Clayaphobia -- Conditioning Good'Old Clay

KATO clay is one of my favorite clay but when it comes to conditioning, I usually suffer from "Conditioning Clayaphobia".
Thank goodness a cure is found!!

Looks familiar? Stiff clay... crumbling all over your working place... arrgh!!
I used to work very hard conditioning clay like this with the help of clay softener -- it's a messy job but it works! However, there is a much easier way to do it.

You need a BLENDER!
This is now my second must-have tools (first is the pasta machine).

Just toss in the chopped clay and let it do the 'hard' work.

After 10 sec. or so....

wahlah! A full container of finely chopped clay is ready to be used!

Obviously, pour it out onto your work surface. Although it looks kind of messy, but trust me, this is way easy to handle than having to mix with clay softener.

Gather all the tiny pieces and press lightly to form a square. The clay feels a bit warm after being worked in the blender.

With a acrylic roller, roll the clay to the thickness with match the thickest setting of your pasta machine. (Be kind to your pasta machine. You won't want it to work too hard!)

This is how it looks. Though not entirely flatten but it is in one piece.

Roll it through the pasta machine starting at the thickest setting.

This is how it looks after going through the pasta machine one (1) time. Continue conditioning through the pasta machine as usual.

And this is how it looks after going through the pasta machine 30 times.






Well, this may be nothing new but since I have just tried it out, might as well share it in case there are some clayaholic out there suffering this "Conditioning Clayaphobia" like me. ;p

"Claying will be so much fun if you don't have to sweat over conditioning." - Lilin