Craft Porcelain air-dry clay by Amaco Review

I first started using this air-dry clay back in 2005, I believe, and this stuff was like gold to me. I finally was making so gorgeous masks and it was easy to use and durable once dry. It dried so smoothly with very little shrinking and looked very much like plastic. Took acrylic paint beautifully. Well, over the years I've noticed the company switching to different materials...the smell of the clay has changed, the overall texture, the finish as it dries and once dried, etc. The quality has suffered and the price has been slowly climbing. For a 8.75oz. tub I pay anywhere from $8 to nearly $10 retail, which tends to last me one mask -depending on how much detail and the size of the mask, of course. I wouldn't mind the price if the quality wasn't slowly plummeting. Now, I don't get a smooth finish as it dries and it doesn't adhere to itself the same way it use to. Here you can see how rough it looks once dried...the 2nd mask, to the right, didn't dry well at all..some of the edges are turned up rather than drying flat to the base beneath it. And the edges aren't the least bit smooth where I tried to blend the clay together: Further, and unfortunately, this has be a draw-back of this clay since I first started using it, but as I keep so few of my own masks...it's not something I'd be able to notice. -I have a Fairy mask I made back in 2008 that I have held onto and I've noticed that despite the fact that I made it about 5yrs ago now...the mask still wants to shrink inward at the edges. Unfortunately, even years later, this clay doesn't hold it's shape. Not a big deal if you are making some like a doll, perhaps...but when it's something you'll be wearing, it's a huge deal. It's still a decent product, but it's no longer worth the cost or the hassle for me, unfortunately. I think I've bought my last tub of this product. I have seen some recipes online for making your own air-dry clay: http://thejunkwave.com/2011/07/18/how-to-make-your-own-air-dried-porcelain-with-common-household-ingredients/ http://www.craftstylish.com/item/2802/how-to-make-cold-porcelain/page/all I will be trying one or two of these out myself before too much longer in the hopes that maybe these will work better than the store-bought air-dry clay. -and at that point, I will post back with my results.

"Sculpt it!" air-dry clay review

I haven't been posting for a while due to kind of losing my motivation when it comes to my art, sadly. I've been having problems with the clay I make my masks out of and not having a ton of luck in finding a good replacement: A while back I bought a tub of Sargeant Art's "Sculpt it!" air-dry clay...had way more product for my buck than what I usually buy and I thought I'd found my magic answer...NOPE! I looked up reviews on how it's used to be sure that I would be using it correctly and for all intents and purposes, looked to be the same as what I'd already been using: Craft Porcelain air-dry clay. Well, here's what happened: -Here it isn't even all the way dry and has already started to shrink so horribly while drying that it's cracking and separating...and as it's drying, it looks incredibly brittle. And once fully dry, did indeed prove to be very brittle and easily snapped in half. I returned this crap immediately. -Apparently some people can get it to work for what they do, but a lot of us can't. I really wouldn't suggest this product for anything.

Quick tip...

Alright, so I just learned why liquid gold leaf is stored in thick glass jars....'cause it melts plastic. Seriously.:/

I've had this jar of liquid gold leaf for about two years now and have only used it a few times. When I tried to open it lastnight I couldn't get the tin lid off. So I've surmised that I must have gotten some of the gold leaf onto the threading of either the glass jar or the lid and once the lid was screwed shut, it dried solid. So, I ended up having to have a hole punched into the lid just to get at the product inside. In an attempt to save as much of the product as I could, I stored the rest in three little plastic bead storage jars and proceeded to work from the jar with the least amount of product in it. I left them sitting on my wood floor with lids tightly screwed on, lastnight.
Just picked up the little jar with the least amount in it to find that the plastic bottom had completely melted away and the gold leaf had gunked to the wood flooring -crap, right? Oh yea! ;/

I'm going to try to use nail polish remover with acetone in it to remove it from the floor, but I'm concerned about the possibility of any noxious/toxic fumes from the colliding of two powerful chemicals. As it is, you're not supposed to inhale too much of the liquid gold leaf fumes, it's dangerous and highly toxic.

After this mask is done and I'm finished using the gold leaf for this project, I'm tossing those two jars before they completely melt and make a mess, too.

I'll definitely be picking up another jar of liquid gold leafing as it's got a gorgeous and rich finish to it and it's so much faster, cleaner, and easier for me to use than gold leaf foil, but next time I'll be more careful about getting the liquid in the threading.

Hope this is useful info. for someone and if you know how to get liquid gold leaf out of wood, please speak up!

~Sphinx

Business Cards

I recently discovered this business card company through another blogger and I'm really wanting to order some of these for my masks at some point.
I can see having each of my clay masks printed onto these awesome, glossy-looking cards and leaving them in book stores, coffee shops, art studios, etc., as well as sending two or three out with each of my sold masks. One for the customer to keep and two to pass out to friends.:)

http://us.moo.com/en/



I can't wait to try these out some time!

Have any of you purchased through this company before, and if so -how was your experience and what is your opinion of the quality of the product for the price you paid?