My new love is not fabric.
I have been playing with fabric for as long as I can remember.
As a child I always asked for – and got – those craft kits for Christmas. All through the 1970s I painted by numbers, scraped foil and wound string around nails – and of course, there were Pippa dolls to make clothes and furnishings for.
I got taught to knit and didn’t like it. I tried crochet and got in a tangle. But when someone bought me a patchwork kit from Laura Ashley I knew with the certainty of the very young that I had found craft heaven.
Those lovely little flowery fabric hexagons and their corresponding bits of card were soon used up, and I was reduced to begging mum’s dressmaking leftovers and cutting up old birthday cards in order to complete the patchwork quilt I had decided it was my life’s work to produce. (I actually finished that quilt when I left university – you can read the full story and see it here.)
Yes, fabric is my first love; I still get a thrill from it every single day.
But I have found a new love.
Clay.
In all my crafty childhood endeavours I never played with clay.
Too messy I suppose; my mum no doubt vetoed it, thinking of her carpets.
My sister and I did have Plasticine though; once, one long-ago Christmas afternoon whilst the grown-ups were sleeping off their dinner, we made an entire circus out of just Plasticine and coloured foil wrappers from a large tin of Quality Street. (I got my sister to make the sign for the Big Top – her spelling wasn’t the best back then and it proudly read “Biley Smat’s Circus”, which I thought was just brilliant.)
So anyway, apart from my past proficiency with Plasticine, I am a clay virgin. Or at least, I was until this week.
I sent off for a large packet of modelling clay the size of a brick. When it arrived I put it away in a cupboard, not being quite ready to get intimately acquainted with it. Numerous Pinterest searches, You Tube tutorials and Facebook group discussions later, I decided I was ready.
I got it out and started squidging.
And, oh! What fun it is! Just like being little again and getting a new packet of Plasticine!
Well, sort of, nearly. This stuff sets, which Plasticine didn’t. And just like working with fabric, modelling clay has it’s own collection of idiosyncrasies and requirements and techniques and frustrations to familiarise myself with. At times it’s like learning to walk all over again, when all I want to do is run and run and run.
And yes, I know my first attempt looks a bit like ET in a bonnet, but I don’t care. I love her.
Things have gone wrong. There have been cracks, and some stuff has ended up in the bin.
I need to learn to paint. There are further supplies and equipment I could do with. Not having had any art training I’m finding it tricky to work out exactly what I do need. But there has been such fun in the learning when things start to go right. There are so many possibilities to experiment with…
Like feet. And shoes. And faces. And antlers (which I’ve wanted to do for ages, but haven’t been able to get them right just using fabric)…
I am as yet in the first flush of my new love. Perhaps just a teensy bit infatuated, I think. Who knows if it will last?
Actually, who cares? Summer is a good time to experiment and have fun – the clay dries quickly and the days are light and long for painting and just messing about.
Don’t worry – I haven’t abandoned my first love.
I may be in the throes of a summer romance, but luckily the new object of my affections seems to be able to handle a ménage à trois with me and fabric. ♥
P.S. Please excuse the rather varied quality of my photographs – I have just been bought a beast of a camera and I have not yet worked out quite how to tame it. But that’s a story for another day… ♥
How lovely! I did a lot of ceramics work during my degree course, and if I can pass on just two things, it’s to stop before you’re tired or about to be in a rush, and wrap. In fact, wrapping’s the single most important thing. A well-damped cloth without too much texture or lint, and if the weather’s hot, put the work in the fridge. I can’t wait to see what fantastic creatures are going to emerge from your new medium!
Thanks Kate! I’m working with air-drying paper clay, so yes – the wrapping and wetting is super important as otherwise it dries before I get chance to finish shaping it. I’ve got the main block in a ziplock bag inside an old plastic ice-cream tub, from which I take out a little chunk which I keep wrapped in clingfilm while I work.
The main drawback to clay I’ve found is that it takes so bloomin’ long to get the final finish as smooth as I want it – but then, I am a perfectionist!
Try waiting till it’s super-dry and using a very fine grit sandpaper for a lovely smooth finish. I’ve found it works well with paper clay.
Thanks! I’ve yet to find fine enough sandpaper to buy anywhere near me; I’ve been using a block nail file which has different grades of emery paper on each side, but it’s not flexible enough to get around curves or into tight corners. Might have to enlist the other half to take me in the car to a DIY centre to see what they have. We are not very well equipped in Nottingham with hobby / craft outlets – one branch of Hobbycraft which is expensive and not very good.
adorable! This fits in with your style so well. If I remember right, you live in Sherwood? They do pottery classes at The Place – one day classes and longer courses, including hand building. I know it’s not the same sort of clay but it could be helpful?
Thanks Wendy! I live up the hill from Sherwood in Mapperley. When I decided I wanted to have a go at adding clay details to my dolls I looked around for any classes that might be helpful to me as a beginner, but there aren’t any at all that deal with dollmaking – apart from online.
I have found a very friendly and helpful Facebook group though, whose members (who are scattered across the globe) are very generous in sharing their knowledge and techniques.