I have been know to say, "I have enough scrap clay to pave my drive way." It is true. I have a tendency to lose track of how much good clay I have. I am a very visual person and have repurposed a wood Pepsi box to keep unopened clay. I love my Pepsi box. It stands upright and each section holds five 2 ounce blocks of clay; it looks cool displayed like that. But once a block has been opened I tend to use part and then put it "somewhere"; Lord knows I would never want to put a opened pack in with the ones in my pretty, pretty Pepsi box. Like it has to be...perfect.
Recently, while cleaning my clay area found lots and lots of partial packages of the same color and realized just how much clay I have---all over the place. Many of these treasured finds had other colors of clay mixed in or were dusty from sitting opened. Wow, I really do not need to worry about running out of clay any time soon. I found a very inexpensive way to keep opened clay clean and tidy. Ziplock sells plastic containers and the square one to be the perfect solution. My local grocery had them on sale for $1.99 for a 5 pack. I really like them because they are large enough for what I need and I can see the color through the plastic; the raw clay does not stick to the containers. They can also be stacked-that makes me look organized even though I am not. This is an easy way to see my inventory before ripping open a new clay pack. It is also great to keep a smidgen of custom mixed clay with the same color family.
Now my scrap clay pile is really scrap clay rather than for something when I cannot find a home.
Hope you find this tip helpful. Clay On !!
I have been know to say, "I have enough scrap clay to pave my drive way." It is true. I have a tendency to lose track of how much good clay I have. I am a very visual person and have repurposed a wood Pepsi box to keep unopened clay. I love my Pepsi box. It stands upright and each section holds five 2 ounce blocks of clay; it looks cool displayed like that. But once a block has been opened I tend to use part and then put it "somewhere"; Lord knows I would never want to put a opened pack in with the ones in my pretty, pretty Pepsi box. Like it has to be...perfect. 
Cool Pepsi-box/clay display & storage! It looks very nice that way; no wonder you want to keep it perfect and unspoiled by those pesky "opened" packages! It's nice (though sometimes a bit unnerving) when we discover just how much clay we really have! Anyway, happy that you have your clay organized in a helpful way for you now. And the big question--will it stay that way? LOL ;D
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome post Anna! I love the Pepsi box storage. It mixes an Old World look with a New World Material. Very cool! The smaller ZipLoc container idea is excellent as well. It is always nice to know which brands of plastic are clay compatible. Thanks for writing this! ~Cindy
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the comments. The Pepsi box is great and can be hung on the wall if space is limited. I just love seeing all the colors of the clay right in front of me- it is kind of like my Security Blanket. In the picture there are a few sections open to show how I can stack 4 blocks in the compartment and on in front. I will admit my Pepsi box does not usually look all tidy; i filled it up for the photo. There is even one unopened package in the photo, and one upside down...it is kind of like one of those "I Spy" books.
ReplyDeleteI really like the Ziploc container, I use their smaller round one to keep some of my beads. By putting my open clay I was totally shocked at how much I actually had-and there is more i have not found. I only did the organizing with my Premo, I still have lots of Studio, Kato and Fimo. I think I have have turned into a Clay Hoarder; hope I do not get turned into that TV show "HOARDERS". There is a woman in my clay guild (she shall remain unnamed) who has 400 pounds of Polymer Clay at home----that was not a typo----yes she has FOUR HUNDRED POUNDS of PC !!!!
Haaaa !!!
Oh geez! 400 pounds that is a lot! I recently got the 1 lb blocks in every color they carry, plus I have a few blocks in the other colors. I still only have about 30 lbs. She has more than 13 times as much. Boy that would be wonderful to never worry about running out in the middle of a project. Though I'm thinking some of it is going to get pretty hard before she has a chance to get to it all. No worries... she can always make faux stones! :-) ~Cindy
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