. . . they no longer sell the larger blocks of any of their polymer clays at this Michaels . . .
Are you talking about the "larger blocks" of polymer clay which come in
boxes, and are flesh-colored, white, or terracotta?? If so, I'd be really surprised if they were no longer selling those... I notice that sometimes that those are out though, or that they've been moved to a different shelf area farther down or away.
......The two boxed Sculpeys are a good value as long as you don't stress any
thin or projecting areas of them too much after baking (and/or if you use armatures underneath). And SuperSculpey is great for making heads and hands, or fine for just painting over --though some sculptors like to mix it with a stronger clay like Premo. The "original" white or terra cotta Sculpey is even cheaper than SS, and can be colored with various paints and other things, or painted over... it's weaker than SS or SIII though, but still can be fun.
If you meant "larger blocks" of the
colored bars (red, blue, etc.) no longer being sold though, that would be unusual for Michaels these days anyway. I believe they used to sell some larger blocks of Fimo (back when there was just one version of Fimo), but then mostly only black, white, or translucent. Some craft stores used to, or still do, sell larger blocks of flesh-colored clays by Fimo (PuppenFimo, etc.) though.
Does anyone know of a discount place for polymer clay online? ... it can get to be a little expensive.
At any rate, polymer clay is certainly cheaper online than the regular prices you'll see at retail stores... you'll also get ALL the colors, and fresher clay (esp. if you buy from a polymer clayer who is a distributor).
(Walmart used to carry the Sculpey III line for only 99 cents per small bar as their regular price, but don't know about what they charge now --and they often carry, or have in stock, only a few colors.)
Clayers who do very much clay usually end up buying the larger bricks of clay because of their price, but also for the convenience of having single large bricks instead of a lot of little individually wrapped packages.
On one of the pages of my website, I have names and links for various mail order suppliers (most are also
online suppliers) that sell polymer clay (and often which brands they carry), if you want to check them out:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/supplysources.htm(click on
Mail Order, under
Clays... unless you're not in the US, in which case click on
Non-USA)
....Many of the distributors listed are polymer clayers themselves, but of course there are also the large outfits like Dick Blick, etc.
Be sure and check the
current prices for each distributor, plus s/h, and also see if they have a minimum order or have price breaks with certain quantities.
...Prices do change but you'll also want to note that the brand called
Kato Polyclay is cheaper than the others in general. It's an excellent clay too. It's stiffer when raw than Sculpey III or FimoSoft, but also stronger after baking in thin areas and has better handling characteristics; it also darkens the least during baking. It comes in the fewest colors of all the brands (17 colors), but most any color can be achieved by mixing those colors together.
If you're interested in the characteristics/advantages/disadvantages of the various brands of polymer clay, look on this page:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/Characteristics.htmHere's something I've written before about mixing clays to get all kinds of colors and palettes:
. . . It's possible also to mix the
colors of clay together to get virtually any color, so you don't need to buy loads of different colors either. For the largest possible palette, you want to buy the "clearest" colors to begin with because while you can always "tone" them down, you can't make them clearer if you start with toned-down colors.
...The basic idea is to have a red, a yellow, and a blue --plus black and white ... from those 5, you should be able to mix a complete palette of hundreds of colors.
Actually it turns out that the
most "primary" version of those colors is actually (believe it or not) magenta, turquoise, and lemon yellow. Any red, blue and yellow will work though to just make "a" palette (but the colors in that palette may be toned down).
P.S.... you'll need more white than any other color so you can lighten any mix, and not have to stick with medium to dark colors only).
...If you then add the special polymer "colors" of translucent, and one or two of the mica-metallics like gold or Pearl (which is a whitish color when raw) to those basic 5 colors, you can get loads more colors and special effects as well.
...You can find much more info on mixing colors and palettes on this page:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/color.htmYou can also color clay with other materials... for example, oil paints or oil pastel shavings (or small amounts of acrylic paint), alcohol inks, spices, etc., and also more particulate things (often called "inclusions") like play sands, metallic powders, crayon shavings, etc., etc. You can mix these things into white clay or translucent clay... or of course into any color.
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/letters_inks.htmhttp://www.glassattic.com/polymer/paints.htm http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/inclusions.htmHere's something else I've written on how to keep claying cheap by what is made with it:
. . . you can also concentrate on making
smaller things and "miniatures." Most miniatures take very little clay, yet you can explore almost every technique within polymer clay for them, if you want ... and besides they're just fun, and can even be profitable.
You could even make little things for a diorama, etc (even for Xmas or Halloween), or you could make quite elegant things, just in a small form.
Here's my page specifically on Miniatures:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/miniatures.htm Another possibility might be
jewelry of various kinds, for yourself or as gifts... some jewelry pieces like earrings and pendants don't usually take much clay, and there are ways to do jewelry that even appeals to most men:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/beads.htmhttp://www.glassattic.com/polymer/jewelry.htm http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/pendants_cording.htmhttp://www.glassattic.com/polymer/wire.htmhttp://www.glassattic.com/polymer/gifts_men_teachers.htm Also, many things can be just "
covered" with polymer clay so the actual amount of clay used is a lot less.
Cheaper clay or scrap clay can also be used as a permanent "base" underneath a decorative clay layer. And larger beads and other items, etc. can be made over all kinds of things, including tightly-scrunched aluminum foil.
Or things can be made over a form
then removed, so that again there isn't as much clay used (like bowls, or hollow-backed jewelry --or there are ways of making things completely hollow too).
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/covering.htm (metal/glass/plastic/wood/etc)
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/vessels.htmhttp://www.glassattic.com/polymer/armatures-perm.htm http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/armatures-temp.htm (dissolvable, removable support)
....(see also the Beads page listed just above >
Hollow)
. . .My daughter is totally getting into polymer clay . . .
You might want to tell her to check out the following page at my site too if she hasn't already... it has a lot of ideas about polymer things that kids can make (or things others might want to make for them), as well as easier projects for beginners using a number of different techniques, altogther on one page:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/kids_beginners.htmAnd if you guys haven't read the "
Getting Started With Polymer Clay" posts gathered in one of the bolded topics at the top of the
Polymer Clay Discussion and Question board here, they could give a lot more info she might be interested in, especially as a beginner:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=73664.0HTH, and have fun!
Diane B.
