404 Sight Not Found for July 12, 2026 - What the Heck is Clay Stuff?

[00:00:08] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to 404 sight not found for July 12, 2026. And it's been a little while. I don't think we've done one since, like, the Mr. Potato Head [00:00:20] Speaker B: episode, which was awesome, by the way. [00:00:22] Speaker A: We need to talk more about. Because we'll. We're going to do another episode about what's on our shelf, what's on the entertainment center. [00:00:28] Speaker B: It's kind of a sequel to the Mr. Potato Head. [00:00:31] Speaker A: We have Darth Tater now. [00:00:33] Speaker B: Yes. Which got an honorable mention in the Addicted to Spuds episode. [00:00:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:39] Speaker B: And. Yeah. What have we been doing since then? [00:00:43] Speaker A: Not much. [00:00:44] Speaker B: A lot. That's why we haven't recorded. [00:00:46] Speaker A: So I made 3,000 subscribers. So if you're listening or watching while listening, because there's no video, if you're listening to this on YouTube, if you're [00:00:53] Speaker B: looking at the picture on YouTube, the [00:00:55] Speaker A: logo or whatever it puts up there, we hit 3, 000 subscribers. And that's really cool. And just a quick thank you to everyone that made that happen. I'm not going to be like, let's hit 3100. Let's. I'm just happy to be at 3, 000. Hey, if we keep going, we keep going. That's a sign of success. But I am happy with that. And so also I've been. I'll just talk about what I'm doing because I'm not going to put the link anywhere. I've been writing horrible AI Fan fiction with the help of AI there's been this whole big. If you look on Facebook, there's like, a lot of, like, biker stories and stuff. Like the biker saved the little girl's lemonade stand or whatever. [00:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah. The bikers found the little girls runaway dog or kitten. [00:01:48] Speaker A: I like the kitten one because we like cats. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:50] Speaker A: But. [00:01:50] Speaker B: And there's a cat in the stories. Spoiler alert. [00:01:53] Speaker A: They always have the same names, right. And it's always kind of. You can tell. They pulled from the same pool of, like, characters and whatever and stuff. So I kind of had this brain wave. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was a brain drain. But I was like, hey, what would happen if we, like, had created a universe? Create. Yeah, we're going to create a universe. [00:02:16] Speaker B: Alternate universe, as it were. [00:02:18] Speaker A: And I guess that's the urban multiverse. Yes. What would happen if the bikers met Liam? How would they meet Liam? What would Liam be like in these stories? [00:02:28] Speaker B: What shenanigans would Liam and the bikers get up to? [00:02:30] Speaker A: Yes. And. [00:02:32] Speaker B: And Apparently, I am sighted and my name is also not Alyssa. I mean, which is kind of funny. And I'm like, a nurse and pretty cool if you say, you know, I [00:02:43] Speaker A: didn't want to, like, point out that it's not you, but I think I'm just going to point out it's not you. [00:02:47] Speaker B: Duh. Okay. [00:02:48] Speaker A: Okay. [00:02:49] Speaker B: There's a little sarcasm there. [00:02:50] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. So. So. Well, and it didn't start out that way. He didn't start having a love interest, [00:02:56] Speaker B: but there is a. There is a character that appears, and it's. [00:03:01] Speaker A: It's his love interest. And there's a cat. He has a cat. And he also has perfect hearing, which is amazing because I'm. [00:03:10] Speaker B: He has more than perfect hearing. [00:03:12] Speaker A: He's got. Well, and in the chapter, he goes all Daredevil, too, which is cool. So that was kind of neat. So. Yeah, it's. It's awful, though. I'm not gonna post a link to it. It's garbage. It is not good. But it's been fun and it's been kind of therapeutic, and it's just something to work on that isn't like, coding also, because I know someone's gonna ask, hey, Liam. Super Liam 1.52. It's not out yet. You're a monster. Yeah, no, I know it's not out yet. And I'm gonna be very polite about this because I don't want to, like, start the lynch mob. There are some NVGT issues right now that are getting ironed out with instability, and so, like, I'm waiting for those to get fixed. I'm not putting pressure on the NVGT people. Please do not do that. They are humans. They have lives. They do other things. But some things need to get worked out, and they're not worked out right now. And so I'm pretty much ready. I just want to make sure that, like, the engine is stable. Excuse me. I drink water and I'm like. You know, you drink something, it kind of. [00:04:27] Speaker B: You get, like, sometimes it doesn't all disappear. [00:04:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And you get, like, phlegm in your throat, and it's kind of gross that that was just me. Sorry. So, but this is not what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk a little different. Something that you guys wanted Alyssa to talk about. So what I'm going to do is, like, take a nap. [00:04:46] Speaker B: If you hear snoring. [00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:49] Speaker B: Yeah. That's kind of accurate. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it's very accurate. Usually it's more open mouth snoring. [00:04:55] Speaker B: Yes. But yes, there's, you know, talking about hobbies that are not coding. There's been a lot of talk. Used to be more so in chatting with viewers, which I know there's been some questions lately about where's Alyssa? And sometimes those have happened last minute or now that there's Elbot, I don't even know how we could possibly have me sitting in the next to Liam chat chair, because how is Elbot going to know who's who? [00:05:29] Speaker A: Oh, so. So it's all Elbow's fault. [00:05:31] Speaker B: It's not. But, I mean, I know there was a. I know there was a day where I was interested in being on there, and there's. I think there was some stuff going on in the office or things that needed to happen. And one of the things that had come up at that point was Elbot needed. [00:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:48] Speaker B: Some help if we're going to do that. [00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah. We almost have to, like, have Elbot not listen to the microphones. [00:05:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Or Elbot, like, has to retire during that particular episode. And that's kind of. That's kind of sad because he's become a very integral part of experience. So a lot of times when. When chatting is going on, I am simultaneously engaging with that. [00:06:16] Speaker A: And you're doing. But you're also doing your hobby. [00:06:18] Speaker B: Yes, I'm doing what we've referred to all this time as clay stuff. [00:06:23] Speaker A: And clay stuff. [00:06:24] Speaker B: Like, what the heck is clay stuff? [00:06:26] Speaker A: So we. We thought we would, you know, talk about what clay stuff actually is. [00:06:31] Speaker B: Yes. I've been kind of shy about it, I guess, for a while, because I was, you know, trying to build my confidence and figure out, like, what type of stuff do I actually want to make with it? Because there's a variety of things you can actually do. But before I even get to that, I'm kind of jumping ahead. I want to clarify, you know, what type of clay I work with, because there are multiple different kinds out there. What I'm talking about is what we call modeling clay. [00:07:04] Speaker A: I have an important question before you start, though. [00:07:05] Speaker B: Okay. [00:07:06] Speaker A: Are you clarifying or clear? Ifying [00:07:11] Speaker B: what? [00:07:12] Speaker A: Clear. A fine clay. [00:07:15] Speaker B: C L A Y Clari. [00:07:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:20] Speaker B: Yeah, That's a real important one, guys. What a question. We're just gonna go with. Yes. [00:07:28] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So there are different types of. Can we talk about, like, I don't know if you've got. Because Alyssa has notes, by the way. [00:07:35] Speaker B: I do, and I usually don't have notes for podcast. [00:07:39] Speaker A: You actually put your thoughts together, which is amazing because, like, I never do that. [00:07:44] Speaker B: I wanted to have some thoughts together for this because I wanted my information to be as accurate as possible. There could still be mistakes. I am not a clay expert ologist [00:07:54] Speaker A: person, but can you talk about, like, what the different types of clay? [00:07:57] Speaker B: Because, like, that's what I'm getting into. [00:07:58] Speaker A: Okay, cool. [00:07:59] Speaker B: So we usually think of clay as like, the stuff that comes out of the ground. It's the mud, it's the earth. And you would think of that as, you know, like there's clay soil that you plant in. But what we're talking about is modeling. Clay is kind of a generalized term that is used to talk about the different types that people use for various arts crafts. So the first kind that I think most of us think about is ceramic clay. [00:08:28] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:29] Speaker B: And this is what you think of in like pottery classes or if you go to a place like, I know growing up in Peoria, we had fired up, there might be other ones where you go make an item. It might be a plate, a bowl, a coffee mug, and. And the clay has to be put into a kiln, which is like a really, really, really high heat oven of sorts. I've never actually gotten to see one. I would love to. I've also never, like, worked with a potter's wheel. I've worked with some ceramic clay, like in a class I think in. [00:09:06] Speaker A: Have you ever had anything fired before? [00:09:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:09:09] Speaker A: Okay. Did your fired item explode? [00:09:12] Speaker B: No. [00:09:12] Speaker A: Okay, that's good. So you're ahead of me because I left air bubbles. [00:09:18] Speaker B: Whoops. [00:09:19] Speaker A: And anyone that's worked with clay, if you leave air bubbles in your clay and you fire it, firing it is putting it in a kiln. And I mean, they call firing it because you're. What is it, like 800°? [00:09:31] Speaker B: It's. It can be thousands, over a thousand. [00:09:34] Speaker A: So you fire it. And if your clay's got air bubbles in it, imperfections like air bubbles or whatever, they will. They will burst spectacularly. [00:09:44] Speaker B: I had help with mine. I will be fair. So this was the one year that I attended a school for the blind and I was in art class because, you know, that's what you do. And so I made this clay cat. And it was not a pretty cat. It could definitely tell it was beginner work. [00:10:02] Speaker A: But was it the cat from my fanfic? [00:10:05] Speaker B: It was orange. I want to make it orange. [00:10:06] Speaker A: Oh. [00:10:07] Speaker B: Because I. I don't still. I don't think mom still has it. I think she threw it out. In fact, I'm pretty sure she said, I threw out that ugly cat you made in high school. Like Gee, thanks. But I don't think it quite got the. I was inspired by a cat that sort of adopted my dad's family that was like orange with gray stripes and she was a really cool cat. And so I wanted to make something kind of based off of that and I don't think I quite succeeded. But yeah, I made this and the teacher had a kiln at the school. But this is not usually something that people have ready access to in their homes. [00:10:41] Speaker A: Right. You don't have a kiln in the kitchen. [00:10:44] Speaker B: No, you have to. You either like have a lot of money and you own a studio or you rent space in one or you go attend classes, which, hey, pottery class could be something fun to do one day. Why the heck not? But it's not something that you're going to have in your home. Now, one thing I will say in its favor is it is the only clay that you can make food safe. Oh, yes. So if you want to make dinnerware, coffee mugs, like, this is the thing that you're going to want to use because. And it doesn't mean that the other clays are poisonous. It just means that there's a lot of rigorous safety standards that have to be tested for items to be considered food safe. [00:11:32] Speaker A: So I mean, you could make some. Something technically in your own house and though it's not food safe, you technically could use it. You just wouldn't want to make something that you would sell and say it's food safe. [00:11:45] Speaker B: Right. Now what you could do is have a little dish that you put wrapped candies in or something where the food is not going to be exposed to the dish. Or you could cover a mug, but just not all the way up to the top. You could put a little a decoration around a mug, but leave the top where the person's mouth is going to go empty. And obviously you only put the covering around the outside. [00:12:09] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:10] Speaker B: So you can do something like that. You're just not going to make like a dinner plate that you put your food on and eat with either air dry or polymer clay. Which we'll get to here in a sec. So, yeah, I will say this could be a bit of a long podcast. [00:12:30] Speaker A: The TLDL is the clay that everyone thinks about is the clay that you throw in a really, really hot oven that nobody owns because really, really hot oven. [00:12:39] Speaker B: Yeah. You're not going to have this at your house unless you have like an off site or an off away from the house, like workshop. [00:12:46] Speaker A: But there are other clays. [00:12:48] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:48] Speaker A: And that's the stuff that we want to get to. [00:12:51] Speaker B: Yes. So then you have air dry clay, which is exactly what it sounds like. You dry it in the air, you make what you want to make. It has water in it and as the water evaporates, it hardens. And there are some different types. And there are different types of the other stuff that we just talked about too. You have like earthenware, not earthenware. I'll just be clear about that. It's like E, A R, T, H I N. You have stoneware. There's different types. And same with air dry. You have different types that you can use. And there's like paper clay, sort of earthy clay, there's foam clay. And I don't know all that there is to know about all these. [00:13:33] Speaker A: Now I've seen like the bowls, like the earthenware bowls and stuff. Are those clay? [00:13:39] Speaker B: Yes. Like anything earthenware or stoneware. Is your ceramic clay, that kiln? Yes. Some of our coffee mugs and stuff could be clay and we don't even realize it. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Right. But yes, because they're finished, right? [00:13:54] Speaker B: Yes. They, they also get glazed and that's. I guess there are particular things they put on them to make them food safe and waterproof and all of that. [00:14:04] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:04] Speaker B: I don't know all there is to know about that. [00:14:06] Speaker A: But like the stuff that you can go get at like hobby lobby, you, I mean you might be able to get. But like you, you primarily work with polymer and air dry. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Yes. [00:14:14] Speaker A: And if I remember correctly, because I sometimes pay attention, air dry has been kind of a newer thing that you started experimenting with. [00:14:21] Speaker B: I started with polymer because air dry. One of the caveats is, well, it dries. And so as you're working, you kind of have a time threshold. [00:14:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:29] Speaker B: And you can put water on it, but you want to be really careful how much water you put on it because that can cause it to break because it's heavier in certain spots because you went, oh no, this is drying and doused it in water. So I don't want to say you have to be in a hurry, but you kind of need to know a little bit about what you're doing. I think especially as a blind person who can't just go watch a YouTube video and follow along really, really quick. [00:14:55] Speaker A: Yep. But I will say polymer is pretty awesome. [00:14:58] Speaker B: Yes. [00:14:58] Speaker A: Because I've worked with polymer. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Then you have your non drying clay, which is like the stuff that people use for claymation. So if you've watched like Robot Chicken or anything of that story, or like [00:15:09] Speaker A: I Think Gumby was also claymation. I'll throw back into another 80s if anyone remembers Davey and Goliath was another claymation. There's a lot of, A lot of [00:15:23] Speaker B: claymations because you can just reuse the stuff over and over again. It never. You don't want to dry it out because it's wax, so it would melt. So you don't want to dry this stuff. I will say the other thing with air dry clay is you only have a couple of colors. I guess foam clay. There's more, which I'm, I'm looking at trying some purple foam clay. At some point I just gotta, you know, do the Amazon order. Oh, clay's done. [00:15:47] Speaker A: And let's talk about what that meant in a moment. Because polymer clay has an important component to it. [00:15:55] Speaker B: Yes. Which makes it awesome for the home. [00:15:59] Speaker A: Yes. [00:16:01] Speaker B: But yeah, you're. You're air dry. You're only getting. Unless you use the foam clay stuff, which. Yeah. Gotta try at some point for science. But you get white, which means you gotta paint it. You get terracotta, which you might also paint. Or you might just go, you know what? I like the classic clay look. It's the earthy color. Or some brands have others, like there's a stone color, some things you can get. But the non dry you can get in all kinds of colors. But the point of that is like you reuse it. It's not something you would make for other people as gifts or sell it. [00:16:34] Speaker A: Which are the air dry. [00:16:35] Speaker B: The non dry. [00:16:36] Speaker A: The non dry. [00:16:37] Speaker B: Right. Because it's kind of meant to be wadded up and used again, air dry you can certainly give as gifts you can make little trinket dishes. So polymer. Yep, that's where we're headed to now. So polymer clay is actually not technically clay because it's. Because it doesn't have like earth minerals or any of that in it like some of these others do. So this is where my notes are going to come in handy. So I'm, I'm reading a definition that came from a great site. Who? The lady that runs this has done a lot of research into polymer clay over the years. She wasn't Clay GPT. No, this is the Blue Bottle Tree is the name of the site. [00:17:22] Speaker A: This wasn't Clade. [00:17:23] Speaker B: No, it's the bluebottletree.com. it's not like Clay Gemini Clay Clamini. Yeah. No, this is an actual lady who lives in Missouri and that's why she named her site the Blue Bottle Tree, because she has blue bottle trees in her area and thinks they're cool. But she was a chemist before she got into polymer clay. And I mean for our UK friends, I actually mean like scientist that studies chemistry, not pharmacists, not medical. But she got into this and you know, kind of built a website around giving people the best information available because like any hobby there's a lot of misnomers that go around. Sure. If there's a thing to try polymer clay related, she's probably tried it. So the definition here, polymer clay is a synth synthetic modeling putty that never dries out and only hardens when you cure it in a home oven. Okay, so this is the part that. [00:18:26] Speaker A: Talk about that in a moment. [00:18:27] Speaker B: Yes. Polymer clay is, is similar to. It's like a vinyl and similar to what makes baby dolls, beach balls and aquarium tube all flexible vinyl. And whether it's a dull or insulation on electrical wires starts the same. It is PVC or polyvinyl chloride is mixed with plasticizer. There's a comma there, stabilizer, lubricant and pigments. It's then shaped and heated to form a solid material. Uncured polymer clay is just like uncured polyvinyl mixture with some filler similar to talc or chalk, which makes it into a dough. Once we shape it and cure it in the oven, polymer clay becomes solid vinyl. [00:19:31] Speaker A: So if you are like I love the earth, man, like this may not be. You're going to be playing with chemicals. [00:19:38] Speaker B: Yes. [00:19:38] Speaker A: So that's fine. But just you know, if you're. Again if you're peace, love and earth, bro, like just keep. [00:19:44] Speaker B: That might not be your thing. [00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah, might not be your. [00:19:46] Speaker B: It's. Yeah, it's pvc. [00:19:47] Speaker A: So it's synthetic. [00:19:48] Speaker B: It's synthetic. It's PVC which is, you know all that stuff that I read is basically it's given a lot of powders and things to give it color, but it [00:19:59] Speaker A: is, I mean it's safe to touch. It's not going to be like the people that made the death clocks. The death clocks are fascinating by the way. They were these clocks and they would coat the, the parts in mercury but nobody realized that mercury would kill you. So all these people in like 1800s France were making these clocks and killing themselves by making. So they got the name. When people figured out that mercury was actually really bad for you, they got the names of. They got the name of death clocks. [00:20:33] Speaker B: Yeah, these are nothing like that. And if baked properly at the right temperature, they are, you know, it is non toxic. It, it releases, there is some scent to It. So if you have a scent sensitivity, this may not be the clay for you, or you may want to, you know, make it outside or. [00:20:54] Speaker A: Yeah, let's. Let's talk about the oven portion of it. [00:20:57] Speaker B: So, like, you can technically make it in the same oven as your food. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Sure. You. You. [00:21:03] Speaker B: I choose not to. I feel really weird about that. [00:21:05] Speaker A: And I appreciate that. [00:21:07] Speaker B: Yes. I mean, and kind of a golden rule is, like, if you use an item to make clay, you don't use it again for your food. So if there's a tray that you put it on, that's. That's craft property now. [00:21:19] Speaker A: So let's talk about what you use, because I think this is kind of a really cool thing and is something so a lot of people. Because. And we've seen this, like, a lot of people go, gee, I really want to get into this. This sounds fun, but maybe I don't have an oven, or maybe I don't want to use my kitchen, or in our case, like this, my kitchen. You don't go, so what. What does your setup look like? Because you. You've got to. I mean, let's just be honest. You got to have a really complex setup. Right. To make clay stuff. So, like, let's talk about what your really, really complex setup is. [00:21:56] Speaker B: Oh, it's crazy complex. You know, it's. It's a very specialty Black and Decker. Black and Decker toaster oven that, you know, you can. That you can only get at places like Target, Walmart, Amazon. Yeah. Jk. It's not really all that complex. [00:22:14] Speaker A: So you just. You have a toaster oven. So it's not a special oven. It is a regular oven that you would get. And the clay that you got is pretty much you just go get it anywhere. Right. [00:22:25] Speaker B: You can get it in, like, your Michaels or Hobby Lobby, or you can get it online. They have it on Amazon. There's also sites that are dedicated to it. And I've dabbled in a few brands. The one that I use the most is Sculpey. And there's different. [00:22:46] Speaker A: So you use Sculpey. Okay. Because, like, Sculpey is. And maybe you've heard the term sculpey, and you're like, I don't know what that is. Now, you know, Sculpey is polymer clay. [00:22:55] Speaker B: Yes. And it is a. It is made by the Polyform company, and it is like their brand, and they have a bunch of sub brands. So there's different types of Sculpey. So if someone says, oh, I use Sculpey they could mean one of a lot of different things because there's different. They have several different lines. So I use mostly Sculpey Premo and Sculpey Souffle. But little kind of fun tidbit about Sculpey that I pulled from their website. Sculpey is a brand of polymer clay made by Polyform products, which I have yet to figure out if that is all they make or if there's anything else. I've done some searching for Polyform products and have gotten several different results. So I don't know if there's multiple companies that interesting carry that title. I've seen one that has like boat fenders. I've seen another one that's like makes Internet forms, like Internet fillable forms. I don't think it's that one. [00:24:00] Speaker A: I wouldn't think so. [00:24:01] Speaker B: It could just be. They could just be clay. That's. And they're in Illinois actually in Elk Grove Village. [00:24:09] Speaker A: Interesting. So right. Right next door to where I live. [00:24:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:12] Speaker A: Right down the street from me, actually. [00:24:15] Speaker B: Yes. And it was invented in 1967 as a thermal transform thermal transfer compound which would conduct heat away from the cores of electrical transformers. [00:24:30] Speaker A: Okay. [00:24:32] Speaker B: But it wasn't successful for that. [00:24:35] Speaker A: No. [00:24:36] Speaker B: It was kind of a happy accident that. That it ended up being repurposed to become the clay that we all know and love. And there were some clays before that. There was fimo. Fimo. People say it different ways. It's F I M O. That was developed in Germany and I think that was like in the 40s or 50s. But Sculpey is the. They call themselves the US's first, I think they say America's first oven baked clay. And there's a couple other brands around the world, but that is probably the one that I most commonly work with that comes in lots of different colors. So, you know, for those of us that are total and don't like to [00:25:22] Speaker A: paint, you just get the color you [00:25:24] Speaker B: want or you can mix up colors and make your own, which I have done some of that. Some of. So I've done a lot of. I've done a lot of YouTube watching. I found a cool app that has a couple of accessibility gotchas, but that does clay color recipes. So you can actually mix it together either, you know, by hand, which is a lot of work, or I got from my fabulous husband for my birthday in 2025, a pasta machine. Yes. Just like the ones you use in your kitchen. In fact, it is one of the ones from Italy is A Mercado atlas. And you can roll clay through it. And it's awesome because you can make sure that your pieces are a uniform thickness. Which for some of the things I make, like earrings, that's kind of important. Yeah, you. [00:26:22] Speaker A: You really want that for that. [00:26:24] Speaker B: You can roll it out. So any of the clays that I've talked about to this point, you know, even starting from the top with the ceramics, you. You. You roll it out with some sort of roller. And I always start with a. With an acrylic rolling pin. You don't want to use wood on the polymer clay because it can get stuck in there. It can kind of react. So there's kind of some surfaces that you want to be careful. Like, acrylic is good for rolling it. And I actually have some little ceramic tiles that I roll on because it will stick nicely to the tiles to use a cutter, but it doesn't damage the tiles in a way that it could damage, like a wood table or even a plastic table. Yep. Or a laminate. So I work on little tiles. I actually use a tile in the oven, too, because it gives a nice, even heat transfer. And you might go, oh, my gosh. Isn't that dangerous? No. Because when tiles are made, it is at a much higher temperature than the 275 degrees. [00:27:28] Speaker A: So what is. What is the. What do you bake your sculpey at? [00:27:32] Speaker B: 275. [00:27:33] Speaker A: 275. [00:27:34] Speaker B: And the packaging says, you know, minimum of 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of your piece. And following up the research of others before me, I usually bake for about an hour, because what matters more than the time is the temperature. Y. And making sure you have it at that temperature so that all the chemical changes that need to happen can happen. [00:27:55] Speaker A: So it sounds like, honestly, like, this would be a really cool hobby for somebody that I would say maybe does not have a lot of space. So you could do this in an apartment. [00:28:05] Speaker B: Yes. [00:28:06] Speaker A: Which I did. It also sounds like it's a hobby. That would be, like, the setup cost would be low. [00:28:12] Speaker B: Yes. [00:28:12] Speaker A: The Marconi. The Marconi. She was a little. Whatever it was. The mark. Oh, no. Marconi invented radiance. [00:28:18] Speaker B: This is Mercado. [00:28:20] Speaker A: That was a little pricey. I mean. [00:28:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And they've gotten pricier since I purchased it just because of things going on in the world also. [00:28:27] Speaker A: Like terrorists. [00:28:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So they don't need to have a big discussion about that. But that's just a fact of. Because they come from Italy. [00:28:34] Speaker A: Right. But it's still you. [00:28:37] Speaker B: You don't necessarily think the oven was about $50. [00:28:40] Speaker A: It'll help you. [00:28:40] Speaker B: But depending on what colors of clothes, clay you get and how many and some of, you know, your, like, your acrylic roller, you'll want to get some tiles. You'll probably want cutters, you know, depending on what kind of pieces you're doing. And you'll need something to cut with. I actually use, they call them metal ribs, and they're like potter ribs. And so they're not so sharp as to, like, they would cut you, per se, but they can cut through the clay. So if you're, you know, getting a piece off of a block to, you know, start forming into what you want, they are good for that. There's also, like, you want to get, like, a set of sculpting tools. So there's, like, because you can add different textures, and if you really get into it, like I have, you can get, like, texture sheets and texture rollers. And, I mean, there's an entire slew of things that you can end up [00:29:37] Speaker A: spending a lot of money on. [00:29:38] Speaker B: But if you're brand new, let's just [00:29:40] Speaker A: say you're brand new. So because we're mentioning a lot of things, and I, I, I know anytime someone mentions, starts listing off things, people go, oh, my God. So. [00:29:49] Speaker B: But you don't have to have all [00:29:50] Speaker A: the things, but let's just say you [00:29:52] Speaker B: want some basic shape cutters. [00:29:53] Speaker A: Let's say you're brand new. Okay, so I'm brand new. I've never made a clay thing in my life. What would you say? And obviously, everyone's going to have their own opinions, but the, what are the must haves just to make, like. So when I made sl, I made a coil pot. And a coil pot is essentially, I take a piece of clay, I flatten it out, I take another piece of clay, I roll it out to be like a long, thin tube. I'm giggling because as I rolled out the clay, it made a shape that looked bathroom humor. Very inappropriate. [00:30:26] Speaker B: Bathroom humor. [00:30:27] Speaker A: And I believe it was the proper color to also. [00:30:30] Speaker B: It was a terracotta color. [00:30:33] Speaker A: So, but like, okay, so basic stuff. I'm, I mean, obviously you want to get into making, like, animals and, and all these things. You're, you know, it's a little different. [00:30:41] Speaker B: I would say get you a block of the original sculpey, and you can get white and paint it, or you can get terracotta, which you kind of go for the classic clay look. You want to have your metal rib because you can cut Out a piece. You want to have an acrylic roller so that you can, you know, roll out kind of your bottom piece. And the rest of the coil pot you can honestly do just by hand because you're rolling it out. You'll want to have your tile to work on, which you can totally use the same tile to bake it on. You'll want, though, some baking paper to put under it, because otherwise what happens is you can get some shiny spots where the clay touched the tile. Yeah. And you can get paper and cut it yourself. I like to work smarter, not harder. So I get a package of, like, the pre cut parchment papers that are about the same size as my tile. [00:31:36] Speaker A: Perfect. [00:31:37] Speaker B: So that I can just stick it on the tile, stick my clay on top and. [00:31:42] Speaker A: But this is a pretty, I would say, inexpensive hobby to get into. And obviously, like you said, you start getting the gelato machine or whatever, and you start getting. [00:31:50] Speaker B: Keep one. The gelato machine. [00:31:52] Speaker A: I don't know where it's called again. Marconi, because he invented radios. [00:31:57] Speaker B: So, yeah. The brand is Mercado. The machine is called the Atlas. [00:32:01] Speaker A: The Atlas. Okay. [00:32:02] Speaker B: But it's a pasta maker. And yes, it's like the same thing. You would make lasagna or fettuccine, but [00:32:07] Speaker A: you want one of the good ones because there's cheapy ones. This one's, like all metal. [00:32:12] Speaker B: Yes. And you can take the little scrapers off, which you'll want, because if you're using a bunch of different colors, you want to be able to clean up after yourself. [00:32:22] Speaker A: So I'm kind of sad that, like, I don't actually make pasta because I would have bought a second one to [00:32:26] Speaker B: actually use for food. [00:32:27] Speaker A: Actually use for food. Because it's a cool. I will say it's a cool machine. [00:32:31] Speaker B: Another thing you want, and this is gonna sound so silly, and I'm glad that nobody has been like, why do you have a big box of these Huggies baby wipes? [00:32:40] Speaker A: Really? [00:32:41] Speaker B: Yes. Which I need to get more of those. [00:32:43] Speaker A: What would you use those for? [00:32:45] Speaker B: To clean everything up so colors can transfer onto, you know, your acrylic roller or your pasta machine or your tile. You want to be able to clean it up and you don't. And like clay cutters, which, you know, I'll get into a little bit in a little bit. Some of the stuff that I actually make. But, you know, the cutters and tools that you use, you want to be able to make sure you clean all your color off. And rubbing alcohol isn't always the best. It can Actually, over time, damage some of that stuff. But the unscented Huggies baby wipes are gentle, but they get the job done. [00:33:22] Speaker A: I want to talk about. When we talk about making stuff, I want to talk about the turtle. [00:33:27] Speaker B: Oh, the turtle. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Because Alyssa made a turtle that's been making the rounds on Facebook. And, like, I'm actually curious how you made the turtle. [00:33:38] Speaker B: So, yes, I. I have. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Do you want to talk about. I mean, I know you had other stuff. [00:33:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:43] Speaker A: But I. I really want to know about this turtle. [00:33:45] Speaker B: We'll have to talk about the turtle here in a moment. Yeah. Where. Where was I? Yeah, the things you want. Like, and you can get a basic sculpting tool set on Amazon for, you know, under $10. So, yeah, there's a lot of things starting out, like the oven and the pasta machine, if you choose to get a pasta machine, are probably the most expensive items. But if you want to make, like, trinket dishes or something, you don't really need a pasta machine. You can kind of use your judgment. [00:34:10] Speaker A: Yeah, we did trinket trays without them. [00:34:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And you can get, like, there are depth guides that you can get. Or some people just starting out will use either, like, playing cards or Popsicle sticks and tape them together and put them on either side of their clay that they're rolling. Like, there's a lot of interesting school of YouTube, I'm telling you. So I want to talk about that for a moment because, you know, it's like, how did I get started? Well, I started at my old job. They had art and enrichment classes. And when I didn't have other things going on besides, you know, working with my students, because they. [00:34:48] Speaker A: Doing your job? [00:34:48] Speaker B: Yes, doing my job. But my students got to go to the art classes after lunch, you know, a few days a week. [00:34:56] Speaker A: So if you didn't have, like, paperwork and stuff, you just tag them up. [00:34:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And so one of the kind of perks of the job was I got to participate in those. And, yeah, the first day, the instructor there was like, oh, we have clay. And I was like, oh, so I make something today? And, you know, you'd have to go kiln it, and I'd have to pick it up in a couple weeks or something. And she was like, no, this is polymer clay that you put in the oven. Like, what are you talking about? I had never heard of this before. [00:35:25] Speaker A: By the way, we're sending this podcast to Lee. So, Lee, if you're listening. Hi. [00:35:29] Speaker B: Yes, hello. [00:35:30] Speaker A: L. I'm going to send this to her as soon as it drops. [00:35:32] Speaker B: Oh, heck, yeah, we need to do that. But, yeah. And I. My very first day, I decided to make a sculpture, a little mini sculpture of Jan, my guide dog, who we've done a podcast about after, you know, after she passed. So I kind of started in the deep end. [00:35:52] Speaker A: Yeah, you just jumped in. [00:35:55] Speaker B: Because there were a lot of things. And I did have a lot of assistance with that first sculpture, and I actually still have it. It's one of the items on the entertainment center. And I've learned a lot since then, but I probably could have started with something a little easier, but I wanted to do this, and so I actually made it with white clay and painted, and that was when I kind of learned. Okay. I like the idea of the colored clays because painting can be messy. If you can't see what you're doing, it's a. It's gonna possibly get everywhere. Now, I hadn't heard about at that point in time, and I have since heard of paint pens, which might be easier to control. So I'm kind of learning a lot as I go. And YouTube is fantastic. But I will say, and this is not a criticism, I have some favorite YouTube channels that I follow for this stuff. They are geared. They are sighted, and they are geared towards sighted people. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that because probably 98% or more of the audience is sighted. [00:37:00] Speaker A: Yep. [00:37:01] Speaker B: So sometimes they're doing a really good job of describing what they're doing. Other times, you know, again, they're. They're on camera. They're first sighted people. So they might say something like, so you see this over here? Which, you know, that's. That's a bummer, because. No, I don't see this over here. No. Or I find a. I have in the past found a video with a title that's like, you know, learn how to make this. And I'm so excited. Oh, my gosh. And it's just music. Oh, it's just music. There's no voiceover. They're not speaking, so I don't know what the heck's going on. [00:37:39] Speaker A: No. [00:37:40] Speaker B: So I've kind of vetted some YouTube stuff that I really like, but even there, sometimes I'm doing a little bit of guesswork because it's. It's catered to the sighted community. And I have been kind of surprised that there aren't more blind people doing this. I've asked around in a couple of, you know, blind, crafty communities if people do polymer clay, and usually there's, like, been One or two people that are. Oh, yeah. Or a lot of times it's. One time I did a pottery class, which is, as we've talked about, that's a little different. [00:38:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:23] Speaker B: And it just doesn't seem like it's a super widely known. I don't know if people don't know it exists, if people are scared to get started, if they've gone and looked at YouTube and gone. I don't understand what they're doing. Like, I was blessed that I had some in person foundation to start, and that really helped me jump start this because I actually got to try making, you know, the Jan sculpture. A turtle. The turtle 1.0. I got to make, I think we did, you know, some owls, some jewelry, some trinket dishes. So I kind of got to see that process in person. [00:39:04] Speaker A: Is that where Hootie came from? [00:39:06] Speaker B: Mary Mozzarella made him. Mary Mozzarella, friend of the show. Mary Mozzarella made. Well, I made Hootie with some assistance at. At New View, but she made the blowfish. [00:39:19] Speaker A: Right. That goes with. [00:39:20] Speaker B: She sculpted Hootie the owl. [00:39:23] Speaker A: He's got a blowfish friend. [00:39:25] Speaker B: Yes. And a little microphone. [00:39:27] Speaker A: And we have the taco and the burrito. [00:39:28] Speaker B: Yes. It's her story to tell. I don't want to tell too much of it, but she had vision throughout a large part of her life. So, you know, sculpting for her works differently than it does for me. [00:39:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:39:44] Speaker B: Because she had references that I don't have necessarily. So I do a lot of work with cutters or with, you know, actual models of things like the turtle. Time to talk about the turtle. [00:39:57] Speaker A: Let's talk about the turtle. [00:39:59] Speaker B: So, yeah, the first one I made at New View, Lee actually had like a realistic model of a turtle. And she told me at the time that she got it at Michael's, and she later got me one, and I kind of didn't use it for a while because I didn't have a lot of confidence yet. So I did a lot of things either trinket dishes, which I got really good at because those are fairly simple to put together, or jewelry, and finally recently decided to dust off the old turtle and actually end up buying a couple of other types because I figured out what brand it was that she got at Michael's. I. I did a little instacarting, found Michael's, did a search for sea turtle and found, like, the only option that it could have possibly been, and found out that this brand has all sorts of animal figures. But the nice thing about turtles is they're flat. So I can put the turtle, you know, roll out a big old sheet of clay, stick the turtle on top of it, trace around the turtle with a little dotting tool, and then, you know, take the model turtle off of the sheet of clay. And if there's any part that didn't cut all the way through, that's where I go through with my little metal rib tool and cut that out. So then I have the basic shape of the body of the turtle. The face, the head is kind of the trickier part because the turtle is kind of looking up. So I have to use a little bit of imagination to try to sort of mimic what the face looks like and, you know, make two little tiny eyeballs that go on either side of the head and try to, you know, make something with a little dotting tool that sort of hopefully resembles a mouth or nose. So I. I call it like a whimsical turtle. It's not exactly real to life because I don't know how to make faces. So it may look a little unique. But isn't that kind of what art is all about at the end of the day? [00:42:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. [00:42:18] Speaker B: So I've kind of had this idea of, like, I want to make little turtle desk buddies in different colors. I would love to turn this into a business. By the way, I know I've talked a lot about what clay is and stuff so far. So this, I feel like, is a good segue into what do I make. So, yeah, turtles are fun. And I've. I did a little tortoise one recently, [00:42:40] Speaker A: which this podcast can be a 45 minute infomercial for, like, you selling stuff because, like, because we really need the announcer that's like, call now. A lot of get great clay creations. [00:42:53] Speaker B: Call now. Yeah, yeah, call that. [00:42:55] Speaker A: Call the number on your screen that [00:42:58] Speaker B: we're not gonna read to you anyhow. [00:43:04] Speaker A: Turtles by Alyssa, you know. [00:43:08] Speaker B: Yeah. One day. So what. What the heck do I make? Earrings. Lots and lots of different earrings. [00:43:14] Speaker A: And you worn your earrings out, too. [00:43:16] Speaker B: I have worn lots of them out and pretty much every time yesterday I was. I was kind of sad. Our friends at Big Easy didn't say anything about my coffee cups. We were going out for brunch, so I thought it a provost to wear coffee cups, but I had. Yeah, I wore a pair of turtles when we went out. I remember the turtle that somebody commented on. [00:43:37] Speaker A: Somebody was losing their mind over the turtles. [00:43:39] Speaker B: She thought I had a tattoo, which was hilarious. She was like, I see you love Turtles. You have the turtle earrings, and then there's, like, the tattoo under your ears. Like. Oh, no, no, That's. That must have been a funny trick of the light, because I don't have any tattoos. Yes. It was actually our server, and she walked us outside to our Uber, which was really sweet. [00:44:01] Speaker A: So. Yeah, okay. So you got the turtles anyway. [00:44:03] Speaker B: Turtles. I wore music notes out one day because anyone that's known me for any length of time knows that I'm, like, sort of a. Also hobby amateur musician. I'm just. I'm creative. So how in the heck I ended up in technology? I still don't know fully. [00:44:19] Speaker A: Probably because I thought you were gonna say how the heck I ended up with you. [00:44:26] Speaker B: No, like, how I ended up working in tech. But I think it was because. Oh, how I'll be real. I don't feel like there's a lot of space for anything. Working in arts is risky anyway, but add blindness to it, and it's like, you got to be able to make money. And so I. I went into a field that I also felt like I could do well in, and, you know, that does allow me to fund the hobby. [00:44:53] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean, that's why we do what we do, right? Like, that's why we have a job, so we can do the fun stuff. And if you get to do the fun thing at your job, that's also cool. But, like, jobs aren't meant to be fun. Jobs are meant to be jobs. [00:45:03] Speaker B: If they were meant to be fun, we would pay them to go. Not the other way around. [00:45:08] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. [00:45:10] Speaker B: But, yeah, so I make earrings, and I do dangles and studs. I make, like, necklace pendants. I've done, like, some charms for bracelets. Not as many. [00:45:25] Speaker A: You've got keychains. [00:45:27] Speaker B: Yes, I have lots of keychains and little, like, zipper clip pulls that you could either put on, like, a bag zipper or use as, like, a cane charm. [00:45:36] Speaker A: Oh, cane charms. Yes. Oh, cane charms. [00:45:40] Speaker B: That is a big deal in this community because especially if you go to a convention or something. How often is there the. Hey, whose cane is that? [00:45:49] Speaker A: That's right. [00:45:50] Speaker B: So what a cool way to identify yours from the rest. [00:45:53] Speaker A: Can I get a turtle cane charm? [00:45:56] Speaker B: I will make you a turtle cane charm. [00:45:57] Speaker A: I want a turtle or a penguin. [00:45:59] Speaker B: I do have a. I think it's like a. I don't know if he's a Christmasy penguin or. I have to look at what my penguin cutter is again. It can be. He can be whatever you want him to be. [00:46:09] Speaker A: Oh, snap. [00:46:12] Speaker B: Just have to figure out what color. I also have some dove cutters. [00:46:16] Speaker A: Oh, doves. [00:46:17] Speaker B: Yes. [00:46:18] Speaker A: So, yeah, I mean, like, so, yeah, [00:46:20] Speaker B: sometimes I am on Google looking up questions like, what color is a dove? But other times it's like, you know what? I don't care. It's art. So if I want to have a purple dove, I'm gonna have a purple dove. Yeah, it can be whatever you want it to be. Yep. So charms, magnets, and also. Yep, our good friend Mary Mozzarella made some cool magnets. I still have on the fridge their hearts that she put. She made, like, it's really big, giant jumbo Braille with little clay dots. But she made an A, J and L for Alyssa, Jan, and Liam. Initial hearts. [00:47:02] Speaker A: Yep. [00:47:04] Speaker B: Got some of those. Have recently gotten into hair barrettes. And the ones I saw they work with are. They're the French barrettes that have, like, the little kind of spring load clip that you pinch from the ends. But because they're metal, you can bake the clay right on them. And yeah, one of the videos I watched actually talked about a really cool technique for making sure they stay on. So, like, these have little circles, little holes at the end. And so you put, like, a little circle on the underside, and then, you know, put your little strip of clay on and so that it attaches to that clay circle on the underside because it bonds to itself. And it's not a thing I would have thought of, but, you know, school YouTube did me a solid on that. [00:47:52] Speaker A: So now you have the French there yet. [00:47:55] Speaker B: And those are fun because, you know, you can get into all kinds of technicalities, like marbling colors together. Or you might have, like, I did one that was, like, the base piece was black, but then I had little orange pumpkins that I put on it as, like, a Halloween one. I didn't actually show that to you. I know I, like, wrote about it on Mastodon, but I don't think I [00:48:18] Speaker A: actually showed you that you put stuff on top of the stove sometimes. [00:48:21] Speaker B: Oh, do you. Do you go see what's hanging out on top of the oven? I didn't think you ever touched. Touch that. [00:48:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:28] Speaker B: That's awesome. [00:48:29] Speaker A: I know. Look, [00:48:33] Speaker B: so sometimes, like, I'll make something. [00:48:34] Speaker A: Don't take this out of context, folks. I touch everything. [00:48:38] Speaker B: It's gonna get isolated. Someone's gonna go through and edit it. And they're like audio editors. [00:48:44] Speaker A: I'll make it really easy for you. I touch everything. There you go. There's your isolation. [00:48:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I will make stuff sometimes and just take it out of the oven before I go to bed and kind of go, oh, get it in the morning. And it's usually exactly where I left it. And so, like, I. I never thought. I figured, you know, Liam just walks past it. I didn't realize. [00:49:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:49:08] Speaker B: I check out the top of the oven to see what the heck I've been working on. [00:49:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:16] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. I never knew. [00:49:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't want to tell you. [00:49:21] Speaker B: I've had a silent admirer the entire time. [00:49:23] Speaker A: You have? Where does he live? [00:49:27] Speaker B: Should I be giving out his address on air? I think it has something to do with the title. [00:49:32] Speaker A: Well, we're not. We're not fighting yet. [00:49:35] Speaker B: Yet. [00:49:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:38] Speaker B: But yeah, I'm like, am I. Am I missing anything? Those are the kind of things I liked. Oh, yeah. Trinket dishes. And I've made these. Cool. Some of my favorites. And I got like a form that I use for these too, but these little ruffled. I call them like ruffle ring dishes because they're like the perfect size to put a ring in. And Yeah, I would love to actually start. Lord knows I have enough merchandise to have a small shop. Would love to actually sell the stuff. [00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:14] Speaker B: I'm just. I am finally feeling pretty confident in my ability to make decent clay objects. My blocker is the business paperwork. Oh, my goodness. [00:50:28] Speaker A: I think the big thing too, also. And you're doing more pictures, But I think I'm trying to find a way to. [00:50:35] Speaker B: I don't know if they are actually super great pictures. [00:50:37] Speaker A: Whether you do like a shadow box or. Or something, but something that you can get pictures of your items and like, [00:50:43] Speaker B: and there's not like the placemat in the background. [00:50:46] Speaker A: Right. Shadow box would be good with a banana. Because I always say you always scale on a banana. [00:50:52] Speaker B: Oh, maybe we need to get one of those, like, fake food bananas. That's like the actual size so that we don't have to worry about it going bad. [00:50:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Cuz I'm not going to eat it. [00:51:00] Speaker B: I would eat a banana, but yeah, [00:51:02] Speaker A: it's one of those things I've heard. [00:51:03] Speaker B: Isolate that. I'll eat a banana. [00:51:06] Speaker A: Oh, boy, oh, boy. I think this is the wrong show. Just saying. But yeah, No, I mean, it's cool. And I think you should do it. I think you should sell stuff. [00:51:20] Speaker B: I. I want to. I'm trying to figure out all the business paperwork and like, where to incorporate, how to do that and shipping your stuff and. Yeah. And there was a big part of me that's like, well, I'd like, to start in person. I think that would be easier. But I'm also like, would it? And some of the other blockers are things like, I don't have a logo. I don't have, like, business cards. Heck, I don't even fully have a name fleshed out. Like, I had one that I was kind of running with a few years ago when I was like, pretending to make a business, I guess. So back when Covid was happening and I was trying to find something to do, I was making some other, like, jewelry out of other charms. I hadn't really discovered clay yet. And my mom and I came up with a name for it and I had kind of like done some Facebook and, you know, was trying to sell to family and friends just to have a thing to do. But I was like, I don't know if I want to recycle that name or, you know, get Chat GPT to help me make a new one. [00:52:26] Speaker A: You don't use Chat GPT? [00:52:28] Speaker B: I. I may start because I'm struggling with this. [00:52:31] Speaker A: So I want to build this out. [00:52:32] Speaker B: Like, I have not. [00:52:34] Speaker A: She has never once used Chat GPT or any AI for anything. [00:52:38] Speaker B: That's not entirely. [00:52:39] Speaker A: No. But I'm not counting Be my eyes. [00:52:41] Speaker B: I'm not gonna say I use it for photo descriptions, but all the time [00:52:45] Speaker A: counting that I'm counting, like opening a window and going, hi. Hi. Can you answer a question for me? [00:52:52] Speaker B: I've never done it. [00:52:53] Speaker A: I've never done that ever. [00:52:55] Speaker B: Not once. [00:52:56] Speaker A: No. [00:52:57] Speaker B: I. I may have to solicit it for ideas on this though, because I'm like, I don't know if I want to recycle that because it was a thing that never really took off or. [00:53:07] Speaker A: But if it never took off, that's okay. [00:53:09] Speaker B: I mean, it was a Facebook page. I don't know if it still exists. [00:53:12] Speaker A: If you still have it, recycle it and use it. [00:53:16] Speaker B: And I don't think anyone else has taken. But yeah, then there's like a logo and, you know, trying to make things and if I were to do in person sales, especially at a non blindness event. So, like, I'm not talking about a convention or something because that works a little different. But at an actual craft market, like, you have to have signage and, you know, a clean and concise way to list prices and you got to get a credit card reader. And those are all things that are, you know, I don't want to say they're unreasonable, but they're things that I don't know how to do. I would need Some assistance in making happen. I mean, AI may be writing the logo. What? [00:54:00] Speaker A: Sorry, there was something in my throat. [00:54:03] Speaker B: Was it that water again? [00:54:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I was watering myself. [00:54:05] Speaker B: What do you do? You know how to, like, make signs? [00:54:09] Speaker A: I could learn also. Hello. I'm a nerd. So, like, credit card stuff. What? Okay. Like, hello. [00:54:20] Speaker B: Oh, well, if that's the case, another thing that everyone's about to learn about me right now is I struggle to ask for help. I get like, well, if I want to do this, then I should be able to figure out how to do all the things. And. And, yeah, it's not working so well because here I am sitting in, like, I want to start and haven't paralysis. [00:54:45] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, and that's why you do have to ask for help, because you can't do everything yourself. Like, it doesn't work that way. Is not how the world works. You cannot do everything yourself, you know? [00:55:01] Speaker B: Yeah. All that to say and. And to be clear, in case anyone from work is listening, no, this does not mean that I'm leaving my job. [00:55:10] Speaker A: This is a side. [00:55:12] Speaker B: Everyone got side hustles. It's. It's kind of weird when you don't these days. So. [00:55:18] Speaker A: No, I mean, I say do it, but, yeah, it's. No, Alyssa makes a lot of stuff. We have a lot of stuff in the house, and, like, yeah, you should sell it. [00:55:28] Speaker B: Yeah. That is, like, what clay stuff is. And I. I would love to see more of our community get in on this because it's. There's a lot of cool potential. And it is so surprising to me that not more people have figured out, like, wait, there's a clay that I can make at home and I don't [00:55:50] Speaker A: have to color it, and it's therapeutic, and I think being able to. So the thing about being blind, right, is, like, you can draw a picture, you can do a lot of stuff, but, like, making something that you can actually put in your hands and that [00:56:05] Speaker B: can be a functional item or just something cute, or even if it's not [00:56:09] Speaker A: a functional item, you can still be like, hey, I put this together. [00:56:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:14] Speaker A: Like, the turtles. I can feel the finished product. [00:56:16] Speaker B: Oh, worry stones. That's the thing. I forgot about that. I also kind of picked up from YouTube. So a worry stone. And the turtle kind of is one in a weird way. But they're. Some of them are really basic, and they're just, like, round. But some people make, like, figurines and little critters, but they're kind of a fidget toy of sorts that you can. They have, like, an indent that you can make with, like, a big dot or ball tool or. Some people, I guess, just like, press their thumb into it, but put some Saran Wrap on their thumb so they don't leave a giant thumbprint. And the idea is that you can kind of swirl your thumb around it, and it's a smooth surface, and it, you know, is a soothing thing. [00:57:00] Speaker A: Huh. [00:57:00] Speaker B: And so I've made some of these, too, and I did a couple circles. And I also have some frog cutters, which totally made Liam's mom a frog keychain. [00:57:12] Speaker A: Nice. [00:57:13] Speaker B: In memory of. In loving memory of the frog that she discovered in our linen closet, which anyone who's been on the YouTube channel knows all about that and how I felt when Elbot made his observation about how accessible the frog was now. [00:57:35] Speaker A: Well, because it was sitting still. Yeah. And. And things that sit still are more accessible because they don't move. [00:57:40] Speaker B: It was unalived. [00:57:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it was unalive. [00:57:45] Speaker B: That's like, people now that don't want to say that, you know, something's dead because of the algorithm, they'll say it's been unalived. [00:57:54] Speaker A: Oh, my. [00:57:56] Speaker B: Just like, you know, we. We have pew. Pews. [00:58:00] Speaker A: I don't know what to do with that. I don't. I don't know. I'm. I'm. I'm broken. Okay. Okay. [00:58:10] Speaker B: It's. [00:58:11] Speaker A: It's pawn. And rimworld is unalive now. [00:58:14] Speaker B: Yeah. The world we live in. Right? [00:58:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So Clay. Clay is cool. Do Clay. That's what you should learn from this podcast. [00:58:23] Speaker B: I do have to wonder if there's, you know, people feel that there's a lack of information out there, and I would even love to teach classes on it and such. The concern or the kind of blocker of that is like, it's a thing that's easier to do in person because I can actually show somebody, hey, here's kind of what this is going to look like in the end. Like, I can give you instructions all day long, but if you don't have a frame of reference, how do you know what you're making sure. What you're building? [00:58:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:55] Speaker B: And I think that's maybe where some of the trouble is. And there's not, like, in person, blind clay classes. [00:59:03] Speaker A: No. [00:59:03] Speaker B: That people go to. But I lucked out that I got a good foundation, at least in some of the beginner techniques, and have been able to kind of make my own inferences from watching YouTube. Some stuff that was really well described, other stuff that I kind of filled in the blanks and hoped that I did well. Otherwise, we're just gonna call it my own stylistic choice. [00:59:31] Speaker A: Sure. [00:59:31] Speaker B: Because you know, that that sounds a lot better than. Well, I didn't really know how they did it and guessed and made a mistake. [00:59:42] Speaker A: So what. What the heck is. [00:59:45] Speaker B: What is clay stuff? [00:59:46] Speaker A: Yeah, what the heck is clay stuff? [00:59:48] Speaker B: Hopefully this kind of sheds some light on what that is. And it's something that I've. I've practiced pretty much every day for the last over a year. And it is something that I. I can see like things that I made starting out versus now and definitely tell a difference in the quality. [01:00:13] Speaker A: I appreciate that clay stuff does not take up an entire room, and that it's a death trap for me to walk through is very nice. I'm. I'm not comparing to any other hobbies that anyone ever may have had. But, yeah, I'm. I appreciate clay stuff because clay stuff doesn't try to actively kill me. [01:00:34] Speaker B: It's cluttered, and my office is definitely cluttered. And there's always seemingly some cleanup that I. [01:00:41] Speaker A: The stories that I will not tell. But I'm just saying I appreciate clay stuff. [01:00:45] Speaker B: At least I can walk in there. Yeah. [01:00:48] Speaker A: Because. Yeah, that's. Yeah. Anyways, this is probably a good point for me to stop. [01:00:57] Speaker B: This has been long, which warned you all it was probably going to be. It seems like we kind of broke the doing these frequently, but the exchange has been. You get longer ones, which I don't know if people prefer this or if they prefer the short form. [01:01:12] Speaker A: I think we're gonna have another one coming up really soon, too, and it's gonna be a tour of the entertainment center. The entertainment center, because we have a lot of little shelves with a lot of things. And I will be describing the things on the shelves, and Alyssa will be correcting me, and it will be fun to listen to. So, you know, that's everything from Darth [01:01:30] Speaker B: taters to Barbies to video game figurines. Oh, my gosh. [01:01:34] Speaker A: There's just everything up there, and there's just lots of interesting stuff. So if you're enjoying this podcast and you're watching on YouTube, drop us a comment. Please subscribe, because then you get. [01:01:46] Speaker B: What kind of fun, unique hobby do you have that maybe people don't. [01:01:50] Speaker A: What do you like, Maybe people don't know. And that you haven't shared? And make sure it's legal, please. And, you know, make sure that it's PG or under. But yeah. What interesting hobbies do you have? Call our listener [01:02:10] Speaker B: which in this case is YouTube. [01:02:12] Speaker A: So yeah, leave us a comment or on Mastodon cuz it'll be posted there too. [01:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I will probably put this one on my Facebook. [01:02:19] Speaker A: I'm there too. I guess we have family listens to this stuff so maybe we'll learn about our family, what interesting hobbies they have. But anyways, I want to thank you guys for tuning in and we will see you when we see you here on 404 site not.