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In my continuing quest for a smooth surface, I've decided to hoard lint from the clothes dryer, mix it up with paste and water and use it as a final coating before paint. Has anyone tried anything similar? I haven't had time for PM lately. The weather has been beautiful (New Hampshire, USA) and I've been planting early veggies in the garden. My second PM cat is finished and the third is underway. Still haven't finished the bowl - waiting to amass enough lint! 
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You'll have to let us know how it works. Dryer lint isn't very substantial... are you thinking of using it like a thickener or something?
Sue
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Hi,
Yes, I tried it. I put it dry in the pm-clay. It would have worked if there weren´t so many hairs in it :cry:
Maybe I will try it again with solving the lint in water, then put it in the food mixer as I do it with paper to get pulp.
Actually I got the smoothest surface layering Toiletpaper (ca. 3 - 4 layers) and sanding it afterwards.
Good luck for your investigations 
Christina
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I haven't tried layering toilet paper, only pulping it. I'll give that a try. I suppose you'd have to lay it on and paint it with paste, wouldn't you? It's worth trying.
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Ah.... hairs?
Well, that leaves me out! With a hairy dog and 3 cats (not counting the 4 fosters), hair is a major part of my life. :oops:
Although, if I collected all the cattle-sized dust bunnies (mostly hair), I could probably apply it to the surface of an animal PM for a most realistic finish!
Sue
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Recently, while I was researching sawdust and glue mixtures, I came across this:
Dryer Lint Clay
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3 cups lint from the dryer
2 cups water
5 drops oil of wintergreen
1 cup flour
Put lint in a 2-quart saucepan and cover with the water and oil of wintergreed. When the lint is saturated, add the flour. Stir until smooth. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the dough forms peaks and holds together. Pour it onto newspaper to cool. Model figures out of cooled dough, or use it to cover a form (balloon, paper bag, etc.). Allow the finished craft to dry about 5 days. Once dry, paint or decorate as desired.
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I have no idea how it works. But it shows that if you're crazy, someone else is, too. I'll try to find the site again--this was NOT the strangest recipe. It also had coffee grounds clay!
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"3 cups of lint from the dryer"... is that fluffed or packed??? :shock:
Sue
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I haven't tried layering toilet paper, only pulping it. I'll give that a try. I suppose you'd have to lay it on and paint it with paste, wouldn't you? It's worth trying.
Hello,
yes you´re right. When you buy bread in a bakery here in Germany you get a paper bag - it is a quite thin silky smooth paper. I also use this paper for smooth surfaces. An other advantage: It gives more strength to the object. You have to paint the objekt with paste, then lay the paper on, then paint over the paper. After sanding the surface it is very smooth.
greetings
Christina
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Although, if I collected all the cattle-sized dust bunnies (mostly hair), I could probably apply it to the surface of an animal PM for a most realistic finish!
LOL! I can send you some of my hair(s) additionally, if needed. 
Christina
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Thanks for the recipe, Gwyneth. I'm going to give it a try.
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Sue, I have no idea whether the recipe calls for packed lint...however, it may work according to the crafters' school of chemistry: if you have a lot, pack, if you're short, skimp.
Aside from the fact that you probably don't want your family and friends to see you measuring drier lint (if they're like mine they're more worried about the strength of my connection to reality than the strength of my projects) the consistency of drier lint varies dramatically, depending on the drier's normal diet.
In a papermaking group, somebody brought up the idea and the teacher stressed that the only lint that works for making paper is cotton or linen. But the qualities needed for making paper may or may not be the ones you need for clay. Polyester fibers, of course, won't absorb water so they're not good for a pulp to dip the paper screen. Protein fibers such as wool are also not used in sheet paper making.
BUT, fibers of both polyester/acrylics/plastics and sheep/dog/human hair are very good for strengthening other applications--look at fibreglass. Some of the hypertufa people use dog hair. Some boat builders mix wool with epoxy resin.
Right now I'm in the middle of a large furniture project which uses cardboard, mache and various pulps. At the beginning (which seems like a year or two ago instead of a week or so) I was meticulous about removing the dog and person hair from everything. Then my samoyed started his annual disintegration and though I save his undercoat for spinning it was impossible to keep it out of glue surfaces everywhere. Plus more and more of my own long gray hair was getting onto laminating sheets and into pulp vats. I decided it strengthens things and not to stress until finishing (by which time neither dog nor me will have any hair left).
Also I'm impressed if anybody can use toilet paper for strips...with me it instantly turns into very fine pulp.
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"...they're more worried about the strength of my connection to reality..."
Um.... we're supposed to be connected to reality? And WHAT would be the point of THAT??? I'll make my own reality and my family can worry about their own.
Re: toilet paper strips -- I'm with you on that. The one time I tried it, I brushed on some diluted white glue and set a piece of torn TP on it, then brushed on some more glue. The TP instantly turned to mush. But I will try the suggestion of someone here (dopapier?) who just puts the whole roll in boiling water where it "melts", then try brushing it on, like thick paint, and see how that goes.
"...reality! Sheeesh!"
Sue
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Good point. Great point. See my new topic "crazier than drier lint."
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An update on the great lint experiment: AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! It didn't work out as expected. The whole lot turned into a giant, heavy blob that couldn't be shaped to any degree and would probably take the rest of my life to dry anyway. No more lint hoarding.
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That's okay. We learn as we go.
Guys save lint to start fires with their flint & steel firestarters!
Sue
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