A great way to add detail to clay pieces is to ‘carve’ into it before it becomes bone-dry. A method also used to refine embossed stamp images for example.

Using a variety of tools, click here, and even old dentist tools work well, this technique can be very simple and highly effective!

Ideas for carving:

·         Freehand & straight into the clay (if you are artistic – and confident!)

·         Create a stencil and trace over this onto the clay (use one of your kit playing cards!)

·         Draw first (using a sharpie marker) and then go over this with your carving tool

 

REMEMBER – when carving clay pieces it is important that the piece is NOT completely dry – a term you will often hear referred to as ‘leather-hard’