{"id":4082,"date":"2009-05-14T03:39:16","date_gmt":"2009-05-14T10:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=4082"},"modified":"2009-05-13T16:59:54","modified_gmt":"2009-05-13T23:59:54","slug":"cornstarch-and-polymer-clay-beads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/cornstarch-and-polymer-clay-beads\/4082\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornstarch and Polymer Clay Beads | Things That Belong Together"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/2009-05\/14-cornstarch-polymer-clay-beads-2009-02-22-012-(009-4).jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Baking Polymer Clay Beads In Cornstarch\" hspace=\"0\" vspace=\"0\" width=\"250\" height=\"188\" align=\"left\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Wondering if Alex Trebek Ever Used this as a TV Game Show Category on Jeopardy&#8230; <em>LOL<\/em>:<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Last week I posted an informal survey asking for feedback about your favorite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/bead-polymer-clay-tools-survey\/3988\/\">polymer clay tools<\/a> and supplies. However, after a total of 23 comments, no<\/span><!--more--><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"> one brought up cornstarch as a contender. <em>Shocking <\/em>;) !!! OK I&#8217;m not surprised. I mean it&#8217;s hard to get really excited about something that most people use in kitchen recipes for thickening sauces.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">But cornstarch does actually have a lot of valuable uses in many polymer clay techniques. Here are just a few of them:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Dust your fingers with cornstarch to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/fingerprints-polymer-clay-beads\/93\/\">avoid leaving fingerprints on polymer clay beads<\/a>. You can also rub it on raw clay surfaces to remove fingerprints that did end up getting left behind.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Cornstarch makes an excellent release agent for rubber stamps, texture plates, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/making-molds-for-polymer-clay-beads\/3969\/\">polymer clay molds<\/a>, etc. Dust lightly on the surface you don&#8217;t want your clay to stick to. The powder will wash off with water after baking.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Poke your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/making-lentil-bead-holes-using-piercing-wire\/50\/\">bead piercing wire<\/a> into some cornstarch before you pierce your beads and you will find it enters the raw clay much easier. Don&#8217;t forget to coat your other fingers holding the bead, in order to prevent fingerprints.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Baking your beads in and under cornstarch like in the photo at the beginning of this post, is a great way to protect and support fragile beads during baking. A covering layer of cornstarch will also keep the color of your beads brighter and more true. However, don&#8217;t rest raw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/baking-beads-on-cornstarch\/87\/\">beads in cornstarch<\/a> for too long before baking. The powder may leach some of the plasticizers from the clay and cause weakness.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">What else do you use cornstarch for in your bead making or craft studio?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/cindy-sig.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Cindy Lietz Signature\" width=\"114\" height=\"99\" align=\"right\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/polymer-clay-tutor.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Polymer Clay Tutor\" width=\"200\" height=\"26\" align=\"right\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wondering if Alex Trebek Ever Used this as a TV Game Show Category on Jeopardy&#8230; LOL: Last week I posted an informal survey&#8230;&nbsp;<span class=\"cmtcnt\">47<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19],"tags":[2590,92,528,1761],"class_list":["post-4082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-handling","category-supplies","tag-holes","tag-fingerprints","tag-release-agents","tag-releases-cornstarch-baking-soda-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}