Polymer clay
General resources
- Glass Attic is an extremely detailed polymer clay encyclopedia. Almost every bit of information can be found here.
- Koiming for jewelry findings.
- Sculpey premo primary colors:
- Cool primaries: Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Zinc Yellow
- Warm primaries: Cobalt Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red
Model references
- Guide for sculpting animals from a single ball of clay
- Cat
- Cat 2
- Cats 3
- Knitting pattern
- Brownie – Contains techniques for doing a cake-like texture.
- Various animals
Baking
- Using a Sona SMO 23A toaster oven, 145C on the dial corresponds to 130C internal temperature.
- Do a few test runs with a baking thermometer to calibrate your oven; the temperature usually doesn’t exactly match the value on the dial.
- Glass Attic page on baking
- Sculpey Premo baking instructions: 135 degrees C for 30 minutes per quarter inch of thickness.
- If not pre-heating, remember to add an additional 10 minutes or so to allow the oven to get up to temperature.
- Place the item on a piece of parchment paper to avoid shiny spots where the item touches the surface it is baking on.
- Cover the item with a tent of aluminum foil to keep the temperature consistent, since the oven will cycle the heating elements on and off.
Conditioning hard/crumbly clay
Some clays can be very hard. When pulled, it might crumble rather than stretch. The hardness of clay could be due to age or having been stored in a hot environment. No amount of rolling or folding will condition this clay. To do so we need to add additional agents to it.
Some options you could add:
- Official products like Sculpey clay softener
- Liquid clay
- Mineral oil
- Vaseline or petroleum jelly
Personally I use mineral oil. It’s often marketed as baby oil and can be found in pharmacies or supermarkets. Ideally you want one that’s unscented, but either will work. If buying baby oil, make sure the ingredients list contains only mineral oil. For scented baby oil, the ingredients list may contain “fragrance” – this is fine.
Here’s my method using mineral oil:
- Break the clay into small pieces, the smaller the better.
- Put the pieces in a ziploc bag.
- Add a few drops of mineral oil.
- Shake the bag to coat.
- Massage from outside the bag to work the oil into the clay. This prevents your hands from getting coated with oil.
- Use your hands to finish working the clay. By the point the clay would have absorbed the oil, so your hands wouldn’t get as oily.
A little mineral oil goes a long way. The amount of oil to add depends on the amount of clay you have and how hard it is. Start with 3-5 drops, and add more as needed.
Where to buy
Sculpey Premo is almost always sold out in stores.