Using the unexpected for a drying holder - Tip #6 by LeeAnn Kress

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.  Thanks for stopping by the Creative Paperclay® Blogsite.  My tip today comes from an artist and dear friend of mine, Carly Smith of Boggy Bottom Bayou.  We were talking about drying our sculpted Creative Paperclay® heads in a low temperature oven and how we have to prop them up in various ways.  Carly shared the below pictures with me and I thought that I would pass this tip on to you.

It is such an unexpected holder ... a cardboard drink tray from a fast food restaurant.  Who would have thought that such a simple thing could work perfectly to hold your sculpted heads in?

Here you can see how Carly used this tray.  She is sculpting her sweet bat heads for Halloween and using the tray to hold the heads in place for drying.

Now, I would not suggest putting anything paper in your oven unless you are going to keep a good eye on it.  This oven was set at 150 degrees ( a very low temp as to not burn up the holder).  These heads were baked for 1 hour to dry.

If you don't want to bake your paper clay heads, you can still get one of these handy drink holders to hold your heads while the clay dries naturally.  It is really a perfect tool to prevent any smashing of facial features.  

In the above picture (the two heads in the back) - the facial features are already dry, so Carly turned them face down to dry the backs of the heads.  The head that is face up had some cracks repaired to the facial features, so it is turned up. 

Off in the oven they go at the low temp of 150 degrees.

 

Here is Carly's finished bat head.  To see more of Carly's work go to www.boggybottombayou.blogspot.com   Thanks for letting me share your tip, Carly!  

Just goes to show that you can find tools to add to your Creative Paperclay® toolbox just about anywhere!  Keep your eyes open for them.

To find out more about me and my Charmed Confections made from Creative Paperclay®, please visit me at www.charmedconfections.com

See you soon with a new tutorial!  LeeAnn