Types of Polymer Clay

Brr. These past few days have been so cold, rainy and dreary! Here is so information on the main types and brands of polymer clay!

There are so many different types of polymer clay and with online shopping, it is very easy to order different types of clay online. The most commonly used types of polymer clay.

1. Sculpey III: Sculpey III comes in many different bright colors and since the colors blend nicely, they are good for mixing. Sculpey III is soft and very easy to work with although it is not great for cane-work. Since it is so soft, it is usually the best type of clay for experimenting and usage in projects. In addition, Sculpey III is very brittle after baking so you should handle creations made with this type of clay carefully.
2. Sculpey Ultralight: Sculpey Ultralight is an unique type of color due to how light it is. It is very soft before baking but after baking, it becomes very strong. The only setback is that this type of clay is only available in white as it can be painted after baking.
   
   
3. Original Sculpey: This only comes in the color white in 2 pound boxes. It is very soft but becomes brittle and chalky after baking. However, this is the cheapest of all polymer clays.
   
   
4. Super Sculpey: Super Sculpey only comes in flesh-tone colors such as peach, tan, etc and arrives in 1 pound boxes. It is much stronger and more flexible than the original Sculpey and it is sometimes used for doll-making because of the colors it contains.

5. 

   This is a realistic baby made from Super Sculpey . 

   Premo Sculpey: This brand is pretty soft and one good thing about this clay is that it holds the details in canes very well helping you produce more realistic looking canes. The colors consist of different shades of blue, red, and yellow as these colors are very easy to mix together in order to produce new colors.
   
   
6. Fimo: Fimo is the most popular brand among clay artists although this brand may not consist of all the colors you might want. Fimo has a very beautiful selection of colors with many cool effects such as metallics, glow-in-the-dark, etc. This is the stiffest out of the clays and because of this, its firmness allows it to hold details very well. It is highly recommended to use Fimo for cane work as all the details show clearly and smearing of the clay is rare. When baked, Fimo looked very shiny and it is also very strong.
   
   
7. Promat: Promat is very similar to Sculpey but it differs in that it has a firmer texture and is less likely to smear. Promat only consists of a small selection of colors which include pearlescent colors.
   
   
8. Cernit: This is the strongest of all clays and when baked, it has a porcelain waxy finish when fired. It is often used in doll making because of the nice results when baked.

Polymer clay all depends on your preference and the type of clay you like working with. It is good to experiment with different types and brands of clays to find out what you like best.

Polymer Clay: Canework

OMG! I can’t believe it’s already December… Time passes by so quickly! Here’s some information about canes while I wait for my clay to arrive.

What is a Cane?

Basically, caneworking is a technique used to make complicated designs and are usually cylinder-like in shape with one design running through the entire cane. This means that each time you slice your cane, each piece will contain the design of the entire cane. Usually, when people make canes, they start out larger and flatten the clay to make it thinner and smaller as they go on. The larger the clay is, the easier it is to handle and the size of the clay should gradually be reduced by pinching, rolling, or pressing it down. This then makes the overall, general design smaller. Canes can contain so many different designs ranging from fruits, flowers and even some complicated figures such as faces. Canes can even vary in size although a cylinder is the most common.

This is an example of an orange cane and how to make one! Look at his orange cane above. It differs from the strawberry cane as it is much more rounder. It is very detailed too as the colors of the orange and the clay blends and fades giving it a very nice effect. 

How Do I Make a Cane?

To make a basic cane, you must put together little rolls of clay and arrange them into a specific pattern so that when you slice it, the image can be repeated and show up. You can do the simple cane below.

1. First pick out two colors: any colors you want. Take one color of clay and then roll in into a cylinder shape.
2. Afterwards, take the second color of clay and wrap it around the first clay cylinder you made.
3. Roll out the clay until it is the size you want it to be.
4. Take a blade and slice your cane. A very simple bull’s eye design will be revealed.

As you become better at making canes and visualizing where to place each roll of clay to form a pattern, your designs will get much more complicated and detailed. Good luck!

How do I Reduce the Size of my Cane?

When you first make your cane, you should start with a cylinder as a round cane is much more easier to roll out. Simply roll the clay in your palms or on top of a work surface. Gently apply a bit of pressure so that you do not squash your clay but at the same time, you can also make your cane smaller. If your clay is too thick to roll on your palm or your work surface, roll the clay at the middle and produce an hourglass shape. Later on, move towards the end parts of the clay until it is at the size you want it to be.

• However, when you have a triangular or oddly shaped cane like the strawberry, you can simply tug the ends of the clay very gently. You should tug and pull in order to reduce the size. (some videos of this can be found on youtube)
  
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et1DVw8dWd8
                                This is a tutorial on making lime canes on YouTube

This strawberry cane is not circular as make it shaped closer to an oval makes it much more realistic. 

How Can I Slice a Cane Evenly?

In order to slice your cane, a very sharp blade is needed. You must not drag your blade around as this motion can blur your designs. Instead, use a back and forth motion to make a clean cut. If your cane is too soft to cut, you might want to let it rest aside for a while or chill it a bit in the refrigerator.

If I Have Leftover Clay, What Should I do?

Leftover clay can be used as a base for making your creations. You can layer other clays on top of it and use the leftover clay as a model as people will not be able to see the inside of the can anyways. In addition, you can mix your leftover clay and create a marbled effect which looks very cool. However, don’t mix too hard or the colors will completely blend. Mix it just right so that the colors begin to blend but are not completely the same color. In addition, if you ruin your cane, you can twist it together to create an interesting effect. It creates abstract unique designs.

This is a nicely marbled blue and white clay. There are some traces of a sky blue color that was created from mixing the white and the blue together.

Tips for All

Today’s topic will be on……. POLYMER CLAY TIPS!

After doing some research, I have come up with a bunch of useful polymer clay tips

1. Squeaky Clean Hand Sanitizer: Most of the times, when working with polymer clay, the clay leaves behind a residue that will not always be washed off with soap and water. Here’s a good tip to get squeaky clean hands!

Put some hand sanitizer on your hands and then wiped them off with a towel. The sanitizer should be alcohol-based because alcohol easily dissolves polymer clay and will leave your hands super clean.

2. Cornstarch? Say What?: Cornstarch actually has many uses when it comes to releasing molds and cleaning up your polymer clay creations. Our hands are needed when working with polymer clay and most of the time, our fingerprints can be left on clay. If you do not want your fingerprints to be all over your creations, use some cornstarch!

Cornstarch makes a great mold release and if you rub some cornstarch on your fingers, this can rid the clay of your fingerprints making your creation look flawless!

3. Yucky Fingerprints: As seen above cornstarch can be used to get rid of fingerprints on your clay. In addition, waterless hand sanitizer or Acetone can be used to clean up fingerprints before baking your clay.

Acetone is found in nail polish but you should only use Acetone as a last resort because after using it on the clay, the clay cannot be reshaped.

4. Cheese grater for canes?: Canes can easily be sliced with a blade but sometimes, this can result in breaking the cane. What is an alternative option?

A cheese slicer can be used to slice canes evenly without breaking it. In order to make thicker slices, you simply need to push harder against the slicer.

5. Nail Polish is a Big NO!: While a lot of people substitute clear nail polish for glaze, it is not a good substitution. Most nail polishes have solvents that will slowly dissolve your polymer clay making it turn sticky.

Instead, just stick with glaze and if you don’t have glaze, that’s fine too! Polymer clay does not always need to be sealed with a glaze although glaze can be beneficial and make your creation appear shinier.

6. Texture Transformation: Is you clay way too soft for your liking? You can change the texture of your clay by leaching it. When you leach polymer clay, the oils in the clay are absorbed making it firmer. Just follow these simple rules to get your clay the way you want it.

Place your polymer clay between two pieces of paper. Place a book on top of it and keep checking the clay occasionally in order to see how your clay is doing. When it is at the right consistency and you like it, simply take the clay out. The longer you leach your clay, the harder it will become. However, you must be careful and check on your clay because if you leach it for too long, the clay will become crumbly and unusable.

7. Ziploc Storage: Ziploc sandwich bags can be used to store all of your polymer clay. If you store your clay out in the open, some tables might leach your clay while dust will settle on top of the clay. One useful way to keep your polymer clay in a ziploc baggie.

storage for basically everything!

Some plastics will react with polymer clay but ziploc bags are very useful for storing polymer clay and keeping it clean. You can organize your clay too by writing the brand of clay and color of the clay on the outside of the ziploc bag with a sharpie.

What is Polymer Clay?

November 23, 2014

I have just ordered some supplies online in order to get started on polymer clay making. Now, I am just  hoping that they arrive quickly! Here is the list of some of the things I have purchased:

Polymer Clay Supply List

1. Polymer Clay: To begin with,  polymer clay is obviously needed. Polymer clay can be found in most art stores and the prices vary depending on the area you live in. Polymer clay can also be bought online (Amazon, eBay, online polymer clay sites, etc) which is what I did. Some popular brands of polymer clay include Sculpey, Fimo and Premo.

I purchased some red, yellow and blue clay for myself as I thought that these colors were the most basic to start with. Since these are primary colors, I can easily mix them together in order to obtain other colors that I might need later on. I also bought some brown, white, translucent and black clay as these are some necessary colors. In addition, I also purchased the Polyform Sculpey III Clay Molds Bright which consisted of 12 different polymer clay colors. If you need more colors later on, you can always purchase more and you can always test different brands to find out which ones you prefer.

2. Tools: Some tools are needed so that you can cut pieces of clay and to give texture to your clay creations so they seem more realistic. A blade is needed to cut the clay but you must be careful as blades are sharp.Texture tools aren't necessarily needed as you can always experiment with things you have at home. For instance, if you wrinkle aluminum foil, it can be used to texture the clay and bottle caps can also be used to cut a circular shape.

Some polymer clay tools

I simply bought a art tool set that contained blades for cutting and some other tools to create texture in my creations.

3. Glaze: After you finish baking some polymer clay, you might want to add some glaze to make your creation shinier. This is not exactly necessary but it does give the finished product a better look. The glaze does not actually protect the clay but it just simply makes the clay shinier.  

4. Paint brushes: Paint brushes can have many different jobs as it can be used to texture clay, add details to your creation and more. If you want to paint something on your creation, this is where paintbrushes come in handy. In addition, paint brushes can be used to put on an even coating of glaze on your creations.

5. Paint: I purchased some acrylic paint in order to paint details onto my creations. Once again, this isn't really necessary.

Additional Supplies

1. Work Surface: A clean work surface will be needed where you will feel comfortable while making your clay creations. This can from a table to a tile (polymer clay will not destroy, ruin or stain a tile). If you want, you can use wax paper in order to protect the surface you are working on as the clay can sometimes stain the your work surface.

2. Oven: A toaster oven will be needed to bake your creations as polymer clay does not air dry. As long as you don't bake it, polymer clay will not harden which is why an oven is needed.

Some Supplies You Might Want to Purchase

Basically, these are the supplies that I did not buy but you might want to.

1. Cookie cutters: Cookie cutters can be helpful when you need a round shape or when you want your clay to be a specific shape.

2. Rolling Pin or Pasta Machine: Rolling pins and pasta machines are not needed but simply help with turning the clay into the correct level of thickness in which you want it in.

3. Liquid Clay: Liquid polymer clay is good to use for making things like icing or sticking things together. Liquid clay can be used as a clay softener and is basically a bake-able glue.

This is just a picture some polymer clay and tools. 

All About Polymer Clay

So... what exactly is polymer clay?

This is simply some background information about Polymer clay such as the history, etc. (The history gets quite boring... so its all right if you skip it but I suggest reading the "Avoid Head, Leaching and Dust" as it is quite useful.)

Polymer clay is a type of hard-enable modeling clay that can be used to model and make basically anything you wish. It is a clay that never air dries and this type of clay only becomes rock hard after you bake it. Polymer clay comes in many different colors ranging from the ordinary blues, yellows, and reds to much more exotic colors.

Avoid Heat, Leaching and Dust

1. Heat: When polymer clay is stored in a hot and humid environment, this will cause the clay to bake partially resulting in a crumbly clay that is unusable.

2. Leaching: Polymer clay contains oils that keep it moist but if the clay is placed on top of a surface with spaces or holes, this can rid the clay of the oils that is needed.

3. Dust: Dust and dirt can settle on the top layer of polymer clay which leaves many marks that cannot be removed from the clay unless the whole top layer of the clay is cut off.

Some popular brands of polymer clay include Fimo, Sculpey, Prosculpt and more.

 

These cupcakes look delicious!

This is one stunning rose clip!

Polymer clay is fun to play with and can be used to express ideas, mood, etc. They are easy to mold and are similar to the play-dough you have played with as a young child. You can create anything you want out of polymer clay depending on your mood, wants and basically anything. While some people choose to make figurines, dolls and animals other use polymer clay to make charms, bracelets, necklaces and more. The possibilities are endless! Experiment with the clay and let your fingers do the work!

History of Polymer Clay

Polymer clay was first created in the late 1930s in Germany when a woman named Fifi Rebhinder needed a better type of clay in order to make day heads. The formula she used to create the clay was then sold to Eberhard Faber who then used the formula to develop Fimo. This a wide-known brand of Polymer clay we have today!

In Italy around the same time, Monica Resta used another form of clay called LIMMO which was then manufactured by a German company. The German company might have belonged to Rudolf Reiser who was the creator of Formello and Modello.

Polymer clay appeared in America in the early 1970s when the Shaup family immigrated to the United States from Germany and received a Christmas package from their ground mother back in Germany. The package consisted of Fimo and Mrs. Shaup began using the clay to create oprnaments, figures and more. After a while, neighbors and friends began asking her where she had bought the clay. Mr. Shaup who was unemployed at that time saw this as a business opportunity and began to import Fimo from Germany. In 1975, Accent Import also began to import Fimo as its popularity spread in the United States.

I really like that light lavender color. How about you?

While this was going on, a product called polyform was created in the 1960s meant for business purposes. However, this was a fail and a visitor used the product to model a figure. It was then baked and to everyone's surprise, it lead to the creation of another popular polymer clay brand: Sculpey.

By the 1980s, polymer clay was very popular and different colors of polymer clay was being produced. Before that, artists used ground chalk and Tempera colors to decorate their clay.    

                                                          

The Segals was a family liked polymer clay and taught a lot of people about it. They approached the Sculpey company and suggested that they should make a high quality American clay that consisted of more intense colors and a do-everything formula. Their suggestion was taken into account and from this, Premo was born. Sculpey, Premo and Fimo are three very popular brands of polymer clay used by many everyday people.

(I have also just started polymer clay so I am far from an expert and I have my fair share of research to do. A lot of the information was found on the internet so I give them credit for all their work: I simply rephrased many things in order to make them easier to understand.)