4 Air Dry Clay Projects for Beginners

Researchers are starting to prove how beneficial working with your hands is for your brain. While hands-on activities like knitting, coloring and working with clay have already been shown to improve memory and reduce anxiety, studies are now proving the general benefits of working with your hands. A recent study found that handwriting produced way more complex brain activity than when just typing on a keyboard.

If you’re looking to get off your computer or phone and start working with your hands, playing with pottery can be a rewarding and versatile medium accessible to beginners and learners of all ages. Kneading, shaping and molding clay can be relaxing and boost hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Structured and guided classes can help simplify the creation process and improve your chances of a high-quality, clay-made masterpiece. The feeling of accomplishment you get when finishing a clay-based project, like making a pair of clay earrings, can also push you into a positive mindset for the week ahead.

Whether you decide to explore the world of polymer clay, air-dry clay or water-based clay, exploring a few beginner-friendly projects can help you develop some essential techniques and clear your mind.

1. Build a Hollyhock Flower Sculpture

A stem made of paper and air dry clay and covered in flowers sprouts from an open book. The flowers are white and purple, and they grow from a purple stem covered in leaves and buds. A hand holding a black paint brush paints one of the purple leaves. — Build yourself a bouquet that will always stay in bloom.

Project: Hollyhock Flower Sculpture - Discover Mixed Media using Paper, Air-Dry Clay, Watercolor and Acrylics by Stephanie Kilgast

About This Project:
For this project, contemporary artist and sculptor, Stephanie Killgast, will show you how to make a realistic hollyhock flower sculpture using air dry clay, paper, watercolor paints and acrylic paints. While this class is geared toward intermediate creatives, any motivated beginner can follow along and find success while sculpting, painting and composing.

Design Tips:
You can make your hollyhock as big as you would like. If you’re just starting out, you might only add a few blooms and buds. If you’re ready to dive into something more advanced, you can create a thick stem covered in a dozen of your hand-painted flowers.

Why We Love It:
When you first see Stephanie’s final floral sculpture, you might feel a little intimidated. Since Stephanie makes the process easy to understand and carefully walks you through each step, any beginner can leave this class with a high-quality clay sculpture.

Sculpt a realistic floral sculpture that will light up any space!

2. Create a Colorful Air-Dry Clay Caterpillar

Four colorful clay caterpillars sit on a wooden table. Their colors vary from purple to blue to red and pink. Behind them is a palette covered in different-colored paint, two paintbrushes and a few tubes of paint. — These little caterpillars are a fun trinket to add to any home.

Project: Air-Dry Clay Basics: How to Sculpt Colourful Caterpillars - Easy Class for Beginners by Stephanie Kilgast

About This Project:
If you love to fill your home with objects that spark joy, this project is for you. You’ll follow along with contemporary artist and sculptor, Stephanie Kilgast, as she teaches you how to make life-like and bright clay caterpillars. Your little creations will add touches of color and fun to any room.

Design Tips:
Stephanie uses red, blue and purple paint to make her colorful caterpillars, but you can use whatever colors and patterns you like best. This project is completely customizable to your art style and preferred color palette.

Why We Love It:
This class is ideal for beginners because of its simplicity and focus on foundational clay techniques. You’ll learn about different types of air-dry clay and sculpting methods. If you already have some experience with clay, you can try out some of the more complex caterpillar designs.

Build colorful and life-like caterpillars using air-dry clay!

3. Sculpt and Paint Clay Brooches

A variety of painted clay cat-themed brooches sit on a plain background. Each brooch, ranging from a classic gray cat in a red bow to a green cat with bright pink cheeks, is attached to a cardboard backing that reads “Handmade pins.” — You can add a customized brooch to your jean jacket or backpack with these air-dry clay brooches.

Project: How to Make Illustrative Hand Painted Clay Brooches by Amy Stoddard

About This Project:
You’ll make handmade, hand-painted clay brooches using simple air-dry clay techniques and UV-cured resin. Whether you’re a beginner looking for a new hobby or an artistic entrepreneur, you’ll love making customized clay brooches that you can add to your Etsy shop or your new jacket. Teacher and artist, Amy Stoddard, makes brooches inspired by cats, but you can shape, sand and paint your pin into any creature, object or character you want.

Design Tips:
If you’ve ever made polymer clay earrings or any other polymer clay-based project, you’ll already know how to sculpt and cut your clay, but you won’t be as familiar with the resin curing process. Unlike polymer clay, air-dry clay needs to be sealed because it can be damaged if it gets wet, which is why the resin curing process is extra important. So make sure you properly seal your brooches with either varnish or resin.

Why We Love It:
You’ll learn three different skillsets: the basics of air-dry clay, how to apply acrylic and gouache paints to your clay and how to use UV resin to seal your clay creations. You’ll also leave this project with a brooch personalized to your skill level and design style.

Create a custom clay brooch you can use for yourself, give to friends and family and sell in your online shop!

4. Make a Wall Mask

A variety of detailed clay masks sit on a white background. Each mask is unique, ranging from a girl with light pink cheeks and blue hair to a person with orange spikes for hair and a girl wearing aviator goggles and a hat. — Make a clay mask inspired by someone you love or by a made-up character.

About This Project:
In this class, you’ll discover how to craft a unique wall mask with ceramicist Jenny Chan. You’ll use affordable and accessible tools and materials to build your mask while learning about face proportions and sculpting techniques, the different stages of working with clay, and how to add details with acrylic paint.

Design Tips:
Jenny will make a mask of a woman with flowers and leaves covering her hair, but you can make a mask that suits your style. You might give your mask a hat, a funky hairstyle or an interesting makeup look. Before you get started on the creation process, you can try drawing out a few design ideas.

Why We Love It:
Jenny Chan is a professional figurative ceramicist who creates all of her masks with stoneware clay fired in a kiln. In this class, she shows you how to use her professional-level techniques and apply them to air-dry clay and materials you might already have at home.

Add to your home decor with a handmade clay face mask!

Get Crafting with Skillshare

Every new hobby comes with its exploration period. During your exploration phase, you should try to complete a few different beginner-level projects over the course of a couple of months. Try to avoid committing to too many big projects at once to avoid burnout. You can increase your chances of success by finding a crafting accountability buddy or adding specific projects you’re interested into your calendar.

Skillshare’s clay classes cater to all skill levels, especially beginners, because every class comes with a clear class project and step-by-step instructions from an in-field expert. You’ll get access to:

High-quality instructors who are professional artists who can simplify complex techniques and offer hands-on tips.
A diverse range of creative projects so that you can try sculpting, pottery, or decorative clay crafts at your own pace.
Accessible learning options so you can rewatch lessons and work on projects as long as needed.

Written By

Calli Zarpas

Producer & Writer by occupation. Ceramicist & Newsletter Editor by avocation.