Air Drying Clay

[RachA]

Does anyone here have any experience with air drying clay?

What I basically want to know is: do you have to wait for it to dry before painting or do you paint and then let it dry?
How long does it take to dry?
And how much do you reckon I'd need for 90 primary age children to do their hand print?

Thanks.

 

[Jchihuahua]

Daisy did her handprint a few weeks ago. It said it would be dry in 24 hours but it wasn't. It was actually more like 72 hours before it was completely dry but maybe we made the circle she printed her hand on a little too thick. She then painted it when it was completely dry and then when the paint was dry she varnished it with pva and sprinkled glitter on. So all in all it was probably a week long task really.

 

[RachA]

Wow that's longer than I would of expected.

Do you know if anything that us quicker drying? I'm looking for something that can be moulded and then painted straight away.

 

[freckleonear]

The quickest thing would probably be salt dough but even that needs a few hours in the oven.

 

[summer rain]

I would probably go with salt dough, the air drying clay isn't great tbh, very brittle and hard to mould, even if just using for a slab for a hand print it may still break easily. I know play doh air dries pretty quickly if left, might be a bit too soft for a handprint though xx

 

[Abz1982]

Salt dough isbetter. I did emmas hand print in air dry clay and it started to crumble and break up shortly after. I have done Ewans in salt dough for the xmas tree this year.

 

[RachA]

Do you paint the salt dough after it's been cooked or before?

 

[Jchihuahua]

You have to paint it after. I can't think of anything that you could paint before it is dry.

 

[RachA]

Thanks. May have to make a load and cook them before the craft. Basically helping to run a holiday club in feb half term and the children only have 30min for the craft part. Was looking to do something like the Hollywood walk if fame and put a hand print in a star (the theme for the club us Hollywood). Looks like I'm going to be making lots of salt dough stars lol.