Calling All Polymer Clay Enthusiasts

Cafe Society
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Dazzling White Diamonds introduced me to the joys of polymer clay in this thread. I had been trying to sculpt with real clay and I was getting a little bit frustrated with it. On** Dazzling’s** advice, I went out and got myself some Sculpey and, man, am I having a blast.

This stuff is great! No crumbling! Stays soft and pliable! Mistakes are easily smoothed away! On the whole, it’s so much easier to work with than real clay and it’s not messy. It seems incredibly versitile.

I’ve got a book which teaches me how to make polymer clay sculptures of animals, but now I’ve got all sorts of ideas. I did a search last night on the net and found all sorts of projects.

I have some questions, if I may:

–What are your favorite sites for getting project ideas/directions?

–How long did you work closely with directions and patterns before you felt confident enough to set out on your own and design your projects yourself?

–What tools could you not be without? I bought a pasta machine today for rolling the clay because so many of the sites made it look like it was absolutely essential. I also have a small scalpel, an awl, various slicing impliments and a knitting needle. What else do you think I should have?

–Do you prefer to make the sculpture/project out of the correctly colored clays, or make them out of plain white and then paint?

– Could I cheat and use pre-made beads for eyeballs?

–Have you ever sold any of your work? I saw a lot of websites selling finished projects.

–There was tons of stuff out there about making “canes.” Some of them were very elaborate with faces and the like in them. What are they used for? I couldn’t see any purpose other than making little face slices.

My main problem in the transition from real clay to polymer was that I was thinking of clay scultping as carving. If I wanted to make an object, I started with a block of clay and carved out the shape, whittling it away until I was satisfied. Polymer clay requires assembly. Was I thinking in the wrong fashion? Does most sculpting with clays involve carving out the pieces and putting them together?

Random advice will be appreciated.

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I am interested in this thread because I have an afterschool club of kids who make claymation movies. This was their idea, and I try to support them with whatever they do, including editing and stuff. They used plain old PlayDo last year and it was not very good. Do you think Sculpey would work better? We scored a $100 budget for next year, so I can get some even if it’s a little pricey.

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Here is a tutorial to make Scarlett O’Hara’s coral necklace from the BBQ scenes in Gone with the Wind.

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Just from the small experience I have, I’d have to say yes, Sculpey would be much, much better for the kids to use than PlayDoh. There’s none of that drying or cracking effect. It’s a much smoother substance-- the beige can really look just like human skin. It’s also easy to blend to make new colors but you might not need to because it’s sold in a whole rainbow of shades.

A small block of colored Sculpey sells in my area for $1.49. You can get a one pound block of white for about ten dollars. Unless they’re making something with a cast of thousands, your budget should be no problem. (Plus, it’s easily reusable next year.)

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My thirteen-year-old has been a big Sculpey fan for a few years now, so I have immediate second-hand knowledge of the material.

My daughter used directions for projects only on her first few tries, and we got the project sheets free from Hobby Lobby. After she’d worked with the clay a few times, she preferred making her own things without any direction, and although she did have a few spectacular failures (mostly miscalculations of how much weight a certain piece could bear), she’s been far happier making things her own way.

She has every tool known to man, it seems (although I refused to shell out for the pasta maker). She actually uses a fine-tip awl, a medium-tip one, a scalpel, a dowel for rolling, and a fine-tooth comb (to make designs). She pretty much uses whatever she finds to hand, and she’s gotten more use out of improvised tools than the ones we bought her.

You generally get better tones with the colored clay, but you also run the risk of discoloring it in the oven. If you’re working with pieces that are very thin or of uneven thickness, you might be better off applying pigment after it’s baked (and possibly scorched a little).

As for using beads (or any other non-clay material), it works really well as long as the material won’t melt or burn in the oven. The only thing you have to watch for is that the clay doesn’t shrink away from the bead or other material as it hardens - you may have to experiment a little to see how far you can push it. Glass and metal work well, you can bake beads right onto wire or sturdy cord, and we even have some small sculptures that have inner frames made of toothpicks.

As for the claymation clay, I wouldn’t use Sculpey if you don’t want to bake it. When you consider the volume of clay you’re likely to need for a whole group of kids, it ends up being more expensive than oil-based clays. There are a lot of non-hardening clays to choose from, and you can usually get them for between $1 and $3 a pound, depending on color and brand. Blick has a fairly economical gray clay, Crayola is widely available, and Van Aken and Prang both have a wide selection of colors. Just be sure you get clay that’s labeled non-hardening, especially if you order online (they tend to list the air-drying and oil-based clays right next to each other).

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If you were going to paint the clay or the Sculpey, what kind of paint would you use?

Thanks for the info. I might try a bunch of different kinds and see what works best.

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I’m a bit of a Sculpey dabbler and have made various things over the years, some of which I’ve sold and most I’ve given as gifts. Two books I found particularly helpful are Family and Friends in Polymer Clay and How to Make Clay Characters, both by Maureen Carlson. Great tips therein.

Combining the clay with heatable natural objects can be nice (like making a snail character with a real seashell “home”, etc.)

I never used a pasta machine, but it might be great, I don’t know.

The canes are to slice and make beads, or to join together side by side to achieve a mosaic effect that can, in itself, be shaped (think, say, votive candle holder).

I use molds more than I carve. They’re a good starting point for faces which you can then change and alter. Same with hands and feet. Making molds is fun in and of itself. You can make a mold of almost any 3-D object and then reproduce it in sculpey. A little flour or cornstarch in your mold will keep things from sticking. For figures, I use SuperSculpey which is caucasian skin colored. I tend to use one color and then paint it with acrylics rather than used differently colored sculpey for each color. I’m particularly good at rendering eyes, so I just paint them. You can totally “cheat” and use beads though. They won’t melt at the temps you heat the clay at.

Some things that really helped me:
Using “armature” to cut down on the amount of clay used and therefore, cooking time (try a wadded up tinfoil ball as a base for a head, for example)
Realizing that I could sculpt in stages for stability, cooking in between stages, e.g., I could “cook” the head and neck before attaching it to a body with soft sculpey and baking again. Helps to preserve delicate detail.
As far as tools go, it seems the more humble, the better. I use orangewood cuticle sticks, exacto knives (invaluable), seam rippers, paintbrush handles (roll the smooth handle against moldes clay to remove fingerprints), garlic presses and sieves (hair) and the ever-popular toothpick and chopsticks. I have a set of clay carving tools I never use, lol.

There you have it: more info than you ever wanted about my sculpey habits :smiley:

Rubystreak, I think traditional Claymation is done with good ol’ molding clay, the kind that stays soft and can’t be fired. Since you have to change the figure for each shot, permanence is not the aim. Sculpey would be absolutely fine too, but is just more expensive than molding clay. Play Doh has the advantage of smelling great, but that’s about it.

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Ugh, sorry for the redundancy, Internet Legend - I took so long to write my post I forgot to refresh before submitting!

I use acrylic to paint sculpey - the cheapo kind that comes in bottles at crafts stores works fine and comes in tons of colors. I usually glaze my pieces afterwards with a water-based shellac.

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Polymer Clay Central has a marvelous and very active forum that’s easily the friendliest place I know on the web.

The other place you’ll want to go is Glass Attic.

No reason not to mess around with it and see what you can design right from the beginning.

Porcupine quill (check on eBay), exacto knife, wooden toothpick, sandpaper.

Paint. I started out using the correctly colored clays, but wound up wasting large amounts of time trying to keep the colors clean and distinct. It’s also difficult to shade with polymer clay.

As long as the material can be safely baked in the oven, it can go into your creation. I use metal beads as eyeballs all the time, and aluminum foil, epoxy putty, and wire as internal support structures to reduce weight and add strength.

These days, I use polymer clay sculptures as the first step toward creating my work in porcelain, so no.

Beads, primarily.

Depends on the clay. Polymer clay is so soft that most of the time you’ll wind up using additive methods, with perhaps some carving for the details, unless you prebake a block first. You can also make the basic shape, bake it, then carve in some of the details. Most sculptors I know who use subtractive methods primarily don’t use polymer clay.

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Ah, so my old method has a name! Thanks-- I’ll look up some info so I can use it with my real clays.

I have to admit to being a tiny bit frustrated with the additive method sometimes. My book gives directions for making a mouse’s head: make a ball, then add a small cone for the snout, and then a thin strip to the top of the head. For me, it seems like it would be easier just to take a ball of clay of the correct size and then shape it with my fingers as necessary. But my mind insiststs there must be a reason for these steps, so I still do them.

I’m glad you said that. I made a bunny out of white Sculpey and when it emerged, it had sort of a pink-brown stain in places. I thought I must have baked it too long.

–What do you bake on?

–The directions make it sound like it has to be a very precise temperature and length of baking time. Can you fudge a bit by baking at a slightly lower temperature in order to avoid any scorching?

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Yes and no. I’m almost positive I know which book you’re using, and while I think it presents an admirable method, it’s also one I don’t use myself. My approach is much more like yours. The downside to the “squish a ball of clay into the desired shape” method is that it’s a lot harder to keep the part symmetrical. (You do know the trick of looking at the piece in a mirror to check symmetry, right?) It’s also very easy to waste time going over sections to add detail that would have been present had you built it in sections in the first place.

Do whatever works for you, and hang “the rules.” You’ll be much happier and more productive.

Cookie sheet or bake pan usually. I have a glass casserole dish that’s ideal, especially for anything that requires an absolutely flat bottom. I had one instructor swear by using wood (she insisted that if you used a reflective surface, the clay would pick up some shine - my experience does not bear this out), but I’ve never been brave enough to try.

There’s a fair amount of fudge room with PC, but I think it must spend a certain amount of time at the required temperature to cure properly. If you’re really concerned about scorching, try baking it at the lower temperature for a while, then raise it for the final stretch. I use Premo, and even though I’ve occasionally forgotten about it and overbaked it for significant periods of time, I’ve never had it scorch. TLS (translucent liquid sculpey) on the other hand … :eek:

I prefer the thick Liquitex acrylics, but I’ve used a variety of brands and never experienced any problems. I suspect oil paints would not react well to PC, but can’t say for sure. Cosmetics work very well, and not just for dolls - eye shadows can be used in a variety of places to provide highlights and shading. You do have to be careful about any sprays used as fixatives.

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This is the book I’ve been using. I also had this book which I was using for the subtractive method with real clay.

No, I didn’t know that. I’ve just been eyeballing it until it looks right. I’ve also used the method of measuring the distance and making faint marks to place the eyes in the right spot. I never thought of using a mirror.

How do you keep the piece from sticking to the pan? Dazzling White Diamonds showed me a picture of a bookmark she had made-- how would you keep it flat on the pan without adhering to it? Can you use wax paper under the item? (The bunny I made with Sculpey stuck and I had to use a metal spatula to pry it off the metal baking sheet.)

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When I’m baking pieces I want to stay perfectly flat, I dust two pieces of ceramic tile with cornstarch and sandwich the clay between them. Works like a charm. :slight_smile:

I want to thank you all for inspiring me. I have been making polymer clay bead jewelry to sell on my sister-in-laws website. After reading this thread, I went in and made myself some Snake earrings to wear to Cottonmouths hockey games! After I get them baked and glazed, I’ll post a picture!

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Unless it’s something with tiny feet, I just paln to wriggle it off the pan. If it’s something that might break, then I set it on a layer of aluminum foil.

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Damn you all. I’m far too suggestable. Never even considered using that stuff before, and then after work I went to Michaels and now I’ve got the world’s ugliest bird in the oven.

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An extraordinary claim like that requires proof in the form of a pic.

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Well, maybe not THE ugliest, but considering I was working from a pattern I thought it should be better. Here’s the front, and here’s the side. It doesn’t sit up well. That’s a cigar in it’s mouth, not a turd. Should have done black bits for the pupils - the holes I did looked good when I was making it, but now they look blind and creepy.

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Also, I only cooked it for an hour, because I was scared of scorching it. Could that have screwed it up? (I don’t mean made it uglier, I did that all on my own - what happens to underdone clay?)

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Zsofia, you can dab some black paint in the holes if you think that would help. I think he’s quite cute!

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Was it Sculpey? My package says you’re only supposed to cook it for 20 minutes.