As you probably know, there are many brands of polymer clay, and each one has slightly different characteristics that make it a favorite for people wanting to achieve a specific result. Cernit is a brand of polymer clay, produced in Belgium, that is very popular with European and Russian polymer clay artists. So many talented people are getting such good results with Cernit that it makes us wonder what is so different about it.
I received generous samples of Cernit clay from two suppliers here in the United States (Marina Taenkova of Marka Decor Craft and Marie Segal of Clay Factory, Inc.) and have been busily claying away, trying many techniques and exploring all the ways that make Cernit polymer clay different from (or similar to) other brands. Here’s my review of Cernit polymer clay. Because there’s so much to say and discuss, this article’s pretty long. So if you’re interested in a specific topic, use these links to help you find what you’re looking for.
Topics
- A First Look at Cernit
- How Does Cernit Change During Baking?
- What Colors Does Cernit Come In?
- Caning with Cernit
- Mica Shift with Cernit
- Using Surface Treatments
- How Strong is Cernit?
- Is Cernit Good for Sculpting?
- Where Can I Buy Cernit?
- Summary and Recommendation
A First Look at Cernit
Cernit polymer clay is, in general, just like any other brand of polymer clay. It comes in a bar, is a putty-like dough that you work with to create something, you can cure it in the oven, and you can carve, sand, drill, and paint it after baking. You can mix Cernit with any other brand of polymer clay, and you can use it for all the techniques you’re used to using when you create, such as extruding, mokume gane, caning, using texture sheets, etc. So it’s more similar than it is different from the brands you’re already familiar with.
Cernit comes in 56g (roughly the same as 2oz) package and some colors also come in larger 500g (just over one lb) packages. The blocks come with a plastic package that’s heat-sealed on each end like a candy bar, so the packages are air-tight. (Note: Cernit used to come in a 62g package, but this was changed several years ago. Any packages of that size are quite old.)
When you open the package, Cernit looks very similar to any other brand of polymer clay. Once you slice off some of the clay and start working with it, you’ll notice that some colors are firmer than others. This could be due to age (more popular colors such as black and white are always newer due to faster turnover), or it could just be that some colors are more soft. (This is true with many clay brands, by the way.) In most cases, I found that a slice of the clay would go through the pasta machine with little to no crumbling and flaking. The clay conditions easily and responds very well to the heat of your hands, soon becoming very smooth and workable.
Once conditioned, Cernit is quite stretchy in your hands and works well for die forming and other techniques where the stretching of the clay is important. The clay isn’t waxy like Kato and isn’t chalky and sticky like Fimo Professional. But it is a bit sticky and can stick to your fingers when it gets too warm. It does have a good balance of sticking to itself (making construction easy) but not TOO good at sticking to itself. You can usually peel apart clay that you’ve stuck together if you change your mind (not true for the translucent and metallic lines). Cernit does not leave much of a residue on your hands, but you will still want to wipe your hands with a baby wipe when you change to a lighter color or after you’ve been using red.
If you find that the Cernit is getting too droopy and soft or sticky while working with it, leave it to sit for a few minutes. Temperature makes a huge impact on this clay, so it would be an excellent one to use if you have cold hands or live in a cold climate.
How Does Cernit Change During Baking?
After baking, you’ll find that Cernit has many of the same frustrations as any other clay. You’ll still see fingerprints, “the bumpies”, and, if you’re using translucent, plaques. Cernit does bake with a slight sheen, quite similar to that of Fimo Professional.
Cernit Has a Porcelain Quality
Many people say that Cernit has a porcelain quality after baking. What does that mean? It’s not hard like a porcelain teacup and it’s not matte like fired clay. But it is rather translucent. If you hold any baked color of Cernit up to the light, you’ll be able to see a glow of light coming through it. This means that baked Cernit polymer clay will have a luminous quality, rather than a chalky one like Fimo, Souffle, or Sculpey III.
Years ago, Cernit DID have a porcelain quality because many of the colors contained at least 50% translucent. But that has changed. Now the Cernit Number One line is normal opaque polymer clay (not really all that translucent). There is a separate line called Opaline, that is partially translucent. So if someone tells you that Cernit is porcelain-like, they haven’t checked on things lately.
Cernit Can Change Color During Baking
One of the most challenging aspects of working with Cernit is that it can sometimes change color during baking. This is because the clay doesn’t use opaque or chalky fillers and therefore has a slightly translucent base. Translucent clays, by their very nature, turn less white during baking, resulting in a darker color. So this means that many of the colors of Cernit will have a noticeable shift in color after baking. I found that it was a good idea to create a baked color swatch of each color so that I knew what was going to happen during baking and could design my piece accordingly.
This color shift feature of Cernit can be frustrating when you use it for caning because colors that seem good together when raw will darken during baking and can give you a dark, dull, and uninteresting cane that you don’t expect. Just make sure that your cane is designed with this color darkening in mind.
Color Ranges in the Cernit Line
Cernit has several ranges of colors in its brand. Each has slightly different characteristics and will be used in different ways.
Number One
This is the main color line of Cernit. There is an impressive array of colors that includes white, black, neutrals, primaries, and lots of lovely colors. Cernit’s Number One range is far more opaque than the Opaline range.
Cernit Opaline
Previously, Cernit’s Number One line was separated with some colors being 100% Opacity and others labelled as 50% Opacity. They’ve now separated out these 50% translucent colors and they’re called Cernit Opaline.
Cernit Metallic
Richly metallic, full of mica, and available in 21 colors, Cernit Metallic is luscious and beautiful. It doesn’t seem to change color during baking. You can read my extensive review of this interesting clay here.
Cernit Shiny
Note: Cernit Shiny was discontinued in 2020. While Cernit Metallic is mainly the gold, silver, and copper colors, their jewel colored pearlescent clays are what you’ll find in the Cernit Shiny line. They contain colored micas, not just gold, silver, or pearl mica colors.
Glamour
Note: Cernit Glamour was discontinued in 2020. This is the range of pearlescent. Unlike the pearl and colors in other brands of clay, these clays have a more subtle shimmer that comes from a finer mica particle size.
Cernit Pearl
Released in September of 2021, Cernit Pearl is a line of seven colors of very sparkly, shimmery polymer clay. Replacing the Glamour line, this clay line has an intense large flake mica with lots of sparkle. It’s more intense and “blingy” than the metallic line, but without the chunky appearance of the glitter clays that other lines have. There’s nothing else like this clay out there right now. You can read my review and overview of Cernit Pearl here.
Neon Light
These fluorescent colors of Cernit are in Day-Glo colors that glow brightly under UV (black) light. Aside from translucent white, these are the only colors of Cernit that include fluorescent dyes or pigments. The Neon Light colors must have a fairly translucent base because they all darken considerably during baking.
Translucent
The Cernit Translucent range are colored translucent clay. These clays have no opaque binders in them so they bake very clear. The colors are very intense, far more than other brands of colored translucent clay. In many cases, you’d want to mix these intense colors with plain white translucent to get the best see-through effect. The Cernit Translucent colors make a great colorant for other brands of translucent clay, such as Pardo or Premo. You can read much more about these and other brands of colored translucent clays here.
Cernit white translucent is quite white (non-colored) and is one of the clearest translucent clays that there is, certainly a rival of Premo but without the tan color. I still do find, however, that Pardo translucent is clearer than Cernit. Curious how Cernit translucent compares to Pardo translucent? Read my article here.
Nature
Similar to Sculpey’s Granitex line, the Cernit Nature colors have two kinds of particles. One is a hexagonal black flake, very similar to glitter (but not shiny). The other is tiny short pieces of fine fiber that remind me of flocking. The Nature colors are designed to look like stone. These little fibers and flecks do mean the clay won’t cut cleanly. In fact, when you use a blade with this clay, the fibers collect on the blade and if you’re not careful, these bunches of fibers can end up on your clay as lines or streaks.
Cernit Doll
Just as Fimo and PVClay have a range of doll clays in their offerings, so does Cernit. I didn’t get a chance to review it, but I expect it would be fairly similar to the rest of the Cernit line. And unlike Super Sculpey, Cernit Doll comes in 8 varied flesh colors.
Can You Cane with Cernit?
Well, technically, you can cane with any polymer clay. 😉 But does Cernit give a good result when you cane with it? I found that it was pretty easy to cane with Cernit. The clay isn’t too sticky, so I was able to rearrange sections as I built my cane. I followed a tutorial I found online (And I won’t link to it here because it was impossible to follow and the photos were incorrect. I swore a lot when trying to follow the instructions.) But even with all the messing around and false starts, I was able to get a tolerable kaleidoscope cane. The softness of the clay was working against me in trying to get precise angles to line up. Also, since Cernit can be pretty soft, make sure that you give it a good, long rest before you slice it.
There’s another reason why caning with Cernit can be a bit blurry, and that is the translucent colors. Because translucent clay allows color from adjacent sections to show through, you can sometimes get a blurred visual effect, making it look like there’s not a clear distinction between the colors. For the sharpest visual effect, design your cane to have strong contrasts and use the 100% opaque colors.
Because of the softness and the color blurring, I think Cernit will be best for more organic canes where the cane slices will be manipulated, such as when you make flowers with them, or in the style of Teresa Salgado‘s “scayning” technique. Cernit isn’t going to work as well as Fimo or Kato for extremely precise or intricate cane designs where exact placement is required.
Mica Shift with Cernit Colors
Cernit Metallic, Cernit Shiny, and discontinued colors of Cernit Glamour all make excellent mica shift effects. Not sure what mica shift is? You can read about it here and see examples of Cernit Metallic mica shift.
The Cernit Glamour Violet (now discontinued) made an equally gorgeous mica shift. However, its effect was just slightly less impressive than the Bronze, but not enough that you can see it in the photos. Again, note that sanding and buffing Cernit can give a tremendous high-gloss shine. Nope, no varnish was used here. And yes, these are completely flat and smooth as silk.
Using Surface Treatments with Cernit
Cernit accepts paints, silk screening, alcohol inks, chalks, and varnish just as well as any other brand of polymer clay. I had a grand time playing with several things, including my Rustic Beads technique and my Faux Glass Effects process. One unusual thing about Cernit (as well as Fimo and Pardo) is that they can be damaged by water when raw. So be aware that using water as a mold release can lead to the clay getting sticky if you leave it on for very long.
How Strong is Cernit Polymer Clay?
It’s really hard to say that Cernit is the strongest brand of polymer clay because there are many ways to assess the strength of a material. But it’s certainly one of the strongest. I compared Cernit to Premo, Kato, Sculpey III, and Fimo Professional in three tests. I made sticks, which I tested for flex and breakage. I made balls, which I smashed with a hammer. And I made thin strips, which I tried to pull apart and also tested for strength on the fold. In all almost all cases, Cernit was as strong as or stronger than any other brand.
Is Cernit Good for Sculpting?
Sculpting is a word that can mean so many things from cute little kawaii charms made by hand to incredibly intricate sculpting done with tools. Cernit is known for being excellent in the kind of sculpting where you have lots of blending and things are shaped by hand, such as Marina’s flower bracelet I showed above. While the clay can hold fine detail, it does droop easily and that makes it frustrating if you need a complex shape to hold while you’re working on other parts of it.
Here’s another set of flowers I sculpted using Rusalina’s excellent YouTube tutorial. The blue ones are made from Cernit, the white one is made from Fimo Professional, and the light violet one is from Premo. All three clays are strong enough for this technique. But Cernit did work the best. I found the Fimo to be too sticky and the scissors kept sticking.
One thing that Cernit does very well is to form folded sheets. I made this brooch using the FanFolding techniques in Helen Breil’s incredibly excellent tutorial ebook. As you can see, the clay is flexible and can take tight curves and folds without cracking, and it also accepts the mica powder beautifully.
Where Can I Buy Cernit?
In the US, go to Poly Clay Play, Clay Factory, Inc., Blueberry Beads, Cool Tools, and Prairie Craft.
In Canada, check with Shades of Clay.
In the EU, go for Hobbyrian in Sweden, PolyStudio in France, and Happy Things in The Netherlands.
In the UK, you can get Cernit from Clayaround and Clayground.
In Australia, you’ll want to check 2Wards Polymer Clay.
If you have a favorite Cernit supplier, please let us know in the comments. What works in one country doesn’t always work for another, and the more options the better. Thanks!
Summary and Recommendations
Cernit polymer clay, which is made in Belgium, is a high quality, professional clay that I am happy to recommend. Here are the highlights.
- Number One range is an excellent all-purpose brand of polymer clay
- Cernit Opaline is a half-translucent line of colors
- Wide range of 80+ colors including translucent, pearl, metallic, stone, neon, and doll
- Translucent is very, very clear and comes in several bright, saturated colors
- Easy to work with, soft, smooth, stretchy when raw
- Can become sticky when overworked, let it rest a few minutes
- Temperature-sensitive so not great for those in hot climates and with hot hands
- Can be extruded, sculpted, shaped like any other polymer clay
- Not the best for precise caning, but does make nice “sculptural” canes
- Very strong and flexible after baking
- Takes paints, surface treatments, and varnish well
- Sands and buffs beautifully
- Beautiful, dark mica shift is possible
- High quality, professional clay that is good for almost any technique
- Best purchased by mail order
- Older packages might be hard, crumbly – order from a reputable supplier
- Best for: All-around clay work, jewelry, hand sculpting
- All in all, Cernit is one of the best polymer clays out there!
Credits: Many thanks to Marina Taenkova of Marka Decor, Marie Segal of Clay Factory, Tonja Lenderman of Tonja’s Treasures, and Christina Butler of Poly-Tools for providing materials used in preparing this review. I’m honored to be able to help get the word out to all of you about products like this.
Email is the best way
to get updates
You will LOVE getting this email, which is packed full of polymer clay goodness. About once or twice a month.
60 thoughts on “Review of Cernit Polymer Clay”
This is a very informative and interesting article. I enjoyed reading it as I’m currently looking for a new clay to work with. Thank you. I like that it is one on the most strongest clays you have used. It is good to know that it has such a wide range of colours. I’m interested in trying this as I am looking for a new polymer clay. I normally use fimo but have found out it has animal by products in it so have seised using it. Do you know whether cernit is tested on animals or has animal by products in?
Actually, yes, I have recently heard that the Cernit company does not use animal products in their clay.
Hello from Brunei Darussalam, I’m guessing not many known to where my country is but it’s in Borneo island of South East Asia.
anyways,
thank you for the wonderful review Ginger, towards Cernit clay, I have ordered some recently and currently waiting for it to be delivered in my country. I am looking forward to play around with Cernit clay and keeping the review in my mind
I know where Brunei is! Welcome to the world of polymer clay. Enjoy!
Hi, I got my order already. awesome clay at first, but it took a month to wait for its arrival at the post office and the clay were all hard and crumbly. shipped all the way from UK, expensive shipping though. I tried conditioning by warming in my hands or putting it next to a warm device but that didn’t work at all so I had to condition it all by putting it into the grinder and add bit of oil. In Brunei, no cernit or any other polymer clay brands or any air dry clay brands available as there’s not many are interested to supply it so it’s a pity. I’m still looking for suppliers that are close to Brunei and can get fresh cernit clay.
please let me know if there’s any suppliers close by.
Hello
Thank you for this report.
I’m living in Iran and I can’t find this polymer clay or anything like that in our country because of sanctions against Iran companies don’t like to work in our country so doll makers don’t know this clay or they buy it for themselves from another countries.can you guide me how can I get some cernit?
I’m sorry Fatima, I don’t have any resources that would be helpful. Perhaps you can order from a company in another country and have it shipped to Iran? Many people who live in countries with restrictions like this have to resort to using friends to bring supplies when they travel. Good luck, I hope you can find some.
Can I ask you some question?
I mixed cernit transparent color with same cernit but after baking surface has so many tiny bubbles….
I had expected neat and clean surface like fimo translatent.
actually cernit small bubble dots(?) are not offensive in normal. but When I see it closer its surface I can’t bear it.. what is problem.. I had tried so many bakings and temperature manipulations.
My cernit may be old ver because It made in Germany. Doesn’t your cernit have same problem?
I didn’t notice the Cernit having very many bubbles on the baked surface. ALL brands of clay can sometimes have bubbles inside, and you can see them with translucent, especially in thick pieces. These are called “plaques”. But they’re under the surface, not on the top. It sounds like you might want to try a new package and see if you have better results.
For cernit in Australia Over the Rainbow stocks it and are lovely to do business with!
I personally don’t like Cerenit because It’s too hard and crumbly. also their white color turns translucent after baking but they don’t say that on package so I once ruined my sculpture because of that.
I’ve never noticed Cernit being crumbly unless it’s old. But that’s true for Fimo and Premo, too. As for the white being translucent, they now have two whites. One is opaque, the other is 50% translucent. So if you note which one you have, you’ll be okay. But I do agree that the color change during baking is a real challenge for Cernit users. It’s the one clay I think having color swatches and doing test bakes would help immensely.
What an excellent review – what withour crazy house move, I’ve only just had chance to read it. I had no idea until we talked that Cernit DOES now work for mica shift! (But gee thanks – now i have to update all the Cernit Glamour product write-ups in my store, lol). Thank you also for sharing that EJR Beads stocks Cernit and can supply worldwide.
Thank you all for your kind comments! I really enjoyed working on this review. Cernit’s a good clay and it was a bit disappointing to have to stop playing and get on with the business of taking the photos and writing the article. No problem, though, the clay’s all safely tucked away in a box and I’m sure I’ll have a chance to pull it out again soon and play.
Hello Ginger 🙂
I loved your report on Cernit I love their clay for their nature selection which I use for my minutures 🙂
I was lucky enough to have signed up with Donner Kato’s tutorial website and found a lady who after some experimenting solved the problem of brackage with the clays and the trick was with the translucent clays she mixed Kato and sculpy together and then added a small percentage of this mix to her coloured clays 🙂 now I have started to do this I have not had a problem with any prackages since 🙂
I have added the line and name if your interested in the method 🙂 http://www.craftartedu.com/
The tutorial I found on the translucent clay mix was one of the free tutorials 🙂 it was called Strenthing Fragile work with Nicole Taylor 🙂
Thanks Ginger for another great review of a product. As usual, your review is appreciated and again I want to say thank you for being so generous in sharing all your knowledge with us. Bravo!! Want to get some Cernit now!
Great review Ginger, as always full of information.
I have the Cernit translucent, Cernit Neon and the Glamour range in the shop.
For sure I am going to order all the other ranges……
You can see my shop here at http://www.happythings.eu.
Thank you for the super detailed review Ginger! I have to get my hands on some of that mica clay, looks yummy, especially that bronze. I’m curious, would I be able layer Cernit and Premo for a mokume gane stack? Would it move similarly?
I ordered a bunch of Cernit translucent from Clay Factory a while ago and ran through it pretty quickly. I found it far easier to use than Pardo, it was pretty translucent and I didn’t have any issues with plaques. That was during the summer though, I wonder if I’d get different results now.
Actually, yes, I think that Cernit and Premo would move similarly in a stack. They have a similar softness. But it would depend on the color, and the age of the clay, of course. I’ve not tried it, but there’s no reason to expect an issue.
Thank you Ginger. You do such great work on your reviews. I found this one to be no different.
Once again, you’ve done a fabulous job of providing us with great information. I love Cernit and have found that burying it in a bowl of corn starch will keep the colors true.
Thanks for your super blog and for all the work you do!!
Hello.
For Holland. Belgium you can use the suplier http://Www.cheapestclay.com. http://Www.goedkoopsteklei.nl
The also have wholesale for the European countries
Hi Bram! I am a customer of http://www.goedkoopsteklei.nl. I usually buy my clay here- it is the best store I know! So…you beat me in naming your store..;)..! They have good products, good service and good prices! Greetings, M. Roos
Thank you Ginger for this excellent report! I have started using Cernit lately since i found a swiss site that sells it very cheap. Actually, quite a bit cheaper than Fimo, which is the most common brand here in Switzerland. I haven’t aeen it in stores though. The website is www. Gerstacker.ch it is actually an art supply online shop.
I’ve been waiting for the review on this one; and you covered it with your usual thoroughness, Ginger. Thank you so much! Cernit Translucents are on my wish list now.
Thanks so much Ginger for taking the time to experiment and write this wonderful review. As usual, you were thorough in your testing and your evaluations were concise and easy to understand. Sounds like Cernit is going to be on my wish list for future projects!
Thank you Ginger for this helpful review about Cernit: really useful, clear and complete!
Great article, Ginger! I’ve wondered about Cernit, but as you noted, it’s a bit scarce here in the US. Thank you for sharing the supplier links. Cernit is now on my never-ending list of ‘must try’s”.
Thank you for another of your thorough research projects. I greatly appreciate the time you spend on these – and your willingness to share!
Wonderful review, I learned a great deal. Thank you Ginger!
30 years ago I picked up 3 packages of Cernit that started my love of polymer clay. I still have pieces made then with cernit. I have used many brands over the years but I still love cernit for specific projects.
Ohhhh. Seems like such a great clay. A pity they aren’t available here in Singapore, but I will definitely order some online. Those mica shifts are gorgeous. Thank you so much for taking your time to put up such a thorough article.
Cernit was the first polymer clay that I used in the late eighties. Although I don’t do much polymer clay work now, I still love the Cernit flesh colors the best for sculpting people. It gives a translucency to the flesh that is unmatched by any other polymer clay that I have used. I know there are new clays out, but have not tried them. I
n my opinion though, Cernit is not the easiest for sculpting as it does not have the smudge factor unless it is warm (and then it is hard to hold its shape) that makes it easy to get rid of seams or to sculpt. Still the final result is worth all the work. If working with Cernit as the first clay, then there is a learning curve to switch to a different brand. I could not do without Premo for overall use, Kato for having a final color that I can count on after curing, Fimo for caning and Cernit for sculpting humans. I will try to find some photos of people I have sculpted with Cernit and send them to you.
I love your blog. Thank you for all the information and work that you do. Makes me want to do some claying.
I think the formula of Cernit has changed dramatically in recent years because much of what I’ve read about it, especially the smudge factor issue, doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore. In fact, I found that it didn’t behave a whole lot differently than other clays. I mean sure, they all have their own feel and “body” to them, but really, Cernit was remarkably easy to work with. I didn’t have any trouble making seams go away.
That is good to know. Will have to get fresh Cernit to try again. If in fact, it has the smudge factor and it still has the translucency, then it has to be the best for sculpting people.
Comments are closed.