You’ve most likely heard most of these simple polymer clay tips and tricks before. But then again, maybe not. It’s never good to be that guy who’s standing there saying, “Whoa, I can’t believe nobody ever told me that!” It’s always better to be the guy standing there nodding his head saying, “Yup. Knew that.” So, with that in mind, here you go!
1. Hand Sanitizer cleans clay residue off your hands.
After working with polymer clay, there is usually a residue on your hands which soap and water will not remove. Alcohol dissolves polymer clay, so it works well to rub some alcohol-based hand sanitizer gel into your hands, and then wipe them clean with a paper towel. Follow up with a soap and water wash and you’re good as new. (And rubbing alcohol is pretty great to have in the studio, too!)
2. Cornstarch is your friend.
This one has several uses. Cornstarch makes a great mold release for molds and texture sheets. A bit of cornstarch on your finger is great for smoothing the fingerprints off of your clay creations. And finally you can bury your beads in a bed of cornstarch when baking to prevent the clay from browning or scorching.
3. Nail polish, spray paint, and solvents will cause sticky polymer clay.
For some reason, this polymer clay tip isn’t well known. It seems like such a simple solution to use nail polish to accent your polymer clay creations. Or use clear nail polish as a glaze. Don’t do it. Ever. Under any circumstances! The solvent in nail polish will begin to soften and dissolve your polymer clay, even baked clay, making it sticky and gooey over time. The same holds true for most varnishes and paints in spray cans can either degrade the clay or remain sticky. And also paints that are solvent based and require mineral spirits to clean your brushes may never fully dry on polymer clay. If you need a spray sealer to coat polymer clay, then you should use PYM II, or Helmar Crystal Kote. These are both polymer clay safe protective coatings. Read here for more information about polymer clay sealers, including which ones to use and which to avoid. (Note: Some brands of nail polish seem to work, most don’t. So beware. Also, artists oil paints do work on polymer clay but thin coats are best as it takes a long time to dry.)
4. You can change the texture of polymer clay.
If your polymer clay is too soft and mushy you can firm it up by a process called leaching. To leach clay, you just sandwich sheets of it between plain paper and then put a book on it for a few hours. Keep checking until the clay’s the consistency that you want. The longer you leach it, the more of the clay’s plasticizer will leach into the paper and out of the clay. This will cause the clay to be more firm. You don’t want to do too much, though, or the clay will be too crumbly. Conversely, you can soften clay that is too hard and crumbly by mixing in a small amount of baby oil, liquid polymer clay, or you can use a product by Sculpey called clay softener (previously called diluent). Again, don’t add too much or your clay will be too soft. If your clay is too hard to mix, you can chop it up and then let it sit a few days with the softener. It will diffuse through a bit, allowing the clay to soften enough to be able to be mixed. (Though in my opinion, life is too short…I just toss clay that’s this much work.)
5. Most Important of Polymer Clay Tips: You really do need an oven thermometer!
They’re around $10 at a kitchen supply store or Amazon (Affiliate Link – learn more here). And they’re indispensable! Even if you’ve been baking in your oven for years without a problem, that doesn’t mean that it’s accurate. And when it comes to clay, accuracy counts. You’ve got to bake it long enough and hot enough to get a full and complete cure. Otherwise your project will be spongy and brittle. On the other hand, some brands of clay are very susceptible to burning and high spikes in temperature might not hurt your casserole but it will completely toast your polymer. This is part of getting to know your oven so that it can be your friend and give you very good results. Learn all about baking polymer clay here.
6. Sharpie fades on polymer clay.
I see Sharpie Markers recommended in tutorials all the time and I have to tell you…don’t do it. Sharpie markers are a great little tool and I love them for all sorts of crafts. But Sharpies are a solvent-based dye-based marker. And that means that over time the dye will diffuse into the polymer, creating a “blur” or bleed. Use a pigment based marker instead, such as PITT Artist Marker or Microperm markers. See the article What’s the Best Pen for Drawing on Polymer Clay?
7. Store polymer clay in Ziploc sandwich bags.
Polymer clay can react with and dissolve some plastics. But plain old Ziploc sandwich bags are polymer clay safe. Plus you can zip the bag shut, keeping out dust. And if you’d like, you can label the bag with a Sharpie, removing all doubt about what brand of clay you put inside. Read my article about what plastics can be used to store polymer clay.
8. Use white scrap clay to clean your hands and pasta machine.
When working with white polymer clay, you want it to stay pristine white. Fibers, dirt, or residue from other clay colors that are on your hands or in your pasta machine will contaminate your nice white clay. Here’s an easy solution. Take a ball of white scrap clay and roll it around in your hands. It will pick up any contaminants. Then run it through your pasta machine, allowing it to pick up any stray colors or fibers there. You can use this scrap clay over and over. Keep it in a Ziploc bag. (Bet you saw that one coming.)
9. Crumpled aluminum foil makes a good bead core.
When making a large bead or a large figurine, you save both clay and weight by using crumpled up aluminum foil as a core or armature. Just crumple it tightly and then cover it with clay, then bake.
10. To avoid bubbles, put clay fold first into the pasta machine.
Are you finding bubbles in your polymer clay after conditioning it with a pasta machine? Bubbles are bad because they will expand during baking, creating an unsightly lump in your work, often ruining a piece. When conditioning clay, try inserting your folded over sheets of clay into the pasta machine fold side first. That way air doesn’t get trapped inside. If you do get a bubble, just slice into it with your razor blade and then press the air out, sealing the hole shut with your fingers.
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188 thoughts on “10 Simple Polymer Clay Tips (that you surely knew – but maybe not?)”
Now this is one comprehensive list! I suppose it is bragging if I say there weren’t any new to me ones, but then I’ve looked for these answers before. You have done a great job bringing it all together. I do some things a little differently. I don’t use cornstarch at all, someone – I can’t remember who – gave me a horror story and that was enough not to try. Instead I use water as my primary mold release, and if I am curing something oddly shaped I usually put it on fiberfil (caveat, if the item is heavy this will leave little indents). I like to keep a separate machine at the ready for white and translucent exclusively when I know I will be doing a lot. That way I can do all sorts of colours on one and really rush through on the other. Safety tips may be another category all together – but take that nail polish and polish the dull side of your big blades so that you never ever ever push all your fingers down on the sharp side
I find baby wipes work well on stained hands and they work well on engine grease for car repairs. I just made my own bead baking racks from aluminum flashing (roofing material aisle of the hardware store). Thanks for more tips!
When you think of the sort of thing that baby wipes are designed to clean up, it’s no wonder they’re so good on engine grease, though I admit I’d not tried it for that. And the bead racks sound great. Got a picture? You can post it on my Facebook page and I can share with everyone. http://www.facebook.com/thebluebottletree
This is all good advice which is excellent for polymer clay beginners. I too prefer to condition my clay by folding and placing in the machine sideways. The other thing is that I would recommend baking your clay pieces in baking soda rather than cornstarch. This is also what Donna Kato uses. The cornstarch is a finer powder than the baking soda and more difficult to wash out completely afterwards.
Thanks for sharing these much needed and great tips!
Yes, the baking soda is probably better for burying beads. I’m not gonna argue with Donna Kato, LOL! Cornstarch is a non-soluble particle so you might have to scrub it out. Baking soda dissolves, so it’s easier to rinse out. And honestly, I don’t use either. I bake everything in aluminum pans, so I never have to worry about it.
Hi Ginger, I’ve just happened on your blog and immediately subscribed, it’s such a treasure trove! May I add my 2 cents here… I make miniature food and tend to bake my items directly on the tile I used to sculpt them, but it does leave them super shiny and smooth on the bottom, which is not always what you want. To avoid this, I use a scrap of parchment paper over the tile, but I also read about paper plates. Sometimes, though, even just a small cardboard tray (such as a box lid) will do perfectly.
thanks again for such a wealth of great tips!
marcella from Italy
Thank you Marcella. I love that you’re enjoying the site. And I’m glad that my info is valuable to people doing other types of polymer clay than just jewelry. I do use the paper trick, in fact, people who use my tutorials are probably tired of me saying “Set this on a scrap piece of plain paper.” I would think that parchment paper would be really good of the clay would be sitting on the paper for a while. Plain paper does tend to leach the clay a bit. Thanks for the comment and welcome to my site!
Hi, My name is Dolores I am 82 years young and I am doing “Pandora” my first real polymer clay project, an on line class with Marilyn Radzat. I am happy that Marilyn fwd this link. I have learned all kinds of good stuff, thanks for sharing
These are fabulous tips! I bought a heap of clay when it was on sale at MIchael’s a few weeks ago to use in a project at summer camp. These tips just saved me a lot of time! Thank you so much! I really dodged a bullet by reading your article!!
I’m so glad to be helpful! Polymer clay is fantastic for summer camp. There are so many ways that all ages can have success with it, from the little ones making snakes and lumps to the teenagers getting really creative with applique and figurines. Have fun!
Can the clay be baked in a gas oven?
Absolutely. But depending on the oven, you might need to protect your pieces from spikes in temperature. I always bake my polymer clay items on a ceramic tile inside aluminum pans. That way they’re protected from the heat a bit better. You can read about that and see a photograph here.
Thank You for your advise.
I can say I didn’t know any of this and very happy to learn it. Working with polymer clay is on my to do list. I have an important question, at least for my household. We have exotic birds, when you bake the clay will the fumes harm our birds? We have to be super careful of air fresheners, etc. Thanks.
I have heard discussions of this issue and I’m sorry to say that I don’t have a definitive answer. A solution that some people have found is to use a small toaster oven in the garage, that way there is no worry of the fumes hurting your birds. At the very least, you can bake your items covered in a roaster pan (or in two aluminum pans clipped together) and then take it outside before you open it. Maybe a reader knows some more information and will chime in here.
Thank You so much.
Thank you, I hadn’t thought about the garage.
I also have a parrot. Because of Gumby, I bake all of my clay in opposite side of house with open window. One time, thankfully at a class, someone mistakenly upped the temp on the oven to 400 degrees. Naturally everything burned….the fumes were noxious!!!!! If this had happened at home, in the kitchen, where Gumby lives, she would have perished, & we have had Gumby since she was an egg, almost 30 years!
So, please be careful…
Thanks for the info! I’d love to see a pic of Gumby. 🙂 What about a bearded dragon? He’s about 1-2 years old, so he’s an adult. Do you think I should avoid baking polymer clay in my home? I also have two hound dogs, but they’re both over 35 pounds. My house is pretty small, so I don’t have the option of baking far away from the animals.
All of the clay manufacturers tell us that polymer clay is not toxic, but they only certify that for humans, of course. I can assume that means it’s perfectly safe around animals, but that is just an assumption on my part. To be absolutely sure, you should probably contact the clay manufacturers. That being said, it’s a rare polymer clayer who DOESN’T have pets in their home and I’ve never heard of a case of an animal harmed by clay. So personally, I wouldn’t even hesitate. Clay on!
Thank you for sharing these tips. Didn’t know about Sharpie or sprays or nail polish. You saved me from some costly mistakes! I enjoy your site very much. Keep up the good work.
Thank you Rita.
Great tips, and even though I’ve been working with this for awhile I learned something new! We forget that there are always new clay enthusiasts born everyday who may not know this. Thanks for sharing these tips!
I knew all of these except the sharpie tip. I’ve used translucent to clean hands, workspace, and machine, because it’s not as likely as white to leave some of itself behind, and on the rare occasion that it does, it doesn’t ruin a project because it is nearly invisible.
Translucent is another great option and you’re right, probably better for many colors. The trans of most brands is usually a bit softer and stickier than the rest of the colors in a brand, so I’m not sure if that’s an advantage or disadvantage. Thanks for bringing it up. It’s certainly great to have more options.
Great tips, Ginger! I knew all but the Sharpie. Lucky for me I never tried it.
I had not heard or figured out the white clay to clean the pasta machine – YEA, Thank you.
BUT … when I baked my beads in corn starch it kind of cooked into the beads and they ended up a “whiter” color than they were when I did not bake in corn starch.
Awesome tips!!
I have this happen, too, and I’m not sure if it’s actual cornstarch stuck to the surface of the clay or it’s just tiny little “spaces” created by the grains of cornstarch. Give them a good scrub with a toothbrush under running water. And then a coat of the sealer of your choice. That should fix it.
While hand sanitizer is good to clean the clay off your hands, I have found that the Napa Brand Waterless Hand Cleaner, Smooth Orange
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=NCB5015_0006405965
I would not use my polymer clay with out it, and have been using it for about 15 years, maybe more! I found other products dried out my hands, or I was always running to wash my hands and they got chapped. This product not only removes every bit of clay, it has softeners in it so I never had chapped hands. And I am not always running to wash my hands!
Fantastic suggestion! I’ve never heard of using this type of cleaner for clay and that’s too bad because I’ll bet it smells wonderful!
I’ve learned too many of these tips the hard way 🙂 Hopefully you’ll shorten the learning curve for people.
I saw a video where you can make your own alcohol ink using the insides of the sharpie pens on you tube.
I suppose if you needed a specific color or couldn’t buy the inks then that might be a good option. Interesting. And I guess they’d be really good for coloring translucent clay. I hadn’t thought of that. Learn something new every day!
But if you used sharpies to make ink, wouldn’t that ink then degrade the clay too?
Great tips, I read a lot but didn’t know about the sharpies, spray paint or ziplock bags!
Thanks
You had me there for a minute. I had to think about it. The problem with Sharpie isn’t that it degrades polymer clay. It’s that the dye inside diffuses into the clay and causes it to fade and/or blur over time. I really don’t know how compatible Sharpie guts are with polymer clay as I always use alcohol ink. I do know for a fact that you can color polymer clay with Ranger and Pinata alcohol inks. Honestly, Sharpies are kind of pricey to be chopping them up for their juice.
Hi, I found this on you tube about making the ink with the sharpies. You can decide for yourself if it has any merit.. I went on Amazon and found the 24 pack. . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeYxPKUX9mE
Awesome! Thanks for the link. Certainly something to think about. It does look like a great way to get lots of new colors. Again, no idea how it works with the clay but it would be interesting to find out.
Ive staggered on to your site by mistake, but Im so glad I did! I have just started out making polymer clay momentoes. I ‘seal’ them with a 50% pva glue and water mix first. Then I paint them a colour, but the acrylic paint makes them sticky and the sharpies I write with bleed and then don’t work after writing just one or two plaques Ive spent a small fortune trying and re-trying different ways, and Im just so frustrated. I have been buying Sculpey Clay and also I have nearly 2 dozen sharpies in different colours, but I really wish I didn’t! …What can I use to write coloured writing on my clay after baking? I was told by Hobbycraft that Sharpies were the thing to buy for my plaques!.. but they clearly aren’t. Also I seal them with a spray seal from Games Workshop… can you help me get these right?
Hi Vanessa, I’m so glad you stumbled here, too! Welcome! Okay, here goes. First off, there is no need to seal polymer clay before painting. Try using Premo polymer clay (paint sticks to it very well) and paint with regular acrylic paint. Craft paint works well as does artist’s paint. You have to give the paint plenty of time to dry and cure, though, maybe 24hrs or so. Then heat set the paint by putting the figure in the oven at 200°F (93°C) for about 15 minutes. You don’t always need to seal the paint, depending on your application. The paint should stick and stay just fine as is. But if you want to seal it, try using water based polyurethane. In the US the brand name is Rustoleum Varathane. Make sure it’s water based!! It comes in quart cans but it lasts forever. Alternatively, you could use a spray sealer called PYM II (Preserve Your Memories II). It’s one of the few aerosol sprays that are compatible with polymer clay. Now for your pen. As you found out, Sharpies aren’t the way to go. They’re a bit hard to find, but Sakura MicroPerm pens work great. Pigma micron will work but sometimes can bead up and not write well on the plastic. Also you can try alcohol based Copic markers but I don’t know how well they hold up over time…they’re not all lightfast. I do hold some hope out for acrylic based markers that are now coming on the market but I’ve not tried them yet.
The people at hobby stores, bless them they mean well, but they don’t always know the particulars of polymer clay. I hope this helps. Feel free to email and ask more questions if you need. There are also many great sources of information on Facebook groups and forums such as Polymer Clay Central. Good luck!
But at the end of the day, it’s still a Sharpie. I’m confused, lol sorry.
Me too! Not sure what you’re referring to here? Sharpie doesn’t work well as a marker on polymer clay because it fades over time. Someone was suggesting using Sharpie guts as a substitute for alcohol ink. Which might work, but it might also fade. I don’t know. I DO know that it does fade when used as a marker. See here: http://thebluebottletree.com/pens-to-use-on-polymer-clay/. Scroll to the bottom to see how Sharpie fades over time.
Didn’t know about nail polish or sharpies. Hadn’t thought to use white scrap clay for clean up. Thanks so much.
I didn’t know about the nail polish or the Sharpie. Thanks, Ginger, for sharing all those things! I am making some stuff for a Vacation Bible School and since I am not at home and don’t have my glaze I was going to use nail polish! That would have been terrible!
Oh no! That would have been bad! So glad you read this, then. A good glaze to use would be “Pledge with Future Shine“. Polymer clay artists have been using it for decades. It’s water soluble, won’t ruin the kid’s clothes, and you can buy it in any grocery or discount store.
Reading that reminded me of another tip I’m not sure about, maybe you can help. I heard if u use a flat piece of black polymer and cover the top of a DVD r or the ones to download pics. Then paint on a coat of future acrylic floor shine, it will lift off just the film of rainbow that they have onto the black clay. I’m sorry for missing a few steps (which I have on my pintrest). My problem is that I have been trying to find the future acrylic floor shine for a few months. Any advice, I would love to try it.
There’s definitely something lost in the translation here. The technique about the DVD is here: http://kreativ.fimotic.com/?page_id=3620. There are other, similar, tutorials. The idea is that you can lift the shiny foil layer of rewriteable CD’s and use it on polymer clay. A FAR easier method is to just use a sheet of metal leaf. Or even the kind of foil that’s used for making t-shirts. Once you apply the foil to the polymer clay, you can color it with alcohol inks to get the neat colors. After baking you can seal with any sealer.
The thing about the Future acrylic floor finish is that it’s a shiny varnish that was really popular with polymer clay artists long ago when we all had vinyl no-wax floors in our kitchens and everyone had a bottle of Future on hand. It’s still a nice, easy, glossy finish. But it’s not terribly durable and if you’re going to go out and buy a new bottle of something, there are better sealers than Future. You can read more about sealers in my article here. I do prefer to use Varathane. There’s nothing magical about Future that makes this CD foil idea work any better.
It isn’ called Future anymore. Johnson’s bought it out & and the clear floor polish is called Pledge All-Purpose. Don’t get the one for just wood floors, get All-Purpose.
I did know that, I’ll try to change if I still call it Future anywhere. Though, I do want people to understand that old references to Future do mean the same product. I have such a large bottle of Future that I’ll never use it up, so to me it will always be Future.
I see this post is from so long ago, but I have a question. What if already has been sprayed or used nail polish is a way to get the clay less sticky. Or to cover to seal it?
If it’s only a tiny bit sticky, you can paint over it with Varathane to get a nice finish. But if it’s really goopy, then you’ll need to remove the sticky varnish. Try using isopropyl alcohol. It will likely dissolve the varnish, but also any paint on the surface. If it’s nail polish, you’ll need to remove that using nail polish remover. Which, unfortunately, will also dissolve the polymer clay.
If your hands can’t stand the thought of an alcohol based sanitizer to wipe stuff off (or get the process started) use a hand lotion such as vaseline. Work it in well, wipe off with a paper towel then wash like normal. I live in a dry climate and by the start of winter my hands are a wreck from washing and regular use.
And all good tips to use! I knew these but it took me a while to figure them out, generally by trial and error.
Thanks Elaine, that’s a great tip to add. I’ve got lotion in my studio, right next to the hand sanitizer in fact, but I’d not thought of using it that way. I’ll have to do that when the old skin start to complain.
I’m very new to using clay, so I needed all of the great tips. I read that u can also use plain un-scented baby wipes to clean machine/hands etc. Is this a good tip?
No need to stick with unscented…if you prefer scented, go for it. But yes, baby wipes are a fantastic product to use with polymer clay. I even wrote a whole article about it here, in fact.
I’d never heard of Sharpies being incompatible!! Thank you for sharing!!
Excellent list of things very interesting for the work with polymerclay.
Thanks you by share^^
Thank you so very much for the share!
I remember you recently had mentioned using a pizza stone in the oven to moderate and hold the oven temperature more constant. Seems like a good hint.
One of these days I’ll have to stop reading your excellent writing and actually try some polymer clay work!
I said that? I must be smarter than I remember because that’s a great tip! I have heard of people leaving the stone in their oven all the time because it helps hold the heat and act like a buffer. And yes, you might have to start playing with clay. It’s soooo addictive.
SO ADDICTIVE!! 🙂
I had a LOT of 6 inch tiles left over from a reno project so I put 4 tiles on the wire rack of the convection oven in my studio. It helps hold the temperature and gives me a more consistent cure.
Excellent! Thanks so much for sharing these super hints!
Hey, these are great! Thank you! I had no idea about Sharpie; I do indeed have tutorials saying to use it. Thank you for that warning!
The only one I didn’t know was the Sharpie marker! Although I don’t use Sharpies on clay I was surprised since I’ve seen it mentioned in some tutorials.
Thanks for all these tips, really clearly written, did know some, but not all. Most surprised by the Sharpie issue.
Can I mention a tip I was given, regarding number 10: Condition with the fold to the side. With the fold to the bottom it is still possible to trap air inside the fold, unless time is spent getting a good crease along the fold. This obviously wont work for techniques like Skinner blends or mica shift, where it is important to condition in one direction. When doing these use the good crease option.
Yup, sideways works too. Before I heard this I used to just wad up the clay and shove it back into the top of the pasta machine. And I had a LOT of bubbles. Once I became aware of the problem it was easy to fix.
I agree with the fold on the side and even more so after taking a class with Maggie Maggio. She recommends turning your clay one quarter each time when conditioning and always, always, always condition with the fold to the side. Her reasoning on this was that it is like plywood. When you condition in one direction, then turn and condition in the other direction, you line up the molecules in opposition which gives it more strength. Makes sense to me and unless I am doing a skinner blend, this is what I do.
What if we don’t use a past machine? I make thicker jewelry and the machine gets it too thin. How do I eliminate bubbles by hand rolling it?
Thanks for all the great information. I will use ever tip for sure 😉
Just make sure that when you’re rolling the clay, you fold it carefully so that no bubbles are trapped between the layers. If you see a bubble in the clay, you can slice into it with your blade, let the air out, and then seal it back shut.
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