Softening Firm Dry Clay
With many of the designs in both my Shapes & Fan Fold books, there will be a lot of pressure on the clay to stretch and potentially crack as you manipulate the clay into its three dimensional form.
Do a simple test. Take the conditioned clay which you intend to use for your project, roll out a sheet on the medium setting of your pasta machine and fold it in half. Do you see cracks developing? If so here are several suggestions:
With many of the designs in both my Shapes & Fan Fold books, there will be a lot of pressure on the clay to stretch and potentially crack as you manipulate the clay into its three dimensional form.
Do a simple test. Take the conditioned clay which you intend to use for your project, roll out a sheet on the medium setting of your pasta machine and fold it in half. Do you see cracks developing? If so here are several suggestions:
- Be sure your clay is well conditioned and ideally not old stock that has been in storage for a long time.
- Add liquid clay or Sculpey Clay Softener to your clay to soften it up. I create a thin sheet from my clay. Drizzle on some some liquid clay or a few drops of the clay softener. Fold the sheet encasing the liquid. Then I put it through the pasta machine repeatedly. Note it can be messy so add the liquids in small amounts. Once it has been well distributed, let it sit for an hour or so and try your folding test again.
- Add a little translucent clay to your clay. Translucent clay tends to be softer than the coloured clays. It won't change the intended colour of your clay but may reduce the colour intensity.
- Try making the piece a bit thinner to see if that helps to reduce the cracking.
- For my Fan Fold designs, keep the folds soft rather than a sharp crease as you'd do with paper. If you are finding cracking on the folds only after mica powders have been applied, use one of the above methods to soften up the clay and apply only a light coating of powders - just enough to prevent sticking. Then create your folded sheet and follow up with another application of mica powders to ensure good coverage.
- If your cracking is fairly minor, you can try to save the piece by adding liquid clay to the cracked area. Wait a few minutes to let it soften up then perform some mending as best you can.
