Sculpey Polymer Clay Tutorials – Baking Sculpey Clay Without Burning

Have you ever burned some Fimo or Sculpey Polymer Clay before? Care to share your story?

I've not baked anything yet but I once worked in a plastics factory & the smell made me sick so I din't stay there for long.

Andrea, do you mean you haven't burned anything yet? You have baked your stuff, haven't you?

Nope,not baked anything yet,as I'm just experementing mixing colours.

Don't be too afraid to jump right in… You will learn the fastest by making mistakes. Trust me I've made tons of mistakes!

Hi again,
I haven't done anything yet and I already have my first question. I've been said at the shop where I bought my material that polymer clay can be toxic if you "over-cook" it and that even if I do everything correctly, it is advisable to thoroughly clean the oven after using it (they told me that people that do stuff very frequently buy a little oven just for that). As I'm a beginner I'm going to use the oven I use to cook and I'm a bit worried. I've also been said that there is another place where you can take your pieces on a tray and you get them "baked" for a quite reasonable price ($1'5-2'5, depending on the number of pieces). It's 4 minutes walking from my house so it wouldn't be a problem to go. My question is if I can design pieces throughout a week, for example, leave them in a tray and at the end of the week take them all together to the shop or if the clay will get damaged and I should "bake" them as I finish them. Thanks a lot.
Hugs.

I have made these cute little sheep but parts of them have stayed white and other parts have turned this transparent white. I have no idea how to fix this problem. Do I cook them at a higher heat or longer to get them uniform. I am very frustrated. This is my second batch and I do not know how to fix the problem.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.

I think some translucent clay has gotten accidentally mixed up with your white clay. Translucent clay looks white when it is unbaked but 'clears' slightly when it bakes.

Try a new batch of white polymer clay to be certain this is the problem. Also make sure to thoroughly mix your clay before using to ensure the pigments are properly distributed and the clay is well conditioned.

To 'fix' your otherwise cute sheep, just paint over them with white acrylic paint or antique them for whole new look.

Cindy

Thanks so much for the reply. I am now a little more educated on this subject.

Kristi

You're welcome Kristi! Let me know how it goes.

Hi Cindy,

I took a favorite letter opener and wrapped the plastic handle on it with a "quilt" of cane slices…my dove with a rose in it's mouth if you recall the picture of that cane I sent to you. Anyway, I baked it for about an hour thinking I would make sure the clay would be nice and hard when completed. Well, I did not think about the plastic that I was covering. Sadly, the whole letter opener on one end was just a melted mess. I still use the letter opener…it is a reminder to me to really think about a new project and all that is involved in it (like plastic) before putting it in the oven LOL! As time goes on, and as I use the letter opener more and more, the pattern of the dove is coming clearer through the dark mangled mess…I guess the design somehow survived some of the scorching that it took after all :)

Some day if you put up a page for us to send in our photos to share with each other, I will send a picture of the letter opener in to help people see what NOT to do :)

Hugs to you, Cindy E.

Oh gosh Cindy E. that's too bad!! If I had a penny for all the mistakes I have made like that, I would be rich! Things to learn from though… Thank you for sharing your story.

I do recall your dove cane. It is very pretty. Maybe you can get a metal letter opener and put some of the cane on that instead. Do keep those photos for a member's gallery page. Hopefully we will be able to set one up when we have the time!

Hi Cindy!

Thanks for the video on burnt clay! I had experienced that, that is, before I viewed your new video. Where were you!!! Ha! Ha! I had made some really neat colored cabochons, in special shapes, and placed them on a metal tray, within my toaster oven — no thermometer/no parchment. Had timed this with my microwave, but never did check on it during baking. Must say, the obvious way (for me) to know that this clay was burning was the pungent odor. It affected me terribly with my Asthma and COPD. Anyway, the coloration changed from a gorgeous Fall colored pallette, toooo rusttt. After it cooled, (in exasperation) I tossed it. Anyway, after it was tossed I was angry at myself, because my right-brain had kicked in — Raku tap the rust with metallic, acryllic paints of Fall colors. Too bad, so sad, goneeee!!!! Just think Cindy, I could have had some gorgeous Raku beads, from those burnt beads. Ah well! Decided after that time to — 1. To precisely follow directions, until I was accustomed to working with new techniques. 2. To keep an eye on my clay, so that it had less chance of burning; and 3. To keep smiling, because we always learn from our mistakes, because they often come gift-wrapped. Ahem! My words of wisdom: None of us have the capacity to change what has happened, however, we can learn and build on it. So, I go with all three (3), and say, "Smile, and have Fun!".

Regards,

Diana

how do i cook clay? i have this sculpey stuff and theres no instructions on how to do it what temperature? how long?

Nick what you should do is click on the link beside my name called Baking Polymer Clay Beads to find several links on baking polymer clay beads.

In general, I bake Sculpey at 265 degrees for an hour for the best results. Do read the articles for on the best way to bake your clay, though.

Hi Cindy. I told ya I'd be lurking didnt I? LOL! Anyhoo, have I ever burned any clay? Oh boy, you betcha!! A loooong long time ago, I was making some faux ivory/bone beads and I worked for hours texturing and getting them all just right. Then I popped them in my nice "new" oven, set my timer, and went off to do other things. Well to make a long story short, my timer never got a chance to go off because the cloud of smoke in my kitchen called me first. Whooo what a stink! I pulled the tray out quick and dashed them outside and spent 2 hours airing out my house. That taught me to never trust an oven you havent tested first. Then I inspected the beads and found a strange result. Only one side had really burned badly. All rough and charred looking and very dark brown. But the side facing down to the tray had only turned a darker ivory color with no bubbling. And the pattern of texturing could be seen all around the bead still, even on the burned side. To me they looked very much like carved bone that had been in a fire. Really old and kind of mysterious. So I kept them and made a bracelet that still gets me comments on what they are and where I got them. Not a technique I would recommend repeating though. I too have COPD and asthma, and it was not a good thing to experience at all. Now I have a countertop convection oven dedicated to clay only, and the temp stays right where I set it. Plus I always use an oven thermometer since that day.
XOXO Jamie

It's wonderful to have you lurking around Jamie! (Love being able to see your face in your avatar now too!)

That's is called serendipity when something wonderful comes about like that. Something that came from a mistake can sometimes be the most wonderful. Just ask some parents. :-)

I agree about the thermometer use. Nothing can be more frustrating than having something burn and not turn out cool looking!

I always check my thermometer before baking any polymer clay piece. (I even check now when I bake cookies in my regular oven. Turns out my home oven is 50 degrees too hot! No wonder everything was burning on the outside and raw on the inside!)

First of all, sorry for my English, I hope I can express myself well enough so you understand me.
I have a huge problem that I don't know how to solve. Bubbles appear on my beads when I cook them, and they get burned and they smell like burned plastic just 3-4 minutes after I put them in the oven. Can it be because I mix different brands of clay? I use sculpey, fimo and clay color. I am fairly new to polymerclay, but that had never happened to me before, even though I mixed the brands.
I tried to put some pieces in the oven again, this time lowering the temperature, but it happened the same thing. I usually bake them at 248ºF (120ºC), as it says in the package, but this last time I lowered to 212F and they got burned again. My oven has no lower temp.
Help me please, I was very excited with polymer and all its possibilities, but now all my pieces are burning and I am very sad about it.
thank you

cindy, i'm doing some intricately detail sculpting on a small scale piece and am having problems not fudging up the detail while working other areas. this sculpture won't be the final artwork, just a master to be used to make a mold so as to duplicate it many times. my question is can i bake the main form and then add more details and rebake the entire sculpture?
steve

Hi Steve, that is an excellent question! Yes you can bake your whole sculpture over and over. That is the beauty of sculpting with polymer clay! You can bake you base sculpture, add details and bake again, as many times as you like.

I like to bake my beads (which are tiny in comparison to most sculpted pieces) for at least an hour. This ensures that it has been properly cured at the proper temperature.

I have linked by my name to an article about baking for long periods of time.

There are many articles in regards to baking polymer clay on this site that would be helpful when baking your sculpted works. Just type words like: baking, bake, baked, burnt, scorched, oven, thermometer, etc into the search box at the top of the page to find them.

Hope that helps!

Hi, I'm a newbie here and was wondering… I used FIMO and when making it had no odor. Last night I used Premo which I like a lot more, but when I baked it had a sort of orangish smell. Is that normal or did I bake it wrong?

Also, I have my toaster oven on my kitchen table. Is it ok to bake there or should I bake way in the garage? It is the whole toxic fume thing I keep reading about that worries me.

Besides that I love polymer clay and am glad I joined your site. Thank you for any advice that you can give.