This week for the clay 101 post we are going to talk about chalks and similar products that you can use to color the outside of you clay projects. If you have watched my clay videos you have most likely seen me use my set of artist chalks. I use them every time I make a baked item and for a lot of other items as well.
All of the products we are talking about today are applied to raw clay and become permanent one the clay is baked.
So let’s talk about those chalks, the ones I use are all very inexpensive artist chalks in stick form. They are the kind that people that know to do it make beautiful art work on paper. For what we are doing you only need the cheap ones. I have several sets that I have picked up over the years. Sometimes I buy a new set because I am almost out of a color that I use all the time and sometimes I just buy them because they are so pretty sitting on the shelf at the craft-store.
The first thing we will need to do is get the chalk off the stick so we can use it on our clay. There are a couple of ways to do this. I usually just scrap some dust off with a craft-knife (not m clay knife) to use. I also know some artists that scribble the chalk on a piece of paper and use it from there. Try a few different ways and see what works best for you.
Once you have the chalk in a usable form use a brush to apply it to the raw clay. I prefer a cheap eye-shadow brush. I know most people I have seen use a paint brush but in my experience since an eye-shadow brush is designed to be used with a powder it picks up and applies a lot better. Try both and see what works best for you. All of my brushes are very cheap from either the make-up department at Walmart or from the dollar store. Just be sure to take care of and clean any brush you use no matter where you got it.
Once the chalk is on the brush use the brush to really burnish the color onto the clay. This will help it to bake on permanently. If you just dust it on it will rub off even after baking.
You can also use the chalk wet. For this I use a cheap paint brush and just a tiny bit of water. For this I do use a paint brush since I am working with a wet medium. You can get different effects this way so play around with both ways of applying the chalk and see what works for your project.
Next we are looking at chalk in a pan format. Sometimes I see these called Pan Pastels. The ones I have I got on a clearance sale several years ago and because of the brand I know they are not high quality. I picked them up only because I wanted to play with them. I find the ones I have give a really subtle color, that could be the quality or it could be the format. If you have these go ahead and use them just like the chalk sticks and see what effects you can get on your projects.
The last product type we are talking about today is eye-shadow. Any powder eye shadow will work on your clay either the loose kind like I showed in the video or the kind that is pressed into pans. If you are going to use it on normal foods be sure to get matte eye-shadow since most of it seems to have at least a bit of a shine.
That being said the pearl ones can be used for special effects really nicely. I once had a special order of food for a fairy house. The lady that ordered it described her house as a combination of fairy and mermaid and it was spectacular. She wanted all the foods to have a pearlescent shimmer. So for example the apples I made were chalked with a red pearl eye-shadow with a touch of a green pearl. It was so much fun to do.
As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.
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