Clay Creatures

There’s a terrific sculpting medium known as polymer clay. You can buy it in any art store, under a variety of trade names like Fimo or Sculpey. This stuff is brightly colored, easy to mix, and easy to work. It’s non-toxic and safe for kids. Best of all, you can fire it in your home oven!

I love just pulling out some of this and making stuff, with no plan. Sometimes I’ll put together some kind of armature, or skeleton, usually with toothpicks and crumpled-up aluminum foil. That way I can just put a thin layer of clay around the form. This gives the piece much more stability and strength, and also means I don’t have to waste a lot of this expensive clay where it can’t be seen!

Here are some of the creatures I’ve made. Click on any of them for a closer look, or a gallery of them all.