The Best Ways To Dry Air-Dry Clay Faster And Safe - Craftknights

Discover the best ways to dry air-dry clay quickly while minimizing cracks.

Here are the best methods to dry air-dry clay faster, ordered by effectiveness.

1. Oven

From all of the methods in this list, using an oven to dry air-dry clay is by far the easiest and safest way to quickly dry it. It will generally give you the best results.

Air-dry clay doesn´t have to be baked to dry, but it can be baked to make it dry faster. It should never be fired in a kiln.

How to dry clay in an oven?

1. Put your clay project in the cold oven.
2. Heat the oven to 200°F
3. Let the clay dry for about 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the size of your sculpture)
4. Turn the oven off and let it cool down to room temperature.

You have to put the clay in the oven before turning the oven on to avoid cracks. Air-dry clay tends to crack very quickly if the water content inside the clay is evaporating too quickly.

If you want to know more about why air-dry clay cracks and how to avoid it, then consider reading my article on properly drying air-dry clay. Alternatively, a dehydrator can be used.

2. Dehydrator

A dehydrator is usually used for drying fruit or meat, but it can also be used to speed up the drying time of air-dry clay.

How to Use a Dehydrator to Dry Clay

1. Put the clay sculpture in the dehydrator.
2. Turn the dehydrator on. Set it to a low setting.
3. Let the dehydrator run for an hour.
4. Remove the clay sculpture

A lot of modern ovens have a drying setting for drying fruit that is almost as good as a dehydrator, and even if your oven does not have that setting, you can still use your kitchen oven for drying air-dry clay faster.

So, using a dehydrator for drying air-dry clay is only an option if you already have one lying around.

3. Use a Hairdryer

Using a hair dryer is possible, but generally less reliable than using an oven.

Try to heat the clay evenly to avoid internal stresses that could cause cracks. A grill tray can help by allowing air to reach the underside of the clay.

How to Use a Hair Dryer to Dry Clay

Here is how to dry air-dry clay with a hair dryer in 6 simple steps:

1. Place the clay on a table so that you can reach all sides with the hairdryer.
2. Set the hairdryer to as hot as it would go and set the power to as low as possible.
3. Constantly move the hair dryer all over the clay so that you heat the sculpture up as evenly as possible.
4. Keep at a distance of at least 3 inches to avoid heating up one area of the clay too much and too fast.
5. The clay should be mostly dry after about 20 to 30 minutes.
6. Leave the clay to cool down for another 20 minutes before moving it.

And this is the final result. You can see some minor cracks, but nothing that can´t easily be fixed.

The 6 steps to dry air dry clay with a hairdryer:

1. Place the clay on a table so that you can reach all sites with the hairdryer.
2. Set the hairdryer to as hot as it would go and set the power to as low as possible.
3. Constantly move the hair dryer all over the clay so that you heat the sculpture up as evenly as possible.
4. Keep at a distance of at least 3 inches to avoid heating up one area of the clay too much and too fast.
5. The clay should be mostly dry after about 20 to 30 minutes.
6. Leave the clay to cool down for another 20 minutes before moving it.

And this is the final result. You can see some minor cracks, but nothing that can´t easily be fixed.

4. Let the Air Dry Clay Dry in the Sun

Another option to dry air-dry clay faster is simply using the sun.

Air-dry clay will dry much faster when it is exposed to direct sunlight. Leaving it in the sun will make the clay dry faster, but it can also dry the clay unevenly, which can cause cracking.

Using this method works, but there are other, more effective methods to dry clay, like using an oven.

How to Dry Clay in the Sun

1. Place the finished clay sculpture on a non-metal surface outside in the sun.
2. Carefully put one sheet of parchment paper under the sculpture and then cover the sculpture with a second sheet of parchment paper. This is done to protect the clay from the UV rays of the sun.
3. Turn the clay every 5 minutes to ensure that the sculpture gets heated up as evenly as possible. Doing this will prevent the clay from easily cracking while it dries.
4. The sculpture will be dry after about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the sculpture.

5. Using Desiccant

A desiccant is a material that absorbs moisture from the air. It usually comes in the form of small silica gel pads or silica packs.

You can place your air-dry clay in an air-tight container or cover the sculpture in foil and place the silica pads near the clay. As the air becomes saturated with moisture, the silica pads will absorb the moisture, allowing the clay to dry faster.

This method is especially good for humid environments. High humidity will often slow down the drying speed.

How to Use Desiccant to Dry Clay

1. Put the clay sculpture in an air-tight container.
2. Add some silica packs to the container.
3. Wait for an hour and check if the clay is dry

FAQs

1. How Do You Fix Cracks in Air-Dry Clay?

You can use slip to fix cracks in your air-dry clay. Slip can easily be made with clay and Water.

Slip is clay mixed with water. It has to have the consistency of pudding so that it is thick enough to adhere to the clay while also filling the crack completely.

It is important to remember that you can not store the slip. You can only store pure clay that has not been mixed with water yet.

If you do try to reuse the slip you will notice it doesn’t work and will only cause a huge mess.

Here are the Steps to Fixing Cracks in Your Clay Clay Piece:

1. Prepare the slip with clay and water to the right consistency and set it aside for later.
2. You will need to roughen up the area where the slip is supposed to hold. So use some sanding paper to make the area a little rougher so that the slip can adhere to the surface.
3. Make the area a little wet with water before adding the slip to the crack.
4. Now add the slip to the part that you want to fix. If you want to glue two pieces together, then you can use the slip as well. If you want to fix a very big crack, then you should maybe use some clay to fill in the crack and then add the slip to the surface to make it look smooth.

If you want to have an in-depth, step-by-step guide on how to properly fix cracks in air-dry clay, then consider reading my guide, where I explain exactly that in great detail.

2. How Long Does it Take to Dry Clay?

If you leave air-dry clay out to dry without speeding the drying process up, then it will take anywhere between 24 hours to 72 hours, depending on the size of the clay sculpture, how thick it is, and how warm the location where you are drying it is.

You can read another article of mine where I explain exactly how to dry air-dry clay without risking any cracking. I also explain how long it usually takes for air-dry clay to dry without using any tricks to accelerate the drying time.

I have a full guide on how to properly work with air-dry clay that you can read right here. It is the perfect start if you have never worked with air-dry clay before.

3. Does Heat Reduce the Drying Time of Air-Dry Clay?

Heat will make air-dry clay dry much faster because heat will cause the water inside the clay to evaporate more quickly. While heat generally speeds up the drying process of air-dry clay, it is also important to keep the temperature low, or the clay might simply melt or crack.

4. Why Does My Air-Dry Clay Crack?

Air-dry clay usually cracks when the clay is dried too quickly, dries unevenly, or if the clay is not evenly thick. So keep the clay at an even thickness and dry the clay evenly to keep it from cracking. The most common mistake is an uneven wall thickness of the clay.