It is Christmas My Dudes: Sculpting a Christmas Gift with DAS Air Dry Clay
The holiday season is tough– pandemic or not. It always sneaks up on me. After the festival, finals, and my birthday, I’m always scrambling last minute to get Eric, my boyfriend, a good set of gifts!
This year I decided to just ask Eric what he wanted, because I typically make him a list with some general ideas of things to gift me for my December birthday, and for Christmas. Eric doesn’t have a list, but I knew for certain he wanted a controller for PC gaming. He once showed me a photo of a book he saw online, a horror story based in an Ikea called “Horrorstor.” So I saved a note in my phone for a gift idea in the future… And lastly, as a stocking stuffer, I got him a big bag of chocolates, because he likes sweets. With a lack of ideas and no hints for the last gift, the brainstorming began.
As a last-ditch effort to come up with ideas, I messaged my friend Harvey asking what gifts men like, but he told me something like, “whiskey stones,” which is a good suggestion, but I knew Eric wouldn’t want a gift like that. He drinks whiskey occasionally, but I didn’t want to get him a gift from a ‘Top 10 gifts for Him, under 50 dollars’ magazine article. I threw out the idea to make him a frog painting, reason being, every Wednesday, Eric would send me a reminder that it was Wednesday in the form of a joke– a meme with a Budgett’s Frog saying, “It is Wednesday, my dudes.”
Harvey then amplified my idea, “You could make it a sculpture out of clay?”
I hadn’t considered making a sculpture. I explained that I didn’t have a kiln, and that my ceramic skills were low. He dispelled my excuses by telling me to use air-dry clay… and also that if the frog looked bad, it would still be funny and sentimental. I knew he was right, so I took a stroll to the art store, and I walked out with a bag of DAS Air-Dry Clay, and some sculpting tools.
Altogether, the clay and the sculpting tools cost about 30-35 dollars. According to the bag, DAS modeling clay takes anywhere from 36-48 hours to dry. It felt different than ceramic clay, which I had used in the past. Just working it with my hands, I could feel it rapidly losing moisture, and forming cracks. I knew I’d have to watch a video explaining how this clay worked.
I’d have to paint the frog with acrylic paint, because that was what I was working with. but I learned that wetting air-dry clay essentially moistens the dried clay, re-activating it into a wet form. So that was another obstacle that cropped up later. It was a learning curve! Luckily, I started the project two weeks before Christmas.
I made the frog’s body and legs separately. Structurally, this form would be easier, because the legs wouldn’t dry too early. I chose to later glue the legs onto the torso. I also originally made the frog’s torso solid with an open mouth. I knew that when the time came to dry the clay, I’d be forced to carve his innards out. It weighed probably ½ a pound, and the legs were very small and light.
The weirdest part about this surprise was that I had to keep it a big secret. We live in a very small one-bedroom apartment in Minneapolis, so all closets, drawers, nooks, and crannies are filled to the brim with storage. I hid the frog in a chocolate chip cookie tub under my nightstand, and then I put a teddy bear in front of it. I must have seemed so suspicious. He’d make the bed, and I would say, “Get away from there!” and he was like, “what, from the bed? Are there presents under there?”
Also he’d text me while at work, and I’d reply back, “Please let me know when you’re leaving,” so I was worried he would think I was committing an infidelity or something. Little did he know, I was making the most ridiculous gift I’ve ever given him in our 8 years together! haha
Once the sculpture was done, it was time to dry him. I had a white saucer plate I used while working. I placed the frog on the plate, next to his limbs, and I set him next to my radiator space heater. It just plugs into a wall and looks just like a regular old radiator. The body took a very long time to dry. The legs dried in like 3 hours, but the body took about 3 days (72 hours). I would blame that on the dark cold corner under my nightstand. I would have to continuously flip the body on the saucer to dry it. I felt like I was flipping a pancake.
I eventually bought a sealant. I just googled, “sealant air dry clay” and found out Mod Podge has a sealant exclusively for ceramic and metal surfaces. It actually worked. It sealed the creature perfectly. I also bought a glue for the project. Gorilla Glue makes a gel form of their superglue formula. It worked great! After one final seal, and 2 hours to let the final coat dry, it was time to paint! I have a mix of medium to heavy acrylics paints. My favorite brand is Golden, but I also have a mix of more affordable acrylics as well.
The Budgett’s Frog is a greyish colored frog that screams sometimes. It’s also known to hiss, and when out of water, it waddles on all four legs angrily. I’m not sure why, but maybe just to seem scary. I chose that pose for the sculpture. They are about 4 inches long, and weirdly enough, mine is almost exactly 4 inches long. The frog also usually has yellow spots. I tried to make some greyish yellow splotches to keep it accurate. It was Christmas Eve EVE. I wouldn’t have a chance to paint on Christmas eve, so I plopped it into a box, wrapped it, and set it under the tree!
Our small (real) christmas tree! The frog was underneath the tree waiting to be opened.
Eric and I woke up late on Christmas morning, and I insisted that he open his presents in a particular order: Stocking stuffer, Horrorstor book, frog sculpture, and gaming controller. I figured that way if the frog was a huge failure of a present, it wouldn’t have been the last present opened.
He smiled perplexed, and said, “Whoa,” as he lifted the Budgett’s Frog replica from the box. He loved the frog! I was so happy to see his reaction.
I was really worried he wouldn’t get it, because at the time, he had forgotten to send me a wednesday frog for 2 weeks straight. I thought the joke was over! But actually the night before christmas eve, he showed me his phone when walking through the door to the apartment. It was a video of the frog titled, “It is Christmas My Dudes” so I knew the gift was going to be appreciated!
This creative project really took me outside of my comfort zone, because I’ve been drawing since I was 5, and I’ve been painting since I was 13. Ceramics is one of my weakest skills when it comes to art projects and crafts, but I think that having the frog look just a little goofy made it such a better gift. I think in the future, I will be more open to trying projects that involve sculpting, sealing, gluing, and what have you. The look on Eric’s face was proof to me that the present did it’s job.
Bonus fact: I finished making this Budgett’s Frog on a Wednesday.
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(Also I’m not sponsored by any of the brands listed: DAS, Mod Podge, Gorilla Glue, Golden Acrylics…And I think if they saw this frog sculpture, I would actually be banned from purchasing their products for life, so there’s that!)
