Tips on using DAS air dry clay Posted by cvermont on Sep 10, 2012
I'm using DAS clay for the first time. One tip says use water and another says don't. I get a cracked looking surface. Any tips would be helpful.
Re: Tips on using DAS air dry clay Posted by Billy D. Fuller on Sep 10, 2012
Have not used that brand.


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Re: Tips on using DAS air dry clay Posted by Shawn on Sep 10, 2012
I have not use Das but if it is anything like Creative Paper Clay then it is not so much that you are using water with it but that your layer is too thick or varied in thickness.  If I use too thick a layer of CPC then it cracks so I try to build up my layers or I simply go back in and fill the cracks once the initial layer is dry. Some sites suggest that with air dry clays you try to keep all your layers the same thickness. You can accomplish this by using fillers. Check out my tutorial on the Carnival puppets I made. I sculpted the bulk of the head out of a dense close cell styro foam and then added my details with CPC.

Also I sometimes get craking is I add something on to a layer that is already dry. For example I create the base layers then add a nose. In this case I use white glue applied to the dry layer and add my nose on top of that. This seems to help some.

You don't want to rush the drying process. Often I am impatient so I speed the process by placing in a very low dry oven or out in the sun.  This almost always creates cracks but they are easily filled in.   To slow the process of drying you can place in a cool room and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Don't seal it completely just cover lightly.

Adding too much water into the mix can create cracking simply because you have watered out the binding agent. That is one reason for the introduction of white glue into the mix like I mentioned above. Even when working with wet layers I often use white glue between each while sculpting.
Re: Tips on using DAS air dry clay Posted by Rikka on Sep 11, 2012
Oh, it has been years since I used DAS... But I used a bit of water (not too much, mind you) to good effect (smoothening). But what Shawn said it true- it reacts very badly to fast drying processes. It could be, though, that the recipy has changed since I used it last. It's been 25 years or so.
Re: Tips on using DAS air dry clay Posted by cvermont on Sep 11, 2012
The store where  I bought the DAS is an hour and a half from my home in northern Vermont. It's small with not many choices. I'm trying different things to make the hands and feet for my marionettes out of. Now I'm making sort of a wire skeleton, then covering that with wax which I then wrap with florists tape.
I bend the hand the way I want it. Then paint and varnish it. I am trying the clay mostly because I ran out of the super low melting temp. modeling wax I had leftover from making jewelry for 30 yrs. I'm thinking of trying the clay over the wire. Thanks for the tips.
Re: Tips on using DAS air dry clay Posted by Carlos Guarda de Cadeia on Sep 11, 2012
I used DAS many times when I restored picture frames for a living. The trick is to let it dry slowly, and when it's almost dry I used a mix of a little bit of water and woodglue to give it a last coat. There can (will) be little cracks when it's completely dry, but than just give it an other coat. This way it worked for me...(and the goldleaf finished it of back than).
Re: Tips on using DAS air dry clay Posted by cvermont on Sep 11, 2012
That cracking on the surface is the problem I had. Thanks for the thined glue coat tip.
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