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About Polymer Clay
Polymer clay is a manmade, plastic-based alternative to natural clay. Its only real similarity to natural clay is that it is shaped while soft, and then heated for hardening. Owning a kiln is not necessary for polymer-clay work, since the temperatures needed to bake it are easily achieved in a home oven (265° to 275° Fahrenheit).
Each polymer-clay brand is made with its own "recipe," using various resins, plasticizers and other secret ingredients, each optimized for a different usage. You may end up choosing one brand for your sculptures or free-form jewelry, and another brand for millefiori cane work.
Although different brands don't guarantee they will mix together exactly the way you expect, many people have successfully mixed brands for desired colors, textures, or consistencies.
What's the difference?Premo! Sculpey® is softer than FIMO®, but stiffer than Sculpey. According to the literature, it is non-crumbling and easy to knead, but still excellent for millefiori. It retains flexibility in thin areas, making small details less vulnerable to breakage. In addition, the colors are carefully designed to mix well, and give you the color results you would expect with art-store paints.
FIMO is the stiffest of these polymer-clay varieties, which helps it keep the shapes and colors you want, even when manipulated for long periods of time (for example while detailing multi-layered millefiori canes).
Rings & Things carries FIMO Soft and FIMO Classic, as well as Mix Quick, polymer-clay canes, tools and instructional books. See our polymer-clay products page to browse our offerings.
The softer polymer clays are good for projects that don't involve extensive manipulations. They start out easy to work with, but if you are making complex canes, your colors and shapes can start to blend together more than you might want.
The stiffer polymer clays may start out crumbly when cold, but they manipulate well in the long run. You can put a few colors in your pocket for a while to warm them before opening the packages. To warm polymer clay in cold weather, you can point a desk lamp at your clay, or place your clay on a heating pad that's set on its lowest setting. No matter what method you use, be careful not to overheat the clay, or it will start to bake.
If you live in a cold climate, you may also want to heat your work surface before you start working. Some people have said a blow dryer works well. However, use caution when using a blow dryer or anything else for a use other than the manufacturer intended.
If you use polymer clays as a hobby, you can use your regular home oven. Toaster ovens are not recommended, because they don't heat as consistently. If you seriously delve into polymer clays, you will probably want to invest in a second oven for convenience, if not for potential long-term health reasons. All of these polymer clays are non-toxic and well-tested, but it somehow seems foolish to be cooking food in the same oven in which you are daily cooking plastic ...
Hints for working with polymer clays: Polymer Clay Info Links — Updated 2007
Yes, there is a national source for the latest information on the various forms of polyform clay (FIMO, Premo, SculpeyFlex, Cernit, etc.). It's the National Polymer Clay Guild. Last time we checked,
yearly dues were $30, which included a subscription to their fact filled newsletter, the Polyinformer. Visit them online, or write to them at:
Polymer Clay Guilds