I’m at the incremental improvement stage of clay – I’m learning little things, in small increments – and that’s great. I remember when each month or week or day’s projects brought huge changes to my work and each new trick … Read More ...
Polymer Clay Tips and Hints
JSThreads has a useful little post of tips and hints she accumulated while claying. I realize most of us have our own little polymer clay rules and guidelines. I agree with most of the tips and here’s a few of … Read More ...
Polymer Clay Hacks
Some of my favourite polymer clay “hacks” from over the years:
- If your blade is becoming dull, really fine sandpaper (like the 2000 grit) will sharpen the edge
- Rubbing alcohol will soften your clay surface briefly and evaporate. Mineral oil
Storing Your Polymer Clay
Just like setting up your clay work space you’ll have some variables in how you store the actual clay. When I was new to clay, a few zipper plastic bags and plastic Tupperware type containers were plenty. Later, when I … Read More ...
Make Your Stones Pop in Clay
I don’t mean literally pop. That would be messy. I mean visually show up more. Adding marbles, rocks and crystals to clay can make for a really interesting piece. The more translucent the addition, though, the less it’ll show up … Read More ...
Polymer Clay Organization
Just like I have piles of clay and clay pieces, I have a good stash of tools of all shapes and sizes. Not the least of those are my cutters. Some of them – a couple plastic shoeboxes worth – … Read More ...
Polymer Clay Storage Strategies
After those first few blocks of clay, about when you realize you’ll need a few of every colour and one of each tool you find, you start to think about storage. Since polymer clay stays usable for a long, long … Read More ...
Polymer Clay Hacks
The other day I dragged my family to the Maker Faire and saw all the cool DIY stuff folks are getting up to. In that extended tribe of creative, technical types tips and hints are called hacks. In that spirit, … Read More ...
Storing Your Clay
I use a lot of polymer clay so this system doesn’t work for me but back when polymer clay hadn’t swallowed my whole crafting world… I did something similar. I used 1 and 3 cup food storage containers to hold … Read More ...
Saving the Crumbly Clay
I had a curious customer in my shop today poking at some of the scraps on my work bench. Some of those are stiff, crumbly bits of clay that I don’t use for much except filler. The customer wanted to … Read More ...
Tutorial: Extruder Cane
When I first began claying seriously and got an extruder… they were all these little metal ones with difficult to press plungers. Combine this with the fact that the only clay I could lay hands on was Fimo classic and … Read More ...
Tutorial: Making a Small Dish
This falls more into the category of quick tips but hey, it’s a bright idea just the same. Getting her inspiration from a baking recipe that uses the outside of a cupcake tin – minis or full size, I’m not … Read More ...
Technique: Buffing for a High Shine
The bead above is one I made that I buffed to a nice moderate shine with a combination of sanding, more sanding and a lot of rubbing on jeans. I later went on and used a dremel to bring it … Read More ...
Tip: Making Button Holes
I’m pretty sure everyone knew before me but the bestest trick for making consistent button holes? A corn cob poke. Since I’ve been making all sorts of buttons, I grabbed a package of them at the dollar store. This poke … Read More ...
Technique: Sutton Slice
If you clay, you may have heard of the Sutton slice technique. I’m not that familiar with it so went looking for a quick run down and lucked out! Larissa Joonas has a photo tutorial of a basic go at … Read More ...
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