MOLDABLE CLAY
WHICH ONE TO USE IN HANDICRAFTS

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT MOLDABLE CLAYS?

There are an infinite number of materials and sometimes confusion about their names, what each one is, and their characteristics.

This section will be useful for you as we will tell you which are the most frequent and their differences, so that you can choose the most suitable one depending on the type of work you want to do.

AIR-DRYING MOLDABLE CLAY

They usually have a composition based on natural clays, but may incorporate synthetic materials and cellulose fibers.

They are industrially manufactured. Some well-known brands to ring a bell if you see them are DAS, Sio-2, Jovi or Stamperia.

They are dried at room temperature and no oven is required.

They cannot get wet.

You can also consult our guide on this air-drying clay.

COLD PORCELAIN:

It is a mixture of different elements, mainly corn starch and vinyl glue; it can also contain oil, glycerin and vinegar. Although it can be purchased, it is generally homemade.

It also dries in the air, it takes between one and two days.

The final result must be protected from water.

MOLDABLE FIMO CLAY:

It is also called polymer clay. Fimo is the name of a commercial brand.

It is a synthetic material based on PVC, it is industrially manufactured and can be purchased in stores.

To harden it must be placed in the oven, hence it is also called bakeable dough.

It is more difficult to knead than most types of Moldable clay. This, together with the fact that it requires a kiln, makes it less common in handicrafts, but it is widely used to make ornaments and accessories. For example, there is a boom in making and buying polymer clay earrings.

The advantage is that it is a harder material and is also water resistant.

PAPER MACHE PULP:

It is also homemade, using water and different types of paper or cardboard that are softened and dissolved to form a paste to which other elements can be applied, such as a little glue.

This is perhaps the most economical option of all.

To harden it is enough to let it dry in the air. The disadvantage is that it is not very resistant and cannot get wet.

FLEXIBLE GUM OR EVA FOAM:

About EVA foam, it is usually sold in sheets or sheets, it is also used in crafts, but it is not moldable. It is also called foam (foam in English) or foamy, due to its foamy or spongy texture. “EVA” comes from ethylene vinyl acetate.

However, you may see some type of material called “flexible gum” or flexible EVA foam, which is a polymer that is indeed a modeling paste, there is also a liquid eva foam.

We recommend that you take into account the differences between them, among the most important ones are:

• The greater or lesser ease of manipulation.
• If air-dried or baked in the oven.
• The hardness of the already dry result.
• If we are going to paint it.
• If we can make it at home or it is necessary to buy it and its price.
• If it is water resistant.

You can consult in our blog the guides on each material to know how to choose the most suitable one.

APPLY COLOR TO THIS CLAY

As we said, it can be painted with acrylic paint, although another option is to acquire those pastes that already have the colors we want and/or mix them together.

If this paste is homemade, we usually get a whitish product, however, if we add dyes we can achieve the colors we want. We must be careful not to dye our hands when we add this type of material.

The dyes can be in powder or liquid form, we can also use some food coloring.

TYPES OF MOLDS

In addition to talking about the clay, it would be necessary to talk a little about the molds.

Basically there is one key criterion for choosing them: their shape, so there is not much to add except the material they are made of.

There are plaster molds, which give good results. On the other hand, plastic molds are usually the cheapest.

The silicone ones have the advantage that they make it easier to remove the figure.

It should be noted that we can also make the molds ourselves. We only have to make the figure that will be the model we want, which is called the “positive” and surround it with a suitable material that will be the mold and that will have the shape of the “negative” of the figure we have made.

Molds can be made with plaster, plaster, silicone or even polymer clay, it is curious that the same material that we would use for a positive can be used for the negative or mold, although in this case it is not convenient to use the same material for both.

Another option is to recycle homemade objects that we have with the shapes we are interested in, such as circles, cutting a tube, etc.

3D printing also allows us to order the mold we want for it we will have to have our design in a file.

MOLDABLE CLAY CRAFTS

We must take into account the type of material we are using in our crafts and, above all, the final object and its function, to take into account the hardness, resistance to moisture, heat, etc., as well as the budget we have.

We can make bowls with a lot of them as long as they are used as containers for solid objects, such as keys, coins, etc.

Just be careful if they are going to be in a humid environment, as this could damage the piece over time.

To make earrings we can also use a lot of materials. However, we must take into account that many pastes cannot be wet. It is also necessary to see the resistance and hardness that we want.

On the other hand, an advantage of some materials that do not resist water and are not very hard is however their lightness, they weigh very little and are very comfortable to wear in the ear. To make earrings, polymer clay can be a good option because it is very resistant and withstands humidity, besides it is light.

We can also make pendants, rings or other objects to wear, always taking into account how “punished” they will be due to their use.

Moldable clay for crafts will be perfect in any of its types to make some functional objects, such as pencil holders, picture frames, candle holders and many others that are going to be still somewhere, without excessive moisture and need not be very resistant.

Another idea is to make decorative pictures in relief, here papier-mâché paste is widely used.

Making flowers is another nice handicraft, they can be made by modeling the parts separately, when we talk about a flexible paste or by cutting the sheets that are already made, to make the petals, in the case of eva foam that cannot be molded.

The same principle of choosing a suitable material, especially one that is resistant, applies to key rings.

MOLDABLE CLAY FIGURES

If we talk about molding, as we said, there are plenty of molds on the market and we can also make them ourselves. When we are going to shape our figures from scratch, the possibilities are endless. And if we are going to need many units of the same motif, the option of making a mold to take out of it the ones we need will be perfect.