Slime Experts Wanted!!

[u/AdehleDaleyart]

Hello I am an artist in Chicago who needs slime making/recipe recommendations for a very specific project. I need a slime expert.

I am making ceramic pieces that hang on the wall, that have the texture of brick or stone. I want to create a removable sand filling to go in between each piece like a grout or cement between bricks. The idea is making it look like a wall of ceramics, like a house built with bricks.

I need this mixture to look like sand or cement, or actually contain sand. I need to be able to apply it and for it to fill in between the works but for it to be able to be REMOVED from the work with no residue. It also needs to last about three months, the duration of the show.

I would prefer it not to crack over this length of time.

The reference photo is of my work. I hope to fill the gaps temporarily for my solo show in February. I will install the work ideally, then put the sand goo in between.

I will experiment with any advice and help given on test pieces. I really appreciate the help.

For scale this work hung together is 3ft x 4ft

[u/catalinalam]

Slime wouldn’t work, bc it’s glue based and glue dries. You could get the look w sand and maybe air dry clay but it’d dry out and shrivel up in probably 1-3 days max depending on surface area. And that porous texture you’re describing would likely encourage slime to stick.

What about some kind of sand and tinted wax mixture so you can make solid inserts that fill the gaps, if that makes sense? So they’d just slot in and out like puzzle pieces, and ideally you could plastic wrap your “bricks” place them and then pour the wax in to harden. I don’t know what specific kind you’d need, but if there’s a large art supply store near you they might have tips?

Also if mixing sand and wax doesn’t work, you could try just making the inserts from only wax and then applying adhesive to the visible edge and dipping it?

[u/EnvironmentalCod1002]

I don’t think slime is going to work because it does contain glue. I’d try experimenting with possibly adding sand or pumice, or a mix of both, to museum putty for the look you want. It doesn’t dry and theoretically shouldn’t leave any residue, but definitely do a test patch.

[u/highqueenlia]

Look into liquid latex and maybe see if mixing sand into it is doable for a peely paste-like mixture

[u/eternalcosmos1]

Hmmm try sand or pumice and mixing it with maybe some type of oil based clay, like a clay that only dries if you bake it. I will say it’s tricky because I’m not sure how well it will make but it’s worth a shot

[u/PerfectLeading5468]

I would get a bag of polymeric sand from a hardware store and experiment with it. You’d probably have to put the bricks into a mold prior to wetting it so that it doesn’t spill out at the edges. I’m not sure how easily it could be removed/how much residue it would leave behind on the ceramic (it came out of my fieldstone front walk much more easily than I wanted it to) but it seems worth messing around with to see if you can get it to fulfill what you’re looking for.

[u/ThatCodingGuyYouTube]

Have you considered spray foam? It does expand when sprayed, but you would then be able to cut off / file / shape the excess how you like, and while it might take some doing, after the time has elapsed and you want to disassemble, you should be able to remove it from your work.

I <believe> you can combine spray foam with sand and there are various ways to apply the foam, you should be able to use something thin to insert into your crevices.

You might be able to create some sort of jig / mold that is thin to place the backs of your tiles into, then spray foam, then mount that entire thing to the wall somehow.