A relatively new type of modeling material is ball clay, which is most popular among children from 3 to 10 years old. However, many modern parents are in no hurry to go to the store for a ready-made kit, but want to know: how to make ball clay at home? We will answer this question in our article today.
What is ball clay and what are its advantages
Today there are many different materials for children's creativity. An interesting innovation in this regard is ball clay, which greatly simplifies the work of not yet fully developed children's fingers. Its advantages are that it develops fine motor skills of the baby’s hands, teaches to think creatively and create storylines. Unlike ordinary plasticine, ball is much softer and more elastic.
This material is a kind of soft chewing gum or "lizun" with the addition of small blotches - balls. Ready-made, sold in sealed jars with lids. Each color is packaged separately.
How to make plasticine with your own hands?
Many parents try to protect their children to the maximum from all kinds of chemistry, which is already present in almost everything. Therefore, toys and materials for the creativity of kids, choose environmentally friendly. If you want to learn how to make ball clay at home, follow our instructions.
To get started, prepare everything you need for its manufacture. You will need:
- borax - 3 tbsp. l;
- glue PVA-M - 70 gr.;
- food color of the desired color;
- warm water;
- hot water;
- foam balls - 2-3 tablespoons;
- sealed bag or box.
Having prepared everything you need, we get to work:
- In one bowl, mix half a glass of hot water and borax. Stir until the borax is completely dissolved in water.
- In another bowl, mix glue and ¼ cup of warm water. Also mix until smooth. Once this is achieved, add food color and mix again.
- Next, pour the contents of the second bowl into a bag or box, adding foam balls there. Shake and fill them with the contents of the first bowl. Seal the box or bag.
- Begin actively mixing the contents with a shake. After the mass becomes homogeneous, remove the clay and knead it in your hands. Ideally, it should not be too fluid and stick to your hands. So you have learned how to make ball clay with your own hands.
Tip: if you didn’t have polystyrene balls, you can replace them with millet, confetti or any other small loose product that is similar in consistency and size. And one more thing: when buying PVA-M glue, make sure that it is fresh, preferably even made not earlier than a few weeks ago. Since stale glue will not give the desired result and spoil the entire process of making plasticine.
The second option for making plasticine
If you did not find borax, try replacing it with sodium tetraborate. In this case, you will need:
- glue PVA-M;
- sodium tetraborate;
- food color of any color;
- styrofoam balls or other loose product;
- sealed bag.
How to make ball clay at home from such ingredients? The algorithm is as follows:
- Put a few tablespoons of foam in a bag.
- Add PVA-M glue and dye to the balls. Shake well so that all the balls are wrapped in glue.
- Now add tetraborate one drop at a time. The more you add it, the plasticine will be thinner. The smaller, the correspondingly more dense.
Tip: Prepare several sachets and dyes in advance to make several multi-colored portions of plasticine.
What to mold from ball clay?
In fact, the possibilities of this type of molding material are exactly the same as with ordinary plasticine.
But we will tell you what can be made of ball clay to those who are just getting to know him.
If your child is engaged in such plasticine for the first time, then we recommend starting with the simplest figures. Give the baby a small piece of plasticine and explain how to make a ball or sausage out of it. Then invite the baby to make a cloud and rain, the sun and flowers. A little later, you can go to animals and insects.
This is what beauty can be made of ball clay.
Excellent characters from the cartoon "Smeshariki" are obtained from ball clay. In order to make any of them, you will need clay of different colors. As well as decorative eyes. Since all heroes are round in shape, this process will not take much time. But it will really please your baby.
How to make a bracelet or beads from plasticine with balls?
If you have a little mastery of modeling skills from ball clay, try to create a cute decoration from it. How to blind him, see the video below.
Also, ball clay is ideal for decorating vases or photo frames. Just lay the plasticine mass on the frame, gradually evenly distributing it.
All crafts made from this material can be decorated with additional accessories for creativity.
Successful experiments and creative success!