As interest in air dry clay grows, I have been seeing lots of advice offered on how to sculpt with this very accessible artistic medium. Most of this advice is very practical and sound, but some of it is just not applicable to air dry clay at all. It is possible that some of these well-meaning folks have experience working with ceramic clay, which requires certain techniques, but are unnecessary for air dry clay.
I'm going to outline 3 common misconceptions I see when working with air dry clay. I will discuss how they relate to ceramic techniques, and why we can safely ignore them when working with air dry clay.
Disclaimer: "air dry clay" is a term applied to hundreds of products. The advice below is specific to the air dry clays I have experience with. Read about air dry clays for artists to find out more. Not all air dry clays are created the same, so results may vary between brands.
Here are some things you do with ceramic clay, but can safely ignore when using air dry clay.
A ceramic sculpture double wrapped in plastic to prevent drying.
Urban Legend #1 Keep air dry clay moist in order to continue working on it
Ensuring your artwork in progress is moist can involve things like wrapping it up in plastic or even adding a slightly damp fabric wrap to prevent drying.
Why you do this with ceramic: Once ceramic has reached a certain level of dryness, you cannot add any new clay to that piece or modify it. It will simply crack or break off. To keep the clay workable, you need to keep it from drying out.
Why you can ignore this advice: There are no issues with adding new air dry clay to already dry or even partially dry air dry clay. In fact, I actually advise artists to work on their air dry clay sculptures in layers, letting each one dry before moving on to the next layer.
These two halves of a ceramic sculpture are prepared to have the slip applied.
Urban Legend #2: Use slip to attach pieces of air dry clay together
Slip is basically just clay made more liquid. You then scratch either side of the clay pieces you want to join together (so you create grooves for the slip), spread slip on them, and then join the pieces together.
Why you do this with ceramic: ceramic clay is very temperamental in terms of water content and drying. If are you joining together pieces of clay that differ in moisture level, putting slip between them helps to even out the moisture difference and helps the sculpture to dry evenly.
Why you can ignore this advice: Similar to the point above, air dry clay will not crack when attached to dry or partially dry clay (as long as it's attached properly). Also, adding more water to an air dry clay piece can actually increase the likelihood of cracks.
Ceramic pieces inside a "drying cupboard" at my local studio.
Urban Legend #3: Slow dry your air dry clay art to prevent cracks
To dry a clay piece slowly, most people will cover the piece with plastic and let it dry for several days/weeks depending on the size.
Why you do this with ceramic: Ceramic clay can get cracks easily, and cracks are not typically repairable. One technique to avoid cracks is to dry ceramic slowly so that the moisture levels in the whole piece remain the same.
Why you can ignore this advice: This may be hard to hear, but your air dry clay will likely crack. Fortunately, unlike ceramic, you can easily add new air dry clay into those cracks and move on. This is one of the biggest advantages of air dry clay: it can be dried very quickly, which means you can make more art! :)
A sculpture made from wire and air dry clay, using none of the techniques above ;)
Looking over this list, I can see that most of these techniques are the result of concerns about air dry clay cracking. I wrote a whole blog post on that several years ago that might be illuminating for those just getting into air dry clay art: Drying air dry clay effectively.
The moral of today's story is that air dry clay is not ceramic clay. And that's a good thing. While you may have been making things harder for yourself in the past, you can ignore the things you don't need, and fully enjoy the benefits of air dry clay.
What's Next?
Discover ways to make ceramic art at home without your own kiln
Find out what kind of homewares are suitable for air dry clay