Clay in His Hands
- Brittany Lambson
- Jun 23
- 5 min read
This summer I am exploring the fun of polymer clay, and have been loving it. It is durable and not too heavy when it is baked, so it is a great material for larger statement earrings. It is fairy cheap and easy to find, too, so you can dabble before spending tons of money and and see if it is for you. (Spoiler alert: it was for me!)
Here are a few things to know that will help your experience go more smoothly as you start.
First, the clay needs conditioning before you can work with it effectively. It is crumbly and/or stiff right out the package. The clay isn't bad, it just needs to be "conditioned". The easiest way to do this is warm it up with body heat, then send it through a pasta machine. However, most people don't keep a spare pasta machine in the corner cupboard. It is just as effective to condition it with your hands, it just takes a little more time. Work with it by rolling it into a snake, a ball, and/or flattening it. Once the plasticisers are pliable and the clay bends in half smoothly instead of cracking, it is ready to use.
You MUST bake for the full time and temperature, or longer. Your project will be more liekly to crumble or crack if it is underbaked. Personally, I bake my pieces for almost twice as long as recomended on the packaging to get my best results. Let the piece fully cool before trying to do anything further with it, as well. I am impatient, but when I try to drill through the clay before it is cool, I usually end up cracking it. :(
The best way to get great results from the start is by using cutters. Essentially tiny cookie cutters, clay cutters come in any shape and give consistent results. Spice up simple circles with with mica powders, foil flakes, or adding embossing or textures.
You can buff the baked clay to give it a more finished look, or coat the top with UV resin to add strength and shine. Use a dremel tool to drill holes and attach to jewelry findings with jump rings. Tah dah! Your own custom jewelry to match any outfit.
There are hundreds of videos online, and facebook groups and pinterest boards with endless inspiration. You can make jewelry, tiny sculptures, or miniatures for dollhouses or gaming. It is a low cost, durable, and endlessly variable craft to enjoy.
Learning Principles:
0-5 years:
Polymer clay may not be best best for under 5. A better option would be playdough, either homemade or storebought (make sure it is safe to eat). Dough is fantastic for kids to play with, and is one of my favorite things to use for develpmental learning with young children. It is excellent for tactile and sensory exploration, hand-eye coordination, small motor development, self expression and early art exploration, and priciples of symbolism with pretend play. It can be easily used to teach early math skills by breaking it up into pieces and counting, creating and identifying shapes, and comparisons like big and small or tall and short. You could focus on language development by describing properties of the clay, or practice letter identification by drawing directly in the clay with popsicle sticks, or shaping the letters with "snakes".
5-11 years:
Clay is great for this age, but again it may be more enjoyable to use playdough at this age. This age can use clay to explore math concepts like conservation of matter and reversability, classification, and seriation. Explore how the same amount of clay can be made into one big piece, two smaller pieces, or many tiny pieces. Take the pieces and put them back together into one. (This is a complex concept that children begin to understand around age 7-10, and clay is one of my favorite ways to explore this idea.) You can make several balls and arrange them from small to large, tall to short, or by colors. Make a simple repeating pattern and have the child guess the next piece in the pattern. And again, clay is ideal for pretend play and artistic expression.
12-18 years:
This age is great to talk about the scientific properties of clay. Polymer clay changes after manipulation, and again after baking. Explore polymers, they are fascinating! Talk about properties like density, tensile strength and elasticity, reaactivity and transition temperatures, and molecular structure. Talk about different movements and styles of art, like abstract or impressionist movements. And of course, explore creativity. Ask what they like about what they have made and why. All opinions in art are worth considering. Foster your child's individual artistic expression.
Spiritual Principles:
We often use the metephor of clay in the potter's hands to teach gospel principles. President Kimball was a potter by trade and often used these principles to help teach the gospel. In a classic gospel address, he testified that by humbly submitting ourselves to the will of the Lord, we will find joy through obedience to God's commandments.
“You cannot be happy unless you submit to the law of God, and to the principles of His government.”
—President Heber C. Kimball
President Kimball taught that we should be humble and pliable in the hands of the Lord, allowing Him to mold us into something beautiful and useful.
What does being pliable in His hands look like in your life? How do we become pliable?
Clay needs to be conditioned. This is often done by smashing, folding, stretching, and kneading. Those don't sound enjoyable. What happens to the final product if we don't condition the clay? If we don't allow the Lord to soften us through experience and trials, can we be a reliable or beautiful vessel? If the clay isn't baked or fired in the oven, it won't become strong or be able to retain it's shape under any sort of pressure. How can this help change your perspective on trials in your life?
You can teach kids about asking the Lord to shape us. He is the Master with the knowledge and skills to make beautiful things, and He can do the same for us.
"Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."
Jeremiah 18:5-6
"But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."
Isaiah 64:8
(Start at 5:25) -Lessons from the Potter and the Clay, Camille Fronk, March 1995
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