What's in an Oogly Kit? Part 4 - The Clay (there's more!)

We’ve already shared some fun facts about the clay in the Oogly Kit in Part 1 of our series "What's in an Oogly Kit?" There we talked about how the clay is non-hardening and great for using over and over. A question we get a lot about the clay is “Why don’t you have different colors of clay?” Glad you asked!

Why isn't our clay all sorts of fun colors? Great question!

The clay in the Oogly Kit is a non-descript “beigy-grey” color for a few reasons.

1.  We don’t want to have to worry about staining anything with the dyes that can sometimes “leak” out of colored sculpting products.

2.  Kids can be distracted by colors – what color they have, what color their friend has and what color they would rather have. We want the focus to be on the creative process of making ooglys and being creative. Color can add to it but it can also be a barrier to the process.

3.  Colors can evoke strong emotions – both negative and positive. The oogly kit has been used extensively in play therapy settings with great results. Adding color could be a turn off for some kids who don’t like a particular color or who have associations with particular colors that may interrupt the process of making an oogly. We’ve found that removing the “color element” makes it less likely that a child will reject the activity of making an oogly.

4.  Colors get mixed and reduce the life of the product. We’ve all seen the results of mixing lots of colors in paint, play-dough or crayons – some call it “pre-school” grey and it’s a fine color when it happens. Unfortunately, once the colors are mixed, it’s impossible to “unmix” them so you may have to buy a new set of colors if you want to be able to differentiate. With our clay, you can reuse it and mix sticks together – no worries. And if you get more clay, don’t worry – it matches!

That’s not to say we don’t love colors and we do make ooglys with colored clay at times.

This oogly is looking just fine in turquoise.

The clay we like best, though, is our oogly clay in “beigy-grey.” If we added colors, what color would you choose?