Hints, tips, tricks, and valuable information for working with polymer clay.
As with all things in life, we pick some things up and get good at them…and yet with other things we need help. I am a 100% self-taught polymer clay artist. I have purchased several polymer clay books and use several very religiously. Here are 10 hints, tips, & tricks for working with polymer clay that you may not already know or thought of that will help you in your own polymer clay jouney.
Continue reading 10 Polymer Clay Tips & Tricks
Today’s studio tip is a rare one as it has almost nothing to do with polymer clay … but it does have to do with your studio, your brushes, and helping to keep your studio clean and lint-free!
Continue reading Polymer Clay Studio Tip: Reusable Cloths
Blending chalks are just that, chalks that are blendable. Blending chalks can also be called chalk pastels or soft pastel chalks. Chalks can be used on a variety of surfaces, including polymer clay. Their color can be easily applied with a brush, sponge-tip applicator, and a variety of other applications.
Continue reading How to Use Blending Chalks on Polymer Clay
Mica powder has always been great for polymer clay artists as a surface treatment. Traditionally in the polymer clay world, mica powder has been used for jewelry artists and as an “all over” treatment for sculptors. But did you know that mica can also be used in wonderful and surprising ways for sculpting too? Even on facial and realistic sculptures? Mica powder highlight is a wonderful trick that if you don’t know, you should get to know and use in your sculpting.
Continue reading Mica Powder Highlight in Sculpting with Polymer Clay
Many people ask if today’s popular veneers (like silkscreening, the Galaxy Tutorial veneers, veneer you’ve created yourself for polymer clay earrings, or my very favorite the Faux Collaged veneers) can be used with whimsical sculptured creations. The short answer is: absolutely!!!
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So what is mica powder? In a nutshell and simply explained, mica is a mineral [a rock] that has a reflective and metallic look to it. When it is ground and made into a powder it retains those natural properties. Make is found both in the earth, from the ground and is lab-created (which is most often these days). The larger the particles that mica contains, the more sparkly and shiny it is and becomes.
Continue reading How to Use Our Mica Powders
If you are familiar with making your own color recipes or color palettes, then you probably have familiarized yourself with your favorite polymer clay colors to use for mixing clay colors. If you aren’t familiar with the way that I mix colors you can get my clay mixing worksheet here. Without further ado, let me show you what top five mixing clay colors I can’t be without.
Continue reading Top Five Mixing Clay ColorsHelping each of you with polymer clay tips is one of those things that I really love! Why? Because I love helping people. I love helping you succeed and I love helping you on your creative journeys. I hope some of these small tips help you achieve your goals in your studio. So, without any further ado, let’s get on with it, shall we?
Continue reading Polymer Clay Tips: Productivity in Your Studio
Reworking a sculpture is always a hard decision. What happens when you put time, energy and effort into a piece and you’re not satisfied? I admit that it does happen to me and it probably happens to you too. So what do you do? Do you just leave the piece as it is and decide the piece is a failure or worse yet, that you are a failure? Do you decide to throw it away? Or do you decide to overhaul it? In all truth it can be any of the above and sometimes a variation of the three. Here’s the story about Mr. Mushie d’Room and hopefully it will inspire you to reconsider something in your studio too.
Continue reading Reworking a Sculpture That Doesn’t Satisfy You
If you are new to sculpting, you know that there’s a wide variety of things you still have to learn. Understanding the difference between an under-sculpt and an armature may be at the top of your list, or it may be at the bottom. Regardless, at some point in your sculpting world, you may find that the two of these ideas collide and you find yourself either needing to know the difference or needing to know how to execute to two. Under-sculpts and armatures are often easily confused. Today I hope to clear up some of the confusion and help you better understand the difference between an under-sculpt and an armature.
Continue reading Understanding the Difference Between an Under-sculpt and an Armature
Here’s my top sculpting books in polymer clay and a few brief recommendations on why they are my favorites. There are a lot of sculpting books for polymer clay. Digging through the masses of sculpting books to find your favorites can be tough, especially in such a niche market.
Continue reading Top Sculpting Books in Polymer Clay for Beginners to Intermediates
Here’s 10 sculpting tips for polymer clay because sometimes you just want a head start! These sculpting tips for polymer clay are sure to make your foray into the sculpting world a great success.
Continue reading 10 Sculpting Tips for Polymer Clay Sculptors
Mistakes happen. We’ve all been there. Today I’m going to share with you 15 common polymer clay mistakes that you need to understand when working with this versatile medium.
Continue reading 15 Common Polymer Clay Mistakes You Need to Know
Finding your routine is an essential part of being an artist. It is not something that many of us even think about. A routine can help us settle in. Routine can help us to automatically perceive things about our environment. Today, over on the Sculpey blog I am discussing finding your routine. Why? Because find your routine is one way that will help you in your creative process.
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Spring clean your studio easily, quickly, and efficiently. These tried and true tips that will take you from danger zone to comfort zone in less than 30 minutes. The arrival of spring not only makes me want to clay my days away, but it also makes me want to clean! It’s not secret that I can’t clean in a mess. I’ve written many times about how I LOVE a very clean studio. Unlike many other artists, I crave a clean and tidy workspace. [It’s okay, you can laugh.] I do know that I’m not the only artist that is like this. I have written articles on this blog before about how you can clean up your studio, but today I’m talking about the BIG clean up (almost like a purge) that you really should do every spring.
Selecting a new project can often be a daunting task. Today I’m going to help you to conquer it! As many of you know I’m a freelance designer and part of the Design Squad for Polyform. I’ve been part of their Design Squad since 2015. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long! This is my month to write for the blog and I’m inviting YOU to come over and join us!
Continue reading Selecting a New Project Considerations on the Sculpey Blog
