More About Polymer Clay

What is it?

Polymer clay is a plastic-like clay that you bake in your home oven. It stays very soft and pliable until it is baked, when it hardens.

What brand do you use?

I mainly use Sculpey Premo for beads and jewelry work; it is easy to work with, and durable when baked. It comes in small bricks of many different colors. For fairy sculptures I use Super Sculpey, which is popular for dollmaking. It comes in large bricks of peach-color, has a slight translucence, and can be easily mixed with browns and metallics to create a variety of mystical skin tones.

Where do you buy it?

Craft stores. I get mine at Michaels.

How durable is it?

That depends on what kind of clay I used for the piece. The kind I use for jewelry-making is reasonably durable. It has pretty good tensile strength, so round shapes (like beads) are very sturdy, while long thin pieces are less so. I of course keep this in mind while working, so the jewelry won't break during normal wear. You should avoid bending the pieces too much, or dropping them on hard surfaces (like a cement floor). The surface is succeptible to scratching, so you probably don't want to put your jewelry through the washer.

The fairy sculptures are a different story. The clay I use for these is a sculpting clay, and is more brittle. The fairies (and other creatures) are sculptures, not toys, and require careful handling.

What about buttons? How do I care for those?

I would suggest one of the following:

1. turning the garment inside out to protect the buttons
2. handwashing the item
3. covering the buttons with button covers. You can buy these at JoAnn Fabrics - they are little plastic snap-on covers that protect your special-care buttons.

Is polymer clay non-toxic?

Yes, and so are the glazes and pigments I use.

Could small pieces be a choking hazard?

Yes. I make a lot of bright, colorful work, and kids tend to like it. In fact, sometimes they like it so much that they just want to eat it up. So please, keep small pieces away from small children.

Where can I learn more about working with polymer clay?

polymerclaycentral.com
sculpley.com