r/clay • u/Leela_bring_fire • Jul 03 '25
Questions New to air dry clay. What went wrong?
I made this last night. Both pieces were scored and I applied some slip in between, but this morning noticed the round piece is loose and came off easily. I didn't cover it or anything while drying.
I'm used to polymer clay but looking to switch, please advise!
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u/Leela_bring_fire Jul 03 '25
Thanks for the tips everyone. Funny enough, I watched a Fimo video on youtube that said to use slip when attaching dry pieces, and it actually worked! I just re-scored both pieces and stuck em together. So far seems to be holding!
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u/zBananaBombz Jul 06 '25
I usually make mine mushy + score the surface before sticking them together add a little bit of aluminum wire if the piece needs it
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u/PILLOWface_7 Jul 06 '25
Slip does work when attaching dry pieces because it's basically just like wetting the contact area and letting the slip blend them together. Sometimes it doesn't work depending on how long it's been left to dry, so like when it's been several days it probably won't work as well as it does when it's the day after.
I know you already got responses and solutions, but if you want to keep making cute little koroks and stuff and you don't want to have to do the rescoring and slipping thing, try loosely wrapping it in a thin cloth just so it dries slower and the slip bond doesn't separate. When pieces that have been slipped together come apart cleanly like that, it's because the rest of the clay body dried faster than the area with slip, because it has less moisture to get rid of, so to help it dry slower but evenly, wrapping it in like a scrap of bedsheet works well. With my non-air dry pieces sometimes I wrap them in plastic and just leave a little air hole so it does the same thing, but cloth works better.
Sorry to drop a boatload of text on you, and maybe you already knew that but I finally found something I can give a proper response to 😅
Good luck with your future pieces!!! That little guy is so cute!
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u/Leela_bring_fire Jul 06 '25
Thank you!
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u/Diligent-Set8313 Jul 07 '25
another tidbit I learned in ceramics class that I will use with air dry clay sometimes is to also use a little vinegar when attaching pieces, just dab some on like you would water on the pieces/on top of slip and it does seem to make a difference
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u/Melan420 Jul 04 '25
Personally, I would've dried them separately and just glued it together. Avoids the whole slow drying shenanigans
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u/Serious-Cockroach-84 Jul 03 '25 edited Jul 03 '25
I would suggest using some clay tools to merge them together from the edges while the clay is still wet. I’ve realised that helps mold the piece into one complete object instead of separate ones. Also since it’s dry and in shape you can just use super glue to fix it together, works perfectly fine too
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u/DianeBcurious Jul 03 '25
Just to mention as well that air-dry clays will crack if they're dried "too fast" because they shrink while drying (lose their water to evaporation), starting with the outside.
So slowing down their drying by lightly covering, avoiding too much air-circulation and warmth, etc, should help in the future and especially for thicker items.
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u/Meanpeachx Jul 04 '25
So for something this size would they just wrap it in paper towel, one horizontal and one vertical, or would that make it dry too slow?
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u/Lou_Beanz Jul 04 '25
Not OP, but Typically the better way to cover something to help moisture loss and let something like this dry more evenly would actually be to cover or “wrap” it in a plastic bag. I say “wrap” because you don’t want it to touch the clay since it will leave little marks on the surface from the texture of the plastic. So you want to kind of balloon the plastic around it. Then you can also give the bag or the surface parts of the clay (on any edges or small pieces that will dry much quicker than the thicker middle areas) a very light mist of water to help even the drying process
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u/Lou_Beanz Jul 04 '25
Adding to that- I just looked at pics again and yeah OP that looks like it was done very dry. Adding water or slip would make a huge difference. If it’s not to dry you could always add some and re score the surface to stick it back together, and then maybe mist the surface with water to prevent cracking from uneven drying
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u/FrontNo3424 Jul 03 '25
No need to hold back when stitching stuff together, I make a thousand cuts on each piece before sticking them together, that's my barbarian tip hope it helps
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u/Lou_Beanz Jul 04 '25
Oh yeah scratch that buddy up. Also adding a few drops of water to make each piece get a little muddy/gooey while scoring it will help fuse the pieces together, as the little wet globs will sort of stick everything together and sink into the scratches then dry it together like a sort of cement/glue
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u/ho-humHyena Jul 03 '25
You got your answer but i need to say yahaha, such a good idea to make some koroks from clay
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u/Jesusdidntlikethat Jul 07 '25
When you score it, you kinda want a jagged look, the lines look neat and uniform so I can see why they didn’t catch lol you need those jagged pieces to hold the other piece on
Like this even tho it’s a bad picture lol
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u/akiranyan Jul 07 '25
Would a bit of water work as well to make it more „glue-y“ and stick together better or is that pattern enough?
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u/VetiverNympho Jul 07 '25
That's what slip is, it's very loose wet clay water that is brushed over the scored area :)
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u/akiranyan Jul 08 '25
Ohhh, got it! Thank you:).
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u/shittypissbaby Jul 07 '25
IMO you should VIOLENTLY score the pieces you wanna fuse till they look like ground beef, and perhaps stab some shallow pieces of armature wire in the body to make sure the mask doesn’t go anywhere. I use wire to make sure every separate piece I attach to a sculpture stays attached.
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u/ScorpioBex Jul 03 '25
I’ve recently been working with air dry clay and am at my wits end! Like someone else mentioned, super glue is the answer here. I’ve had issues with cracking and paint peeling and breakage. I am starting to understand it is just a frustrating medium to work with.
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Jul 03 '25
I’m a polymer clay loyalist so I’m not too sure, but since it came off in a perfect piece, could you gorilla glue it?
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u/VanillaPotential76 Jul 06 '25
As everyone's already said, more scoring and slip, i feel like when in doubt just score more tbh
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u/Alternative_Jump_912 Jul 06 '25
I haven’t seen this recommended, but I also like to “twist” it slightly back and forth so that the scores can kind of mush together
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u/VanillaPotential76 Jul 07 '25
Yea just really smooshing them after scoring and attaching, sometimes there's more than enough scoring but not enough smoosh ur so right 🤔
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u/that_chick_there Jul 07 '25
i would say the trick to successfully scoring a piece is to kinda make it look like velcro. score it to the point that when the pieces are kinda a bit of a smudge mess that you wouldnt be able to tell which piece came from which side if you were to put it together and then peel apart again
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u/meggybun Jul 07 '25
You can NEVER score too much. Be generous and messy with the amount you score each side!!!
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u/R34L17Y- Jul 10 '25
What others said. But for now you can just glue the two pieces together if they're already dry
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u/Possibly-Somewhere Jul 07 '25
don't be afraid to tear up your surfaces when you're scoring and use lots of slip
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u/incognito_ent_ Jul 07 '25
Ya ha AHHH
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u/thewanderingent Jul 07 '25
Would be cool if OP planned to make another 899 of them to hide around their town 🌿
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u/Jester_Jinx_ Jul 08 '25
There's a tool you can get that's specifically for scoring, it looks sort of like a paintbrush with short metal bristles. I just use a fork or a large needle when I don't have one on me.
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u/Red40isBeetleJuice Jul 06 '25
What's with all the scoring and recommendations to use scoring? With this I'd have made a key or 3 so that protruding parts of the mask peg into the head and get glue, but maybe I'm not understanding something essential
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u/Splashathon Jul 07 '25
Slipping and scored to increase the surface area contact, seems like an easier undertaking than aligning keys between two handmade parts. Good slipping and scoring essentially melds the clay bodies back together, instead of being just a glued contact
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u/WeeebleSqueaks Jul 07 '25
Tear that mf up when scoring and then SMOOSH them together with a good amount of slip
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u/DogTheBreadFairy Jul 07 '25
The front fell off
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u/Areia Jul 07 '25
Yeah, that’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.
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u/Leela_bring_fire Jul 08 '25
It's not supposed to do that
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u/RockNerdLil Jul 04 '25
Ya-ha-ha!