Hints, tips, tricks, and valuable information for working with polymer clay.
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 Colors
Helping 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.
Continue reading Finding Your Routine is Essential to the Creative Process
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
Acrylics paints for polymer clay? Absolutely! Acrylic paints have been used safely for years with polymer clay. I have written about the use of acrylics with polymer several times here on the site. (See the linked articles at the end of this post.) Today I will share with you my four most used acrylic paints. You may enjoy these acrylic paints for polymer clay sculpting, jewelry making, or many other polymer clay disciplines too.
When it comes to polymer clay, one of the most frequently asked questions when I teach at workshops, give classes, and receive emails is: “can you give me some polymer clay tips?” It’s no secret that everyone wants tips when starting out on a new hobby. Here’s a few overlooked polymer clay tips to help you in your polymer clay journey.
Continue reading Overlooked Polymer Clay Tips You Might Not Know
There can be nothing more frustrating than sculpting with white polymer clay. Before you know it dust, lint, fibers, rouge cat hair, glitter (than you haven’t used in a month), and specks of other colors of clay find there way embedded into your pristine white polymer clay. There’s no need to hyperventilate, panic, throw out the clay, scream, cry, or even give up completely. Here’s a few tips that might help you along your journey to whiter, sparklier, and all around crisper white sculpted designs.
Continue reading Five Tips for Sculpting with White Polymer Clay
There’s only two things you need to know when dealing with fingerprints in polymer clay when you are learning how to sculpt. These two simple solutions are the two things each of my students who venture to my studio for lessons learn first. If you can remember #1 and master #2, fingerprints in polymer clay will be a thing of the past for you.
Continue reading Fingerprints in Polymer Clay: Two Tips to Banish Them!
