What clay type would you recommend I use?
Tanya T asked:
Okay, so I have done some work with clay before (e.g. I created two clay fairies in high school), and now I’ve left school I’d like to do some sculpting at home.
specifically, i want to create models, mainly of people/creatures with human features, e.g. fairies, tv characters, etc.
however, i am unsure as to what clay type would be best - the figures will likely be about 6″ tall, and I want to be able to paint them.
Okay, so I have done some work with clay before (e.g. I created two clay fairies in high school), and now I’ve left school I’d like to do some sculpting at home.
specifically, i want to create models, mainly of people/creatures with human features, e.g. fairies, tv characters, etc.
however, i am unsure as to what clay type would be best - the figures will likely be about 6″ tall, and I want to be able to paint them.
So, what type(s) of clay would you recommend?
Thanks for any help you can give! 
You could use all kinds of clays, but if you don’t want to have to kiln-fire earth clay you might want to use “polymer” clay or even another kind of air-dry clay besides earth/pottery clay that doesn’t need kiln-firing.
Polymer clay is quite popular for doing figures, etc., and will be more rigid than using many types of air-dry (non-ceramic) clay. Fairies are pretty popular in polymer clay sculpting circles too, as well as all kinds of creatures and figures (any figures can be highly realistic, simple/cartoony, or anything in-between).
Polymer clay can be painted over, or skin-colored (and usually more or less translucent) clays can be used for more realism, with paints and other colorants used only for the lips, cheeks, perhaps eyes, etc.
If you want to check out lessons on sculpting with polymer clays, as well as using paints and other colorants with them, and also links to many examples, look on these pages at my site to see if that’s what you’d like:
(you’ll probably want to use armatures inside figures as tall as 6″)
Plus more on using paints and also alcohol inks as paints on polymer clay: (>Preparing the Clay… etc) (>Alcohol Inks)
And there are more figures, accessories, etc., on these pages in particular:
If you’re interested in air-dry clays though or epoxy clays, there will be some info on those on the Sculpting-Gen. page above, in particular.
(There are also many groups online that deal partly or exclusively with making sculpts with polymer clay–look for some of those on the Sculpting-Gen page > Groups, or on the Groups page itself in regular polymer forums.)
HTH,
Diane B.