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Newbie Question: Is Modeling Clay Good "practice" Clay?


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Hey guys, I found a few of the books you guys recommended to me, and I'm wanting to try my hand at hand-making a small tea service.  I don't intend to put these pieces in my kiln, they are strictly for practice as I find my preferred workflow.  However, I do NOT want to have to buy ceramic clay because it's quite expensive for my needs right now.  (I don't need to be buying expensive clay when I don't even intend to fire the pieces I make yet.)

 

My local Walmart has a 10-pound block of modeling clay for sale for around 6 bucks.  I was thinking of trying that out for my practice pieces.  What do you guys think?  Is modeling clay a good practice clay when you don't intend to fire your pieces?

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It behaves totally different from pottery clay. Certainly you can test your sculpting skills which would be close to what we might call pinching clay, but I don't see it as an introduction to much of the ceramic world.

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If your 20kg (44 lbs) box of clay comes to $28, that's 63 cents/pound, as opposed to 60 cents per pound. Not really a lot more expensive. Clay can be recycled unless it's been fired. Modelling clay doesn't behave the same way that regular clay does. It attaches differently, and it doesn't shrink while drying. Learning how the material behaves is probably 90% of what you're trying to figure out in the beginning. Go with the real deal.

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You can recycle your real clay....use it over and over.  There are lots of discussions on the forum about recycling clay.  Check it out.  When you search the forum, make sure to start form the main menu, not while you are in a topic.

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Those tools look to sharp for a beginner in clay.   If you don't have any money there are things in your home you can use.  Pop sickle stick, old credit card for rib, kitchen sponge, table knife, spoon, fork.  You don't have to worry about tools that much you are working with your hands,  I would check out a book from the Library on handbuilding  to get started.   Denice

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Those aren't sculpting tools. Those knives would be better for linocut printing, or making those super fancy paper cuts.

You need to find out how hot that kiln gets before you buy your clay. It looks like it might be a glass slumping kiln for jewelry. Glass melts at a much lower temperature than clay fires to, and a glass kiln won't get hot enough to fire clay.

+ one for finding some books at your library, or better yet, a class. Some in-person instruction is invaluable, and will save you a huge amount of frustration.

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Amaco makes a great white air dried clay called versa clay #20. It can be fired if you want but doesn't need to be. You should able to find it in 25 pound boxes for not much money and it is real clay that can be recycled and will feel more like most other clays than modeling clay.

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real clay is shaped with softer tools than the knives shown. forming involves a shaping movement rather than a gouging or carving movement.

 

try some real clay.  if you live somewhere near a classroom situation, ask an instructor for recycled clay if you really cannot afford clay out of a box.  see the posts about making a plastic box to save pieces in a damp state.  a little plaster in the bottom of a shoebox will keep your real clay in a workable state.  look for "damp box".

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After some time reading and doing the lessons and/or examples you will be buying the stuff you need as you go. Most of the 'how tos' I have read start you out with enough information so you can decide if you want to fire low fire/high fire. Once you decide that then you can get the right stuff to match up to that. Each firing range low, med (cone 6) & high (cone 10+) has all kinds of differences meaning buying all different stuff, everything, clay, glaze, kiln, all of it is determined by what firing temp you work in. Since you mentioned a tea set then I would guess you will end up firing cone 6 or higher.

 

I agree ur kin that looks like a jewelry kiln and probably won't work for pottery no matter what firing range you pick. We have one that goes to 1800 and that can not really even bisque fire and I don't think even do many of the low fire glazes. Certainly couldn't do functional ware like tea sets.

 

Don't worry about the cost once you have a kiln and wheel or slab roller. The clay and glaze are the cheap part of the deal. A $20 coffee mug is about $1 worth of materials (1 pound of clay and glaze) at most and probably closer to 75 cents. Making a tea set and firing will only cost a few dollars max. The big investment is your time and you need practice with the rest of the process through the kiln twice and out to a finished piece and these early pieces you make will help you learn these additional processes.

 

Good luck and have fun.

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