Hands On Crafts for Kids

Clay Basics
By Linda Peterson
1001-2

When you see the “helping hand” symbol on a project, it means you may need adult supervision to do the project. Always use care when using tools or a heat source. Be careful and safe!

Fimo Soft is soft to work with, but after baking it’s very durable. It won’t crumble and get brittle.

Safety:

Once a kitchen item is used for clay, don’t use it again for food.
Even though some of it looks yummy – don’t eat
Safe for children with adult supervision – Non-Toxic
Be careful with tools.
Have adult supervision

Tools:

Work surface – ceramic tile or a glass cutting board that is only used for clay and not food.
Things around the house – toothpicks, old toothbrushes, cheese spreads, cookie cutters
Clay tools for kids can be purchased
Roller/brayer
Best tool of all – your hands!

Protecting work surface:

Keep away from wood
Work on a ceramic tile (inexpensive) or glass cutting board

Conditioning clay: Mix all the ingredients. This is just like making cookies, if all the ingredients aren’t mixed well, your cookies won’t taste very good. Good conditioning is important so that the characters you make will look good and not break.

Warm with hands
Fold and roll with brayer
Run thru Pasta Machine
Clay is conditioned when it’s soft and squishy and easy to work with.

Mixing colors:

Fimo soft comes in 48 beautiful colors that you can use right out of the package or you can mix them together to create your own color.
Take two colors and twist together to marbleize and create a new color. This can also be done during conditioning.

Storage: Use Ziplock Baggies or plastic containers out of sun away from heat

Baking: Have an adult help you. They will want to use an oven thermometer to make sure they are baking at the right temperature so they are not underbaking or burning the clay.

Projects can be baked directly onto the ceramic tile. It can also be baked on a baking sheet – remember once you do that, you can’t use it for food again.
Directions for baking are on the package of Fimo.
Have an adult pre-heat the oven to 265 degrees in your home oven or toaster oven.
Most projects will bake for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on their size.
Allow the projects to cool completely. When the Fimo is warm it is very breakable and you will have pieces fall off if you touch it. As it cools, it gets harder and becomes permanent.