Have you ever wanted your clay creations to have that glazed (glossy) look? Well I know of two ways to get it to look that way without having to use glaze or a kiln.

First Way: Elmer’s glue! XD
After you finish painting your clay piece (if you paint it), coat it in Elmer’s glue, and it will give it a semi-shiny look.
Drawbacks: It takes awhile to dry. If you put too much glue on at once it can drip down, and glue your clay piece to what ever its sitting on. Also, once the glue dries it dulls down the colors a bit.

Other uses for Elmer’s glue: If your using clay that needs to be fired in a kiln, and you don’t have access to a kiln, then let the clay dry first , and then coat it in glue to make it less likely to break apart. Painting it with acrylic will also help keep it from breaking, because it dries plastic like.

Second Way: Clear Nail Polish!!! XD
In my opinion, this is the best of the two ways. Paint your clay piece, and then just coat it with clear nail polish. It will dry really quickly, and give a very high, almost glass like, gloss finish :D
Drawbacks: The smell! XD Your clay piece will smell like it has been dipped in nail polish for quite awhile.

Also, Some acrylic paint dries shinier then others. The paint found in the tubes tends to be more shiny then the paint that comes in the bottles.