Early Spring Faery on her twig:

Comments

[Stephanie LeongSwanke]

Hi Forest,
Early Spring Faery is truly beautiful, as is all of your work! I am so glad to see all the photos of her on you website.
As I am a student dollmaker, could I ask if you used a blend of Kato clay? I would like to try Kato as I have heard it is one of the strongest clays but have also heard it is a bit difficult to condition and may be prone to moonies. Could you give me your opinion?
With appreciation and admiration,
Stephanie

[Forest]

Thank you, Stephanie!

Yes, I did use a blend of Kato clay. I usually use, for pale creatures, mostly "translucent" Kato, combined with a small amount of "flesh" colour, and white (all Kato clays). I confess I tend to mix it rather, well, intuitively, rather than by precise formula, so it's hard to give more than a quite approximate recipe. But, I'd say around 4 to 6 part Translucent to 1 part flesh and 1 part white. I'd experiment, cure some samples, and see what you like, in colour and degree of translucence.

For darker beings, I might mix in some of the browns, perhaps with a tiny touch of cool clay, say blue or green if the brown is too warm. I might leave out the white.

On 'moonies,' aka plaque: now that's rather mysterious! For me, Kato's been pretty much completely moonie-free. However, for some of my equally experienced colleagues, it's been otherwise -- lots of moonies. Why? We haven't figured that out. It could be humidity, though in both Rhode Island and presently Colorado, I've had no moonies with it, while a friend in Wisconsin has had considerable problem with Kato moonies (though she loves the strength of the clay). Truly, I don't know what the answer to that is. I think the only thing to do is get some, and try it, and see how it behaves for you!

Conditioning: it is at present a harder clay, and I run it through a food processor to soften and rough-mix the colours. Then, I roll it repeatedly through my manual pasta maker, which both conditions to smoothness and blends the colours completely. After that's done, I find the clay quite agreeably workable.

Word is, the formula is going to change, making the clay a bit softer to work, without losing the strength.

You might want to check out the Kato Polyclay site, if you've not visited it yet:
ttp://katopolyclay.com/

If you click the "about kato polyclay" link at the top of that page, you'll find some good tips. Also, the Prarie Craft Company, at http://www.prairiecraft.com/ distributes Kato, and has an informative email newsletter. You can go to that site to sign up, if you'd like. (I think there's a sale on the smaller packets of current formula Kato clay there, right now, too, if you'd like to try it out!)

I hope that helps! Some things about these clays remain rather a mystery...
My best,
Forest

[Terren]

Oh Forest...you can certainly name your price with this one. My credit card would basically be yours.

PLEASE! write a book on your process.

Love,

Terren

[Stephanie LeongSwanke]

Forest, thank you so much for the invaluable information!!! I spent some time and money(!) on the Prairie Craft website today. As you had mentioned, there is alot of great information there. Because there will be change in the Katoclay formulation, the 3oz bars were on sale so I definitely took advantage of that. I am greatly looking forward to trying out the Katoclay. I really like the fact that it does not change color with serial baking and is a strong clay. Again, I so much appreciate your generosity in sharing your wonderful artistry.
Stephanie

[Forest]

Oh, thank you Terren! Such kind (and highly encouraging) words!!
Yours,
Forest

[Forest]

Most welcome, Stephanie! I hope to add a real
"tips" section before too long... Got to get myself on even ground after this strange year, and then, we shall see!
My best,
Forest

[Colleen]

She is a whisper.