Polymer Clay is an art clay, its pliababiloty makes it relatively easy to work with. Most brands of clay are made up of polymer resins, colouring and fillers. They are pressed into blocks of clay. These blocks of clay are blended, shaped, carved, and molded into whatever the artist desires. It is then cured at a moderately low temperature to harden the clay into its fixed position. It can then be sanded and polished. Amazingly the finished piece is hard wearing and extremely light weight making it an ideal medium for statement jewellery because it is so light and easy to wear. I work with various brands of clay as each clay has its own unique properties and sometimes I will use a combination of clays and multiple curings to get the piece just how I want it.

Clay brands

Premo by Sculpey, this is one of my preferred clays, it’s easy to condition, holds its form well and when cured it gives a strong yet flexible finish, ideal for a cuffs or for pieces that need movement or fluidity. The colours stay true and the whites stay white. It is easy to sand and polish to an amazing high shine. It cures at 130 degrees celcius.

Kato Poly by Van Aken, launched by Donna Kato one of the guru’s of the polymer clay world, she wanted a clay for artists to use something more refined than other clays available. designed specifically for artists and not crafters. The colours are so easy to blend and produce some amazing colour hues, a real artists palette. The CMYK palette gives you infinite options. I have trouble keeping the whites white during the curing process but I’m working on improving this I also understand this is something Van Aken is working on too. The whites are nutorious for turning creamy during the curing. Kato clay is a firm clay, making it ideal for caning as it holds its shape really well, it doesn’t get sticky. In fact it doesn’t stick to itself until you want it to. When cured it has a wonderful sheen to it, and polished up beautifully. But its strength is its strength, it’s so strong virtually unbreakable.  it cures at 150 degrees c. Kato has a distinctive smell that some artists don’t like, personally I LOVE Kato clay.

Pardo Polymer clay by Viva Décor again a super clay, this clay has added beeswax. It’s a firm clay to work with and it great for when you want sharp lines and edges as it doesn’t get sticky. But it does take a lot of conditioning as the wax needs to warm up to make the clay pliable. I use a wheatbag to gently warm my clay particularly in the cold British winters. It cures to a really strong finish, and the whites stay really white which I LOVE. The Pardo translucent is a wonderful product in its own right giving an almost glass like finish. Pardo Translucent is renowned for being the best translucent on the market. This clay cures at 120 degrees c.

Cernit by the Clay and Paint Factory. This clay has quite a few different compositions for their clays, they have highly saturated pigments giving you the ability to colour blend a huge array of colours. The Opaline clays darken when cured and there is a marked colour shift when the clay is cured. I was advised to add white to the blends to ensure you get a true to colour finish. A lot of model makers prefer using Cernit as some of the clays have a semi translucent range which gives a porecelain effect. The cured clay is hard which I love, it has a softer almost suede like feel to the cured clay. When working with this clay I found it harder to sand and polish to a high shine but I believe this is a characteristic of the Number One clay. The new line of metallic and Pearl clays are stunning, these have so much mica pigment in the clay that they glisten when sanded and buffed. Making these an ideal choice for any micashift or mokume gane techniques.  The new line of Cernit translucent rival the Pardo Translucent clays Cernit is definitely becoming one of my firm favourite clays to work with. Cernit cures at 130 degrees c.

Fimo Professional by Staedler Fimo have many products in their range, the only one I’ve tried is Fimo Professional. True colour pigments that are wonderful to blend but I found the professional clay harder to condition with a lot of colour transfer from the clay to your hands and the workability of the clay was very short, requiring you to recondition the clay. I loved the colours and the blends but it is not a clay I enjoy working with as I have had many pieces break. I have decided to give up using Fimo as there are a lot of other products that suit my needs more. I know this is controversial as it is the clay of choice for many of the professionals out there but it doesn’t work for me. Fimo professional cures are 110 degrees.