Getting starting with polymer clay

Polymer clay is a synthetic clay that  you can manipulate without fear of it dries and that cures or get harder after being exposed to high heat in the oven and as result it seems a little bit like plastic. So you need polymer clay. There are different brands (Fimo, Premo, Sculpey, Kato clay, Cernit). I have and extends article about different brands and my experience with them. Every clay is designed to be used for a specific set of projects so depending of your needs it will be determine the kind of clay you have to buy. There are liquid clay too. It can be used to add viscosity to your creations and they are great for reinforcing the bond between pieces of your sculpture (bake and bond liquid or liquid sculpey) or removing finger prints (clay softener which is basically baby oil). You can use cornstarch that way you can make the piece less sticky but be carefully using it with color clay.

Aluminium Foil

Use aluminium foil to make the main structure, the bones of your sculpture. That way you won’t waste clay and you can be sure that you are baking the hole thing because if your piece is too thick It won’t be baked nice (you can use leftovers of any polymer clay).

Wire

Use Wire for the bones or tiny pieces. It prevents your sculpture from falling inside the oven or breaking off due its weight. It’s basically an armature to support the clay.

SCULPTING TOOLS:

You can use a large variety of sculpting tools to model clay. In fact they are the same kind of sculpting tools that you can use with traditional clay. There are a few specifics tool like Clay Machine (the pasta maker is perfect for skinner blends, marbling…) or Acrylic Clay Roller (the rolling pin for conditioning clay ), a clay extruder tool… but in general they are the same that the traditional clay tools.

Clay Machine

The Pasta Machine it’s use for quickly and easily condition polymer clay instead of using rolling pins, acrylic rollers or your own hands. It makes conditioning, rolling and blending so much easier.

Rotary tools

Dremel tools, or any other brand of rotary tool, can be used with polymer clay for buffing, sanding, grinding away rough edges, evening out uneven places, drilling holes, engraving, carving… It’s not a essential tool for a beginner but it’s really handy.

Wax carving

Wax carving: spoon tool, knife shape tool, ball styluses, knife craft with a non serrated blade, color shapers (better harder than softer because the last ones will have less impact they are going to have). Any tool is great to modeling clay.

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Another tools for clay

A clean surface without any speck of dust because is there is one it will attach to your piece (you can use a cutting mat), water sandpaper to polish or sand your pieces (you can do that with a Dremel), texturing surfaces, cutting tools, oven thermometer, baby oil to soften the clay…

Oven

The oven is an essential tool. Without it you won’t be able to finish your piece.

Baking time.

It will depend of the brand of clay but generally is 15 minutes at 275 °F but it will be better to read the specifications of each types of clay. For example: Premo will take 20 minutes (1 hour to make it  stronger). Make sure that you follow the instructions on the back of the box of clay. You can use your kitchen oven or buy another one just for this purpose. Don’t be afraid, you don’t need all of this to start in this world but they are tools that make your life easier. In the reality, you will only need the clay, the oven and your imagination.