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Clay Dollhouse
The difference between clay and paper clay?
Well I am making a dollhouse and this is the first one I have ever made. Its a Greenleaf Orchid dollhouse, and I know you can make bricks on Your Dollhouse with paper clay. I was wondering if I could use the clay I have (Crayola Natural Air-dry Clay) to make bricks that would last. Also what’s the difference between these two?
Thanks sooo much!!!!!!!
♥bookworm514♥
First, clay *used to* mean only earth clay from the ground. Now there are all kinds of other “clays” –iow materials which are solid (not liquid) but pliable so can be shaped, and will harden.
The main categories of clay used by crafters/artists are air-dry clays, polymer clays, epoxy clays, and plasticine.
AIR DRY clays contain water & will harden in the air by evaporation of the water. Because of that they also shrink while drying to various degrees & any color in them will darken & intensify.
(Earth clay is a type of air dry clay too; it will harden by drying but can also be fired in a high temp. kiln to make it harder w/out burning up.)
The other air-dry clays are mostly or solely paper-based, but can also contain various kinds of fillers made from ground up rock/etc. These will dry over ~24 hrs but can’t be fired in a kiln because they’ll burn up.
Some of the names of the air dry clays are:
Creative Paperclay, Crayola’s Air Dry Clay, (precolored) Makins & Hearty clays –those will capture the most detail– plus Model Magic, Play Doh, etc. Those come pre-mixed with water but Celluclay can be purchased dry then mixed with water at home (dries bumpy), & there are various “paper mash” recipes using paper-based products you blend up w/ water.
Some grain-based air-dry clays are made at home like salt dough clay, bread clay (highly shapable). The textures and ability to get detail on those clays will differ.
Various kinds of air-dry clay will be a little different too depending on the adhesive or binderused. If there’s a white glue in the clay, e.g., the dried item will be quite strong & fairly unbreakable unless thin. If the clay is just paper & water, it won’t be as strong but for something like bricks placed on rigid walls of a dollhouse should be fine.
All air-dry clays are susceptible to softening tho if exposed to too much moisture (they’re porous). They must be sealed w/ a white glue thinned 3-4 to 1 with water, or with a polyurethane, etc., and/or painted (often acrylic). Grain-based ones need sealing against bugs too.
Polymer Clay.. It’s oil-based, not water-based, and is basically a plastic. It will never dry in the air –must be “cured” in a home oven/etc at approx. 230-275 F for about 15-60 min. When raw it’s highly pliable & will capture a great deal of detail…& all kinds of fun & funky things can be done with it that can’t be done w/ other clays.
Some of the brands/lines are Kato Polyclay, FimoClassic, Premo, Cernit, FimoSoft, & Sculpey. “Sculpey” has a lot of lines though which can be quite different in handling and final strength –original boxed Sculpey the weakest after baking if thin (& stressed), followed by boxed SuperSculpey & small bars of colored Sculpey III. Their packaged SuperSculpey-Firm is quite strong but comes only in gray, and their packaged Ultralight is reasonably strong but comes only in white. Some of those will be cheaper by volume than others (except when ordering online or buying at Michaels’ sales).
If you’re only forming bricks to glue to a rigid surface, any of those should be fine, tho polymer clays don’t shrink when cured so the sizes would stay the same.
The other two clays wouldn’t be suitable or you probably wouldn’t use since you could use the others more easily. PLASTICINE won’t harden & EPOXY clays come in 2 pts.
For ways of making bricks or brick walls with polymer clay, check out this page:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/houses_structures_gingerbread.htm
(…click on House Parts, scroll down to “Tiles, Bricks, etc”)
And this pg has a lot to do w/ basic ways of making “tiles” –could be bricks if right color & shape:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/cutters-blades.htm
…click on “Cutting Small Tiles”
You’ll either want to make individual bricks, or you’ll want to create sections of brick wall by indenting lines betw. where bricks would be in a flat sheet of clay, baking, then “antiquing”–filling in the lower areas only w/ black or other color of acrylic paint (by rubbing paint all over then wiping off upper areas –for a thicker “mortar,” thin down a color of polymer clay w/ veg. oil, Vaseline, liquid polymer clay (preferred), to squish into the crevices (then wipe off).
To mix clay colors to simulate bricks or rock, check out these pgs:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/color.htm
(…click on “Individual Colors,” scroll down to terracottas, & “brick reds”)
http://glassattic.com/polymer/Faux–many.htm
(…click on “Rock-like Rock, Stone, etc”)
Diane B.
P.S. For lots of other things you can make for yr dollhouse fr. polymer clay (mini foods, furniture, furnishings,etc):
http://glassattic.com/polymer/miniatures.htm
