It comes from Hawaii

I was turned on to using Claycraft clay by Deco through another bride's wedding blog. She had hired one of the fabulous Deco Clay Craft Academy instructors in Hawaii to sculpt her wedding flowers, and after a little Internet sleuthing I found the website, its products, and the book Clay Art for All Seasons.

I purchased the book, figuring a $20 investment wouldn't hurt to see if any of the instructions looked feasible. And they did. So off went a purchase for some clay, which you can only get from Deco and also comes from Hawaii. Aloha!

Possibly the most interesting thing about the clay is its weight—it's feather light. The white clay comes in 4.8 oz packages and all of the colors are in 1.9 oz packages. Sure, this seems like a tiny amount, but there is one thing I learned quickly: a small amount of clay goes an extremely long way. The colored clay is so rich and vibrant that you almost always mix it with a little bit of white or black to get the color you plan to work with (though I really do like the plain red for roses—it's a very rich color).

Starting with a white rose, my first attempt was thick-petaled and looked as if it was made of Sculpey, not feather-weight clay. So I started again, forming the individual petals thinner and thinner, working them together into a rose.

And so the collection grew.