Relive the Child Within You (Air Dry Clay)

Its time to get those hands dirty.

The thought behind my yellow day was to make everyone nostalgic and take them back to their childhood. As children, we all loved colors. Keeping this in mind, I thought of a rainbow colored dress-code, where everyone had to wear one of the colors of the rainbow to make the day more colorful and fun.

Coming back to the presentation; the topic which I chose was Air dry clay. Be it, children or adults, everybody likes to play with clay. It relieves stress and takes you to a whole new world of creativity.

There are many types of clays, namely- Plasticine clay, Ceramic/ Pottery clay, Polymer based clay, Air Dry clay etc. However, my presentation revolved around making air dry clay at home and using it to make useful things.

The method

Ingredients:
• ½ cup white glue
• ½ cup cornstarch
•1 tbsp baby oil
•1 tbsp white vinegar
•Lotion
•Plastic Cling film

Process

• Mix cornstarch, glue, oil, and vinegar in a bowl. Microwave the mixture for 30 seconds and then mix it again with an ice-cream stick and then oven it for another 30 seconds.
• Keep a plastic film ready with some lotion spread on it.
• Now put the ready dough on the film and knead it until smooth. The dough should form a teardrop shape when you tear it apart. This is when you know, that the clay is ready for use.
• Add your favourite colour to the dough to make it colourful.
• Store this clay in the plastic film and make sure that no air passes through it. Put it in a zip lock bag so that you can reuse it later.

As another type of clays, Air dry clay doesn’t need to be baked. It dries on itself. You can make many things from it, like charms, key chains, gifts, jewellery, etc. Exploring your creativity can get a smile on someone’s face or simply give you the satisfaction of making something for yourself.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Alisha Huang, Illustrator