Review on Create Adorable Miniature Alien Erasers by Marco Carpenter

We got both the alien and the cuties set. Although it initially looks as if the small amount of clay provided isn’t going to get you very far, it turns out you can make almost all the projects in the books. The different clay colors can be used as is or blended with each other. We found that the shapes do sort of warp a tiny bit and end up not as sharp and full as before baking, but they still look pretty good.The clay is similar in texture, mouldability, and blend ability to polymer clay and, like polymer clay has to be baked in order to set and to achieve the properties of an eraser. Unlike polymer clay, it doesn’t come with the same toxicity warnings.The kit comes with an EXCELLENT instruction book—easy for both adults and children to understand and follow. It also comes with an all-purpose tool that cuts, pokes, shapes, blends and generally helps. Still, if you happen to have other tools (like those you might have used for polymer or other clay projects, so much the better.A few observations: the eyes are sort of short, sharp pins that you insert into the clay. It’s metal and will withstand baking. But an adult should be the one to handle this part of the project to make sure that the entire "pin” is inside the eraser and won’t protrude. The second comment is that, the simpler the shape, the better it will work as an eraser. Shapes like animals with horns or big ears or antennas will not work as erasers as well. (It has been my observation that the kids want to keep these as toys and have no intention whatsoever of ‘ruining’ them by erasing with them. They have prevented me from making the hold in the underside that would allow them to attach them to the top of a pencil.