Clay is a very special material and also very versatile, so clay sculpture is a way to work on several skills at the same time: molding and painting are the main ones.

In this way, it is verified in therapy and pedagogy environments that doing this type of work with clay can bring great well-being to your health, in addition to developing creativity, skill and a lot of technique.

Sculpting clay is being free to create shapes, with a professional objective or not, any shape is welcome, if the intention is perfection of technique, it is super important to maintain discipline and practice sculpting clay in a practical way.

With time and skill, you will be able to make many different shapes and designs, innovating, efficiently, improving your work more and more.

Soon, in a short time you will be able to create wonderful crafts in clay, you will be able to decorate your house and even make an extra income for yourself.

What materials are used to create clay sculpture?

The main materials to make a beautiful clay sculpture are: clay, water, a stick and acrylic paint or ceramic glaze, so you can pigment and decorate your sculpture. You can also use a template so that you can start with a base shape to start modeling the rest. There are also several other materials that help in the formation of sculpture, such as modeling tools.
At home, it is natural that you can easily find some modeling objects, such as cookie cutters, brushes, rolling pin, all used to knead pieces of clay when there is a need to use these modeling objects.

The clay must be hydrated and when it is not, it is necessary to use water to help model, use the water slowly, and a spray bottle can help you model little by little.

Finally, for those who don’t know, the stilt is a narrow wooden instrument, which serves both to scrape and remove irregularities from the surfaces of the sculpture when the clay is almost dry.

The stick also serves to create designs over and around the surface of the clay sculpture by scratching it with this instrument.

What is the best type of clay for sculpting?

The most used clays are gray and brown clay, made with water. You can buy the hydrated mass or buy the clay powder and mix it with water.

Easy clay sculpture ideas to make

Animal figures are very initial for this technique, some quite used are birds, fish, cat and dog. Plants, flowers, are also figures that can be made based on a simple image, and depending on the type of flora chosen.

Video step by step to do sculpture

This video covers some very basic clay sculpting techniques for those just learning how clay works. These techniques will be used for the creature sculpt lesson in our 3D class.
Check out these great videos also exploring sculpture!