DRYER LINT CLAY

Everyone talks about recycling these days.  Well, okay maybe not everyone, but it sure is a popular subject to talk about.  If you believe the advertising, you aren't a good citizen unless you recycle everything possible.  Well, here's one that I don't even thing the recycling buffs are aware of.  You can make play clay out of dryer lint.  That's right, the stuff you pull out of the dryer lint screen and throw away has a real use (besides bedding for mice and gerbils).

Many of our most useful materials today came by accident.  The scientists were trying to do one thing, and ended up with something else.  What made them real scientists though is that they took what they got, and experimented with it until they had something useful.  

X-Rays came about that way.  The Curies were experimenting with Uranium and set some in a drawer for storage.  Unfortunately, they set their uranium sample upon a closed, unexposed packet of film.  When they later developed their film, they found a white splotch where the uranium had been.  Apparently, something from the uranium had gotten through the film package and exposed the film.  So, you never know what you'll find when you start experimenting with stuff.  

You Will Need:

• 2 cups of firmly packed dryer lint * (that means get as much into the cups as you can)

• 1/3 cup warm water

• 6 tablespoons white glue

• 1 tablespoon clear dishwashing liquid

• Food coloring

Definition:  Lint is bits of thread, ravelings, or fluff from cloth or yarn , or this fluff caught by a removable screen in a clothes dryer

MAKING YOUR CLAY

1. Tear lint up into little bitty bits (well not too little...)

2. Put lint into a mixing bowl.  Add other ingredients.

3. Mix throuroughly.  When you can no longer mix, knead with hands until uniform.

WORKING WITH THE CLAY

What, you expect us to tell you how to make things with play clay?  I'm sure you can figure out how to make things on your own.  

Unlike other play clay, you can dry the figures you make with the dryer clay.  Leave it out for a couple of days and it will become hard enough to paint.

Try making things out of your dryer lint clay, and commercial play clay.  What's the difference?  How do they form differently?  Do they feel different?  Is it easier, or harder to mold things out of?  Does it break easier, or harder?  Does it stretch farther?  

EXPLAINING HOW IT WORKS

So, what's so special about this clay?  Why can you air dry it and keep the figurines you make?  For that matter, how do the ingredients make clay at all?

Actually, you haven't made a clay.  What you've done is combine some ingredients so that they function like clay.  The lint contains strands, or fibers of fabric, mostly cotton.  That gives the dryer lint clay a lot of strength.  You should find that it will stretch farther, and be stronger than the regular play clay.  The lint also makes it so that your figurines don't fall apart when the clay dries.  In regular play clay, there is nothing long and stringy like that to hold it together.  Since most things shrink when they dry, that causes cracks in the figurines.

Well, we know what the lint does, but what about the other ingredients?  The glue and soap are what make it form, and stay there when your form it.  If all you had was the lint, it wouldn't stay where you put it well at all.  The water makes it soft and pliable.  In fact, if your dryer lint clay starts to get hard, you can add more water to make it soft again.

Stealth aircraft are made in a similar way.  Instead of dryer lint, they use carbon fibers.  These fibers give the parts of the aircraft incredible strength.  Just like the fibers in your dryer lint clay keep it from pulling apart easily, the carbon fibers keep the airplane from pulling apart even with the incredible amount of force that is on a fighter jet while it is flying!  Instead of glue, they use a plastic resin to hold the fibers together.  Once the resin dries, they can actually cut the pieces to make them very exact in size.  Why use carbon fibers and resin? Because materials like this, called composites, don't reflect radio waves like metals do.  That's why they are called stealth aircraft. 

Have Fun!