LaDoll Premier Short Review (BJD Blog #04)

Yay! The modelling clay finally arrived at my place today! Well, it arrived here yesterday, in fact, but I wasn't at home, so I had to pick it up from my local post office before going to work this morning ^^'

At work I couldn't wait and opened one of three packs right away, to test the consistency and feel of the clay. It was smoother and lighter than I would have expected, so I was wondering if I could handle it well.

As soon as I got home I started sculpting. The core of the head, to be exact. ^^ Here's what it looks like right now, resting in order to cure properly over night:

I wanted to add just a few layers of clay and let them cure completely before continuing working on it.

I'm not used to such a light and "fluffy" clay, but once you kinda get the hang of it, everything works just fine. You can add water (I use a spray bottle, comes in handy) as much as you like and need it, but if you add too much of it at a time, the clay gets kinda "slimy" and harder to handle.
It kinda gets dry to the touch pretty fast, which can be an advantage, but also a disadvantage.

Advantage, because a little dryer surface allows you to grab and hold the piece you're working on with a little bit more strength, which is nice if you're adding bigger amounts of clay to other parts of your working piece. Also, the kinda fast drying pace allows you to add more clay and finer detail to previous layers (waiting for hours before being able to continue working on an area can be so frustrating, I tell ya).
Disadvantage, because you need to add water every now and then to allow new clay to stick to the dryer surfaces. But that's not a problem at all.

In my experience with different clays it was kind of a problem to let some layers cure and then try to add new clay to it. It either sticks pretty well together or it becomes a weak point, allowing cracks and stuff to form. So yeah, I'll have to see how it's with this clay, but my overall impression is pretty positive.

Unfortunately the text on the packaging is in Japanese, and even if I can say who I am and where I wanna go in Japanese, I couldn't read a bit of it, hrh. Google translate ftw, eh.

TL;DR:

Pros:
Easy to work with, easy to keep it soft and smooth, easy to apply new layers to dried clay; pretty, white finish; easy to fasten up drying at very low temperature in your oven; even dry clay can be softened again with water to some extent. Overall the best clay I've had so far.

Cons:
It's very cold to the touch, which is kinda bad for me since I often have cold hands anyways, hrh; clay sticks a bit too well even to your hands, fingers and tools; adding too much water will get you some kind of slimy muddy goo pretty quickly; needs good sealing after you're done working on it, because it loves water and humidity THAT much; the small amount of paper pulp shows once it's dry (sanding might help).


I can't say anything on sanding and sealing the clay yet, but I got my hopes up :) Next post will be focused more on sculpting! Kìyevame ^.^


Edit on sanding:
Make sure it's completely dry before sanding. Depending on the thickness it may take more than a day to cure.
Sanding is easy, almost too easy, so be careful and test it out before you apply more force. And wear a good filter mask, lol, you don't wanna inhale the dust. I'm sure it's not toxic, but I bet it's not too healthy, either. ^^
The paper pulp shows more during sanding, so use finer grain and seal with a good varnish when you're all done with sanding, painting, whatever.