Pottery, clay, question please help.?

Question

I was wondering if there is any kinda of clay out there that dont require you to need a kilm (sp?). Id like to start making things out of clay by hand, not on a wheel...and not sure what to buy. Is there any clay out there that you can bake or just use airdry? I know they have some of the jewlery making clay that can be baked but im wanting to make bowels and such. Any info would be great and thank you.

Answer 1

Michaels sells some nice air dry clay, my fav is the porcelin air dry clay. They have all kinds though :)

Answer 2

you could buy Crayola Air-Dry Clay also they have all kind of air dry clay at craft stores also you could use polymer clay witch you just bake it. Here is how you can make a bowel with polymer clay

http://www.ehow.com/how_2286794_make-pol...

Answer 3

Try this...

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_paper/a...

Answer 4

Sorry to say you can't make bowls  and such , they won't be food safe unless you fire them in the Kiln . If you use them in decorative way , it's ok then . Air dry clay is available at Michael's ;)))

Answer 5

You can make decorative bowls from various clays, especially if you won't be eating from them.

You can use an air dry clay, then seal it with a clear sealer (if you hdn't didn't already painted it with a permanent paint, acrylic for example,  which would have sealed it too).

Polymer clays are automatically waterproof so need no sealing (and you can defnitely make bowls from them) ...on the off-chance that *all* of the plasticizer hasn't been hardened once they're baked in the oven (home oven, temp 230-275 F usually), they're not eaten from directly.  Some people decorate the *back* of glass bowls and plates though if they want to actually eat from polymer clay bowls/plates.

Polymer clay is often used for making jewelry of all types, but it can also be used for loads of other things small to quite large (...for example sculpting, making vessels, making veneers on *all kinds* of things like pens/eggs/boxes/etc,  book covers and mini-books, toys, frames, mosaics, faux materials (like faux wood/metal/jade/pearl/etc,) and *loads* more things!

If you're in the U.S.  the brands of polymer clay you might see would be Fimo (FimoClassic and FimoSoft), Premo, Kato Polyclay, Sculpey (boxed white Sculpey, flesh-colored boxed SuperSculpey, gray SuperSculpey-Firm, individual packages of colored Sculpey III), and perhaps Cernit.  Some of those brands or lines aren't as strong as others after baking though in any *thin* or projecting areas so wouldn't be good for bowls, so I'd go with Kato Polyclay, FimoClassic, Premo,  Cernit, and FimoSoft in that order (or SuperSculpey-Firm if you just want to paint over the baked clay).

You can find lots of info and lessons on making bowls, boxes, and other vessels with polymer clay (in various ways), as well as links to many examples of them, on this page of my polymer clay "encyclopedia":

http://glassattic.com/polymer/vessels.ht...

And there's lots more about "covering" other items with clay to create everything from bowls to votive candleholders to Altoids tins, etc., etc. on this page:

http://glassattic.com/polymer/covering.h...

P.S.  If you want to ask more questions here about using polymer clay, be sure to use the words "polymer clay" (or one of the brand names) in your subject line to get more people looking at your question.  

Or if you use an air-dry clay or an epoxy clay, use those words or specific brands in your subject line.

HTH,

Diane B.