which clay? any advice?

[photochickkds]

new to polymer clay and ive been surfing the posts the past few days and i am absolutely obsessed with mini foods! any advice which clay to start with? is sculpey clay ok?

[Diane B.]

My personal advice would be any brand but Sculpey.  I'm assuming that you're referring to Sculpey III here, but SuperSculpey and especially the original white Sculpey are similar in their disadvantages. 
All of those clays will be weaker after baking anywhere they're thin or projecting, so those areas will be much more breakable than other brands (round or highly-rounded shapes would be fine though because those shapes are inherently strong almost no matter what they're made from).
Also, generally those Sculpeys will be mooshier when they're raw so it will be harder to get good detail from them, and also to avoid fingerprints and to avoid shape distortion.

If you only want to make miniature sculpts (foods, etc.) with your polymer clay, that will be better for some of those problems since your pieces won't likely have as many (or as large) thin areas and projections.  But if they do have those areas, and then they're stressed (by being worn, for example), the same problems will arise.

The formulas for the different brands are almost all currently in flux, so the recommendations I make these days (for the newest versions of all clays) would be:

Kato Polyclay, Premo, FimoClassic, Cernit
...and FimoSoft

If you have naturally hot hands or if you work with your clay in a warm environment, I'd suggest Kato Polyclay or perhaps FimoClassic rather than the other 3. 

(If you want to paint over your clay rather than having the color in the clay in the regular way, then SuperSculpey-Firm, which is gray, is a good choice too.)

There's a brand new line called Studio by Sculpey which is different from all the others in certain ways.  It seems to be okay for shaping, but has a texture that's kind of fabric-y which for one thing makes it hard for it to stick to itself, and it's also bad for making canes.  It also comes only in kind of toned-down colors, which means no strong clear colors (those can also be good for mixing clays to create new colors).

If you want much more info about the various brands and lines of polymer clay, check out this page at my polymer clay "encyclopedia" website:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/Characteristics.htm


HTH, and welcome to polymer clay!

Diane B.

P.S.  If you want to check out lots of lessons on making miniature foods, take a look on these 2 pages at my polymer encyclopedia:
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/miniatures.htm
(...click on Foods...)
http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/houses_structures_gingerbread.htm
(...click on more Candies & Sweets...)


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[ilysa]

I would suggest starting with Premo as it usually is not too soft and not too hard.

It might be a good idea to get a bar of each to see what you like best. Have fun!
Regards,
Ilysa

[kitten59]

I prefer the firmer clays, such as Fimo Classic and Kato, although I've been pissed ever since Fimo changed their formula! I can't stand Sculpey or Premo- pure mush. Mind you, I know a ton of artists who use Premo pretty much exclusively. It's just personal preference- try both!