My family had the privilege of trying the
Rigid Wrap and CelluClay Quik-Sculpting Kit and
ACTÍVA Products' Favorite Sculpture KIDS CRAFTS (free e-book) from
ACTÍVA Products for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.
ACTÍVA Products is a company has been around since 1959. They have quality wholesale arts & craft supplies to use at home or in the studio. These products are great for paper mache and sculpture, air dry clay, kiln fire clay, casting and mold making, colored sand and modeling sand, floral - supplies for flower drying and arranging, etc. They make many products including: Activ Clay - Air Dry Clay, La Doll Clay, Hearty Clay, Scenic Sand/Decor Sand - Colored Sand, Model 'N Mold Sculpting Sand, CelluClay, Permastone, BlackJack Clay - Stoneware Clay, InstaMold, ArtPlaster, Li-Qua-Che Paper Mache,
Activ-Wire Mesh, Rigid Wrap Plaster Cloth, and Flower Drying Silica Gel, etc. These are great for homeschool for art and models for other subjects like: science and history. The ACTÍVA website has project instructions, craft tutorials, lesson plans, and videos to help you learn how to use the medium and get ideas for what can be done with it. These project ideas are aimed mostly for children with parental assistance, but the materials can be used by professional crafters and artists as well.
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| Contents of the Quik-Sculpting Kit. |
The Rigid Wrap and CelluClay Quik-Sculpting Kit is a wonderful quick sculpting paper mache kit that contains Rigid Wrap plaster cloth, CelluClay, and instructions for 12 craft projects. This kit is especially great for Science Fair projects and kids crafts. Also this kit is fabulous for homeschool applications!
The project kit includes:
- 2 - 4" X 180" rolls of Rigid Wrap
- 8 oz. of CelluClay
- Complete instructions for 12 projects
Rigid Wrap is a plaster coated gauze that you can use to make masks, jewelry, sculpture, home decor projects, and props. Just cut into strips, wet, lay and drape onto shape, smooth, layer, dry, finish, and decorate. This is non-toxic and can be quickly dried in the microwave.
CelluClay is paper mache made with a virgin recycled paper medium that you mix with water to get the desired effect, a pulpy clay-like mixture that molds well. It air dries and is non-toxic and gluten free, and adheres to most surfaces without glue or paste. This is a very versatile substance. Once it dries it hardens and can be sanded, sawed, and nailed. You can then add more wet CelluClay to the dry stuff if needed. Once CelluClay is mixed with water it can be stored in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days.
The ACTÍVA Products' Favorite Sculpture KIDS CRAFTS is a full color digital eBook packed with fun project ideas to complete with ACTÍVA's sculpture products. In it you will find instructions for making the: Silly Spider, Bold Beads, Deadly Dinosaur, Beautiful Butterfly, Terrific Totem Pole, Piece of Cake, Egyptian Sarcophagus, Erupting Volcano, Mardi Gras Mask, Painted Pumpkin, Peppermint Candy Bowl, and Snowman Ornament. This is free to download for anyone that signs up for their emails and discount code on the
ACTÍVA Products' website. You will get a link to download it from in your email inbox. No purchase is necessary.
How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
We received the ACTÍVA Products Rigid Wrap and CelluClay Quik-Sculpting Kit and were excited to use it because we love arts and crafts! This is the perfect kit to get when wanting to do plaster or paper mache sculpting. We found it super easy and fun to use.
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| Poorly photocopied, cut off instructions. |
The box of stuff had two individually wrapped packages of Rigid Wrap and one bag of CelluClay. The box was leaking CelluClay dust out the side of it on closer inspection. After we opened it we saw that it came with poorly photocopied instructions and
projects...some of which we could not completely read because they were
cut off and in black and white. I am glad we also received the eBook because of this, but I wish all the projects from the box were in the eBook. There was a dragonfly, mummy, fish pinata, beach clock, and pencil toppers & bookmarks that were not included in the eBook that were in the box, but like I said I was having trouble reading the box projects.
My daughters who are ages 6 and 9 did this art with me. They each made a Beautiful Butterfly with the Rigid Wrap from the box and ebook instructions. Then they made a design of their very own with the CelluClay. My daughter Teela made a dolphin and my daughter Zari made a rainbow.
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| Zari and Teela making a butterfly with Rigid Wrap. |
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| Zari and Teela painting and decorating their Rigid Wrap butterfly. |
For the butterfly we cut out a cardboard shape out of the box the kit came in. For the second one we traced and duplicated this shape using a left over cereal box we had from our recycle bin. Then I cut a piece of the Rigid Wrap into short strips from the roll. The Rigid Wrap reminds me of old style cast material for broken bones. I had a bowl of warm water that the girls dipped one strip into at a time and applied it to their cardboard shape. They did this until it was at least two layers deep with no cardboard showing. They also built up the head and abdomen of the butterfly by scrunching pieces into a ball and shaping them for the body then covering them with more wrap to secure them into place. We dried in the microwave for 30 second increments and once dried they painted and embellished them with jewels, glitter, and fabric. Teela made her lay flat and Zari made hers more 3D.
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| Zari and Teela making a rainbow & dolphin with CelluClay. |
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| Teela and Zari painting their CelluClay dolphin and rainbow. |
For the dolphin and rainbow shapes I had them draw an outline on cereal box and cut them out. Then we mixed up the CelluClay. I had a bit of trouble knowing the right consistency of the dry paper pulp & the water. The instructions that came in the box didn't say, so I looked on the ACTÍVA website and found a ratio in the Instructions, Tips and Technique Sheets under the Learn pull down menu on their website. Since this said it was only 8 oz of CelluClay on the box I first mixed it with 16 oz of water in a zip-lock bag, since the CelluCaly Technique PDF said to "Add 32oz if water to 1lb of CelluClay.", but that wasn't enough water and the pulp was still dry in spots. I added 16 more ounces and that seemed to be the right amount. The girls added mushy pulp to their cardboard armature, both front and back, engulfing it in the goo. Teela was saying it felt really weird and I think that Zari was enjoying working the stuff until it was how she wanted it on the frame. We let these projects dry overnight and they still were a bit damp the second day, so maybe a couple days drying time would be more appropriate. They painted and decorated these as well after they dried.
They enjoyed this so much that we are going to make more projects later with the left over supplies. Yes! We have left over supplies to make even more projects. We are storing the CelluClay in the fridge until we do them because I made up the whole batch all at once. We highly recommend this kit for fun homeschool art and homeschool crafts as well as other projects for both summer time and for the school year.
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BUY IT
You can purchase the ACTÍVA Products Rigid Wrap and CelluClay Quik-Sculpting Kit on their
website for $11.90 or on
Amazon.com for $8.80.
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