Premo, Fimo Classic, Fimo Soft and Sculpey III, all for a buck a block:
Yesterday was my lucky day… Michael’s had their 2oz polymer clay blocks on sale for less than what you can usually find them for on eBay. And the ebay polymer clay is sold as is, often with open packages and missing clay. I’m so excited! I just had to take a picture. It may not look like it, but there are 100 brand new packages of michaels polymer clay all piled up in the photo (nicely sorted by color categories of course :-).
Up here in Canada, we can pay up to $5.99 per 2oz block for some of the special effects polymer clays and $4.65 for the regular Premo! Sculpey and Fimo brands. At those prices, it can really add up… like 5 times as much!
So when clay is a buck, you gotta buy lots! I got mostly Premo clay but also threw in a few blocks of Fimo Classic, Fimo Soft and a couple of Sculpey III translucent (gasp… sculpey iii is my least favorite of all the polymer clay brands) since most of the Premo Translucent was already gone.
How fun is that, filling up your basket with clay! Chucking it in their as fast as I could find the colors and brands I wanted. Some old guy came over, whistling away, pretending he was interested in clay. Probably just waiting for his wife and wanted to see what the heck I was filling my basket with!
At the till, I was as polite as I could be… letting three ladies ahead of me with their purchases, knowing that my order would take a while to ring up. But one lady did end up getting stuck behind me she got all annoyed. "What is that stuff any ways? Why do you need so much of it? I’ll know next time, not to get behind you." (She must have forgotten she was Canadian and was supposed to be more polite than that :-)
How was I to know that the cashier would have to scan each and every package. Or that some of the UPC bar codes wouldn’t scan properly because of squished packaging. Maybe the impatient lady would have preferred that I wait until the store was completely empty before I rang out. Hey I did let the first 3 ladies through and this 4th impatient one came well after the cashier got started on my purchase. So I didn’t let her bring me down.
Any who… do you know why I need all this clay? It’s because I’m putting together some new polymer clay cane tutorials and instructions. Any one have any specific design requests? Let me know if you do in the comments section below.
BTW, if you did not read my June 12 blog post yet, you might want to check it out. In it I talk about the rose petal bead tutorial that I’ll be sending out later today, free for everyone on my polymer clay tutor guest list.
I to love to $1.00 sale at michaels which meant I bought 2 of every fimo & sculpey premo. which means I’m stocked up for a little while but not long!
I know what you mean Abby… just when you think you’ll have enough clay to last you for awhile… you start using it and poof!… it’s gone!
Cindy’s last post..Making Jewelry with Handmade Polymer Clay Leaf Beads
$1.00 days this week again starting tomorrow untill august the 2nd count me in again. what can I say, I’m a greedy polymer clay artist!LOL
Thank you Abby for the heads up!!
Cindy Lietz’s last blog post..Slicing Fimo Nail Art Canes | Sculpey Polymer Clay Cake Toppers
Not fair, the UK dosn’t have a Michaels,anyone over here know of the cheapest apart from ebay?
Hi Cindy … well its almost May 2009, and sadly I think that Michael’s clay sale last summer was the last one!
My guild members and I have been faithfully watching and all that ever goes on sales is Sculpey III which is the bottom of the quality ratings for clay :( I’m starting to think that poly clayer from all over North America should write to Michael’s and say “PRETTY PLEASE for a Fimo & Premo clay sale!”
I’m afraid you may be right Elsie! Makes me wish I had driven to every store in the Province to get every last block! I wonder if begging Michaels would help! ;-)
After almost a year, Michael’s is having a 4 for $5 sale which includes Fimo and Premo Scuplpey. Follow the link by my name above for more info.
Yeah … I saw that too! So where do you live Cindy? Which half of BC do you want …. lol :)
The bottom half! ;-)
I was camping in Chilliwack since Thursday, so Saturday A.M. I made a bee-line for Michael’s in Abbotsford. They had LOTS of clay, so I stocked up and went back to the campground a “happy camper” :)
Whaaaaaat, I am Canadian and never hear about 1$ clay sales at Michaels. I live in Toronto. I thought they only do the 1$ clay sales in the U.S!
OH! OH! OH! I took a look and it turns out that the Michaels in Mississauga, Etobicoke, and Markham, Ontario (the ones nearest to me) is having a 4 for 5$ sale with all their clay from May 23rd til May 29th! HOORAH!
Hi Kimberly … Canadian Michael’s would have fairly regular polymer clay sales … approx every 6-8 weeks or so. Sale prices ranged from 99 cents or $1.29 or $1.49. For some reason last June they stopped, until just this week! Yay!
If I go into Michaels here in Ontario in the midst of their sale, should I get my hopes up? It’s an hour drive from here and the sale started on the 23rd of May, and I am going tomorrow, the 26th of May… do they stock up on clay once for this sale, and than that’s it? Or do they restock as the sale goes on? I’ve only been to Michaels once, and this one is really out of the way so it isn’t THAT busy.
OH! And do you know if Michaels carries the 2oz Premo packs of FROST (their bleached Translucent) or do they just carry translucent?
Do you think they would be offended if I called ahead of time, before I go, and ask them how their stock of Premo is doing? Heh heh hehhhh…
You can always get a raincheck for colours that are sold out. No, they don’t carry Premo Frost in 2 oz packages. I’ve always found Fimo translucent to be the most translucent out of all clays if you want to give that a try. Happy shopping.
Hi Cindy,
I’m relatively new here and am thoroughly enjoying it. I have a request, or maybe you might have it here somewhere, I tried searching but couldn’t find any tutorial or anything on it, but I would love to see a tutorial on landscape canes, like the ocean and clouds and things.
warmly,
Karen
@Karen: Hi Karen — Welcome! Cindy hasn’t done a Landscape Cane tute yet (you can click on Member Video Library at the top to see the back issue tutorials she’s already done.) But she does take requests, at least she keeps a list of things we’ve asked to see. The more interest people show by requesting and talking about these topics, the more inclined she is to make one.
I’m pretty sure Landscape Canes (with the ocean, clouds, trees, etc.) have been requested before, but it helps to bring it up again. I can mention it on a more current thread if you like, so people can offer feedback and show their interest in it. Since this page is kind of old, it doesn’t get as much traffic for people to give their opinions. Or you could do it, and I’ll “back you up”! :~) I think it would be a fun tutorial, too. To go to the most current page, just click on “Home” (top of pg.) You’ll get the list of posts, most recent date first.
Good luck! Please don’t hesitate to ask any other questions you might have…
~Kat
HI Kat,
THANKS for the kind welcome!
Yes, please do mention it on another thread where others will respond too!! :o) I will be among those who respond to it as well!!!!!
thanks!
Karen
@Karen: Hi again! I posted it on the Zebra Cane Video Preview page. I mentioned my interest, and invited others to show theirs. We’ll see how it goes! Sometimes people love ideas, and sometimes they don’t. (Be prepared…LOL) Either way, Cindy will put it on her list, and eventually her creative brain will do something cool with it and “BAM”, a tute will be born.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it here. Are you a member, or just looking around absorbing it all? I know that’s what I did, for a long time before I finally decided to join (I later kicked myself for waiting so long!) I’m from Riverside, CA — US. Where are you from? This place is quite the international community; it’s always interesting finding out where people are from. Anyway, “see” ya later! ~Kat
Hi Kat,
Yes I am a member and have just recently joined. I’m from East Texas. I didn’t know this group was International, how interesting it will be to read from people all over the world creating with polymer clay! I haven’t spent very much time reading alot here, like the blog yet due to being busy and my computer is acting very slow lately. I am trying to find out if there’s a way to make my computer work faster, otherwise it’s not as much fun to use. :(
Well, talk to you and everyone else later! :o)
Karen
@Karen: I’m very sorry about your computer. That can make you crazy! I’ve had a slight loss of speed lately myself. I made a change in my plan that was supposed to speed things up, but the opposite happened. I’ll be checking into it by calling my provider tomorrow.
In case you didn’t know, Cindy is from Canada — Vancouver, BC. So this is actually a Canadian blog, although there are groups of “regulars” from the UK, Australia, and of course, the US. Because of the time differences, there’s almost always someone “here” if you have a question or something. (FYI, the blog’s time zone is the same as our Pacific Daylight Time, 2 hrs behind you.) It’s really fun creating with polymer clay, knowing that other members around the world are participating with you! Anyway, I’ll see ya around. Next video tute is the Zebra Cane — looks pretty cool!
Enjoy! ~Kat
It absolutely makes you crazy!!! Usually a computer lasts me about 3 yrs but I’m trying to get this one to last. I read that you need to uninstal programs that you don’t use, and also, I had installed IE 8 almost a month ago and I noticed it “seemed” to make my computer slower, so I found out to uninstall IE 8 on a Windows Vista I needed to unistall the Update, is what it’s called, so I did that and went back to IE 7 which works better to me, so it really seems to. I don’t know for certain about that, and maybe it’s just uninstalling that and other programs as well that’s helped, but it’s better now. :)
Oh how neat that Cindy is from Canada, lots of nice people are from there.
Well now that my computer is moving faster I can enjoy reading and learning more and when the Zebra Cane video comes out I’ll be able to actually see it! Yeaaaaaaa!!!
Karen
I just wrote a comment and it “poofed” away, I’m not sure why, except that I’ve uninstalled things on my pc to make it work better. AND I think it’s when I upgraded to IE8 about 3 weeks ago is what the culprit is. For some reason it made my pc slower and it added additional things for the browser, options that I really didn’t need. It also made parts of the URL of web sites to fade or gray out, which was wierd. But now it’s back to normal. By the way, the IE8 upgrade is actually a Windows Update and you have to uninstall the Update, not a Program, on Windows VISTA, which I have, to remove it, but on XP you unistall a Program I believe. ANYWAY, my pc is faster now and I’m going to enjoy visiting more pages on this web site and I’m looking forward to the Zebra Cane video – Yeah!
Karen
where can i buy polymer clay im from the phillippines? pls help… tnx
@Ingrid Oro: Hi Ingrid, and welcome! I’m from Riverside, California, USA…it’s so nice to meet another clayer from the Philippines! There are (or at least there were) other clayers from there, too. I do not think they mentioned where they get their clay, though. There’s a search box at the top of each page you can use to find information…that’s probably going to help you quite a bit.
You could try searching on a couple names: Sarah Young & Grace Reyes have both mentioned they’re from the Philippines. If you can get their attention, you might get them to ‘give up their sources!’ :D Find a page where they’ve posted a lot, and reply to them with a request…like you did on this page. If they’ve checked the “Notify me…” box, they’ll get an email and see your comment. You could try this one — Sarah posted a question on it a couple months back. Hopefully a reply at this ‘Polymer Clay Finishes‘ post will get her attention.
You can also post your request on a more current thread. Tomorrow’s article will get you better visibility…more people will see it and your chances of getting some good info will be vastly improved! I hope this helps you…if you don’t get some answers or feedback, then maybe Cindy will have some better ideas to help you! Best of luck, Kat :-)
PS: Everyone at this site is extremely helpful…don’t worry, & feel free to join right in with your comments and questions!
Can anyone help me find out where to get clay in Ireland? My husband’s cousin is visiting us and she was amazed by the jewelry I have made. I assume the easiest clay for her to get is Fimo, correct? She is anxious to start creating ASAP!
@Maria: I am so sorry for missing this! It has been pretty hectic around here and even though I read this awhile ago, o forgot to get back to you. I am not sure the best place to get polymer clay in Ireland. Maybe some of our guys from England will be able to help. The clay I use most is Premo Sculpey but Fimo is good too if that is easier to find. Penny from clayaround.com in England has a website that carries many of the clays and supplies I use so that may also be an option for you. Hopefully someone from ‘across the pond’ can be of better help.
Is it still $1 in 9/12/12 in the USA? Plz answer
Hi Nataly, I do believe that Michaels often still has the 99 cent sales on clay in the united states. Here in Canada we just recently had a 4 for $5 sale on Premo which made it $1.25 per pack. Although I can’t tell you if they will have another sale like that soon, I have noticed they seem to happen every month or two, so keep an eye for them, or ask an employee if they know when the sales on clay tend to happen. Good luck!
Hi
Any body can help me to find polymer clay in Calgary??? Thanks
@Narsis
Michaels Arts & Crafts!
When was this
Hi Clole,the original sale was back in 2008 but there is usually a clay sale at Michaels every 6 weeks or so.
clay is on sale at Micheals this week, and I rec’d a 25% off all including sale in my email good for today and tomorrow only.
It is sooooo expensive up here isn’t it! Especially in Ontario ! Especially when you don’t drive and live in a small town ;( In My Perfect World, they’d have those $1day polymer fimo sculpey whatever clays by oz, ON LINE with affordable shipping rates–just once a month! I’d have to rent a bigger apartment but I’d be happier having my hands on some easy affordable much desired clay via online purchase! Until then, I’ll be lookin for an email from Michaels for the next $1-days clay (& a ride;) LOL LOVE your site and look forward to taking my first course in October :D
I am originally from Australia and use to buy through my supplier in AU. Since moving to CA… …. is Michaels the only place to buy FIMO?
Michaels has their own brand of polymer clay – I haven’t tried it yet… has anyone else that can add some input please?
Thanks
Hi Lollka, I am not that familiar with what the stores in the US carry as far as brands, so hopefully someone else will chime in on that one for you. But in regards to the Michaels brand of polymer clay called Craftsmart… don’t buy that one. It is an inferior product and is a waste of money. Buy Premo or Fimo instead. It is worth the extra cost.
sorry – CA is california right – LOL! I’m in CANADA. My fault…. thanks for the reply. Much appreciated :-D
Hi Cindy,
I am quite new to polymer clay, and have been following you on Facebook and YouTube.
Since you are Canadian, could you advise me where is the best place to order polymer clay products, here in Canada, at reasonable prices and reasonable shipping. I have ordered a few items from the USA, but WHOA!!!! the shipping costs are killing me.
Thank you.
Therese
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec
Hi Therese, to be quite honest I have not had to buy my own polymer clay for a few years now. Because of my large exposure, companies have been sending me product for reviews and testing, enough that I have plenty on hand. In a pinch, I just run into Michaels for a couple of blocks. If you don’t have a Michaels near you, and want to order online, try Shadesofclay, run by Wendy Orlowski. She is a Canadian Polymer Clay Artist, and I believe her shipping costs are reasonable. Hopefully this helps!
Thanks for getting back to me Cindy.
You do work hard getting your reviews out there, so YEAH!!! for you that companies provide you with product.
Whenever Michaels have coupons for 45% off or more I stock up, but they don’t have a lot of choice, especially for the 1 lb blocks of Premo.
This Friday, they have a 50% off coupon, so I will have to take advantage. Just will have to go back and forth, in and out of the store several times. They won’t let me buy more than 2 items per visit at the cash with 1 coupon.
Have a great day, week, month, year and life.
Therese
Have a great day, week, month, year and life too! :)