Product Review from Stormy Designs

Today guest blogger Stormy Designs shares her review of Makin’s Clay Machine…

I used my Michaels 50% Off coupon the other day to buy a Makin’s Professional Ultimate Clay Machine which I’ve had my eye on for some time. I’ve heard mostly good remarks from other artists about the machine and because I’ve had good dealings with the company previously regarding one of their clay extruders I decided that it was worth the investment.

The Makin’s clay machine’s tech sheet can be found here.
First of all, I love the size! It has 7 in. long rollers whereas my old machine has 5 3/4 in. long ones. This means I can get a much wider sheet of clay than I was getting The rollers on the Makin’s machine are non-stick and I am blown away at how well they work. Even sticky clay doesn’t stick to the rollers. The 9 different settings for thickness are great. I rolled out a sheet on the 3rd thickest setting and it was thinner than anything I had ever rolled out of my old pasta machine. It even ran through without tearing like it would have with my old machine. I was amazed! The Makin’s clay machine is well built, cranks smoothly and easily, is definitely non-stick and runs a smooth sheet of clay. My first tests were with well-conditioned Premo and after seeing how well it did with that I thought I’d give the machine a real test. I was in need of some hot pink clay which I happened to have in some Kato clay. For you non-clayers, Kato clay is a much harder clay to condition than Premo and the hot pink that I have is crumbly until it’s conditioned really well. It would stick all over the rollers on the old machine I used, making a real mess. I was hoping that the Makin’s machine would do better with it. I sliced off about 2 oz. of the hot pink Kato clay and conditioned it with my large acrylic rod on my marble slab. Once I had the clay warmed up and moving a bit I rolled it on my slab so it was slightly thicker than the thickest setting on the machine and ran it through with no problems. After a few passes through the clay machine, I had a nice sheet of hot pink clay. I was impressed at how well it handled the pre-conditioned Kato clay and no sticky mess to clean.

The Makin’s Ultimate Clay Machine came with some bonus texture sheets, push molds and cutters. I’m going to give the machine a real workout in the next few months with all the spring projects that are spinning around in my head. We’ll see how the machine holds up, but I’ve got to tell you, after using it for 3 days I’m really impressed with its performance. It beats my old machine hands down I do believe that I’ve got to get the Ultimate Clay Machine Motor to go with it