Mont Marte Clay Varnish - 120ml - Gloss Varnish for Polymer and Air-Dry Clay - Colourless Glaze with Glossy Effect for Pottery

Bought this to varnish some clay chess pieces, I was worried about the bottle size as even when people say “a little goes a long way” I tend to overestimate how much I’ll need- I did maybe three coats on each piece (because I kept adding details with paint, not because the varnish needed it) and the bottle seems completely untouched. That’s obviously not a ton of use but it does definitely seem like it’ll last for a while. When varnishing small pieces, it gets on your fingers and remains tacky (which means you need to wash your hands a lot as unsticking your fingers from the next unvarnished piece can rip some paint off) but it’s touch-dry surprisingly quickly on the actual clay pieces. It peels off your hands like PVA glue under a bit of running water, but the shine it gives to pieces is a lot nicer than regular glue. My advice would be to rest things on greaseproof/parchment paper as when I left some pieces to dry on a random square of EVA foam the varnish stuck to the foam and ripped the paint off. the pieces feel more durable now, less so small points or spikes but things that have been added on with slip or just by smoothing edges feel extra glued-down with this. It smells kind of funky but not like the fishy smell you’d get from some kids glue. Overall would definitely recommend, especially as it’s hard to get poly varnish sprays where I am and this dries quick and gives a nice shine.

As someone who’s started clay making this has been very useful to use Quick to dry and offers a additional layer of protection would recommend for small projects Little bit goes a very long way

Really adds a nice finish to air dry clay models. My daughter has made lots. She painted them, but some needed a little extra. The varnish really helps the colours pop and, I hope, makes the colours longer.

Good varnish for my clay work... But stayed tacking to the touch for a week... It is worth the week wait... Very high gloss shine and only gave it the one coat

Simple to use, super glossy finish, isn’t too tacky

Best varnish I’ve tried so far

This varnish gives a lovely high gloss finish to your projects. Its an easy to use water-based varnish. The advantage is that it is low odour and cleaning brushes is easy. The disadvantage is that you have to work quite quickly before it becomes tacky. For that reason its best for smaller projects like stone painting etc. Having said that, I love the quality of this varnish and the high gloss finish it gives.

I couldn't get on with this at all. Very clumpy.