Most Asked Beginner Question… How To Bake Polymer Clay Properly

Today will be a Clay Day for me and most people in Central Iowa. 15 inches of snow in Des Moines with 40 mile per hour winds. Kind of looks like we are living in a snow globe.

Thankfully I have not had problems with baking because I follow your Cindy's methods. I think the my good results are due to using an oven thermometer and baking way longer than recommended. i bake everything at least an hour, longer if I am cooking thick beads.

i use a temp gauge in my toaster over and tent mine with pie tins
also when they are done i drop them in cold water and they harden up better

I, too do pretty well with baking as I follow Cindy's recommendations almost to the letter. I did recently have one of those "necessity is the mother of invention" moments, though. A few months back I transported my baking oven to Albuquerque to attend a workshop. I guess travel damaged the thermostat because my first baking attempt when I got home resulted in a total bead burn, and nothing I did could prevent the problem. Now to preface the rest of my story I need to tell you that long ago I made a promise to my husband that I would not bake clay in the oven that cooks our food, a promise that I have kept (sort of). Wanting to finish the current project I decided to try baking in my Nesco roaster oven (you know those small table top roasters you can buy for $30 or so that are big enough to roast a turkey). It worked beautifully and has become my oven of choice. Like Anna, I like to bake way longer that the recommendations and maybe because there is no direct element I can do that without any risk of burning. I still follow all of Cindy's recommendations but lower the temp a bit. Maybe it's not for everyone but since you asked for stories I thought I would throw mine in.

Hi to everyone,

Today has been a total disaster for me. Normally I don't have a problem with baking as I follow Cindy's instructions to the letter, but I was following instructions on how to cover a pen with cane using Sculpy111. I was so pleased with my cane and couldn't wait to see the result. When I took them from the oven they looked great , after leaving to cool I started to sand and the cane vanished, what a disappointment. So I tried again this time I doubled the baking time when I inserted the pen the cover broke. This was from a book Polymerclay secrets. Where have I gone wrong? Has anyone a better way to do these.
Josie.

I read the directions on the back of the clay drop the temp about 5 – ten degrees 5 for colored clay and 10 for translucent or white. Then I increase the time to at least double and if thicker even more. The oven of my choice is a convention oven. I use to use a toaster oven but too many hot spots. I have yet to have a problem with my convention oven. I use a thermometer and my oven shuts off when time is up. So I leave my items in the oven to cool off again unless translucent then I put in ice water. I also tent my items with foil. I have cooked just 1 item or had both shelfs pretty much filled with beads always about the same thickness. Keep fingers crossed and so far great results. I know the day will come but hopefully when I am just cooking 1 item.

Thanks Peggy for your quick response. I use a convention oven with a thermometer so I'll give your way a go. Would you know Penny Vingoe's
site address?
Thanks
Josie

We live two blocks from Lake Superior, and we've been listening to the waves crashing on shore all day (from inside our house)! LOTS of snow, and high winds. I've been out twice to shovel the driveway, so no clayday for me! Maybe tomorrow!

I found a convection toaster oven last summer at a yard sale for $5! It works just great. The temp spikes to 300 at first, but then settles down to 265 and pretty much stays there (within 5 or 10 degrees), so it's great for my bead baking. I lucked out with that one!

Excellent information everyone! Thank you so much for sharing with everyone!

@Elizabeth S: The roaster sounds like a great solution! Will keep my eye out for one.

@Josie: It sounds like the slices of cane you used were maybe too thin and you sanded them away when you went to sand that first pen. On the second one, I am not sure what happened there. Maybe the pen you baked your clay over had a problem with the heat? Would have to see the instructions you followed to know what went wrong. Peggy is right about using a thermometer. That is very important! Also as far as finding Penny I've put the link to the article she wrote right by my name. In the future, if you need any info, type what you are looking for into the search box at the top of the page. You will find that many questions can be answered quite quickly using that search feature.

I reiterate what so many people have said – use a thermometer when baking. It is astonishing how many ovens 'spike' – and I check every 15 minutes because the temperature changes. I read somewhere that to use one of the thermometers that has a liquid gauge rather than a dial (ironic eh – I sell the ones with the dial!) – they are more expensive but far more accurate. Link: amazon.com/Taylor-5921-00-Oven-Guide-Thermometer/dp/B00004XSCA/ref=pd_bxgy_k_img_b – they look like this, although the one I bought was far more expensive (can't remember where I bought it sorry) – the better your thermometer is the more reliable will be the bake. Oh, and I learned on a Donna Kato workshop that she always puts anything she bakes into a bed of baking powder – we are talking about an inch thick bed!

I had mentioned awhile back about a well known artist said cornstarch weakened the clay, you said you would have to do some tests. What did you find out? I have seen alot of people use a bed of cornstarch to bake in and it shows that white does not get dark using that method. Just let me know your findings. Lynn W.

@Penny: I like to bake on a bed of cornstarch too. It is important to bake your piece immediately after setting in the cornstarch though, so it doesn't absorb too much of the plasticizer and become brittle.

@Lynn: It will make the clay weaker, only if the raw clay sits on the cornstarch for a long period of time before baking. If you put the piece in the oven right away, there is no adverse effects at all!
.

Thank you for the Cornstarch tips, Cindy – I learned that the hard way having made some beads and sat them in the bed of cornstarch for a couple of days whilst making more (being pragmatic – get as much in the oven as I can) – what a disaster! brittle bits all over the place.

Does the small amount of cornstarch used for the final roll of the bead & the piercing interact with the clay if I let them sit for a few days before baking?

@Penny: It can be such a pain to learn the hard way, EH? Oh well. At least we can learn from our mistakes. :-)

@Rose: That is an excellent question! The small amount of cornstarch that you use to rub out fingerprints or do a final roll in, won't compromise the strength of your clay at all. It is just when it sits in a bed of it that it draws out the plasticizers.

@Elizabeth S.: I'm curious about the roaster you mentioned. Do you still use this baking method?

Does anyone else here use a roaster to bake their clay? My toaster oven sat in the garage for 5 years while I tried to recuperate, so it got pretty dirty. I cleaned it up as best I could, because it's a nice, good-sized oven. I still use it (I bake on the back patio, don't want to bring it inside.) But I have to be even more careful than usual with my light-colored clays. Now that summer's coming, I'd like to try another baking method. It'll get too hot outside for me to bake, and I'm a big sissy about the heat! A convection oven is unfortunately not in my price range, although I saw some really nice ones at Costco! So, I'm curious about this roaster idea…

Roasters, how's it going? :~O

Elizabeth, or anyone else, do you (still) use a roaster to cure your polymer clay?

@Phaedrakat
Hi Phaedrakat,

I may be the only clayer in the world who uses a roaster oven to bake my clay pieces, but I get beautiful results and so would never use anything else now. Maybe because there is no direct heating element and the heat is a surrounding heat, I never get burns and can leave the pieces baking way longer without worry. Just this morning I mixed some colors and put the sample discs for my recipe cards in to bake. I completely forgot about them (didn't set my oven timer) until about two hours later and when I finally retrieved them they were still color perfect. I also like the larger capacity. I can put a big ole dish of corn starch covered beads in it or larger pieces if I want to. Anyway, this is surely much more information than you asked for, and I want to add that this is what works for me and may not be the best method for everyone. Mine is a Nesco 18 qt. capacity roaster oven that I purchased at K-Mart for less than thirty dollars on sale.

Hugs, Elizabeth S.

@Elizabeth S.: No way, that's exactly what I wanted to hear and was hoping for — lots of info! I read your last comment about it and thought it sounded ideal for me. I think I'll give it a try, since I have another oven, just in case I only like it for certain things. If I find one on sale, I'll grab it up. Then we'll band together and spread the word! (just kidding) I do like the idea of there being no direct heating element. This is probably the next best thing to a convection oven (which I can't afford.) Thanks for getting back to me on this! Huggs back to you! :D

I've read several people post, describing their vigilant thermometer watch. I use a Sunbeam digital cooking thermometer. It has a programmable alert! So I can set it to sound an alarm if the temperature gets too high. I did a quick google search and it appears that some of the newer models also have a timer function. I couldn't find any posts on here mentioning this really convenient tool.

@Ella: That's the first I've heard, but it sounds great! I've done the vigilant watch many times. It would be really nice to walk away from the oven, knowing I'd be alerted if my oven's getting too hot! Thanks for posting this; I'm sure others will be glad to hear about this cool tool!

I agree that does sound that a very useful tool, Ella! Will have to put one on my To Buy list!