About Polymer Clay
March 15th, 2007 by 
goregt
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What is Polymer Clay and what can you do with it?
Polymer clay is more of a pliable plastic with clay like properties that allow it to easily be used and manipulated by the artist. Polymer clay comes in a wide variety of colors and can be baked, sanded, carved, molded, stamped and painted.
Outlined below are some key advantages for polymer clay:
- Unlimited resources - there are a lot of different forums, websites and polymer clay books to help you improve your skills.
- Polymer clay is easy to work with and holds detail well.
- Polymer clay can be baked in your oven, there is no need for a kiln.
- Don’t have to cover up the sculpture when you are not working with it because it will not dry out.
- Clays come in a wide variety of colors to work with.
- Different clays can be blended and mixed together.
- After baking your sculpture it can be sanded, primed and painted like any other sculpture.
- Polymer clay projects can fun and tailed for both kids and adults.
What are the different types of Polymer clays?
There are a variety of different types of Polymer clay’s available to you and the list below outlines a few of them. Whether you are interested in making polymer clay jewelry or other types of polymer clay art, the variety of different clays will meet your needs.
- Sculpey - very soft and pliable clay.
- Super Sculpey - firmer than Sculpey and my personal favorite
- Sculpey III - soft and pliable clay that comes in a variety of colors
- Liquid Sculpey
- Fimo
- Primo
- Kato
- Prosculpt - very popular clay with doll and fairy art community
What tools are needed to create art with Polymer clay?
Polymer Clay Tools can range anywhere from your hands, to pasta machines, to dental tools or your oven. Outlined below is a list of a few tools that you can use to create your amazing projects. Click on the links to go to a detailed page about each tool.
- Hands - some of the best tools that you can use for sculpting are sitting right in front of you.
- Dental tools - inexpensive long lasting tools.
- Pasta machine - Great for mixing and conditioning clay. You can get by without out one but trust me if you do buy one your hands will thank you for it.
- Heat gun - heat guns are great for baking small detail, especially if you don’t want to bake the entire sculpture
- Oven - How to bake and re-bake polymer clay sculptures
- 90% Alcohol - great for smoothing out the clay
- Q-Tips - great for smoothing out hard to reach areas
Where can you buy Polymer clay?
Most craft stores carry a variety of polymer clays and occasionally some of the larger retailers like Wal-Mart will carry some polymer clays in their craft section. If you want to be able to conveniently order your clay online you can always checkout Crafts @ joann.com!
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Newsletter Archive
Posted in Uncategorized | 
June 10th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I’ve heard that if you use a toaster oven you should bake your clay 20 degrees cooler than the directions state because the clay is close to the heating elements. Can anyone tell me if this is a fact or personal preference.
July 9th, 2007 at 6:31 am
I bake my polymer clay pieces at a lower temperature in my toaster oven and I bake them for twice as long as normal and they turn out just fine. I have burned a few pieces accidently by turning the knob to the broiler instead of the oven, which can happen when you arent really paying close attention! So please pay close attention when working with your toaster oven and polymer clay because the fumes are toxic and nasty to smell when you burn something in your kitchen! Otherwise the toaster oven works great for polymer clay!
March 12th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Please inform me if there is any type of polymer clay that stays somewhat pliable AFTER it is baked. AT a Home and Garden show I attended, one booth was selling spiral hair jewelry. They said it was made out of polymer clay and that they had purchased the clay out of the country due to the fact that you can’t buy polymer clay that is pliable AFTER baking here in the US. Do you have any knowledge of this type of clay or where it can be purchased? Thank you for your response to this matter. Janice