Hulma MNL Basic Air Dry Clay Funko Pop! Inspired Workshop

Last Saturday, October 19, my girls attended the Hulma MNL Basic Air Dry Clay Funko Pop Inspired Workshop at the Papemelroti Artisan’s Workshop in its Main Branch in Roces Avenue.

Hulma MNL

Founded last February 2019, Hulma MNL was built by friends Marge and Czarina to help artists and aspiring ones discover and develop their skills. As they have mentioned in their Facebook page: “We exist to share the love of arts and crafts.”

I first saw their Facebook ad about two months ago and forgot to check out their site. As I was working on Pinterest, I saw pins of kawaii figurines and pendants made of polymer clay. The cute pins made me create my own Pinterest board about clay craft, I called Clay Play.

That made me remember back in 2010, I encountered a polymer clay artist creating earrings and rings she sells at the office. They were so cute and I found myself saying (at the back of my mind) that I think I can do that particular craft too. I was only discouraged when I learned that polymer clay needed baking. I did not have an oven back in the day. Somehow, the interest was set aside.

Lately, I have noticed my elder daughter to have been stressing out a lot because of school works and a lot of other stuff to deal with, being youth included ( I guess!). Little sister on the other hand is about to celebrate her birthday. And then I saw the air dry clay workshop ad once again. I want both of them to break free off the worries school works bring about. So, I reserved two seats for the workshop, without telling them. Surprise!

Friday came and I just told them that we are going to attend a workshop, something that they will sure enjoy. I had them wear the acrylic painted shirts Kea and I made. The girls were all smiles when we entered Papemelroti. and were truly amazed of the pretty things they saw…and smelled.

When the workshop started, I went out to meet my dear friend, Amy at the KFC branch in that same street. We had a little chat and she decided to go back with me and say hi to the girls. They only waved their hellos and Amy went home already. Since the girls were still in the middle of creating, I decided to explore Papemelroti and took a lot of pictures that made me remember a lot about high school.

When I thought that I had enough exploring, I was allowed to go near my girls and check their artworks.

My girls learned what air dry clay is and how it is different from a regular modeling clay and polymer clay. They were introduced to the tools and materials every clay artist need, so as how to properly store air dry clay. We have learned that you can color air dry clay using watercolor, acrylic paint, gouache, and soft pastel chalks. It takes about 24 to 48 hours for an air dry clay artwork to completely dry. That is the only time you can varnish your artwork.

Next image shows Kea painting the shoes of her Funko Pop inspired air dry clay art – a chibi version of herself.

And this one is Roey’s chibi. She told me that she was trying to create something else. Or maybe something that looks different from this one, but she made a mistake and just went ahead and this was the outcome. No hair color yet, but almost done.

The Hulma MNL Air Dry Clay Workshop lasted for 3 hours, plus snacks and a little bit of getting-to-know-activity. They both received their loot bags and what they have created, they can take home. We just have to let them dry first before we could coat them with varnish.

Here is what every attendee have created. There’s Kea’s artwork at the bottom (row) left side and Ro’s keychain is 2nd to the left, bottom row.

Below is a photo I grabbed from their page album, with permission of course. A cute and happy shot of the attendees holding their certificates. It was indeed a creative and clay-tastic workshop my girls would remember. They are now both looking forward to creating a lot more trinkets at home. Claying is a great way to spend quality time gadget-free, right?