An air dry clay sculpture of a baby dragonHaving fun experimenting with air dry clay sculpting a baby dragon

To simply play with the sole purpose of enjoying the process of being creative is a wonderful experience. It throws out the rule books, not to mention the expectations imposed on us by others and ourselves. I absolutely loved playing with the clay! I've always fancied making a little dragon and this little fellow developed from my imagination as we played.

A friend and fellow artist Sandra Anstiss of Creative Arts Wales, and I occasionally get together simply to play. Sometimes we explore each other's knowledge. I am primarily a painter and she is an accomplished print maker. Other times we try something completely different, like this time with clay.

We used simple air dry clay that children use. It's a bit fibrous which made it difficult to do anything with fine detail easily, but it was still fun to do, and it stayed wet for long enough to keep reworking areas. We played for about two hours and laughed as we went along. In hind sight I might have made a little armature (framework) first but we just dived in, so his body is solid clay which is taking rather a long time to dry! What it has done, this playing, is give me ideas for the future. Nothing is a waste of time, and play is definitely a fun way to open the mind!

One day I might research a little more, talk to a few sculptors for tips and play with a little more purpose. In the meantime, while I have painting projects on the go, my sparks of ideas are logged in my little book! Once this little fellow is well and truly dried out I think I will prime and paint him with acrylics, another break away from the normal and another play!