March 18, 2008
Re-Baking Polymer Clay Will Not Harm Your Beads
Vid #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.
>> Polymer Clay Tutorials <<
The full version of the "Re-Baking Your Beads" preview video shown above, is included in my Polymer Clay Bead Making Fundamentals Course [SEE Video #36 of 39]. 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. I discuss this technique in more detail in the video.
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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.
Hello again. Recently while making some flat clay cookie cutter pieces for my christmas tree, i discovered that sometimes the clay would curl slightly and not lay flat. I wondered what to do to keep things flat. I found an eye pillow I had made some time ago using flax seeds for filling. This worked great when placed on the item right out of the oven. I have used this a number of times now and it works fine for me. Just thought you might find it useful. Thanks!
dori
That is a cool idea Dori! I bet that works really well for preventing the edges from curling up!
When I bake flat sheets, I bake them in a Ceramic Tile Sandwich. It not only keeps them flat but also helps to prevent air bubbles and funny gaps on the back. You can click the link by my name to go to an article about that.
Hi Cindy, Christine from UK. I was wondering if you could recommend a pen that I can use to write names or words on a polymer bead after baking and before varnishing. I am tempted to use pencil lol but any tips would be great, something that will not fade in the long run. I have not tried normal pen ink as it might smudge it. Thanks for your time, Christine.
Hi Christine! Gel pens work pretty well with baked polymer clay, if you can get the ink to flow. It is not a bad idea to pop it back into the oven after you've written on the clay, so the ink can heat set.
As far as finishes, I've only tried Future Floor Finish with the gel pen and it works great without smudging as long as it is heat set. I would test it if you want to try a different finish though, since I can't tell you for absolute sure if it will work or not.
Click the link by my name for more info on Future Floor Finish.
Can you please let me know if it's possible to bake Fimo and then attach an unbaked piece and re-bake the first bit again too. This is probably really a silly question but I haven't used it yet and want to know if I can make 'bits' at different times. If this is possible how many times can one piece be safely baked and re-baked. Thank you very much for your time. Caroline.
No that is not a silly question at all Caroline!
Yes you can bake a piece as many times as you like. You can add more clay and re-bake over and over until your project is done. Many sculptors do that so they don't ruin something that is perfect (like a nose on a face) while their working on something else (like the ears).
For more info on baking, click the link by my name.