Thoughts about Play Doh (Tips and Tricks)

So I have a confession to make, I'm obsessed with something weird again, and this time it's Play Doh.

I had this strong urge to make some rune stones from clay. I've done it before with a batch of air dry clay and while it was a pain to work with it was something I wanted to try again. I went out in search for my clay, but when I got to the store, they were completely sold out. I stared at the empty shelf in dismay. How could the internet lie to me and say that they had it in stock? On my walk of shame out of the store, something caught my eye.

On a random aisle I spied big packs of Play Doh on sale for $1.75 a piece. I thought, shoot, for that price, why not give it a try? So when I go to buy them, to my utter surprise they ring up 50 cents a piece for a roughly 10 oz bag of Play Doh. It was an incredible deal considering that in the crafts section they were selling 2 ounce cups of the stuff for an insane mark up.

I scurry my loot back home and get to work. And after getting past the initial stigma of "Play Doh is for babies" I actually really start to like the medium I'm working with. Unlike air dry clay, Play Doh was a lot less difficult to work with in a lot of ways. It wasn't as messy and it didn't dry out as fast as air dry clay. It has a smooth and almost plasticky texture and was easy to manipulate with tools and my hands. As I worked with the Play Doh I couldn't help but wonder how it would hold up compared to the other clay that was designed to harden and "keep forever."

The reason I wrote this post, however, is because of one main complaint I have about Play Doh: Nobody really seems to know much about its actual properties or how to do cool stuff with it. I searched voraciously on the internet for informative tutorials on the subject, looking for examples of fine art Play Doh sculptures, advice on painting it or different crafts to do with it. Sure, I found a few things. I found a lot of videos by pre teen girls sharing their Play Doh charm collections (which were actually pretty awesome) and many links to that pinterest craft about making your own Play Doh and making an ornament of your baby's hand or dog's paw or something. I even found one example of Play Doh used in a fine art setting where the artist cut out many colored swirled circles of Play Doh and made intricate mosaics out of them.
All well and good but, where's the real answers to my questions here? I couldn't find much on anything. It was then realized that I was going to have to lead by example and write about this pressing matter myself. Like a mad scientist, I will have to record my findings.

Here is one woman's attempt to answer "Frequently Asked Questions" for any strange soul who decides they want to do something serious with Play Doh. To conduct my "experiments" I started out with just a few basic projects to see how it worked including some different charms and magnets. As a disclaimer, this is all just based off of personal experience so far, and I only experimented on smaller pieces and not any large ones, so the information may not be completely accurate or applicable to you. However, at the very least this should be a good jumping off point for any curious crafters out there who want to seriously try Play Doh for themselves.

Play Doh and Salt Dough- What is this stuff?

First of all, what is Play Doh? It's actually more close to a cookie dough than actual clay. Most clays have an element of soil or mud to them but Play Doh is mainly made up of salt and flour. That's why there are so many recipes out there to make your own, and why Play Doh has to advertise itself as a "modeling compound" and not "modeling clay." This is also the key to keeping Play Doh nontoxic and, weirdly enough, edible. When people make this stuff themselves, they call it Salt Dough. Whenever you see an artist saying that they use "salt dough" know that they secretly are using a derivative of Play Doh and don't want you to judge them for using a modeling compound supposedly made for children! Interestingly, if you search for salt dough projects you will get more serious results than Play Doh even though they are virtually the same thing.

How do you dry out Play Doh without cracking or crumbling it?

There's a few strategies I found to achieve this.  A lot of people suggest cooking it in the oven like a "normal" piece of clay, but I thought this seemed kind of reckless considering how notorious Play Doh is for cracking and crumbling when dry. I have always been told to dry clay out slowly if you are trying to keep it from cracking, so I applied this knowledge to my Play Doh creations. How I achieved this- I left the pieces on a tray to dry in a fairly cool place that was not next to a draft. I also kept it away from extreme heat, sunlight and humidity. In short, I just left it on my desk for about a week. So far, I can say that none of my charms or bits experienced cracks or crumbles. Just try to keep your sculptures on the smaller side and avoid long thin pieces that extend outside of the sculpture and you will be pretty safe from cracks and crumbles. What you really need to look out for is salting.

What is "Salting?"

Untreated Play Doh Hamburger, before drying and afterwards.
Notice the deposit of salt on the surface of the figure in the second image.

The concept of salting was originally brought up to me by SoCratfastic's video on Play Doh tips and tricks. I don't know why exactly it happens,  but during the drying process, (probably having something to do with the moisture and the salt content of the compound,) a lot of Play Doh pieces become kind of "ashy" or "salty" looking instead of staying smooth and colorful. It's not ideal for pieces that are supposed to be jewelry because it just looks kind of bad and unlike its clay compounded siblings which dry smooth and true to color. This to me seems like the biggest limitation to using Play Doh, and the biggest unknown factor when it comes to the success of your project. I've noticed a few factors that seem to effect the salting-

A flat relief sculpture
 made of Play Doh that
dried beautifully.

1. So Craftastic suggests drying the pieces evenly, but I personally haven't found much of a consistency with this technique. My first batch of charms were flipped and turned and rotated to high heaven in order to ensure that every square inch evenly dried, however this didn't seem to have made a difference in the inevitable saltiness of the pieces, if not pronouncing the problem even more. However, I have to note that your results may vary with this technique. I live in the south and experience a lot of humidity. I often wonder if how arid or humid your environment is may effect the drying process in general. The science behind this is beyond me, but if you want to keep your pieces untreated, you'll have to experiment for yourself to see exactly how it reacts to your personal drying location.
2. On the other hand, I actually discovered that if you leave the pieces to dry flat and don't move them much, that most of salt will settle at the bottom / on the backside of your piece. This only really works if you are doing a two dimensional sculpture, but I had great success with those kind of pieces.
3.  After trial and error, it's my opinion that the best way to avoid salting in 3D pieces is to just put a sealant over the piece before it has a chance to completely dry and salt over

The timing for this is tricky because you don't want to seal it when the piece is not dry enough (still malleable/squishy) because it's unlikely to harden evenly, but you don't want to wait too long because once the salting process starts it becomes much more difficult to make the sealer or paint stick. 

I was having a big problem with this when I was painting those first charms that had completely salted over. The salt was drying out and gunking up the adhesive and it was hard to get it a neat and smooth coat. I had to do many thin layers and really take my time with it, very annoying for one little banana!

Even with all of this thought behind it, I suspect there is no way to completely avoid having a little bit of a salty texture to your finished piece if you are using Play Doh, but you can get it to a point where it isn't very noticeable, or even create a design that uses the effect to its advantage.

What kind of sealant should I put on my Play Doh sculpture?

Personally, I just used Mod Podge, and it seems to work okay. It was cheap, readily available, and easy to wash off my hands and my brushes. It gives the crafts a fairly smooth texture and shiny finish. Try to make thin, even layers over everything, building up layers one by one slowly.  Avoid pooling the sealant in any of the sculpture's cracks- I noticed that if I painted on the mod podge too thick, it didn't completely dry invisible for some reason.

Curious on other options for sealants I decided to pick the brain of Lacy Knudson of Dozayix to see what she used to seal her incredible Play Doh mosaics. About sealants, she says: "I use a two-part UV resistant resin called EX-74 sold by Environmental Technologies Incorporated. I buy it through a local distributor here in San Diego but the website is here." There are also varnishes available at the craft store that would work as a low cost "weatherproof" sealant, but I haven't personally experimented much with the stuff on Play Doh yet.* However, I think the effect of sealing the pieces is not only more professional but pleasing to the eye, and if you get a chance to incorporate resin, varnish or other substantial sealants, I'd highly recommend experimenting with them.

*Edit: So I tried the varnish and it's no good. It just brushes right off, doesn't bond with the oil or salt in the Doh I suppose. However, I discovered that GLOSS Mod Podge works great! It takes to the sculptures a little better than Mod Podge Matte does (which is what I've used so far) and also seems to even clean up some of the salting effect. I would reccomend Gloss Modge Podge as a great starter sealant for Play Doh sculptures. 

One of Lacy's Knudson's mosaics "A New World"
made completely out of Play Doh featuring a shiny resin finish.

Should I use water to moisten my sculpture as I go?

Probably not, which is actually one of the things I like about Play Doh. Just manipulating it with your hands can smooth most cracks and creases. For the sake of comparison, this is very different from air dry clay. With air dry clay, I found myself constantly feeding it water, smoothing over cracks, trying to moisten pointed tips so they wouldn't crumble off. My hands were constantly a crusty shade of mud white, the clay caking to my hands as I worked and shedding everywhere I touched, including my clothes and work space. Not so with Play Doh. Play Doh contains mineral oil which keeps it smooth and more malleable for a longer time, but as we all know, oil and water don't mix. The only time it would be useful to moisten your Play Doh is if it's completely dried out and has time to sit and soak for a while. Little droplets as a smoothing attempt are likely to just roll off. If your Play Doh is getting too dried out while you work, you're probably leaving it out too long. Put it back in the container when you're not using it, only expose the doh to the air when you are working on it. If your sculpture is small enough, you can put it back in the container/packet for a bit and it should absorb some of the moisture from the rest of  the Doh. .

How long does it take to dry?

I did NOT cook this pizza in the oven. 

In my opinion, you should hold off on trying 

to "bake" your Play Doh.

I think they do the best by curing/drying over a long period of time. They become workable with other media like paint and varnish within the first few days (3-4 days of drying), but the longer you let them sit, the harder they become over all. I have noticed something though. Depending on the weather/temperature/some unknown factor, the dried Play Doh seems to be inconsistently somewhat harder or softer on any given day, especially the untreated pieces. To me, this difference is an even stronger indication that the Play Doh compound is effected by its environment. Just keep that in mind when storing your pieces.

 Can you paint it, and how does the paint react? 

Painted Play Doh cockatiel charms

Just regular ol' acrylic paints seemed to fair well on semi-dried pieces of Play Doh, but I had similar problems to when I was trying to seal them- if the piece is salty, it will be more difficult to apply the paint smoothly. Two thoughts on the subject: Firstly, if you have access to the full rainbow of colors that Play Doh has provided you, use them! I was lucky to get that sweet sale that allowed me to get a full palette. The colors mix extraordinarily well in my opinion- I was able to get the colors I needed by mixing them. However, if you absolutely feel hell bent on painting it by hand, no worries, I had the same sentiment. I experimented with these little cockatiel charms by sealing it over with mod podge and then painting on top of that. Painting over it with gesso or sealant before you begin to layer the paint will make your life easier because it will smooth over the surface. 

Speaking of which, I discovered, the "crumbles" from carving into the compound will also gum up your paint. For example, with my rune stones, I had to be very careful when creating and painting inside the carved symbols. I resorted to taking a tool and trying to scrape out some of the carving crumbs but to no avail. It seems better to just try to make smooth, even grooves, creases, shapes ect, if you intend on painting them, because the paint will go on much more neatly and easily.

Black widow runes - painted in red

A pisces charm that has been darkened with metallic blue gel pen color.

Another coloring technique to think about is markers and gel pens. I had great success with colorizing these purple rune stones with a glitter gel pen - I used its tendency to smear to my advantage and the effect gave it a very interesting look. Let the ink dry and then carefully varnish them to avoid smearing detailed lines. You may have to paint over only the lined parts to keep it from smearing, especially if your marker/pen was not waterproof.

Any more questions?

I may do a follow up to this post sometime in the near future as I continue to learn about the properties of this humble but deceptively handy "modeling compound," so think of some good questions for me! Right now I am experimenting with making relief sculptures. Now to just figure out how to keep them from curling up when they dry flat... Anyways, to send you off with some inspiration maybe, here's some of my other charms. By the way, you can check in at my new Etsy store which will have charms and other fun things available for purchase very soon.  Stay tuned and in the mean time, remember to leave a comment if you have any questions or your own thoughts on the serious matters of Play Doh!

More Charms and Stuff

A bunch of banana charms!

 My first attempt at a pizza charm.

A more complicated "supreme" pizza charm.

A bunch of little skull charms.

Carrots, pickles, and apple cores, oh my!

Weiner Dogs Charms, get it?

Mushroom, Mushroom.

. * ･ ｡ﾟ☆━੧༼ •́ ヮ •̀ ༽୨

Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrinaIsArtsy/

Check out my Etsy:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/TrinaIsArtsy
 

Quick Crafty Bathroom Caddie!

I just wanted to share this cute and quick craft I came up with after realizing my bathroom didn't have enough storage space for all my little hygienic odds 'n ends. These caddies are made out of those little plastic/vinyl zipper bags that blankets and sheets come in. 

The DIY bathroom caddies are big enough to hold all my extra make up, two hair brushes, band aids, ibuprofen, bandages, My Little Pony tissues, medication, and much more. Because one of the bags had a hook on it already, all I had to do was throw all the items in it and hang it up. I also slapped a cute sticker on the front of it to make it more interesting to look at!

The larger caddie took a little bit of extra fandangling on account of it lacking any kind of handle or hook to hang it from. All I did was cut four slits in the top of the bag, just big enough to fish some old scrap ribbon through and tie in knots. To keep the slits from tearing I hot glued some strips of fabric over the cuts.  The little flowers glued on top aren't really functional, they're there more for flair. After that, it was just a matter of tying the ribbon handles into bows around the towel rack. Easily adjustable and simple to take down if need be!

My favorite thing about my caddies is that they're see through vinyl, which gives me easy access to my supplies without the need to rifle around.

There are so many different uses for vinyl blanket bags.They often have multiple pockets and dividers already incorporated, which further helps in keeping things organized. Some of them even have handles. These bags can also be pretty durable and withstand years of wear and tear- I've used them to hold craft items like beads and markers in the past. My marker bag, for example, served me loyally through high school... Yes, I was the weird girl randomly toting around a gigantic bag of markers. 

Next time you get a new comforter blanket, or maybe even some curtains, consider all the awesome stuff you could put in those bags instead of tossing them out to let them unjustly rot in a landfill forever. It's especially wasteful considering some places sell them as organizers for upwards of $12 a bag! Doing a search about blanket bags will yield a plethora of things to do with your bags. There are some really great ideas! 

Other uses for comforter bags:

• Sturdy gift bags for birthdays & holidays
• Store your kid's small toys- like legos and action figures
• Christmas ornament storage bags
• Keeping garden seeds fresh for longer
• A travel bag or first aid kit for vacations
• Protecting clothing or linens from smoke/bugs/dander/ect
• So, so many more things. Seriously. They're super handy.

What kind of uses can YOU come up with?

Getting Gigs from Craigslist- Maia Moms and Vanguard Cycle

I Heart Single Moms....

And All Men are Mothers...

What do single moms and wicked biker modders have in common? They both got to check out my arts and crafts this month! I found these great opportunities on Craiglist and they were both within a week of each other. The insane thing about it is that while they were both small venues open for crafters to set up for free, the demographics that their event brought couldn't have been any more of complete opposites.

It was such a great chance to test out my products with different types of crowds and do some really diverse networking. It was also quite the adventure- I didn't know what to expect, so I just had to jump right in!

The Maia Moms Mother's Day Celebration

That's right... Maia Mom's founder Allison Herrin has a spread in Woman's World magazine!

The Ladies of Maia were very charming and polite. They are a non profit organization that is dedicated to helping single moms get back on their feet. This event was aimed towards fund raising for their cause and to celebrate, of course, Mother's Day.

Fun Fact: "Maia" in greek means "Great Mother." That's how they got their organization's name!

These chicks really seem to be going places. Maia Mom's founder was even a feature Women's World magazine. We even got featured on the local news! I can't find the original broadcast but they wrote an article about it here.

 
The Maia Moms office (which is covered completely in PINK!)  is located in a historical section of Charleston that the city has been renovating for years now. The building has been around since the 40's, going through many transformations until the final form it is in today. I was very impressed with how it turned out, though! It makes me happy to know that a warehouse once used to hold supplies for war is now a host to a variety of artisans, businesses, and charities. Some harmony in this world has been restored.

A quaint tea party for the mothers, organized by Maia Moms. So Cute!

\

This event included a number of attractions including a Tea Party area, "Play Dress Up" Photo booth by Shanacott Photography, and a table where kids could make Mother's Day cards. There was also a few other vendors and booths set up, too.

Here's some kids diligently working on their Mother's Day cards. I thought this was a sweet idea for the moms.

11 Countries in 11 months.. are you out of your mind?!?!

One of the vendors that attended the Mother's Day bash was a young woman named Anna Javaux. She was raising her own funds so that she can afford to take an 11 month missionary trip around the world. I think her goal is incredibly brave and ambitious, and I respect a great cause like that. I think the crowd agreed, because these bracelets she was selling were flying off the shelves!

Green Glass Recycled Art by Debbie and Dana Page... man, their set up is the bee's knees! Also, they win the award for most adorable artsy married couple.. teehee.

Gotta love this lime green display set that Green Glass had at the venue! It was very stylish and eye catching. Their products were great-  Debbie and Dana's expertise are in  manipulating recycled materials like old bottles and metals. Their facebook revealed a huge variety of work, but my favorite thing they had at Maia Mom's were all these super cute glass bottle wind chimes. Different styles included bottles with the bottoms cut out as well as slumped bottles and glass rings.

BEHOLD.. MY PILLOWS! Me posing with my creations. Dad was chilling, too. My lovely parents came and visited me at the bash... It was a nice way to spend Mother's Day with my mom and dad. We all got to goto the tea party!

Some new jewelry and my "oldie but goodie" felt keychains.

I was lucky because the Maia Moms had some extra tables for me to use. It gave me a lot more space to spread out my work! I brought along with me a bunch of different recycled t-shirt pillows as well as the rest of my keychains. I also have a few new jewelry projects (pictured right) that I haven't documented on this blog yet! Stay tuned, though. During this event I finally sold the last of my Mustache keychains. A little boy purchased the last one and promptly began walking around holding it up to his face like it was his real mustache. He then went to the bathroom, still decked out in his disguise, so that he could check out how his new 'Stache looked in the mirror... LOL. Seeing people enjoy my artwork brings me so much joy.

The Vanguard Compound Grand Opening

The Vanguard grand opening was definitely a very different event from the Maia Mom's mothers day tea party. I think they replaced all the tea with a bunch of bad ass motorcycles....

Hmm, I don't see any Tea Parties going on at the Vanguard Cycle compound for some reason!

Anyways, Vanguard Cycle, from what I can gather, does customizations for motorcycles. If I'm wrong you'll have to forgive me, I am not very well versed in the cycling world! That's why this free venue was the perfect opportunity for me to test out my products on a completely unknown demographic. Plus, we were all celebrating the opening of Vanguard Cycle's new compound, which apparently required much blood, sweat and tears to obtain. Congratulations on your success, guys. They had a huge area to work with that was right on the Lowcountry's coast- it was quite a beautiful view.

They had live concerts in the evening but during the day they had a bunch of really cool artists and craftsmen showing off their work! 

This guy made his own candles. I loved the variety of different shapes the candles came in- everything from Easter Island heads to piles of skulls. He also hand carved some of his candle molds, including the gargoyles displayed in this picture. What an interesting craft to get into!

The guys of Bad Monkey Motorworks were super friendly, despite their somewhat frightening but hilarious"mascot" which was an evil Tellitubbie... with a switch blade.

LOL.. this is awful. "We've had this guy for a few
years. We've put him through a lot." Jokingly says the
Bad Monkey guy.  No Kidding!

Free stickers! I love free stickers! This is going right in the collection... Thanks, Bad Monkey!

An awesomely bizarre piece by Ashley Burton.

Ashley Burton's art- it actually had real pills glued onto the surface.

A lot of daring contemporary artists showed up at the event, including mixed media artist Ashley Burton. She's very talented when it comes to making surrealistic works of art! I especially liked this painting that incorporated pills on the canvas. That must've taken forever to complete!

Close Up on another Ashley Burton piece with crazy eye ball flowers.

Ashley Burton and her partner in crime. Keep on creating, Ash!

I think my favorite work at this show came from surreal artist Cyndi Deery. She is an incredibly nice person with such a plethora of cool art! I wish I would've gotten more pictures of her work, but a lot of them came out blurry. Guess that means you'll just have to check out her Twitter page! ;)

Some hipsters hanging out and selling art. You can tell they're hipsters because of that Pabst Blue Ribbon box hiding under the table.... you're not fooling me with your elaborate disguises!

In addition, artist Ashley Hardwood was there selling these intriguing sea urchin ornaments. How incredibly delicate and beautiful these little things are!

 

Seth Van Guard and his team catered the event. They provided some really tasty BBQ platters and good ol' fashioned hamburgers and hotdogs. These guys were working really hard, and their tasty food was proof!

Finally, a picture of me and my set up! This time I didn't have any extra large tables, so my set up was a lot more smaller and compact. I only took out a select amount of pillows instead of the whole brood. My friends Racheal and Patrick (pictured left) helped me set up my tables!

Racheal is also a very talented artist. She did this drawing of a skeleton on canvas.. isn't it just wild? It got a lot of attention at the show. She also had some crafty ornaments made from recycled beer coasters! I'm glad that my friends came with me, they brought a lot of variety to the table.

Now it is time for me to ride off into the sunset.......

What I discovered at these two venues, that while the venues were both radically different, the people that attended were equally as nice.  All in all, it was a great learning experience that required relatively low risk to undertake. Maia Moms simply asked for a donation to their charity, which wasn't hard to do because the cause is good, and the Vanguard Compound asked for no commission whatsoever!

 These kind of events are happening all the time, but it is up to you to find them in your area. As I stated before, both Maia Moms and Vanguard were discovered simply by browsing a few local categories on Craigslist. There are also countless opportunities on other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Just take a closer look at your favorite social sites. You will be surprised at how many opportunities are out there for a fledgling artist to cut their teeth on. And they're easy to get involved with- all it took was a few back and fourth e-mails and a decent portfolio (or an artsy blog like me ;P)

Go out there and show the world your art! It is such a rewarding experience.