Intro: Paperclay Recipe (Air Dry Clay)
Paper and clay on their own lack strength. But when they are put together in this air-dry paper clay recipe, you can do amazing things. (Even artificial bones!)
What is so great is that it requires few items to make this air-dry clay, cost hardly anything and recycles waste paper.
It is easier to model than clay on its own and dries fairly quickly. You can sculpt thinner and use an armature for support you can let your creativity free. (Its also possibleto attach pieces of different drying stages though keep the additional pieces covered to dry slowly to prevent cracking.) And another advantage is single firings with glaze on greenware or leaving completely unfired works its now possible to save time and money.
Watch the one minute run-down of this instructable here
Paper and clay on their own lack strength. But when they are put together in this air-dry paper clay recipe, you can do amazing things. (Even artificial bones!)
What is so great is that it requires few items to make this air-dry clay, cost hardly anything and recycles waste paper.
It is easier to model than clay on its own and dries fairly quickly. You can sculpt thinner and use an armature for support you can let your creativity free. (Its also possibleto attach pieces of different drying stages though keep the additional pieces covered to dry slowly to prevent cracking.) And another advantage is single firings with glaze on greenware or leaving completely unfired works its now possible to save time and money.
Watch the one minute run-down of this instructable here
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Signing UpStep 1: Things you Need for Air-Dry Paper Clay
Paper (newspaper or office paper)
Hydrated Lime
Clay (stoneware looks so pristine, but terracotta will fire at lower temperatures)
Optional: About sodium silicate "Magic Water" to join coils and fix cracks (a low temperature fire may be sufficient)
Fine mesh fabric such as muslin
Buckets
The clay can be dug up from your backyard or bought rock and debris free. I chose the latter type of clay to use.
There's a simple method of preparing your own dug up clays that I found interesting. (Watch the master potters of San Marcos here!)
Hydrated Lime
Clay (stoneware looks so pristine, but terracotta will fire at lower temperatures)
Optional: About sodium silicate "Magic Water" to join coils and fix cracks (a low temperature fire may be sufficient)
Fine mesh fabric such as muslin
Buckets
The clay can be dug up from your backyard or bought rock and debris free. I chose the latter type of clay to use.
There's a simple method of preparing your own dug up clays that I found interesting. (Watch the master potters of San Marcos here!)
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Yes, this is actually air-drying clay. The art shop I got the clay from informed me of this! (That the little packets of air dry clay have meshed paper in them, so its more economical to make your own)
So its preferable to use newspaper in a 1:3 (70 % clay and 30% paper) mix with blender water and paper and a slurry of clay.
With this his method the whole batch needs to be dried on slabs in the sun for awhile before using.
The pulp is not compressed or strained to keep the paper fine rather than lumpy when dry.
So far the lumpy texture is working great for me with modelling puppets.
Also, does paper pulp (before mixing with clay) gets as smooth as the clay?
You could probably leave the lime out - recently I trying another mixture with plaster paris, clay and grass fibres. It will dry quickly and you might not need to fire it. Video soon about how to use bbq as a kiln.
The paper pulp tends to be rather lumpy. If you blended it finely it would be less rough.