Tips on Clay
x Good Stuff Index 'Home' Page Shows & Events Links to lots more other great sites Mini world Home Page Contact Us x
Gapoxio® Epoxy Putty Clay Crafty Clay
click here for Gapoxio information
Hint
Conditioning clays is made easy with the use of a pasta machine. Simply cut the blocks in smallish sections and feed each section through the largest pasta machine setting. Repeat 10 times more and your clay should be conditioned.
 
Do not use a pasta machine that is once used for polymer with food products.
FYI
Polymer clay products should remain fresh if properly stored in a cool place,
away from heat and direct sunlight.
Polymer clays can give off fumes during the baking (curing process.
Tip
  You might want to use a dedicated, inexpensive roaster roaster pan (speckled enamel) with a lid to minimize the odor and potential toxicity.
 
You can also use the plastic 'Turkey Bags" available at your grocery store to use for baking polymer clays.
Super Sculpey Super Sculpey®  
Super Sculpey has greatere tensile strength than regular Sculpey.
Sculpey polymer clay products should remain fresh if properly stored in a cool place, away from heat and direct sunlight.
Super Sculpey is a translucent pink-beige color and features fine tooling and detailing characteristics, and does not "fill in" after tooling. Visit the Polyform website for information & tips about blending colors
Super Sculpey is an easy to condition polymer requiring minimal hand kneading or rolling through a pasta machine to prepare for use, and remains soft and pliable if stored in a cool place.
If you want to paint your cured iece, Polyform recommends acrylic paint or the application of water based glaze prior to painting with oils. Paint should be applied in thin washes rather than thick coats for the best paint to clay bond.
FYI
 Try mixing Cernit and Super Sculpey for the ease of Sculpey and the look of Cernit.
After curing, Super Sculpey bakes to a ceramic-like hardness and can be sanded to a fine smoothness. After baking, can be painted, glazed, carved, sanded, or drilled
Super Sculpey should be baked (cured) in a preheated 275° F (130° C) oven for 15 minutes per 1/4" (6 mm) of thickness. Clays can be baked several times, building up layers. DO NOT MICROWAVE.  
For example, a piece of 1⁄2" thickness would be cured for 30 minutes. The layering method is recommended for larger pieces of construction. Bake (cure) on ovenproof glass at 275 F.
Tip from a Friend
 I have found, in sculpting, if you mix half Super Sculpey and half Premo clay, you get a much smoother texture. Give this a try. Danielle Schardan
  Translucent Liquid Sculpey®  Bakable Transfer & Color Medium  Liquid Sculpey
Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS) is liquid polymer clay, and it opens a whole new arena for artists and crafters alike! It is a bakable transfer medium for the new millennium!
When artist's oil paints are mixed with it, it can be an enamel, a glaze, or a backfilling compound. When pigments or mica powders are mixed with it, it can be a stipple, a metallic glaze, or a grout for polymer clay mosaics.
  Do NOT mix with acrylic paints. The water in the paint will "boil off" during baking, leaving a bumpy texture. If you do want this effect - go for it :]!
TLS has a honey-like consistency. Over time it does thicken. To thin TLS, add a drop of Sculpey Diluent.
Uses
* Fantastic transfer medium. Make transfers from offset printed images like magazines, etc, black & white and color photocopies, colored pencil drawings
 
* Add oil paints to make a bakable painting and surface medium.
* Add dry pigments to create glazes and color washes
 
   
 
* Create stained glass effect suncatchers and window clings
 
 
* Use with polymer clays for abakable adhesive
* Grout for mosaics * Creating faux enameling
* A translucent glazing and polishing medium
  
Baking
TLS can be baked 275° F for 15- 20 minutes is usually adequate. You can bake at 300° F for a short period of time. to increase transparency, but this technique takes careful attention and a well calibrated oven! See the "Getting Started with TLS" on the sculpey.com website.
 
Thicker or multiple layers of ELS can be wet sanded and buffed to a very high shine. Bake at 275° F for 15 minutes then bump the oven up to 300° F for a final 5 minutes.
By itself TLS is not an adhesive. But it makes a fantastic strong bond, especialy with polymer clays, when baked. Its adhesive qualities are activated only after baking. It increases the clay to clay bond between raw layers of clay, and when adding raw layers to previously baked layers.
Using as a Glue
Spread a light coat to one surface. Too much and the pieces will slip apart.
With small sculptures, brush a thin amount to the base of an arm or leg before pressing it to the body.
You can use TLS to professionally affix pin backs.
Press the pin back lightly into the raw clay.
Remove the pinback and brush TLS into the trough made by the pinback.
Open the pinback and place it back into the trough.
Take two strips of raw clay and brush one side with TLS. Lay the strips over the pinback and press into the sculpted piece (on the back). 
Be sure the pin is able to close over the strips.
Bake at the proper temperature and time for your clay type.
  Use the following printed materials:
Image Transfers
What you can use:
 Glossy magazine pages
Black & white or Color LASER copies (not ink jet prints)
Rubber stamped images - either as black & white or that have been colored by hand using high quality colored pencils.
preheat oven to 275°
Step 1
This technique starts with transferring the black & white rubber stamped inage that has been photocopied. It is the TONER from the photocopier that 'transfers' the outline to the TLS.
Example of Colored Pencil Transfer Technique
Lay image face up on top of a scrap work paper. Color you design with colored pencils  if desired.
Step 2
Using a small paintbrush, paint a layer  of TSL on your image.
Bake the coated image (on the scrap paper) for 10 minutes at 275° F for 10 minutes.
finished image After your piece has cooled, flex the piece to loosen or soak in water. wash off
Your design has permanently transferred onto TLS!
This flexibile image can then be applied to a piece of raw clay on flat or curved surfaces. Use the flexible image to decorate clay items, or windows or for decoupage!
For more things to do with TLS, see Sculpey's Project page.