Leora's polymer clay sculpting tips! FAQ2 - baking clay

Hello creative minds!

This is about baking the polymer clay. Polymer clay will only harden when you bake it, for the right temperature and times please read the producer's instructions.

My next advice for you is, buy a thermometer for checking the temperature of your oven, most often they do not heat correctly and baking the clay to low or to high can have desastrous outcomes. When you bake to low the sculpt will be to weak and easily crumble. And if you bake to high the sculpt can darken to much and even burn. I had sculpted a dollhouse ballerina with outstretched hands, and I forgot to check the temperature when I wanted to harden a genesis paint finish. The hands burned black, because they were so tiny and much nearer to the heating element. Not nice!

Also, you should have a separate oven for baking the polymer clay goodies, the polymer clay leaves a residue in the oven, and you do not want to cook food in the same oven. While baking open a window and leave the room, the fumes are not healthy, please do not breathe them! A nice alternative could be an oven bag, when baking is finished you can take it outside and open it there.

Lastly, there are times when overbaking or underbaking is wanted :)
Overbaking, baking too high, is nice for making armatures stronger, they will darken, but who cares, the armature will not be seen on the outside.
Underbaking, baking too low, is nice for sculpting in parts, the clay will not darken so much when baking low. This is good for sculptors who sculpt in parts, for matching the color of the "skin".  Of course you will have to make a final bake at the correct temperature and time (again, read the label instructions).

I hope, this helps :))

Ebay to go: Innocent dreams now looking for a new home ;))

Hugs,
Alexandra

Leora's polymer clay sculpting tips! FAQ1

Hey all,

I will continue the miniature baby wip soon, but today I want to start something new. I have got a lot of questions, and maybe it will be helpful to post answers in
this blog.

Faq1: What polymer clay to use (or not, lol)?

The first one is about polymer clay itself. When I started to sculpt with polymer clay, the question was "what polymer clay" to use? For me the question was not so difficult, the only polymer clay, shops in Germany seem to sell is Fimo clay.
Fimo classic and Fimo soft, to be precise :)  The first polymer clay I used was Fimo classic and it works very well, when you sculpt miniature food or jewelry, because it is very hard and beginners will appreciate that. The downside is, it smells very strong when baking and smoothing it is difficult. I do not use it for figure sculpting but it has it's uses, it is perfect for caning. And if you interested in caning etc. check out this website: polymerclaycentral
Do not use fimo soft for caning, it will not hold the details, it is as the name implies a softer clay :)
Be careful that you buy fresh Fimo clay, I had severe cracking issues with old batches.

The next polymer clay I found was Puppen-fimo, or doll fimo, it is harder than prosculpt or livingdoll but I found this the only advantage (IF you like to sculpt figures with harder clay). Again, it smells badly when baking and I had problems with moonies.

Cernit is another polymer clay that has its uses, when you know what you can do and cannot do with it. It is mostly used by doll makers who sculpt large dolls, and no wonder it is very soft, it reminds me of soft chewing gum, making nice folds but is horrible for sculpting miniatures.

Prosculpt or Livingdoll are both produced by Sculpey and these are the clays I would recommend for sculpting miniature figures. For a beginner these clays seem to be too soft, but I think it is the best clay for figure sculpting. The "skin" is beautiful and I had no moonies or cracking problem with both of them.

Kato clay, I never used it, if you want to share your experience, please comment!

Also, if I forgot a polymer clay that is usable for figure sculpting, please comment!

Have fun sculpting and visit me again soon :))

December Dollhouse Baby WIP

This one is for my mother, she asked me to post some pictures how I sculpt these tiny dollhouse children. It was surprisingly hard for me to sculpt AND having to stop inbetween to make pictures. When I sculpt I'm in a kind of bliss, do you think
I'm sculpting addicted?

Well, let's start the work in progress... Let's start with the head, but beware, this is not for the faint of heart, lol!

Innocent Dreams

She is looking for a new home now...

Hand made mini eyes

So, I made some new eyes for my sculptures, I'm happy how they look and how shiny they are :))

Farewell picture :))

Now, that Seamus will soon leave his buddies, I thought, well, I need to do a farewell picture... Goodbye, sweety!

Did you notice? Rosie's hair has grown, lol!

Seamus has been adopted, good bye sweety!

Hey all! Do you have an auction in ebay, that you want to show in your blog? While I was spending way to much time to make an auction template, and I'm still not very happy with the outcome, I found a really cool feature for bloggers in ebay. A very nice widget (gadget?) to show your ebay auction in your blog. I used it for my Seamus auction.

If you would like to add an auction to your blog, too, ebay to go is easy to use :o))

just peeking in...

Hey all! I decided to show you my face today... Well, I'm just peeking in to tell you, surprise, that I'm working on a new dollhouse doll, Oh, ... and Leah says hello, too, lol!

Little dancer Rita

Little dancer Rita is a dollhouse child and her size is ideal for a 1:12 miniature scene. As always when I make my little ones, no moulds are used, they are true one of a kinds (ooak)!
Rita is fully sculpted of polymer clay (LivingDoll), even her dress. Her flax blonde hair is of finest english viscose and she wears a tiara of tiny pearls. I sculpted her a cute pink ballerina dress and shoes, and her light skintone and rosy lips are done with many washes of genesis heat-set paints.

Rita is sitting on her bed, dreaming to become a fine ballerina... but not for long, she is full of energy and ready to make some mischief :0))