So, I decided to give this ‘Clay Vanderlaan’ stuff a go. Heard a lot of buzz, you know? Everyone at the craft meetup was going on about it, like it was some miracle material. Figured, alright, let’s see what the fuss is about.
First off, getting my hands on it. That was a bit of a search, not like your regular stuff you pick up anywhere. Finally found a specialty shop online. Paid a bit more than I usually would, but hey, for ‘revolutionary’ clay, maybe it’s worth it. When it arrived, the packaging was all fancy. Looked promising, I’ll give ’em that.
Then I actually started working with it. My plan was to sculpt a small figure, something with a bit of detail, to really test it out. Opened the pack, and the texture felt… odd. Not quite like any clay I’d used before. Okay, new things can be different, I told myself. Started kneading it, getting it ready. It took a while to get pliable, more effort than I expected.
And that’s where the “fun” began. One minute it was too sticky, clinging to my tools, my fingers, everything. The next, if I overworked it even a tiny bit, it started to get crumbly. Trying to get smooth surfaces? A real battle. I’d smooth one part, and another would crack or flake. Frustrating, to say the least. I thought, maybe it’s me? Maybe there’s a trick to it I don’t know.
I pushed on, though. Spent a good few hours wrestling with this Vanderlaan stuff. The details I wanted? Forget about it. It just wouldn’t hold fine shapes. And the drying, oh boy. They claimed it air-dries strong, minimal shrinkage. What I got was a piece that warped a bit, and yeah, it developed these tiny hairline cracks. Not everywhere, but enough to be annoying, especially after all that effort.
You know, the whole reason I was even trying this specific clay was for a gift. My niece, she loves these little fantasy creatures, and I wanted to make her something unique for her birthday. I had this cool design in mind, something special. I’d even told her I was working on a surprise. So, the pressure was on, a bit. This Clay Vanderlaan was supposed to be the key to making it extra special because of all the hype about its ‘superior finish’ and ‘ease of use for intricate designs’. What a load of bull, if you ask me.
Seeing that half-finished, cracked thing on my workbench after all that time… it was a real downer. Felt like I’d wasted a whole afternoon and got nothing good to show for it. My hands were sore from fighting with the clay, and honestly, I was just annoyed. Annoyed at the hype, annoyed at myself for buying into it.
In the end, I had to scrap the Vanderlaan attempt. Just wasn’t going to cut it for the gift. I went back to my old, reliable polymer clay, the stuff I know. Had to work quick to get something done in time for her birthday. The old stuff just worked. No drama, no fuss. It did what it was supposed to do.
So, my experience with ‘Clay Vanderlaan’? It’s a pass for me. Maybe some professional sculptor with a magic touch can make it sing, I don’t know. But for a regular hobbyist like me, it was more trouble than it was worth. All that fancy marketing and talk, and it just didn’t deliver. Sometimes, the new, hyped-up thing ain’t better than what you’ve been using all along. That’s the long and short of it, from my workbench anyway.
