Can you tell us a little about yourself and your journey into motherhood and entrepreneurship? What inspired you to start your own business?

Being a first-time mom, living on a rural farm was certainly a shock to my system after working in a corporate business and living in the city for a long time. For quite some time I struggled to find the balance between enjoying motherhood, feeling fulfilled and nurturing my daughter’s needs. 

I visited my dear friend in Sydney for ten days and while all the kids were trapped inside with severe flu, she made homemade playdough. We were playing for hours and her eldest daughter created a cake shop. We were all decorating cakes with only one colour playdough! I realized how immensely creative little minds can be when provided with an open-ended resource. As soon as I arrived back on the farm I made playdough for my daughter and we just could not get enough.

When we started making playdough together, mixing colours and dreaming up new themes, my entire perspective started slowly shifting and I started feeling that I have purpose within motherhood. We are lucky to have open space on the farm and a lot of our time is spent outdoors. When playing with traditional playdough outdoors, it would go dry extremely quickly and often end up in the bin. This was something that I felt many parents experience, and it can lead to parents avoiding playdough all together.  

Could you share the specific benefits you noticed when your daughter started using your play dough for sensory play?

I did not entirely recognise the significance of sensory play in my daughter until a very close friend pointed out to me that her early writing skills and pencil control was quite advanced for a child under two. We use playdough daily, combined with other elements simply because we both love it. After much research, I now fully understand that the benefits of open-ended sensory play are endless! Squishing, shaping, rolling, cutting and forming playdough has helped her gain more control over pencils and a paintbrush which means that she can now create basic shapes with a bit more control. She finds this so exciting ! Her speech, colour and object identification are areas that are organically developing as she openly and curiously explores playdough combined with other sensory elements. 

Many parents are curious about sensory play. How did you first explore the concept, and what led you to create no-dry play dough as a solution?

Sensory play is an enormous part of allowing our kids to freely explore their imaginations while often unknowingly learning important skills, because the experience is fun !  By offering open-ended resources that provide room for interpretation, we are not just creating an invitation to play, we are encouraging children to explore, touch, smell, hear and allow them to develop. Playdough is one of many fantastic open-ended resources that encourage imaginative play, creativity and learning while having fun. Through making playdough at home, we started exploring sensory play and incorporating other sensory elements into playtime.

The first playdough tests that I felt confident to share with friends had the perfect texture but dried out within an hour at our local playgroup when the children played outdoors. I realized there was a need to create a product that can resist dryness for longer and ensure that it is not an activity limited to indoor play. Especially in our dry climate within rural WA.

Sensory play is known to be crucial for child development. Can you explain how your play dough contributes to a child's cognitive and creative growth?

I am always amazed at the creativity of little ones when given playdough! Play Clay encourages “pretend play” and provides children with a medium that can easily be moulded into their thoughts and ideas. It gives children the opportunity to creatively form and shape a medium into anything they can possibly imagine. Children also use Play Clay to “stick together” other objects, forming and expanding their imaginations and creativity. 

For busy parents looking to incorporate sensory play into their daily routines, what tips or suggestions do you have for making it more manageable and enjoyable?

Sensory play does not have to be overwhelming, complicated or perfect. When children are exploring their senses during playtime, it is sensory play. It does not have to be a perfect setup with heaps of resources. Tuning into a child’s sensory interests would be a good place to start. Start with a few basic and reusable sensory elements and remember that pantry ingredients like rice, pasta, chickpeas, beans, food colouring, jelly and flour are great for sensory play and fine-motor skills development. Make it fun, colourful and enjoyable! If you find the thought of colouring rice and creating your own sensory bases overwhelming, you are not alone ! There are many wonderful small businesses that provide parents with manageable and easy solutions to simplify sensory playtime and build on those important early skills.

Four of my favourites:

@clever_bugs

@tinyhumansperth

@featherandleafco

@casaeducalearning

Also, I have a few of my favourite accounts that showcase fantastic yet simple sensory play ideas while also championing small businesses. I find them relatable and appreciate how they effortlessly weave sensory play into their everyday activities:

@playfuladventures

@1_2_3 Play with Me

@intuitiveplay

@playathomewithheidi

@thesunnyplayroom

What sets your play dough apart from traditional play dough ?

Play Clay provides parents and carers with peace of mind that it can be used indoors and outdoors for longer, while remaining soft and malleable. Little people can move fast from one activity to the next and knowing that playdough will not be dry when circling back to pack up activities, is a massive relief. This means that it can then be reused and enjoyed for longer. Play Clay is handcrafted using the highest quality food-grade ingredients, extracts and colours to ensure achieve it’s beautiful properties. I mix many of the colours myself to achieve a specific tone required. 

Can you tell us about your first-ever product, Angel Blue, and what it meant to you?

Angel Blue was the very first colour playdough we made together. We used food colouring bought at the local supermarket and it just turned out beautifully. The texture and colour was a magical combination! Angel Blue is a universal pantone reference and coming from a fashion background where all colours relate to a pantone, I had to give our beautiful first batch of playdough a matching pantone name. It inspired the branding and colour of Play Clay being a soft dreamy blue hue.

We shared Angel Blue with our close friends on a neighbouring farm and they also fell in love with the texture! They have been instrumental in the development of Play Clay. My friend being a graphic designer and extremely grounded fellow rural mom was just the most amazing support and brainstorm companion to me. I feel like she is the Angel of Angel Blue. Her daughter was part of the main product testing team,  and there is no better feedback than your true customers, the little people.

Could you describe the process of developing and manufacturing your play dough products? What goes into making them safe and fun for kids?

I use the highest quality Australian, food-grade ingredients and natural extracts in Play Clay.  All ingredients are taste safe and non-toxic. I spent a very long time researching and many failed attempts to understand the properties of each ingredient. It allowed me to refine and create playdough that can be left uncovered for longer, without drying out without adding special ingredients to achieve. It remains a natural product and will eventually dry out, but for now it can be left out for at least 10h – 12h and still be soft and malleable. This may vary in different climates, but being situated in dry, hot conditions of Western Australia this is a massive positive if playdough is part of daily play.

Could you tell us what inspired you to create different themes for your Play Clay, and how do these themes enhance the play experience for children?

Winter on the farm, when it rains for weeks on end, I really struggled to stay inspired and create inviting indoor play spaces that we both enjoy. Having themes provided me with basic inspiration and a starting point for our day. It eliminated the question “what shall we do today” or defaulting to the same monotonous resources that often just caused frustration for both of us. Playtime became exciting and I loved seeing how she engaged with various elements of the themes, but then created her own worlds. I do not interrupt her when she is playing or trying to explain something to me, I simply provide her with a starting point and try my best to give her enough space to explore. She is extremely curious and we often combine books into our themed play too to add another interesting layer. If she is not enjoying a theme, we leave it at that, and I let her lead the way. I have learnt so much through this journey and continue to learn. The templates and themes are merely our starting point that we now share with other little ones and parents.

As added extras to the themes, I chose to have colourful food-grade cutters that provide a basic outline and leave enough to the imagination to interpret silhouettes and identify shapes. Cutters are also great for baking as it easily cuts through dough. The double sided custom playmats encourage name recognition and provide an open-ended “play-scape” to create imaginative worlds. My aim is to provide a premium and balanced play solution that inspires, but remains open-ended, long-lasting and purposeful.

What has been your biggest challenge in the process of starting your business ?

Starting any business is difficult due to the various elements involved and starting a business in a very competitive market for similar products is even more challenging. It is often easy to feel disheartened when social media is not your strength, and you are surrounded by people who are so brilliant at it. I have learnt to focus on my strengths and learn new skills where I need to. Building a website myself was one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced, but now that I have done it I do feel like those newly learnt skills will be very useful in so many ways. I have so much respect for web designers and anyone who understands code and will now always look at websites and appreciate all the small details that have gone into building it. Mine is not perfect and I will continue to learn and improve as I go. I have also learnt that I should never forget why I started Play Clay and that is to share our playdough with other families and little people who would love it if their playdough stays malleable for longer.

What's next for Play Clay, and how can parents and caregivers get their hands on your products?

For now, I want to make sure that I continue to have a premium product offer that provides beautiful play experiences to little ones ! There are a few new themes on the horizon that will be launching soon and in time for Christmas gifting. 

I always love when parents contact me directly and ask about the products and I much prefer to get to know fellow playdough loving little ones and parents. My email address is info@playclay.com.au

Instagram : @playclay_au

Purchases can be made directly on the website too : playclay.com.au