Feel like extra productive this weekend! Today I want to talk about 2 molds and a pack of clay that I've got for awhile now.... lol Finally I have time to talk about them~!
Padico Mermaid Puffy lightweight air dry clay: First thing I want to review is, the Padico Mermaid Puffy lightweight air dry clay.
This clay has 3 different colors ----> White, biscuit and chocolate
I got this on Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ELVEINTIDOS?ref=l2-shopheader-name) and I picked the chocolate color. However, this seller is not selling any more craft supplies. If you'd like to get it you can always contact the seller and see if she can help you out :) She's from Japan and I found her listing prices are comparatively bargain (With both her listing price and shipping cost) I got mine for USD$3.48 a pack, shipping cost was USD$3.30. I think it's a pretty good price and she shipped fast too~ I was really happy with my purchased.
This lightweight air dry clay is from the same company (Padico)of Hearty air dry clay that I reviewed before (http://pinkpandacraftshop.blogspot.com/2013/04/japanese-resin-air-dry-clay-review.html)
It is 50g a pack. Package says this clay is waterproof, elastic, lightweight with velvety texture. It is made in Japan.
My thoughts:
The texture of this Mermaid Puffy clay is very similar to Hearty. The only thing is it's a little bit stickier. Very elastic, with a little bit of smell too. It's nothing bothering though. I guess it's from the color that added in it because it smells kind of like acrylic paint.
When I first opened it, it gave me an impression of chocolate mousse. It's a little wet. Hearty is more like marshmallow. It's very soft and easy to knead. The stickiness would gradually decrease the longer you knead it. So if you want to use it with molds you might want to knead it for a while first and let the stickiness fade out a little. It'd be easier to take the clay out of the mold this way.
This Mermaid Puffy lightweight air dry clay is great for making ice cream scoops too, I personally think. It's easy to stretch the ice cream texture out and sculpt the edge with it. On the other hand, polymer clay needs more effort to create such effect. Another great thing to make ice cream scoops with this lightweight clay is, it's not as heavy as some other clays for making jewelry pieces (Like rings, earrings or necklace charms etc.) It feels better to wear it on comparing to polymer clay or resin air dry clay.
Let's see how Mermaid Puffy does with molds:
This works great with smaller molds. In the picture above I didn't grease any of the molds. I kneaded the clay for awhile to take away the stickiness, so it came out pretty easy. The details showed up really nicely too and I'm really happy about it. Just make sure not to over knead it though, if not there'll be little dry cracks appear on the clay surface.
Then when it came to larger shape molds, I had a hard time to take the clay out. I tried to knead it but it didn't help. It's because the kneading only takes away the stickiness from the surface. So when the clay got pressed down into the mold, the sticky clay from the inside would touch the mold surface instead. And this is a larger shape too, it had a bigger surface to contact with the sticky clay. That's why the clay was stuck inside the mold. When I tried to pull it out, it would just mess up the shape of it....
Using Mermaid Puffy clay with bigger molds would be better to grease the molds first, such as using olive oil or baby oil. Flour or baby powder would help too but it'll also leave the powder on it. It's a little difficult to get it off comparing to oil.
One pack of Mermaid Puffy clay can make about this much of miniatures~
50g a bag is kind of small. So I guess it's good that it works better with smaller molds~ We can get more creations out of it :)
To conclude, I like this lightweight Mermaid Puffy clay. The texture is great, light and fluffy. I was making all these this afternoon and the tiny ones are already dried. The bigger ones will probably take a couple days to be completely dried. When it's dried, the color gets deeper and more vibrant. As far as I can see the drying ones I have here, they haven't shrunk too much. About 10% of the original size.
Also I find that when the clay is dried, it feels a little more "puffier" than Hearty clay. When i squeeze it, it feels like soft foam. So I guess why they have it names Mermaid Puffy~
The price of it would probably be the thing stop my from buying it again. Even though I found a bargain price from a great seller, it still considers as a little on the pricy side comparing to the Hearty air dry clay (The white color). They perform pretty much the same. So if I need a chocolate color I'd get the Hearty white lightweight clay (200g pack) and mix the color my own. Because I can get more products out of it. But if you want a really vibrant color, it'd be better to get the colored ones. It's because if you mix too much acrylic paint into the white clay, it'll make it too wet and sticky. So it depends on what you need for your creations~
Floree molds:
Next I want to talk about the Floree molds I have~ http://www.floree.jp/
I wanted to try this Floree brand a long time ago, pretty much since I started to make clay crafts. I was so into researching all things about clay miniatures (I still am~) I like it because they have molds that provide different sizes on 1 same shape. (As you can see below)
You can find different Floree molds on Etsy. Other than molds for clay, they have molds for resin too~ The ones for resin is made out of silicone. It's flexible and bendable. I haven't tried that yet, but I'll be happy to :)
My thoughts:
Here I have one in cookie shapes and one in Madeleine shapes. They have different sizes in 1 mold so it's very flexible to adjust the sizes you need.
I got this for about USD$13-14 a piece. It costs a little bit more comparing to the other clay molds in the market. It's in really good quality though. These black ones are in hard plastic, it's very durable.
Picture below you can see the actual sizes of the molds. They are small, like eraser size. (It's a toothpick under them lol)
Each of the mold has there own product number. The Madeleine one is G-077, and they have their company website embossed on it too~
Below you can see the results of using it with the Mermaid Puffy lightweight air dry clay. Shapes and lines came out very clearly. It's quite easy to take the clay out too even without greasing it.
The largest size of the Madeleine is kind of thick, but I could still take the clay out effortlessly.
The other one is a cookie shapes mold. The product number of it is G-029. This one has a lot of different sizes on it! 11 in total! It's also a black hard plastic mold for clay.
Below you can see all the results of the different sizes of the cookies. Some of them have different scallop edges~ I didn't grease this one as well. All the cookies came right out very easily.
This mold is also nicely made. All the details showed up very good. You can clearly see the scallop edges and the dots on them. (Even with the tiniest one!)
Hope this angle can give you a closer view to see them~
I really love these molds. Although it's on the pricier side, you get what you pay for. All the details are well made and it's very durable. I also like the small size of it too, saving some room for storage. (If you're into crafts, you know what I mean~) Floree gives a wide range of variety of different molds, you can probably find what you're looking for!
I'm really happy with the Floree molds and I would definitely recommend all clay lovers to try it out!
Over all I loved what I've got in this post~ They're all quite easy to get on the internet. Do some research and comparing all the costs, you might be able to find some better deals than I have here~ lol
Hope you all like the reviews I have this time! I'll come back for more until I have new goodies coming~
Have a great day everyone!
Ki
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