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Kayla Tries to Make Hides

KaylaEliuk

KaylaEliuk

New member
So I tried baking soda and cornstarch clay originally, but it cracked to crap when it dried. So I bought Crayola air-dry clay, though I would prefer oven bake. My oven is unfortunately broken, while my stovetop remains functional.
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hypnoctopus said:
Neat. I've used that air dry clay before too. It's pretty useful.
Click to expand...


Have you used it for snake stuff? Has it worked for you? I'm giving it time to dry. I'll probably make some more, but I'm not a very creative person sadly


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Yeah, I've used it for hides several times. It dries pretty quickly, and I have used a clear sealer over top of it once it's dry so that I can clean it.
 
I was planning on picking up some Krylon clearcoat/sealer to use once it dries


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Baby corn snakes usually love toilet paper or paper towel tubes, so I once time wrapped the air dry clay around a paper towel tube (I left the bottom half open and I wrapped the tube in plastic wrap, so I could pull it off easily). I used colorful air dry clay, so it made a much prettier tunnel for a baby snake than a plain paper towel tube.
 
That's a really good idea. I'm planning on painting it before I seal it after it dries. I have non-toxic acrylic paint.
 
I also have another idea for a hide that I think would be pretty cool, but I'm not sure quite how I would do it.
I was thinking like an old fashioned-looking clay jug that would lay on its side and be 'broken' like with a crack in it big enough for the snake (with no sharp edges obviously), but I was thinking of making it like the Snake Caves
http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/snake_cave.php
With a the top part able to be lifted off so I can access my little dude (I have a snake cave and I love it).
I just don't know how I would make it so the lid would stay on. Kinda like how if you don't to a pumpkin lid right, it falls in?
Any suggestions?
 
Ooh that would be neat if you could make that work. Maybe you could make the shape you want and once it's dry, use an xacto knife to cut a lid?
 
A straight cut could potentially make the lid slide off easily. I would suggest working with the clay to see if you can create a locking lid, perhaps with one side deeper and the other shallower, with the reverse on the base so it sits just right. I've seen it done successfully at the local pottery studio, but haven't done it personally. Curved edges may be another solution, too.

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One thing I was thinking would be to make it, and THEN cut it out, with an angle in such a way that the knife would be angled out toward me, leaving the inside cut sloped with the lowest part being the narrowest, like a pumpkin. The only thing is I'm not sure how I would let it dry and have it keep shape.


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It could be tricky. Maybe try an angled cut once it's dry? I'm thinking the angle method you're describing should prevent sliding unless the whole thing gets tipped...and even then, it might still be ok. Try one and see?

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What about using a bowl as a base, mold the clay over it, cut the lid and let it dry over the bowl. When it is dry, just pop it off of the bowl and it should retain its shape.

You could also buy one of the caves to study it and use it as a mold too.
 
Bowls make great molds, but trying to mold on the outside can be problematic. If the clay shrinks as it dries, any clay on the outside will crack and split. It's very simple to mold on the inside, though. You can line a bowl with cling wrap, shape and dry your clay, then sand off any unwanted marks from the plastic wrap. I've used this technique for several years with standard clay (my experience is with low-fire clay), except following drying I can smooth out unwanted marks with water and a sponge.

You can also use any number of other objects made of many kinds of media (plastic, wood, metal, and such) using this technique. It opens up a whole world of options. Have fun!

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Phruit Dish said:
It's very simple to mold on the inside, though. You can line a bowl with cling wrap, shape and dry your clay, then sand off any unwanted marks from the plastic wrap. I've used this technique for several years with standard clay (my experience is with low-fire clay), except following drying I can smooth out unwanted marks with water and a sponge.

You can also use any number of other objects made of many kinds of media (plastic, wood, metal, and such) using this technique. It opens up a whole world of options. Have fun!
Click to expand...

Since I have no access to a kiln, is there a substitute clay that I can use that requires air drying or oven baking? And what to "glaze" it with so it is safe for the kiddos?
 
The stuff I used in this thread is crayola air dry clay. I think the most popularkind of clay for snake stuffis sculpey. You bake that one. The only reason I didn't get that instead was that my oven is broken. The best sealer and primer (this particular clay doesn't like paint, so I bought a primer) would be Krylon. You can get it at Walmart for $5 a can. It's a spray can. My mom had used it on her salt water tank, and EVERYTHING can kill saltwater. So it's completely safe for our scale babies.
 
I'm sorry I haven't responded sooner. I've been looking into possibilities between migraines. :)

My first recommendation would be the crayola stuff above. It's easy to find and I've read several threads here in which others have successfully used it.!

My second thought was paper clay. I've known several people who loved it so much it became their clay of choice. I haven't used it yet, but I found an interesting recipe with exact weights and a video showing how to make it.
http://www.ultimatepapermache.com/new-air-dry-clay-recipe
One note of caution: check the ingredients of the joint compound if you try this one. I know fungicides can be harmful to snakes. Hopefully there are types of joint compound that are snake-safe. I'm betting there's info on that in the DIY section...just can't remember off the top of my head. So this recipe needs a little more research prior to trying it out. Sorry about that.
I'm tempted to try something like this once we have enough junk mail again. My husband likes to throw that stuff in a bunch of water, but I have yet to convince him to make homemade paper or do something equally creative with the remnants yet.

This last type is something I happened upon purely by accident. I'm excited to try this one myself!
http://m.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-Cold-Porcelain-Clay-air-dry-modelling/
And an updated recipe:
http://m.instructables.com/id/Cold-Porcelain-Clay-Beads/
And one more recipe, might be more difficult to find the ingredients and make, but "unbreakable" sure sounds great:
http://www.clay-it-now.com/coldporcelainrecipe.html

They all take time to fully dry, and in my experience, letting a piece dry slower leads to less stress overall and less cracking. You don't want it to take so long to dry that it grows mold, though. There's a fine line between long and too-long.

I also have an idea for using old cardboard. The Starbucks sleeves on cold drinks whose sides have sweat gave me an idea for making a twisty, gnarled old tree in the 20-long viv I'm working on now. I might use some glue or papier-mache medium (flour and water) in that project, depending on how it feels when I start messing around with it. In theory, I should be able to soak cardboard until the fibers are pliable, workable, and may not need anything more than water until I seal it.

...Which reminds me that I haven't looked into sealants yet. That research comes next. Acrylic paint is easy to find, so I'd go with a non-toxic acrylic for paint.

I hope this helps give you some other options, if you're still interested. Good luck, and have fun playing with it! You learn through the process, so even if you lose some work, you've still gained experience. I'll try to post again once I have some info on sealing pieces.
 
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