I started working with air-dry clay by accident.

I took ceramics workshops and have been looking for ways to start working with fireable clay on my own (and it’s still something I am working on). One day I was walking through a local supplies store and saw this package of air dry clay. I decided to try it out.

The first things I made where pinch bowls. I let them dry and really enjoyed the texture the clay. From there I kept experimenting and found that if treated well, air dry clay can actually be quite versatile. There’s something magical about using what appears to be a low-fidelity material and elevating it.

A few things I have learned along the way:

While air-dry clay is not fired and therefore will not be water resistant or food safe, when varnished correctly, it can take a bit of humidity. To stress test my necklaces, I work out with them :D

Because it is not fired, air-dry clay will be more delicate and more prone to breaking if too thin. It should be treated like polymer clay and I would not recommend rolling it too thin.

Air dry clay CAN be mixed! I have been mixing various colors and it’s worked really well.

If your clay is starting to crack, just apply a little bit of water.

You can use acrylic paints to pain on air-dry clay. I use very high quality colors and then apply a coat of varnish to strengthen the pieces.