Homemade Christmas gift - Is this lame??

[s7714]

Yep, I visited the new Michael's in Moorpark during it's grand opening actually. But I've got both Beverly's and Joann's literally about a block away from me...so close it's dangerous really. :)

Jennifer

Annalia 03/03/03

[luvbeinmama]

LOL! I know what you mean. Those stores are all totally dangerous. I could get lost in there for weeks at a time! :P

[calebsmama03]

We do have JoAnn's here, but if Fimo is harder than sculpey it's probably not worth it. I had planned on doing this but when I felt the sculpey at Michael's a few weeks ago it felt too hard to use for handprints. Let me know if you find something that works!
Lynne
Mommy to Caleb 3/3/03

[s7714]

Here's my review of the new clay I tried:
It's called Makin's Clay and it is definitely a lot softer than the Sculpey and Fimo. I bought two of the large packages, and thought at first I was going to get four ornaments, but when DD made her hand prints, the heel of her palm pressed almost completely through the clay, so I had to redo them, this time making three slightly thicker ones instead of four. I still had to press DD's hand pretty firmly into the clay to get her whole handprint. The fingers and palm heel are easy, but the upper portion of the palm was still a little hard to get a good impression of.

This clay air-dries instead of baking. According to the package, it can dry within 24 hours depending on the thickness, but doesn't give a time per mm/cm or anything. My ornaments are about a 1/4" thick and have been drying for several days now and still have a little way to go. (Although I should mention I had them sitting in the coldest room of the house for a couple days...as soon as I moved them to a warmer room they started showing a lot faster drying. :P )

One negative I noticed about this clay is that after they had been drying for a little bit, I noticed some hairline cracking showing where I'm assuming the separate pieces didn't adhere to each other was well as I'd thought when kneading it. But, I have a feeling they'll be hard to see after I sand the edges and get them painted. Perhaps with a little more thorough kneading that wouldn’t happen.

I say give this clay a try if you can find it. According to their website ( www.makinsclay.com ), it is sold at a lot of Michael’s stores. I bought mine at Beverly’s. I’m still debating on how I’m going to go about decorating mine, but I’ll post a picture as soon as I get them done (need to get them done soon! Aaarrrggghhh! Not…ready…for…Christmas…just…yet….)

Jennifer

Annalia 03/03/03

[new_mommy25]

How did your Makins clay project turn out? Any more cracking? I do love Fimo and Sculpey but you're right, it is a bit of a pita. You have to massage it for a long time to make it soft.