Arts and Crafts People to me

[gremcint]

There is a crayola outlet near me and my mom knows the person who runs it, she's a girl guide leader so she'll get a lot of craft stuff from them.

She recently got for free 4 cases of dried out modelling clay that has hardened. Does anyone know a way to soften it and make it useful again? she added a little water to one and it helped a little but not much.

[spark]

Far as I know once Model Magic has dried, it's dry and that's the end. (I'm assuming it's probably model magic that you've got, since true modeling clay is oil based and doesn't really dry.) I used to work at a children's museum, and whenever we had a packet that hadn't been used and had dried out, we just threw them away. And that was a place that saved, reused, and recycled everything so if there was a way to reconstitute the stuff they probably wouldn't have known it.

[Heksubah]

I don't know if this is the same kind, but here is a link I found on how to soften it...

[MaggieTheCat]

I read the article linked above, and the poster suggested putting the hard clay in a food processor to chop it up. I just wanted to note that once you use a food appliance for working with clay or crafts, it should NEVER be used for food again, even if you clean it. Get a separate food processor (and rolling pin and cookie cutters and paring knife, etc.) for all your clay needs.