Using Polymer Clays - A BASIC TIPS SHEET
Polymer Clay is a highly versatile modelling material that is hardened by baking in the home oven. Once baked it is permanent and can be cut, sawn, glued, painted and more.
It is sold in a wide range of colours which can be mixed together to make further colours. Most brands also produce a “transparent” or translucent clay which can be used on its own or mixed with colours to make delicate translucent pastel shades. There is also the Super Sculpey clay used by professional sculptors, animators and artist, the specialist skin-tone clay for doll makers and the effects clays such night-glow and metallic colours.
These finely detailed primroses (pictured right) were made by Sue Heaser from polymer clay
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Equipment
Many of the essential tools can be found around the home and a little imagination will adapt items for use. For tools and equipment specifically made for working with the clays, please see this section. Here’s what you need to get started:
* An acrylic or nylon roller is best for rolling out clay but a small, strong glass bottle with smooth sides or a jam jar will do fine. Avoid wooden rolling pins which stick to the clay. Roll out on a smooth surface such as a melamine chopping board or ceramic tile. A pasta machine is great fun to use with polymer clay and makes rolling sheets really fast.
* A craft knife with a curved blade is very useful and squared tissue blades are invaluable for slicing millefiori canes and for cutting straight edges on sheets of clay.
* Needles are great for detailing. A blunt-pointed tapestry needle can be used for texturing, making eye-sockets and indenting lines and a darning needle can be used for piercing beads.
* A baking tray covered with non-stick baking parchment or ordinary paper for baking the clay.
* Methylated spirits for de-greasing before gluing or painting.
* Baby Wipes for cleaning hands and work surfaces.
* Use a light shake of talcum powder if you find the clay getting sticky when rolling or using cutters.
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Modelling
Always work each piece of clay in your hands to soften it before use. If the clay is too soft, press a pancake of clay between two sheets of ordinary white paper and leave for a few hours or overnight so that some of the oily plasticizer leaches out. Clay that is too stiff can be softened by kneading with Sculpey Clay Softener.
For jewellery making, once a piece of clay has been added, do not try to reshape it because the result will be messy. If you are not happy with it, remove the piece and start again. It is not necessary to squash pieces together to affect a join as they will fuse together when baked; gentle but firm pressure is all that is needed. Fingernail marks and dirty fingerprints on light colours will ruin your results so keep your hands clean, wiping them with wet wipes between colours if necessary. Some clays are more easily smoothed than others. This means that added clay can be smoothed in at the edges to leave no join.
The extensive range of colours and effects, means that the clays can be used for all kinds of applications. This pretty bracelet shows their versatility - Sue Heaser has used metallic powder on polymer clay to simulate silver metal and a combination of coloured clays to create the faux stones
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Mixing Colours
Polymer clay colours can be blended together to make new colours and different brands are intermixable. Avoid mixing different brands of doll clay as some of these mixtures can deteriorate over time.
Soften the two colours you want to mix first and then work them together, folding and rolling until all the streaks have disappeared. When making pastel colours, add only a very small quantity of colour to white: about 1 part colour to 8 parts white. If you roll both colours into equal diameter sausages, it is easier to estimate the quantities. e.g. 1cm colour to 8cm white.
You can mix most colours from a basic palette of blue, yellow and magenta or crimson red, plus black and white. Translucent clay can be tinted with small quantities of coloured clay. Kato offer a pack of polymer clay colour concentrates which are ideal for adding tints.
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Liquid Polymer Clays
The liquid clays can be used in a variety of ways to create stained glass effects, as grout for polymer clay mosaic tiles, to create faux enamel and translucent glazes. The medium can also be used for making colour transfers from printed images, photographs and colour pencil drawings.
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Metallic & Pearl Powders and Foils
These powders can be brushed onto soft clay before baking and give wonderful effects simulating various metals. They are most effective on black clay but pearlescent powder brushed onto white clay gives a lovely pearl effect.
After baking, you need to varnish with gloss varnish to protect the powder.
Fine metallic foils can be burnished onto the surface of rolled clay which when rolled again, causes the foil to fracture and create the stunning design. The material is then baked and varnished to seal the foil and help prevent it from tarnishing.
These pretty leaf shaped beads (pictured right) were crafted by Sue Heaser using foils.
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Baking
Polymer clays should be baked in the oven on a baking sheet covered with paper baking parchment for about 20 minutes to 1 hour at 130°C/275°F (except for Kato Polyclay which requires 150°C/300°F). The clay will not harden until completely cool. Clay that has not been baked long enough will be fragile and break easily. Items can be rebaked several times without harm. Beware of overheating the clay by letting the oven temperature go too high as it gives off unpleasant fumes when burnt. Open a window and allow the air to clear.
If you encounter problems with baking, your oven thermostat may not be accurate so check with a separate oven thermometer - some ovens can over- or under-heat considerably. Try baking a test sheet: a thin, baked sheet of any of the strong clays should bend into a U-bend without snapping. Sculpey III remains fragile.
If you are baking in a gas oven try baking a test piece on gas mark 1/2 or 1/4. If the clay is discoloured, turn the oven down. If it is very fragile, turn the oven up.
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Gluing
Use superglue to glue jewellery findings to baked clay, or baked clay to baked clay. Two part epoxy glues such as Araldite are the strongest to use for jewellery findings and recommended if you sell your work. Superglue is best for mending clay breakages. PVA glue can be used for gluing soft items to baked clay such as fabric or dolls’ hair. If you want to add fresh clay to a piece already baked, a smear of PVA will help it adhere better before baking.
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Painting
Baked polymer clay can be painted with acrylic paints but do not use enamel paint as it will not dry properly. Before painting, de-grease the baked clay by brushing with methylated spirits or nail varnish remover. For more permanent results and particularly for doll faces, varnish before painting (with either a matt or gloss varnish, see below) and again, when the paint is dry.
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Varnish
Polymer clay does not need varnishing unless you want a shiny surface or to protect paints, foils or powders applied to the clay. Use only acrylic or alcohol based varnish on baked polymer clays. Do not use enamel or oil based varnishes which will never dry properly.
© The Polymer Clay Pit 1998/2000/2003/2009
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