Tool Thursday: Polymer Clays

Hello and welcome to another Tool Thursday post. This week I’m going to add to the internet more of my knowledge of polymer clay. As I mentioned last week, I have been playing with this particular media again, and I think it would be helpful if I were to share some of what I’ve discovered.

This is a bit of a recap and addendum of an older post, which you can findĀ HERE.

Polymer clay has been around quite some time at this point, long enough to have “generic” versions put out by various craft stores instead of “just” finding Sculpey. This wasn’t always the case, and I remember originally thinking that “Sculpey” was the generic term (like tissues and something that starts with K). Sculpey itself has several incarnations at this point, too… Sculpey Original, Super Sculpey, Sculpey III, Premo!, Bake Shop, Souffle… the list goes on. Even FIMO has created at least one more line that you can find on a regular basis, and going back I had never heard of the brand previously.

All of that aside, what is and isn’t polymer clay? Polymer clay IS plastic based and needs baking. It is not an air dry clay and it will not self-harden. This does not mean unused clay will last forever, though somewhere close to it, considering I have clay over 2 decades old I can still use at this point… if it is stored well. Away from heat, away from light!

My latest acquisition was of some “CraftSmart(R) Polymer Clay” in two colors. I have tried their acrylic paints before and been very unimpressed, but this was a gift so… what do you do except try it out?

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised. The biggest thing? Once baked, thin pieces remained quite flexible! I could bend the maple leaf I made almost in half! This was a trait of some polymer clay I have seen an European artist on Instagram use, but had not experienced much of with the types I have previously used myself. The thicker pieces were just as stable as some more expensive clay I have purchased, and I am looking forward to working with it in the future.

Small details held on very well through the baking process, even without being applied with a lot of pressure. My test was only on a flat surface, however, so I cannot say if that would hold true in vertical pieces.

Just in case it is not true across all colors, I used the red for my experiment. It already seems like the yellow I also received might be slightly different. The colors do mix together nicely, so that is a bonus. Once thoroughly kneaded, it was not streaky.

It was easy to condition by hand and went through my pasta machine equally well. It does have a tendency (like Sculpey Original) to get too warm when you are molding it and take fingerprints easier then some might want… but it is also nice to know it takes fine detailing (unlike FIMO sometimes).

Overall, I would say it looks like something I may get more of in the future, and I am looking forward to seeing what I can do with that flexibility. See you Monday for a little breakdown of ToshoCon!

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