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Just Ask
By Deb Hayes |
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Dear Readers, Welcome to Just Ask. I am here to answer your questions…if I don’t know the answer, I will research it with our team of experts and give you THEIR answers. Email me at: Deb@pcPolyzine.com. |
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| Dear Deb,
Hi...I am a "desperately wanna be" polymer clay person. I have purchased a pasta machine, tools and polymer clay (every color, I believe) but when I sit down to do an item, it never looks like the cat, doll, etc. What am I doing wrong? Thank you, |
| Dear Hopeful,
I do not think you’re doing anything ‘wrong’,
but you might just be expecting too much in too short a time. Before
you start building anything in particular, it might be a good idea to just
play with the clay and let your hands learn how it feels.
Roll it, “smoosh” it around and flatten it, roll it up and repeat. I’m not much of a sculptor, myself, but the best success I had was by accident. In a class, I had a student who wanted to make a dinosaur, and didn’t know how. I picked up a piece of clay, and started thinking ‘dinosaur’. I stretched, pulled and pressed, and before I knew it, I had something that clearly represented a dinosaur. If none of these ideas help, I will give you my favorite answer: Books! Katherine Dewey makes absolutely stunning fairies and animals, and has written a book that shows how; Creating Life-Like Animals in Polymer Clay; Maureen Carlson’s sculptures are adorable, and she too, has written books on the subject. One that covers many bases is How to Make Clay Characters. I would suggest your public library as a first step, and if there is little or nothing useful there, ask about inter-library loans. That’s going to save you money in the first place, and may present some good notions of what to buy. Online tutorials can help, too. You might check Polymer Clay Central, the Sculpey website, or the FIMO website. There are loads of other tutorials online, and a Google search for just that will bring up scads of links. Thanks for asking, and good luck! Deb Note: Katherine Dewey's website
is elvenwork.
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| Dear Deb,
Hi... I make flower pins out of Sculpey clay. The problem I am having is that the pins on the back of the flower keep falling off. I have tried hot glue and that seems to be temperature sensitive (the cold makes the glue stiff and the pin falls off). What kind of glue would you recommend? Thanks for any suggestions. Pam |
| Dear Pam,
Those who have made much more jewelry than I have recommend a cyanoacrylate glue (the ‘super glue’ family), and I have seen E-6000 recommended. Two part epoxy is a favorite of some clayers, but generally, hot glue is not recommended. If you choose the E-6000, make sure you’re in a well ventilated area. The fumes can be nasty! Hope this helps, and thanks for writing! Deb |