HI crafters. Ive ordered some air dry clay, which Ive never used before. Im making a list of things id like to experiment with it, eg what glue is best to stick things to it, but I was wondering about paints.
Ive seen it can be dyed with ink pads before moulding but wondered if I could use watercolours after moulding and drying, or would the paint sink into it too much and the colour would disappear?
Any suggestions do to with air dry clay decoration would be appreciated.
Ta.
I have used all types of air dry clay and watercolour isn’t the best paint to use. It will sink in and if you are using real clay as opposed to an air dry paper clay it will make the clay sticky. What may work, though I haven’t tried it is a layer of gesso then water colour but again I don’t think the result would be great and you would have to seal it if it did work with a spray varnish. It would probable depend on the strength of pigment in the water colour too, something like aqua tints may work better than say an ordinary solid type of water colour. Acrylic paint works the best and can be watered down a little so it is not so strong. You can also use alcohol markers on paper clay. I have used cosmic shimmer glue to attach it to other things also hot glue depending on size of object to be attached!!
Are you using paper clay or actual clay? Either way it is very addictive!!!
Hi Grimm. I’ve used air dry clay (Das), once it’s dry I paint with acrylics or even emulsion (tester pots). You can also use a water based varnish. You can use watercolours as well but as Dew Drops says it will soak in a bit but you can get great effects. As for the glue, if it’s something you want to glue on afterwards then I use something like evo stick or bostick.
I keep wet cloths close by to cover it if I need to leave it for any reason, it smooths out lovely with a bit of water or you can sand it once it’s dry. 
I love air-dry clay! I used all mine up then decide to get polymer instead but find it annoying as separate pieces don’t stick together well unless you poke them. I used water colours on all my models…