Polymer Clay on a Budget

The absolute “must haves” for polymer clay include the following:

• The clay itself-- It depends on the projects you have in mind, but a little clay can go a long way. You’ll need somewhere—-even just a few plastic bags—to store your leftovers between projects.
• A work surface-- A variety of materials will work-- anything from a ceramic tile, an acrylic board, or a pane of glass (with its edges taped over to prevent cuts) to a simple piece of wax paper taped down to a tabletop. You can even use paper, but you won’t want to leave the clay sitting on the paper for too long, as the plasticizer (the stuff that makes the clay soft) can leach into the paper and possibly damage whatever’s underneath.
• An oven in which to cure the clay-- An oven thermometer and a clay-dedicated cookie sheet, roasting pan, tile, etc. to put the clay on while it’s curing are necessary, and an oven mitt and oven timer are also useful.
• Cleaning supplies-- Rubbing alcohol works well for cleaning tools and surfaces after contact with polymer clay. Baby wipes are also very useful for this purpose.

These, along with your most valuable tools—your hands—represent the bare minimum of what you need to work with polymer clay. However, you'll find a few more tools very useful, as they are required for many techniques. Try to collect the following items, as well:

• Tissue blade(s)-- These are essential for some techniques, such as millefiori and mokume gane, but they’re also useful for anything that requires long, straight cuts. Tissue blades can be rigid or flexible. Some are even rippled or “wavy” (like corrugated steel). The non-rippled blade has a wider range of uses than the wavy blade.
• Craft knife-- Any small knife with a non-serrated blade will do, but craft knives with interchangeable blades are ideal. They serve a variety of purposes.
• Rolling tool -- You can use anything that will help you roll the clay into a flat sheet. Most people prefer an acrylic rod or brayer, but you can also use a straight-sided drinking glass or jar—or even a rolling pin.
• Pasta machine-- This is the next step up from an acrylic rod or brayer. You don’t have to have both tools, but if you can get them, they’re both nice to have. The pasta machine is preferable to rolling tools for producing sheets of clay of uniform thickness, making Skinner blends, and conditioning large amounts of clay.
• Piercing tool-- This is essential for bead-making (unless you want to drill the holes in your beads after they’ve been cured), but it can also be used by sculptors. You can use anything from a specially made bead reamer to a simple toothpick, skewer, knitting needle, or sewing needle. It is useful to have a selection of these tools in a variety of sizes.
• Finishing tools and materials--Depending on what you’re making, you may want a few supplies for finishing your work.
  • Sandpaper in a variety of grits smoothes slightly uneven surfaces.
  • A soft denim rag is the cheapest way to buff clay for a touch of shine, but you can also use a few different power tools to buff the clay.
  • For a higher shine, you may want to use a clay-friendly sealant.

Some tools are more useful for certain projects than others. For instance, a good tissue blade is crucial for getting nice, thin slices from millefiori canework. A tissue blade is less important in sculpting, where a set of rubber-tipped clay shapers (or "colour shapers", as they're sometimes called) might be more useful. Which tools or materials you personally will find most useful depends entirely upon what you want to do with the clay.

Carefully research what a tool or material is for before deciding whether or not to buy it. Look at project books or free tutorials to learn what tools are necessary for the techniques you most admire, and start with those that come up frequently.

The same goes for materials. While most clay-related materials are not hugely expensive, taken one by one, they can quickly add up if bought in quick succession. Instead, try to buy the materials that you think you'll use fairly often-- or the ones that you see mentioned in several projects or tutorials that you find interesting.

Sometimes, you can find or make your own tools as a cheaper alternative to purchasing specialty items from the arts and crafts store. A toothpick or bamboo skewer works just as well as a store-bought piercing tool, for instance. You can also use found objects around the house or yard as inclusions or texturizers. (Just remember the safety rules—once an item’s been in contact with polymer clay, it’s best to not use it again for preparing, serving, or consuming food. Or in other words, no grating the Gouda with the same cheese grater that you've used for shredding the clay.)

Don't be afraid to make substitutions. If a project calls for Material A, but you only have Materials B and C, it may be possible to tweak the technique. Assuming that Materials B and C are clay-friendly, you may be able to use one of them instead of Material A. (An excellent example of this is mokume gane, which can be made in a seemingly endless number of ways, with a large number of materials.) You never know when you might happen upon the next big thing.

Most of the tools and “extra” materials now commonly used with polymer clay were not originally intended for that purpose. Someone had an idea, tested it, and spread the word to other polymer clay artists and hobbyists. Feel free to experiment with what you already have, if you can’t afford to buy what everyone else is using. If no one ever played around with new combinations, we wouldn't have the wonderful diversity of polymer clay techniques we currently enjoy.

If you’re concerned about the price of the clay itself, one way to cut down on initial costs is to mix your own colors. Many people actually prefer to mix their own colors in order to create their own personal palette. Mixing your own colors gives you a greater degree of control and exponentially increases the number of tints and shades available to you.

You should be able to mix just about any color you want from three basic colors: turquoise, magenta (sometimes labeled “fuchsia”), and zinc (“lemony”) yellow. (You can also start with any other “version” of blue, red, and yellow you prefer. Turquoise, magenta, and lemon yellow are reported to create the purest colors.) In addition to these three basic colors, you’ll probably also want white, black, and translucent clay.

If you’re planning to use a fair amount of a particular color that’s not easy to mix (certain tans and browns can be difficult, for instance), you may find it worth your time to go ahead and buy that color “ready mixed”. You can always tweak it a bit to get the desired shade, but it’s faster and easier to start with a base that’s near your target color.

In a similar vein, if you’re finding it a headache to mix your own colors from the three primaries, try starting with a rainbow of colors and mixing from there. You can still limit the number of colors you buy, but you’ll save yourself some annoyance. You should be having fun with the clay.

There are also specialty clays, such as mica clays (most commonly available in gold, silver, and pearl), glow-in-the-dark clay, glitter clay, eraser clay, flexible clay, liquid clay, and faux stone clay. These can produce very interesting effects and are certainly worth a look.

Once you have your basic supplies gathered together, you’ll probably be looking for some information and inspiration. There are a variety of resources available— many of them are even free.

Free resources:

• Your local library-- Check your local library system for polymer clay-related books and videos. You can also try an interlibrary loan, if your system doesn’t have much to offer.
• Online tutorials-- Use a search engine to locate free tutorials. There are plenty of them out there, including the tutorials here at Polymer Clay Web.
• Free video clips online-- Visit our list of links to free polymer clay demos.
• Polymer clay-related websites-- There are a number useful websites full of information relating to polymer clay. Visit our list of general links for a start.
• Discussion groups and forums-- Find an online e-mail group or forum where you can chat about polymer clay, share photos of your latest work, ask for advice, and maybe even make some new friends. These are great places for “newbies” to get almost instant feedback and support from more experienced clayers.