Ideas and Instructions - Polymer Clay Projects Using Scrap Clay

Left over Premo, Sculpey, Fimo & Kato Polyclay can be used for making beads, color mixes & polymer clay molds:

If you 'play' with polymer clay, you are definitely going to end up with lots of scraps. They come from cane designs that didn't turn out so nice; Left over color mixes; The distorted ends of polymer clay canes; And those 'ugly' bead experiments that never actually made it to the baking stage… we all have a few of those, right?

Whatever the reason, polymer clay is far too valuable to throw away. So here are a few creative ideas for making use of your scraps in future polymer clay projects:

Make New Colors: Gather together all your scraps that are from the same color group, for example all your blue scraps. Chop them using a blade or a food processor and create a new larger batch of blue.

Marbling: Gather bits of used fimo and roll them into a log. Twist this log into a striped 'candy cane'. Fold the log in half and twist again. Repeat this process until the clay is marbled to your liking. However, if you go too far, you will end up with a solid color.

Make Mud: When you mix more than two primary colors you get muddy browns and neutrals. They can be some of the most pleasing and calming colors. Grab up a clump of old canes, and scrap clay in a variety of red, yellow and blue based colors and blend.

Use Scraps as Background Color for Canes: Chop up similar colored clays and pack the bits around an already built cane for a interesting background.

Roll Lentil Beads: Take a ball of scrap clay and roll into a lentil bead. The colors will twist and turn to create a wonderful look. A surprise every time. More on this technique can be found here: Rolling Lentil Beads from Scrap Polymer Clay

Make Custom Molds: Scrap clay makes really great shape molds. Gather together a ball of mixed matched clays. Spray a dimensional object such as a carved button with water and press into the ball of clay. Remove the object and bake. To use this mold, dust with cornstarch or spray with water and press new clay into mold. Then carefully remove the molded clay, trim off excess, and bake.

Make Base Beads: When completely covering polymer clay beads with cane slices that are opaque, it doesn't matter what the inside of the bead looks like. This is an excellent time to use up some left over clay. Here's an article on: How to Add Cane Slices to Round Beads. You will see that the bead in that article has space left between the cane slices. But you could just as easily completely cover your scrap clay bead by simply butting the slices right up next to each other… or over lap them.

I hope these ideas and instructions for polymer clay projects using scrap clay were helpful. If you have any tips of your own that you would like to add, please do write them in the comment section below!