Some basics of polyclay

1. What is polyclay

2. Is it dangerous

3. How do I bake it

4. Where can I find more

1. What is polyclay?

Polyclay is artificial clay manufactured by several different companies under several different brand names. It comes in various colors, and the colors can be mixed pretty much like acrylic colors; by blending them together or marbling to leave colours not complately blended as one colour. The colors in the "raw" polyclay are a little lighter than after curing so usually people mix some white to their clays to get brighter colors. In my gallery there are only a few items that have any paint on them, and if so I have noted it. 99 % of the pictures and colours you see in my work are made by different coloured clays. There is a method called caning, or millefiori, that is used in making pictures. You can learn more about it and tons of other techniques at www.glassattic.com.

When getting polyclay from the shop it is soft and moldable, it has to be cured at about 265 Fahrenheit / 130 Celsius degrees. Some of the most commonly known polyclay brands are Fimo, Cernit, Premo and Sculpey. I myself use Cernit and Fimo Soft. In general I use Cernit in jewellery because it is best for my needs (strong and has good colors). I mostly use Fimo Soft for caning because it is just so much better clay for cane making than Cernit. I lately have also fallen in love with Premo. Because it is not available in Finland I am thinking hard about trying to start importing it to Finland myself :-)

2. Is it dangerous?

Not really. But it is not suggested that one eat polyclay. This is the reason why you can not use the same tools you use in your kitchen for your polyclaying. You really can not wash all the residues off. (OK, you can, but if you are not a chemist and used to handle "poisons" I would not).

The only thing that really can be dangerous is to burn your polyclay when baking. If you are careful about the temperatures, that does not happen. The hazardous gasses that appear when burning polyclay can really be nasty. After experiencing this once I assure you that you will not make the same mistake another time... Oven thermometer is one tool you really want to have if you get into claying. Other tools you can manage without untill later.

The most serious danger is getting addicted to polyclay. It really can take ones life, twist it around and change the ideas for future carreers etc. in a whim. It is fun, but it is also a fullfilling hobby. There is a support group, rec.crafts.polymer-clay, where you can share this problem with others ;-)

3. How do I bake it?

There are pretty good instructions on the packaging. The only thing you have to remember is to get yourself a good oven thermometer and watch it. Don't let your stuff burn! Not only it is dangerous it also ruins your precious things. Your oven does not necessarily give you the temperatures you are supposed to get when turning the wheel.

My method of baking is to preheat the oven to 257 Fahrenheit /125 Celsius. I bake my pieces a long time, even the beads are at least 25 minutes in the oven. After experimenting a lot with this I have found this is the best minimum time. I'd rather over-bake than under-bake. Maybe I am paranoid, but I'd rather be that than make things that break easily.

4. Where can I find more?

The glass attic

There is only one place in the world that has this much information gathered from hundreds of polyclayers around the world. It is reliable source, huge (did I already say mind blowing) for any questions you have. If you do not find answers to your questions from there, you probably are creating something new. In that case keep notes and share them with other clayers too.
If you go to http://groups.yahoo.com/ and do a search with the word polymer clay you find about dozen bigger email lists talking about polymerclay. Subscribing is easy, and there you can find other people who also are into claying. Some so much that you will be overhelmed by their energy (! greetings friends at MSAT :-)
One more really good place for information is

Polymer Clay FAQ

Jeanne A. E. DeVoto has written a marvelous FAQ about this stuff. Look also to faux- stones section. Awesome gallery too. When I started Jaeds faq was the biggest information available. And look at the things now ! With her faq people have gone beyond all the limits we thought there were. I always will be thankful to her for her faq. She could have written a book (and she still should write that !) but she shared her information for everyone without asking. This is coming little late, but thank you Jaed. (I hope you have a habbit of egosurfing and find this one accidentally. I hope it will be a really rainy day that I can save :-)

There also is monthly web magazine consentrating on polymer clay. It is at www.pcpolyzine.com. It has new projects every month. You also can browse trough previous issues and it really is a fun zine for polyclay enthuastics.