That moment when you have done all your cut outs, and there is that left over clay, now what do you do with yours? I have heard some people actually bin it ! that’s scandalous in my eyes – a big NO …
Now you could wrap it and store it, which is what I believe most crafters do – me included most of the time, but sometimes I like to make something with the left overs, little bits that I know will save me lots of time later on, with other projects – its nice when I need to embellish something, and I can think to myself “oo I know I have something that I can use for this, that I made the other week with clay off cuts”
Another advantage for doing this is I already have my hands covered in clay, my work bench is set up for clay work and I already have my clay tools out, so its a win – win situation really.
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I will cover how I paint / decorate my beads etc in a future blog – I also make different shaped beads, although in this video it was plain round beads in assorted sizes, I don’t measure them out, its all just done at random. But of course if you want to be more precise you can – its just not the way I work.
Wrapping & Storing
Now if you do simply want to wrap and store your clay this is way I wrap and store mine and I have never had a problem of it drying out.
First I roll into large balls ( depends how much off cuts you have it may just be one ball)
Then I push my thumb in to make a well in the centre
I put a drop or two of water in to this well (depending again on the size of the ball
Seal the hole hole up by squeezing and pushing the clay over the opening
And then finally put all your balls of clay into a plastic bag, I then put this bag into ‘ANOTHER’ bag
These I then store inside a lidded plastic box ( mine also contains all my clay tools and cutters. And stored NOT in direct sunlight.
I find I can leave my clay for weeks or even months as I do lots of other crafts in between, and the clay has always been good to go when I get it out again.
Clay and Tools I Use
My favourite Air Dry Clay to use is DAS which I get here from Amazon it comes in 3 different colours: White, Terracotta and Stone, if I am making something with rustic vibes I tend to go for terracotta, if I am going to be painting my clay I will use white or stone they are all good I would suggest you try all off them over time.
You can see some essential oil diffusers I made here – with DAS air dry clay
My go to Clay tools can be seen here on my tools and materials page