Comments on: Baking Polymer Clay Beads and Pendants – Tips for Awkward Shapes

By: Cindy Lietz@It's OK to Bake Beads for Longer

Cindy Lietz@It's OK to Bake Beads for Longer — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:37:58 +0000

@Carol T: If you are using a strong clay like Premo and the spirals are baked long enough (see article linked by my name), they should hold their shape after baking. Just pop the beads on the rods into ice water, hot out of the oven and they should come off the rod with no problems. If you are using wooden rods, make sure to coat rod with cornstarch first before wrapping the spirals on the rod. This way the clay won’t stick to the wood.

By: Carol T

Carol T — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 01:12:29 +0000

I am baking sculpy into spirals , about 1/16 inch thick , Kind of like spiral pasta but thinner , I have Tried wrapping around metal and wood then baking, My question is how do I remove it from the metal rod after baking and retain the shape.. Please help

By: Catalina

Catalina — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:26:35 +0000

Should we call, Phaedrakat, the Sub-Tutor? She sounds like she helps you out a lot!! :)

By: Catalina

Catalina — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:23:00 +0000

@Cindy Lietz: Oh, my gosh! I did write that! Yes, I meant 270 degrees!! Good eyes!! I thought that looked kind of funny but I was in a hurry. Yeah, I would really be smokin’ at that temp! Thanks for bailing me out – again!!

By: luthien

luthien — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:20:10 +0000

thank you so much for all your help ladies :) and tips!! i really appreciate this! my hubby bought me a toaster oven for my birthday :) i am sooo delighted and can’t wait to try it out. i have armed myself for a burnt first batch!! cos i know i need to actually get use to the oven. the guy from the craft shop also told me that the heating elements in the toaster oven needs time to settle … and then they will heat properly. the good thing is , this toaster oven uses 1380w, even lesser energy than my hairdryer (of course i dun put my hairdryer on for 30 minutes or so!) anyhow , it uses like 1/3 of the energy that my conventional oven uses (which is 3.5kw … UGH!) … so i’m banging on that and a lower electricity bill :)
i shall come back and tell you my horror story (if there is gonna be one :) after i try my first batch in the new toaster oven :) thank you so much!
HUGS!
luthien :)

By: Cindy Lietz@Meet Phaedrakat, A Polymer Clay Champion

Cindy Lietz@Meet Phaedrakat, A Polymer Clay Champion — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:15:41 +0000

You are welcome Catalina. And thank you Arlene for the excellent, additional info.

Wanted to also thank Phaedrakat for watching over this thread. Although she has not commented above, she did send me an email suggesting that I pop in here to say a few words. If not for her, I may have missed the opportunity. I just want everyone to know how much Pahedrakat is doing behind the scenes and how much we all really need to appreciate her efforts of making sure everyone’s needs are attended to.

By the way Catalina, I hope your 370 degrees reference was a typo, and that you actually meant 270 or even 265. At 370 you are going to really smoke up the room… not to mention your beads :-)

By: Catalina

Catalina — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:07:30 +0000

@Cindy Lietz: Thanks Cindy! That does make it a lot clearer. I have tried to bake at 370 degrees or less for longer times and that does work. And I will leave the piece in the oven until it cools. That might help, too. But, good point on the inside not becoming cured enough. I got to do some more testing. Glad you are checking up on us! You are the “expert” and your comments and advise are always welcomed!

By: Arlene Harrison

Arlene Harrison — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:48:05 +0000

I agree completely with Cindy on what she has said above. I would like to add just a couple of comments on things I’ve discovered along the way. Generally speaking, I bake my beads at least twice — about 20 minutes to start with. Once they are out and cooled, I check for imperfections and do any spot-check type sanding or filling in, check for bubbles, that sort of thing. I find it’s just easier to fix those types of problems before the bead is rock hard! Then I put them in a pan with fiberfill and sit them to the side. Before I shut down the studio for the night, I put all the beads, pendants, whatever, that I’ve worked on that day back in the oven for one full hour. I do cover just about everything with a foil tent but I don’t know that it’s really that necessary.

Where the foil tent is necessary, however, is is you are working with something that has a lot of white, pearl or translucent in it. Even at the “sweet” setting on my convection oven, I’ve had pieces darken and even burn so I just don’t take a chance on it, I use the foil tent every time I bake. Better safe than sorry, you know.

By: Cindy Lietz@Polymer Clay Puffy Beads

Cindy Lietz@Polymer Clay Puffy Beads — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:59:41 +0000

Actually Luthien and Catalina, although a smaller oven like a toaster oven will use less energy to heat because it is small, it doesn’t mean that it will cure the pieces faster.

Under perfect conditions, polymer clay should cure in about 30 minutes if it is at the proper temp for the full amount of time. Unfortunately, ovens (especially toaster ovens) cool down and heat up so many times that it is rarely at the right temp for very long. So the longer time I recommend, compensates for that.

Polymer clay will NOT burn if it is at the right temp, no matter how long you bake it for. I have baked beads for up to 2 hours with no scorching. If your beads are burning, it means the oven is spiking above the set temp. If you are using an oven thermometer and this is still happening, it means that either it doesn’t read correctly (very common actually) or that it is slow to register the spikes and you are missing them.

Baking clay at 15 – 20 minutes may seem to work. The outside very well may be cured. But on the inside it will not have had the time to really set up properly and the remaining uncured plasticizers inside bead can end up softening the surrounding clay and cause it to become brittle over time.

Myself, as well as several other professional polymer clay bead makers have done extensive testing on this. There is a huge difference between the hardness, strength and sand-ability of a bead that has been baked for 1 hour at the right temp for the brand, as compared to one that has been baked for 15 – 30 minutes. No matter the size.

If you find your beads are burning if they are in for that long, turn the temp down a bit. With some testing, you will find the ‘sweet spot’ for your particular oven and usually won’t have to adjust it too much after that.

I hope you found this helpful and aren’t offended by me correcting your information. I mean well and just want you all to have the best success with your beads as possible! :-)

By: Catalina

Catalina — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:45:05 +0000

@luthien, I like the craft oven because it is small and I only do a few pieces at a time. Plus, it gives me a chance to get a few other pieces together while that bakes. And I get impatient sometimes. To have an whole oven full of pieces to bake would seem overwhelming to me. Then to sand and finish them would be too much. Happy claying!