is worked as a reverse chain stitch and is a great stitch for making bold lines of stitching.