Roll Polymer Clay Into a Flat Sheet Using Bamboo Skewers
Vid #27: And You Thought Bamboo Skewers Were Just For Roasting Yummy Stuff on the Barbecue:
This tip is for anyone who is getting started with polymer clay but does not have a pasta machine yet.
When you need to roll out a flat sheet of Fimo or Sculpey for making pendants, lay down barbecue skewers or chopsticks on either side of your piece of already conditioned polymer clay.
These skewers work great as guides to run your acrylic roller on top of in order to control the thickness of the flat polymer clay sheet.
>> Polymer Clay Tutorials <<
The full version of the "Rolling Flat Sheets Of Clay" preview video shown above, is included in my Polymer Clay Bead Making Fundamentals Course [SEE Video #23 of 39]. It has some valuable lessons for beginners who don't yet have a pasta machine or some of the other basic polymer clay tools.
Filed Under: 02: Tools, 05: Techniques by Comment. 
Leave a Comment
Comments on Roll Polymer Clay Into a Flat Sheet Using Bamboo Skewers
6:33 am
Hi Cindy!
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. I was pleased to hear that you found the information on swaps useful!! :)
Thanks!
France
5:21 pm
You're welcome France you have some lovely stuff on your blog. Thank you as well for stopping by!
5:59 pm
In the tuorial mentioned above, I demonstrate how to roll clay using an acrylic roller. However, you could also use a straight-sided thick glass vase as an alternative. But be careful. It should go without saying that glass can break and cut you.
Besides using flat sheets of clay for making pendants, you can also use them for making striped canes and checkerboard canes.
Cindy's last blog post..The Difference Between Marbling Polymer Clay and Mixing It
1:09 pm
Cindy, do you think it's OK to run clay with flower petal inclusions through the pasta machine? Thanks!
1:51 pm
Marsha, it should be OK if you use a thicker setting and the flower petals are very soft and in small pieces. If there are crunchy bits or thick globs of petals in your clay, I wouldn't risk scratching your pasta machine or pushing the rollers out of alignment with it.
5:12 am
Hi Cindy,
The amount of info is overwhelming! I think my pieces have been under baked. I buried them in cornstarch but didn't cook for a longer time. I'm wondering if they could go back in the oven.
What do you think?
5:57 pm
@Kayak Sue: Hi! Yes, you're probably right that they are underbaked; but yes, you can certainly put them back in the oven! Most things can be baked for an hour at 265F/130C. Burying in cornstarch shields your items from the heat a bit, so if you did not add more time, then it's very likely they're underbaked. You can take items in and out of the oven multiple times, as long as your oven is not too hot. Make sure that you use an oven thermometer to monitor the temperature. Lots of ovens are off by a few degrees, so this is a very important part of baking clay.
To give you the best advice, it would help to know what kind of pieces you're baking, what kind of clay you used, how long you baked it (and at what temp.?) etc. Hopefully, though, the info above will help you get your project fully baked. Here is an article with lots of polymer clay baking information, as well as links to other baking articles (including those about baking with cornstarch.)
Also, don't forget you can also use the search box at the top left side of the page to find advice on any topic — just type in a word or two and you'll get a list of articles on that topic. Good luck with your project, and I hope I was able to help you. If not, leave a comment with your project details, and Cindy or someone can help you further.
7:59 pm
Great advice Phaedrakat! Couldn't have said it better myself!