Polymer Clay For Beginners
Thinking about getting started with Polymer Clay? This post is perfect for those of you who are interested in this awesome medium!
I started creating things with Polymer Clay around 5 years ago and I just love it!
Here's 5 reasons you will love it too:
It's cheap. You can get a lot of it for a really good price and if you sell what you make you will make good profit.
It's versatile. There is so much you can do with it, from charms and dolls house food (like I do) to animals and figurines.
Lots of choice. There is so many great brands out there, and so many amazing colours.
It's non toxic. You can bake it in your home oven safely.
The kids can use it too. My kids love to make their own creations while I work.
What do you need to get started?
There are so many fab tools and supplies that you could out and buy now but you don't have to have it all right away. I would suggest purchasing the following to get you going...
Clay (obvs) If you are completely new to polymer clay I would recommend starting with Fimo Soft. It's easy to work with and one of the cheapest. Get yourself some white and a selection of other colours. Depending on what you're making. I use a lot of white and sahara for creating food items. But if you're creating jewellery then get all your favourite colours. Remember you can easily mix 2 colours to create a new one, so think about that when buying.
Roller. You can get official Fimo ones but I use this one from Hobbycraft. It does the job the same.
Some basic tools for shaping and moulding. Again you can spend a lot on these if you buy specific Fimo or Sculpey ones but I got ones similar to these on Ebay.
Cornflour. I use this every day to stop as much dust and finger prints being left on my creations. Just have a little on hand and every time you handle your clay, pop a little on your hands first. This tip was a godsend for me because for months when I first started I really struggled with dust and finger prints, I almost gave up polymer clay because I thought what was the point! Then I discovered cornflour!
Tin foil. Again I struggled at the start with my clay burning and being left with shiney spots. Now I use tin foil to lay my piece on (with a little cornflour spread over the foil) and create a lid with the foil too so my piece it protected from the heat while it bakes.
There are a lot more tools that I use now, but that's for another post, this will get you started easily.
So get practicing and creating lots of fun things!
Steph x
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