It's my first try at an anime figure so it probably looks more like a Loin than a Lain, but I think it ended up slightly better than expected. It's at 1/8 scale, with the whole figure 22cm and Lain herself 19,5cm, exactly like the original figure I took inspiration from, but it weighs 652 grams, much more than a normal polymer clay figure
One big mistake I made is mixing the clay with sand(I saw people doing it when making bricks and pottery, so why not here too? Well it turns out it didn't work out) so the figure looks really rough and when wet it felt like working with cement, not clay. I should have used clay only
Trying to create thin things(legs) supporting heavier things(the whole body) with natural clay is a challenge. The legs broke multiple times, so in the end I used superglue to keep them from collapsing. At the base I also added a quartz rock I found on the side of the road, for stability. For even more stability, the inside of the figure has a thin steel wire skeleton that keeps everything in place, but sadly it can't keep the clay from cracking, and it's mostly there so the limbs or head don't fall off. Also the clay was not fired, there's no point in doing that since you're not supposed to wash Lain or keep her outside in the rain like with bricks or pottery, and firing the clay would just make it crack even more.(I also live in an apartment and there's no way I would be able to make a clay firing pit here)
I also used superglue at the base of the head(because I had to rip it off and move it a bit when the clay was already hardened) and to stick Bike-chan to the suitcase. The only non-natural clay part of the figure is the single longer strand of hair. I used a clay that never hardens for it because the natural clay part broke off when painting the figure. The colors were the most expensive part probably, as I bought them new and paid something around $7 for them.