polymer clay?

[Vachy]

I'm trying to make some small figurines with Sculpey. I've used sculpey in the past, with no trouble, but for some reason this box is much too soft. I've tried putting it in the freezer, but it was too soft again after about 5 minutes. Any ideas on making it a bit more hard?

(Tried several different wordings on that last one, but any way it still sounds dirty )

[DarkFaerie]

You could try and leave it out of the box for a couple of days that usually works. But it will eventually melt at your body temperature so work quickly. You also could try and not touch it so much and use more tools. Hope that helps.

[Vachy]

It's been out of the box, but it's hardly made a difference. To get the basic shape, I have to use my hands. The rest is all tools. Maybe I can get the basic shape done quickly enough after it's been in the freezer...thanks for the advice!

[jjenisis]

try baking it a bit at a low temp to evap some of the excess moisture out.

[Enlil]

Have you considered casting figurines permenantly in stone? I've not yet got to try it, but I've had the idea of using either natural clay or flour-salt doe to make figurines or small gargoyes from which to make a wax mold and casting the final version in concrete. Basically, using a fine saw cut off the wax and water to wash out and of the original material that doesn't pull off (why it must be water soluable and not polymer clay), and banding it back together with a hole in the top for pouring.

I'm also thinking up experimenting with some cooked in rice flour (used in morder for the great wall) and acrylic paint to immitate the color of natural stone.

I've haven't tried this yet, but plan to soon.

[Hardcoregirl]

Wow this thread is almost 2 years old. How do people dig this shit up?

(I was excited because I just got a pasta maker on Satuday for playing with polymer clay)

[Enlil]

How? I was shyly exploring the forums (not planning to write any replies yet) and didn't notice the time stamp or think about how old it might be.

Why? I've had making statuettes on my mind a lot lately -- and I tend to like clay, so it caught my attention and interested me enough that I replied a bit impulsively.

I guess I took it a little off topic -- just that I had considered making figurines myself, got concerned about the softness of clay and wanting to make something more permenant started thinking up alternatives (which may not be feasible) to it -- it reminded me the thoughts I've had lately.

[Francesca]

Well, this information never really gets outdated, new people are coming on all the time who might find the info useful...

I didn't notice the date the thread started either, and I had already asked a crafty guru friend of mine about how to solve the too soft sculpey problem:

She said because it is caused by too much plasticizer in the clay, that in addition to letting it set out, to wrap it in "blotter paper" as it would better absorb the oily nature of the plasticizer than just setting it out and baking it would. She also said that blotter paper would not leave any linty bits behind.

She said you could just let set out or try to dry at a very low heat as well but the blotter paper was really going to be the most.helpful.

[ZKitten]

if its really that soft,
you can stick it on a peice of plastic or wrap it in paper or cardpoard,
that leaches the plasticisers out and makes it a lil harder,
or you could even set it in the sun, i'd reccomend against heating because that might make too hard to work with,
but if that happens, if you can always beat the clay, it mixes the plasticisers around...

if anyone ever has polymer clay questions, i've been working with it for many years,
and have taught classes.... so id be glad to asist if anyone needs help....