Hi Guys! it's Cindy Lietz your Polymer Clay Tutor
and today's Studio Tip. I'm going to talk about polymer clay tools
for beginners. Now, I am a Professional Polymer Clay Instructor
and I have a studio this filled with every kind of possible tools, supply and paint and
everything but that isn't where I started. I started out as a beginner just like everybody
else and I wanted to talk to you about some of the things I've learned and show you the
real basic tools that will get you started working with polymer clay. Now, one of the things I wanted to do was
I dug around a bunch of my old beads and old stuff and I found the very first polymer clay
beads and canes that I ever made so I wanted to show them to you and years and years ago
I was about 20 years ago or 18 years ago something like that when I was watching HD TV and was
watching The Carol Duvall show and Donna Kato who is a well-known polymer clay artist she
actually is the one that has invented the Kato Poly Clay products. Anyways she came on to The Carol Duvall Show
and she made this polymer clay cane and I was absolutely fascinated with what she could
do with this squishy block of plastic clay. Now, I had been for a little bit familiar
with Fimo, I've worked with it or played with it a little bit when I was a kid and had some--
somewhere in my stash but I hadn't really I had no idea you could do such cool things
and I got hooked ever since. But the very first thing I went to make, was
some canes and this is the one of the very first flower cane that I ever made and it's
all kind of wonky but I was so excited and delighted with it. Just to show you now what the difference between
the kind of detail that I could do it in cane and show people how to do, here is the Easter
Lily Cane that's much fancier than this creaky little flower cane I made but I went on and
made another cane here. Here's in some of the similar colors and ended
up combining the two into this cane and that's when I started to get really excited about
this whole process-- that you could take these wonky looking canes and end up with something
that looked super detailed. So, but back then there wasn't a lot of information
on what to do, what to buy, how to go about it and so I had to figure out a lot of stuff
on my own and over the years, I've figured out things that you basically will need and
this is the advice that I would give to someone starting out brand new. OK, so I mean in all fairness, you really
only need three things you need some polymer clay, you need your hands, and an oven. If you don't have an oven, you're not going
to be able to bake your clay and make it hard so you-- you need those three things but there's
other things that will make your life a lot easier. So the basic things that you're going to need
is you're going to need something to work on so a work surface, I'll go into more details
on that in a sec, you're going to need something to roll the clay out with, something to cut
it with, something to shape it with and something to bake it in. And those can be variety of different things
depending on what you have available to you, what your budget is, whatever are you restrictions
that kind of thing. So, I'll start first with a work surface. Now, you need something to work on that is
non-porous. Polymer Clay has a lot of oils in it and if
you just lay it any old place the oils are going to leach out into the surface of wherever
you set it. So if you have a little wooden desk or kitchen
table or even some some counter tops that are stone that aren't sealed, if you leave
your clay laying there it's going to leach to an oil stain and wreck your wooden surface
or whatever you're working on that's porous. Also it will take the oils out of the clay
and make it stiffer and stiffer and at some point actually becomes brittle if you take
out too much of the oil. So, you want something to work on that is
smooth, non-porous and right now, this is the thing that I love the very most. I got this fairly recently, in the last year
or so and this is a We R Memory Keepers Glass Cutting Mat-- it's smooth, you can cut on
it so you don't have to worry about cutting into it, it's got a grid on it, it looks nice
it's a good size, I love working on this but there are lots of other options so you can
do something like I used to do. I have this old Place Plastic Place Mat. In fact it, was for putting under pet dishes
and stuff and it's non porous, it was smooth I could work on it. It's a little vulnerable to getting cuts in
it so eventually I ended up with marks on it that would end up on the back of the clay
but it worked really just fine for when I was beginning. So this is a great super cheap option can
probably find them at the dollar store. Now, a little bit more durable option would
be to work on something like a ceramic tile or a glass tile. This happens to be a brightly colorful glass
tile but it's got a smooth surface. This is a ceramic tile, this surface is smooth
as well and you want to make sure it's not one of those unglazed tiles or some of the
stones like I said like if there are porous or something. Some tiles of texture, you don't want that,
you want something you can work on, lay your clay on and not worry about it leaching out. Now, you can also bake on that but I'll talk
about that later. You can get tiles in all kinds of sizes four
by-- I think that's three inch by three inch, you can go, you know, that yeah the way this
is just a eight inches by four inches you can get one by one foot once there's even
a huge floor tiles. There's lots of options for a work surface
there are also things like Craft Mats and surface things like I have in behind here
I have some lots of other videos on work surfaces, one on the mat-- mats and this cutting board
and all that kind of stuff. So there's-- there's other information you
can find out about that. So basically that is your work surface now
the next thing you're going to need is something to roll the clay with. There's a lot of techniques where you want
a flat sheet of clay or you're making pendants or layering things. Rolling the clay out is going to be something
you need to do. So my favorite tool for that is an Acrylic
Rod. Now these are made by most of the polymer
companies but I mean they-- this is about eight inches long so it's a nice size, a nice
diameter for rolling out. The nice thing about acrylic is that it doesn't
react to the polymer clay so it-- the-- it's not going to leach of the oils it won't get
stained, it's super smooth, it's nice to work with, you don't want to use a wooden rolling
pin. There's certain plastics though, I think they're
changing most of the plastics now, but there's certain plastics that will react with the
polymer clay and will pit so you have to test it I mean I've even seen people use the side
of a pen or a tool or something like that but I am-- what-- I bought one of these years
and years ago and I use it regularly you can get them in a kind of a different form called
a Brayer, which is handy you can roll across that way too but having a roller of some sort
is something you're going to need. Here's a neat little tip, if you want a uniform
thickness on when you're rolling a sheet of clay out, use some playing cards so I'm I've
got 4 playing cards in this side and four on that side you can just lay them down you
can have whatever numbers of them that you want, you lay them on either side of your
clay and then you just roll down until your roller is the same height as the cards and
you'll get a uniform sheet so you can just keep going and you can get and whenever I
talk about thicknesses, I actually use playing cards even if I'm using my Pasta Machine. i use playing cards as the standard thickness
level so it's-- it's a very handy thing to use and you're going to get a perfectly even
sheet. Now, as you advance you will probably want
to get a Pasta Machine but that's not necessarily for beginners and it really depends on what
types of things that you're going to be using it for. So that's the rolling out. The next thing you're going to want to do
is be able to cut your clay. Now, some people like to use Exacto Knives
and Razor Blades but the best tool I found for working with polymer clay is a clay blade. Now, there's a bunch of different kinds of
them out there, this is a simple one made by Amaco the-- this comes in a set called
Super Slicers, they're made by Sculpey. They have little handles for them, I actually
only put one on one end so that I can leave the other end open for sliding through but
a clay blade is way better than a razor blade or an Exacto Knife for cutting things like
canes. Razor blades get in the way especially if
they have a ridge on them and if you have a really large cane, they're really difficult
to cut unless you have at least a clay blade and so you would cut through your sheet. There, they come in different stiffnesses,
this was a relatively stiff one there's a super flexible one here which can be very
handy if you want to cut curves and things like that. They have wavy blades in different thicknesses
and things that-- and I use them a lot for lifting the clay up off the-- off the work
surface and that kind of thing. I could not live without a clay blade of some
stripe. Now, another thing you might want, it-- depending
on if you're making-- if you're sculpting and and doing any kind of project that needs
shaping, then you may want some sort of sculpting tools. Now I use this set a ton but there's lots
and lots of options out there. This is sent by Sculpey that's called A Style
and Detailing Set. It has three different ball of metal-- ball
styles styluses on each end in a nice size range: a really large one that's great for
making petals and things like on my earrings and any kind of thing where you need a shaped
dome. Then there's a smaller one here for making,
you know if you'd like to make a little faces and animals and that kind of thing, these
make great little eye sockets and stuff, and then there's a tiny ball stylus that you can
use for you know, poking holes, drawing on the surface, lots of different things can
be used with these different styling tips. Now, on the other end, they have sort of rubberized
tips that are used for shaping, smoothing, if you have a seam in your clay you can smooth
it out with these little tips. Depending on how much sculpting you do, you
may want to get other types of sculpting tools but these are a nice one to start off with. There are other options like in the cake decorating
section, you will find out these ones are made for working with fondant and gum paste
and that kind of thing. They're made by Wilton. I've seen different knockoffs and things in
the dollar store and and stuff like that. So there's lots of shaping tools but you may
want something to-- to help shape your clay. Then you need something to bake in. Now, a lot of people just throw their--their
clay piece onto a cookie sheet and wonder why it gets all scorched and warped on the
bottom and everything else. The best way to bake your polymer clay is
first of all, you need an oven thermometer. In fact, I could probably survive just fine
with a block of clay, an oven and an oven thermometer but this is that important to
me because most ovens are off --the dials are a little bit off some especially smaller
ovens like toaster ovens and that kind of thing, they tend to heat up and cool down
and get temperature spikes in different parts of the oven and having a oven thermometer. Now, I got this I think I just got this at
Safeway somewhere in the in the aisle where the you know wooden spoons are and the baking
foil baking pans and tin foil that kind of stuff. I think it was around five dollars so it's
not a big deal, it will save your butt and a lot of clay just by making sure that you
are baking at the correct temperature for your brand of clay. Some, if you under baked it if the temperature
isn't high enough, your clay will be brittle and it will break. If it's too high, it's going to scorch and
that is a big problem for beginners because they run into all kinds of issues with things
getting burnt or breaking. So an oven thermometer is a big deal for that. Next, you need something to bake in. Now, like I said you could bake on a tile
if you want because it's nicely insulated it's flat it can handle going into the oven
but you're going to want to protect it from underneath by placing a piece of paper on
your tile and pretend this is something more interesting than a slab of clay. You lay it on the tile and a piece of paper
and then you need to tent it. Now, I used to use a piece of card stock. In fact, I have a couple of videos on that,
I did try I'm tin foil but the best thing I have found for tenting is to use an upside-down
foil baking pan so here's a little one this would work great on this tile and in this
case, where I'm using a larger pan that I have lined with several layers of cardboard
and paper. Now, a lot of you are our new to this probably
and you're thinking paper in the oven? Well polymer clay bakes at such low temperatures
the paper is just fine in the oven as long as you have it protected, you're not touching
any elements of the paper because if you put paper up against burner it will catch fire
so you don't want that but inside here, there's no issue. Here's the previous layer I had where you
can see the little spots where I had clay baking on there and what I do is just add
a new sheet until I kind of have too many and then I'll remove some. So it's nice to have that paper and cardboard
underneath here insulating the bottom of the pan so you don't have any hot spots from the
metal in the pan and you don't end up scorching your piece from the underside. Then you use your-- so throw this in here--
then you've got your foil pan lid on top and this protects your piece from the upper elements. So that will keep it from scorching from the
top side. So that is basically it. I do have lots more videos on tools and baking
and all kinds of tips and tricks that will go more into depth but I really just wanted
to give you a good overview. If I was going on a road trip or on a deserted
island as long as the head power, these are the basic things that I would take with me
every time. I would make sure that I had a clay roller,
a clay blade, my baking pan with a lid on the top, my oven thermometer and a couple
of little sculpting tools and I'd be good to go. Alright, so I hope that was helpful for you
and if you like this video, do let us know and if you've got any topic you would like
me to tell you more about or there's a product you'd like me to test, a technique you don't
know how to do, then make sure to leave those suggestions in the comments section below
and don't forget we have tons and tons and tons of videos to check out so you can find
out lots-- all your answers to your polymer clay questions. Alright, so we'll see
you next time and bye for now!
