Working with Polymer Clay

Hello my friends!

Lately I have been having a lot of fun playing with polymer clay. I can't wait to show you the miniature cakes I have been baking! But first I thought I would share some tips with you. Most of these tips came to me via my brilliant friend Pat, who is a crafster extrordinaire.

Lets start with:

Tools

• Polymer Clay in a wide variety of colors (Fimo and Sculpey are two common brands)
• Liquid Sculpey for making things like icing
• Clear Polymer Clay Glue or Clear Tacky Glue
• Texturing tools. These can be purchased at a craft store or be creative and use common household items like peppercorns!
• Cheap Plastic Placemat
• Pasta Maker
• Roller
• Small Plastic Bags
• Shape Cutters 
• Chalk Pastels and small applicator brush
• Cornstarch
• Baby Wipes

Tips

• Make sure your workspace and hands are as clean as you can get them before you begin. Any dust will show up in your work and we don't want that!
• Work on a cheap plastic placemat, which protects your table and wipes down easily.
• Keep Baby Wipes on hand to clean your hands as needed.
• Keep a small jar of cornstarch on hand and frequently dust your hands with it. This makes the clay much more easy to work with.
• Your clay will have to be softened considerably before you can work with it. A fast way to do this is to put the clay in a small bag and place it in your bra or under your armpit. Seriously! Leave it there for about five minutes.
• Roll the clay out using the pasta maker to further soften it and to achieve the desired thickness
• Use a small roller if you don't have a pasta maker.
• Apply cornstarch to your hands to gently manipulate the clay and even out rough edges on your miniature creation.
• Apply chalk pastels with a small brush to add color and realism.
• Use clear polymer clay glue to attach embellishments to things like cakes. If you can't get your hands on some, let the baked miniature cake sit for about a day and attach decorations with clear tacky glue.
• If you mess up, don't sweat it! You can always try again.
• Remember that if you are storing your polymer clay in plastic drawers you must first put the clay in plastic wrap or a small plastic bag. Otherwise your clay will be ruined and degraded.

I hope these tips have been helpful. Go have fun!