You’re fairly new to polymer clay and loving it! You’ve carefully sculpted and created some beautiful creatures and set them into the oven to bake. You set the timer and come back to find that your creations have melted, cracked, drooped, and/or oozed oil. What happened?
You’ve asked online and everyone starts talking about the oven temperature. You’re pretty sure it was correct. They ask what brand you used. You’re not really sure because you bought your clay based on the pretty colors, not the brand. But you know there’s some Sculpey and Premo in there. Was the clay old? Was the oven incorrect? Is it normal for polymer clay to melt? Should you bake longer? What happened to cause the melted polymer clay in your baking tray?
Polymer Clay Melted – Not.
Well, it’s easy to assume that the problem is your polymer clay melted. But what if it wasn’t polymer clay?
Oops! No, polymer clay does not melt. But plasticine modeling clay does. If your clay melted in the oven, it was a type of modeling clay, also known as plasticine or plastalina. And you might be surprised to know that this is a very common mistake. Sometimes this happens because you pick up a bar of modeling clay along with your polymer clay. Other times it happens because you get some clay from someone else and assume it was polymer clay, but it was actually plasticine. They’re very different types of clay!
Polymer Clay vs. Plasticine
Polymer clay is an oven-hardening art clay made from PVC (vinyl), plasticizer, pigments, fillers (like kaolin) and a touch of oils. It gets slightly softer as it warms up but begins to solidify and harden when it reaches about 130°F (55°C). Polymer clay doesn’t melt or get runny the way that wax or oil does. Heat makes polymer clay turn into a solid.
Plasticine is a modeling clay made from wax, pigments, fillers (like kaolin), and a lot of oils. It is hardest at room temperature and never becomes solid. It will melt in the heat.
Mistaken Identity!
Polymer clay and plasticine feel very similar. They’re both brightly colored blocks of putty that feel sort of waxy and oily when you squeeze them in your hand. They both soften with the heat of your hands and get softer and smoother as you work with them. Both polymer clay and plasticine are used for sculpting, but only polymer clay can be hardened to create lasting objects. Plasticine is often used in the animation industry for stop-motion animation (claymation). It’s also used as a “first” sculpture when making lost wax or other multi-stage casting techniques. And, of course, plasticine is the modeling clay that we all learned to use as children in primary school.
If you set a block of polymer clay or plasticine in front of someone who had never worked with either, they’d be hard-pressed to know which they were holding. At room temperature, polymer clay and plasticine feel very much the same.
Store Displays
But how could you make this mistake at the store? Isn’t polymer clay labeled? Yes, it is. But you’d be amazed at how easy this mistake is to make. Here’s the clay display at my local craft store. I’ve labeled the sections in the photo. If you were totally new to polymer clay and didn’t yet know the brands, how would you know which of those brightly colored clays were polymer and which were plasticine? They’re right next to each other and sort of intermingled.
To make matters even worse, sometimes polymer clay and modeling clay come in packages that look almost the same. Here you’ll see multi-packs by VanAken International of plasticine and polymer clay.
When Kato Polyclay first came out back in 2002, it came in a 3oz block with the same smiley face on it. Yes, they wisely changed that packaging quite quickly!
No-Name Brands
Another accidental source of plasticine is cheap, no-name “polymer clay” that is found in dollar stores or online marketplaces like ebay or Amazon. Many times the listing information or the labeling is not terribly accurate and you’re not exactly sure which you have. In general, this stuff doesn’t make very good polymer clay, so it’s usually best to stick with name brands.
Need baking help?
Learn about the right temperature, times ovens, and baking setups to ensure optimal results. No more broken or scorched projects!
What Happens When You Bake Plasticine?
When you assume you have polymer clay, but instead have plasticine, and then bake it in the oven, it will melt. The oil oozes out of the clay and drips down into a puddle. The shape softens and slumps and cracks might appear on the surface. If you try to move the item while it’s still hot, the melted clay will smear and run.
If you’ve mixed polymer clay and plasticine in the same project, you’ll have bits of cured polymer clay along with melted plasticine. While it’s still hot, the plasticine part will be soft like frosting. But after it’s cooled, it will feel like it’s unbaked (but more crumbly).
Here’s what happened when I twisted plasticine (purple) with polymer clay (blue) and baked it. Notice the oil spot on the paper underneath.
Don’t do this intentionally. The smell is terrible and I have no idea if it’s safe or not. Plasticine is not meant to be baked.
Mixing Plasticine with Polymer Clay
Interestingly, when I mixed 25% plasticine with 75% polymer clay, they blended together nicely. Both clays contain some of the same ingredients and will therefore mix easily. This is one of the reasons it’s so common for this mistaken identity to happen. You could accidentally mix colors with plasticine and polymer clay and be unaware that you’d done it.
And even more interestingly, when I cured the piece made from that mixture, it baked up hard as can be. It didn’t melt. It did, however, have a slight oil spot on the paper and had some mid-sized cracks. I’ve encountered someone on a group who advocated for using inexpensive plasticine to color polymer clay. I don’t recommend doing this, but it is technically possible.
How to Know Which You Have
Let’s say you have some unlabeled clay and you’re not sure if it’s polymer clay or plasticine. How can you tell the difference? The easiest way to know for sure is to heat it up. Take a pea-sized amount, lay it on a sheet of paper on a baking tray, and put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 275°F (135°C). Stay close and watch it and take it out if you see smoking or anything awful like that. Now poke it with a popsicle stick or something disposable. Polymer clay will be hard(ish). But plasticine will be soft like butter and you can smear it easily like butter on hot toast.
Tell me your story. Have you ever accidentally baked plasticine, assuming it was polymer clay? Have you ever had melted polymer clay and didn’t know what went wrong? Tell me in the comments below!
Email is the best way
to get updates
You will LOVE getting this email, which is packed full of polymer clay goodness. About once a week.
35 thoughts on “Help! My polymer clay melted!”
so then what do they use sculpey clay for seems to me its useless
Thank you! I couldn’t imagine what happened to my pieces in the oven. But they did exactly what you said. The paper was oily and when I took them out they were funny. I had mixed 2 colors of the plastics stuff in with my regular polymer clay. They seem to be hardened now that they are cool. Will these retain there shape? I use UV resin to seal them??
There are so many variables, it’s hard for me to say. Give it a try and see what happens.
I ran in my local craft store the other day and grabbed a multi pack of what I thought was polymer. Made tiny gnomes with it using the new colors and old colors I have and when I baked them they were puddles with hats and one beard left ♀️ my poor little guys. I had no idea what happened but this HAS to be it. Oh well… back to the sculpting block.
Oh no! I’m sorry! Glad you found out what the problem was, though. Good luck!
I have had something strange happen and I cannot understand why. I made my friend a pair of earrings using a mix of different branded polymers.
Reading through your suggestions about plasticine, I thought maybe I might have some of that in my supply that I mixed but when baked in the oven, they hardened and did not leave an oily spot.
My friend has reported to me that she accidentally left them in her car (not even in summer) and they melted?
I’m concerned because I do not understand how they can bake in an oven at a slightly higher temperature than recommended and not ‘melt’ but become misshapen when left in a lower temperature car.
Do you have any suggestions?
Polymer clay will melt, such as melting into a puddle like a Dali painting. But they absolutely will soften and might warp. If they were left in a hot car and put under pressure (like if something was resting on them) and then let cool, they will warp. It’s easily remedied. Just heat them up again, straight them out, and hold in that position until cool.
Well then, the packaging is wrong. I bought Kato polymerclay from Prairie Crafts and it melted at 260 degrees. Melted then rehardened with a beautiful shiny finish. Now I’m afraid to bake anymore. Possibly, something wrong with the oven but definitely melted.
Did you get in contact with Prairie Craft? The same factory that makes Kato makes ClayToons, so it’s not inconceivable that there could be an issue. If so, they need to know about it!
I’m brand new to clay. I was given a box of clay that was clearly marked as plastic one, so I googled it to see if it was oven-hardening. I found an article that said it was and gave the temp and time. I created a beautiful rose and carefully placed it in the oven at 275° for 15 min. Well, 15min later I had a puddle of grayish frosting in my pan. The mistake I made was googling the name brand, not realizing that there were multiple types of clay by the same brand name. Oh well, back to the starting block. (Pun intended)
I was thinking about using some sculpey baking clay while I am working in my forge, to help with creating some molds for my foundry. I have used sculpey clay before for small and fun projects so I know how it works. But when melting metal like bronze there is a very high heat index that comes with it. Would the sculpey clay melt, if I was to pour molten metal on it in order to make a cast of an item?
Polymer clay is vinyl plastic and it will burn at approx 350°F. So no, it won’t work for you.
Is there any way to “harden” plastince clay?
Not that I’m aware of.
I have had fimo soft melt in the oven. It did not keep its shape. I made a shape like the bottom part from the candy dispensers, the one the jar sits on top of, and the bottom melted, widened, also the top part slanted, did not stay horizontal. Also fimo leather effect melted, the bottom part that was sitting on the tray, it was shaped as the covers of books. What could the problem be?
It’s very normal for clay to droop when it’s unsupported during the baking process. That’s not the same thing as melting. Also, when polymer clay is too soft before you make something, it will droop and sort of flow and conform to surfaces. That’s not optimal. Always leach your clay if it’s too soft.
Thank you so much for your answet. How do I leach the clay? What can I use for supporting the clay in the oven to keep its shape and to be easily removed after baking?
I have had sculpey original oven bake clay melt, it has only happened once. I made about 25-30 little clay figures all from the same brick of clay then baked them as directed. I use a lot of oven bake clay so this was not my first time using it by far. My timer went off and I pulled out my figures and three of them had melted the rest were fine. Once the goo cooled it seemed to go back to normal. Again this has only happened once and was quite bizarre.
so, I tried to bake my daughter’s sculpture (birthday present for daddy tomorrow!) it melted in the oven…. how do I clean the oven?????? HELP!
Whatever clay I had in a hobby draw melted in the whole draw. How can I remove the clay and continue to use the draw?
If the drawer was made of plastic, it could have been melted by coming in contact with the polymer clay. If this is the case, pull/scrape out the clay and the drawer will be permanently ruined. There is nothing you can do. When buying storage drawers for polymer clay, make sure that the drawer is made from a clay-safe plastic. Drawers made of the hard, brittle, clear plastic called styrene will melt. You cannot use clear plastic drawers to store polymer clay. Learn more here: Does Polymer Clay Melt Plastic?
So what does it mean when I used Fimo polymer clay and it did droop and it got stuck to the paper it was sitting on. The only thing I can think is that it was old clay, so I added some baby oil to soften it, which I saw online was a legitimate thing to do. I didn’t overdo it with the oil.
I’m afraid I can’t say for sure without seeing it myself. Fimo does make clays that are not oven-bake. It’s not typical for polymer clay to stick to paper. Drooping can happen, but it’s more like “slouching” than melting. It’s a good idea to support complex shapes during baking, but we use paper for that. Your experience is not typical so I’m not sure what’s going on.
Thankyou. I have used polimers clay alot but never placticine. I bought a box of second hand sculpy with tools from someone who was selling jewelry making supplies.
Made my sculpt. Baked it and my entire house smelt like burned plastic.
Found one of the remaining labels then hit google.
This article was very helpful for me to figure out the issue.
Thanks so much.
Bought a 3-pk of Sculpey III “oven-bake clay” and it totally melts in the oven. I tried it twice .. melts. It doesn’t say plasticine anywhere on the package. I’m so confused. Any advice??
That’s very strange. First, I’m not aware of 3pks of Sculpey III, so that sounds a bit odd. I’d love to see the package. I’ll message you.
I must of used the plasticine clay with the students – the box said polymer but that was obviously incorrect. Really feel for my students a total redo next week-
I’m so sorry. How horrifying for you! It really makes me angry when companies label their products so badly. Sigh. Best of luck next week.
I bought what I thought was polymer clay at a yard sale! I had not previously used polymer clay. So I thought I would try this inexpensive ‘clay’. I made several small items with the ‘product from the yard sale’ and baked it and timed it properly BUT on checking it noticed some parts melted totally some parts baked hard! Total mess!! It was then I realized plasticine and polymer clay may look alike but it is not the same. Lesson learned!!
Nope, I don’t let plasticine over my studio’s doorstep. But I have used a no-name brand of polymer clay that contains way too much plasticizer. As you work with it and it warms up, it starts becoming like bubble gum and loses its shape. Interestingly, if you let your sculpture cool down before baking and insert it into an oven at the correct temperature, it starts curing quickly and doesn’t slump. I don’t take any chances with this clay though – I use it to blend into old clay to improve the texture, or I roll it through the pasta machine between sheets of blotting paper to leech out some of the excess oil before I work with it.
For inexperienced clay sculptors to check whether they are working with polymer clay or plasticine, would it be possible to recommend a sniff test? Plasticine is often fragranced with some kind of sweet perfume or otherwise smells like kindergarten. I can’t describe it better than that. I’ve never come across polymer clay which is perfumed (but I suppose it might exist) and the plasticizer in polymer smells different from plasticine (I can tell the brand by smell).
You bring up a good point, and I’ll add another bit in the article about off-brands that might be mislabeled. No, the sniff test won’t necessarily work. And I want to be clear, plasticine will not be easily confused with polymer clay once it’s heated in the oven! The gooey nature of cheap polymer clay does make the confusion easy before baking, but one it’s hot, you’ll know if it’s plasticine or not!
I have another problem with plasticine Clay, I use it when I’m casting My Sculpture to get rid of the undercuts. How in the world do I get the plasticine out of the grooves of my original sculpture? I’ve been picking picking picking it out for days it looks like it’ll never end. I tried putting it in the refrigerator and now I was looking up if I can put it in the oven but it’s just gonna melt in the grooves and I’ll still have to pick it out. Any suggestions how to get rid of the plastercine in the grooves ?
I work with polymer clay, not plasticine, so there may be better solutions. But since plasticine is soluble in alcohol, that’s the first thing I’d try, assuming that the alcohol doesn’t dissolve your artwork.
Thank you for your insightful article. My son sculpted a Godzilla out of what I thought was Sculpey clay. The only black color was a big block of clay without a brand or instructions. I baked his project according to the Sculpey instructions, and when I went to retrieve it, it was a big melted puddle. Needless to say, I had a very sad boy (lots of tears were shed). The unmarked package must be plasticine. The spikes on his Godzilla were the only part that didn’t melt. I wish I had taken a photo of his creation before it got baked.
I’m so sorry. Please give your son a hug for me. 🙁
Comments are closed.