March 18, 2008
Re-Baking Polymer Clay Will Not Harm Your Beads
Tip #39: Here's A Good Reason Why You Might Want to Bake Your Polymer Clay Beads More Than Once:
It's absolutely OK to bake your clay beads as many times as you like. This won't damage them at all. In fact, baking in multiple stages is a good way to add layered design elements that would otherwise be difficult to do on a soft unbaked bead in only one step. 
>> Re-Baking Polymer Clay <<
"Re-Baking Your Beads" Video Description: The full version of this tutorial is available in my Beads and Beading Membership Club. Re-baking polymer clay is an excellent way to add new design elements to your beads. I'll often create a base bead using scrap clay and then then bake it hard before layering on some delicate cane slices. In this video I discuss this technique in more detail.
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Filed under 07: Cane Work, 10: Finishing by Cindy Lietz
Comments on Re-Baking Polymer Clay Will Not Harm Your Beads »
Baking beads in stages is also a good way to avoid smooshing one part of the bead while adding on another. For example on a dimensional bead such as one covered in 3-D flowers… You can bake the base bead; add the flowers on; and then bake again. You may event want to add some vines in a separate stage and bake it again.
Being able to re-bake your beads means that a lot more options are available to you. As a creative person, I always think that more options the better!
HELP ..My clay is still soft after baking ! What am i doing wrong? Baked a bead and a 1/4 inch flat circle .I baked at 275 and then 278 using SculpeeII (as pack indicates )clay for 30 min.
Hi Janet, Your oven is probably not holding the temperature consistently for the whole time and the polymers in the clay are not bonding properly. Bake your clay for 1 hr instead of 30 min. This will help dramatically!
You can also read this article about polymer clay baking times for more info that might help you out.