How to Make Dryer Lint Clay

[Black Cat]

Just wanted to share a great recipe that I made last year to create my 7 foot wolf and a wire framed bat. It's similiar to paper mache paste but easier to apply, looks like hair when it dries and is hard as a rock. Can be applied just like clay and sticks to almost everything I applied it to. It takes approx. 8 days or so dry depending on the climate and weather conditions. Keep in a dry location when allowing to dry.

Dryer Lint Clay:
1 1/2 cups dryer lint (save all dryer lint from your dryer)
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon of kosher salt ( the large crystal type salt)

Mix flour, water and salt until the flour is mix thoroughly. Heat over med. heat and stir with a wooden spoon continusely until the mix starts to thicken. Remove from heat and start adding in sm. amounts of lint. Continue stirring in the lint in small amounts until the flour mixture has been absorded.
The key is you want the mix moist but not soupy moist. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

I use a spatula to apply the lint to either a wire frame, PVC, foam padding or what ever you are making your shape from. I've included a few pics. of the wolf I made so you can see the look of the dryer lint clay. The grey and brown in the pictures is the parts of the wolf that I used the clay mix on.

The dryer lint clay can be painted after it is applied and dried or add color when the mix is just removed from the heat. I've used both food coloring to color the dryer lint clay as well as added acryllic paint.


Once your creation is dry you can polyurethane the dryer lint clay to help preserve it for many halloween seasons.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v193/troop134/Wolfie/

Well have fun with it and I would love to see some other pics of stuff people have made with it.

[Zombie-F]

Looks like you could probably use it to make rats and bats with too. They're pretty hairy little animals.

Looks good. :D

[Black Cat]

I did give the recipe to a few people last year and they ended up making road kill with it.

[Sinister]

Great stuff, Cat! I would never have thought that such cool creations and ideas could come from so miniscule a household item. :)

[Vlad]

What's neat about this stuff, is that it actually look like low matted hair or fir when dry. But it's hard as a rock to the touch. Be careful not to save any lint with color in it.

[Black Cat]

As you start collecting dryer lint for this you will notice dryer lint comes in many colors. A wash load of jeans gives you a blue lint as a white load gives a whitish lint. You can see two different colors of the dryer lint clay on the wolf leg in this picture.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v193/troop134/Wolfie/?action=view&current=Wolfpictures043.jpg
Once the dryer lint clay dried on the legs, I put a very thin coat of darker lint clay on top of the lighter lint clay. Once it dried I applied a coat of some dark min wax stain that I found and lightly painted it on top of the lint. It gave it a brownish look which blended in nicely with the blue coloring of the lint.

You'll have to experiment with the lint colors as I'm sure the possibilities of colors are endless.
My son is just reminding me about the project he made for school last year with the dryer lint clay. His teacher was quite amazed with it. He had to make a sm. house with lights that lit up. (Science project) Anyway he wanted grass around the house with a lit up walk coming from the front door of the house. I had just been experimenting with making dryer lint clay so I dyed a batch of lint clay with green food coloring. Once the house was attached to the bottom of a soda box and the lights in place we applied this green colored dryer lint clay as the grass to the bottom of the soda box. It looked great.
It might be an alternative to anyone who is making those little haunted house scenes and needs to have grass around the house.

[Black Cat]

Ok, I'm bumping this post up for Krough and anyone interested in trying dryer lint clay.
Here's another project I did with the clay. This is my bat, his body and wings are a wire frame. Dryer lint clay was applied to the body to give it a hairy effect and the wings are latex. Latex was also used to apply his teeth which are made from those plastic stir stix for coffee.
Bat Thing pictures by troop134 - Photobucket

[DeathTouch]

That was a good idea. I might have to use that for something.

I wonder if you can do the same with belly button lint? LOL. I think I have enough for two wolves. LOL.

[Merlin (The Quiet One)]

The wolf & bat look great. How many recipes of the clay did you have to use for the wolf?

[Black Cat]

Thanks Merlin. Not sure but it was quite a few. I did work on the wolf project for several months on and off during the winter. I usually double up the recipe when working on larger projects. Once the batch is applied I wait til it is totally dry before applying more.

For a smooth look:
I just discovered a few minutes ago that I can make a batch of dryer lint clay and place it in a food processor and whip the heck out of it. The lint clay comes out extremely smooth almost looking like silk. The food processor breaks up any dog or cat hair that might be in the lint. I then used a small plastic spatula to spread it and refine details in areas where I want the finish to be smooth looking.

[Merlin (The Quiet One)]

Thanx for the info. Going to try this as a summer project, saving lint as I do laundry.

[Bone Dancer]

Thanks for the info BC, I can use it with my tombstone idea. And by the way, you still don't use that food processer in the kitchen do you?

[Black Cat]

Bone Dancer, The food processor is a small one strickly for dryer lint clay. I retrieved it from my Dad's trash pile. I might let Vlad borrow it on occassion so he can try whipping up a batch of toilet paper mache for his molding projects.

[Vlad]

"I might let Vlad borrow it on occassion"
Hmmmmmmmmm, I "might" sign over my next paycheck like I always do....

Funny how I've had heartburn since last night though.

[trishaanne]

You had heartburn since last night? That means you must have made dinner all by yourself after all.......I'm so proud of you!

[krough]

That was a good idea. I might have to use that for something.

I wonder if you can do the same with belly button lint? LOL. I think I have enough for two wolves. LOL.

I think im going to be sick:sick:

[Dr Morbius]

That was a good idea. I might have to use that for something.

I wonder if you can do the same with belly button lint? LOL. I think I have enough for two wolves. LOL.

DT, That would work, but you'll have to mix it with toe jam to get just the right consistency. Vlads food processor should do the trick.:zombie:

[DeathTouch]

DT, That would work, but you'll have to mix it with toe jam to get just the right consistency. Vlads food processor should do the trick.:zombie:

I have heard that he has used the processor for worse things other than my belly button lint.:sick:

[Fangs]

Would heating it with a hair dryer, dry the lint clay any faster?

[Fangs]

Or do I need to let it air dry?

[Lilly]

okay is this a packed down cup of lint or just put in to fill ?

[Black Cat]

Once you make the flour and water paste you then start adding small bits of the dryer lint clay. Keep adding the lint in small amounts until all the flour/water paste has been absorbed and the dryer lint is completely saturated.

The amount of dryer lint you will be adding will depend on different types of lint used. Example: wool lint (very fluffy), cotton lint (not fluffy), lint with dog hair, ect........ Commercial dryers almost always give you a very soft and not fluffy type of lint.

In the end you want your lint clay to be smooth but you don't want a sloppy wet clay to work with.

I hope that helps. Every batch I've made was different with the amounts of lint I needed to add.

As for drying time, you want the lint clay to dry as quickly as possible. Try and work in a dry area with a heater going. The more moisture in the air the more likely your lint project won't dry. I have had dryer lint clay not dry fast enough causing it to start molding. The solution I came up when that happened was to bleach over the dryer lint clay until it dried.

[Lilly]

thanks Black Cat

[Fangs]

Yes yes, what Lilly said! Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D