Why Didn't Someone Tell Me About Paperclay!?!

[deborah6]

Love paper clay. I find it reclaims extremely well. My big tip is: When you you're done creating...roll out your leftover clay as thin as possible and lay it out to dry in wavy slabs, it'll dry pretty fast (maybe turn it over every so often). When bone dry, break it up and toss it into a bag, bin whatever storage you want. This alleviates storing wet paper clay which gets moldy and very smelly. When you need clay, add water like you normally would do to reclaim any clay, and since you rolled it thin, and is filled with paper pulp it reconstitutes really fast. I came up with this solution after the other folks I shared a studio with starting yelling at me about the smell!

[oddartist]

So far my only complaints are:

1. It's addictive.
2. Tried re-bisqueing a mask that had come loose from the base (all the same paperclay), which I had tried to reattach with more paperclay. Did not work at all. Came loose again immediately.
3. I have to babysit the fully-open garage during the burn-out stage so the neighbors don't panic and call the Fire Department. Curious as to what this might do to the kiln coils. I don't put the plugs in until it quits smelling like a campfire.

Cool things I've discovered:

1. I can roll it out thin and use scissors to cut shapes when it's partially dried. Almost like cutting thick felt.
2. I can forget to cover something I'm working on or even save pieces of a failed attempt that is bone dry and all it takes is a few spritzes of water to bring it back to life.
3. It dries quickly enough to provide a solid backbone for delicate sculpture.

[AndreaB]

Yet another use? Could it be used to make sprigs and attaching to regular clay thrown items?

[Mug]

My suggestion to anyone who works with paperclay is to figure out what the minimum amount of any given fiber is needed to do what you need to do. For commercially prepared material you could add more clay. Some manufactures will make it the way you want. I found that for my sculptural work less fiber is better. I like to mix my own as needed a day a head of time and see a benefit from leaving it set overnight before use..