Polymer clay - a convenient and practical material for creativity

Polymer clay is widely used in the manufacture of author's jewelry and souvenirs of small size. Its properties allow you to create miniature products with the finest details. It can be produced colorless or colored in different colors. In addition, sometimes special substances are added to the polymer clay to give the products transparency, metallic luster or pearlescent divorce. Some of its types can glow in the dark.

Distinguish self-curing and thermosetting (baked) polymer clay. The first loses its plastic properties at room temperature during the day, the second - at a temperature above 100 degrees Celsius for 15-30 minutes. Products made of polymer clay after curing or baking in a special oven or oven (at home) can be painted in the right color, and, if necessary, to connect their individual parts with glue.

To work with this material you will need special tools. This is, above all, the working surface. It should be made of glass or plastic, the use of a wooden surface is undesirable. If possible, it's better to buy a modeling board in a specialized shop. It will ease the kneading of clay mini-rolls of glass or metal (you can use improvised materials, for example, a piece of kitchen railing). You will also need cutting tools of different sizes for cutting pieces of clay from the bar or cutting out curly details. Ideally, it is worth buying a special set of blades to work with this material: polymer clay does not like blunted kitchen knives or penknives. To prevent the details from crumpling, cutting off or cutting them, you need only a very sharp blade.

To make holes in the clay, for example, when making beads, you must have an awl, a thick needle or spokes of several sizes. Ready beads can also be baked on wire. Those who manufacture beads professionally, acquire special forms. For the creation of figured "dents" (for example, when making flowers) beads of different sizes, worn on toothpicks (hairpins with beads can be used) will be useful. In professional sets, their role is played by one- and two-sided dots of metal with wooden or plastic handles. You can buy ready-made forms for obtaining ready-made volumetric impressions - they are very fond of working with children, adults, as a rule, are more interested in creating their own figures, author's. For cutting edges use curly scissors or cutters.

In professional tool sets, apart from blades, there are extruders - original syringes with shaped nozzles, through which you can squeeze out the "sausages" of the required size and configuration, silicone brushes for smoothing the surface of products, dots with beads of various diameters, curly curbs, Or embossed ends. However, according to the masters themselves, they rarely use all the items in the kits. Therefore, to buy such a kit for a beginner makes no sense: working with polymer clay at the initial stage does not require complicated adaptations.

As for the technique of working with this material, then, in addition to the usual modeling, masters use some specific techniques. These include, for example, sugar technology, in which the finished beads are baked in sugar or fine salt before baking. Hardened beads are washed in water until the grains are completely dissolved. On their surface remains a relief pattern.

A technique called millefiori (from the Italian "a thousand flowers") allows you to create beads with an interesting multi-colored pattern. In this case, the multicolored brusochki gather in one "sausage" in accordance with the author's plan - so that a certain pattern is formed on the cut. They can not be pulled and rolled up - just gently squeeze along the entire length. "Sausage" is compressed in this way to the desired diameter and it is given the intended form so that when it is cut, round, triangular or oval details are obtained.

Collecting symmetrically together details made in this way, or laying them on one surface, get products in the technique of "kaleidoscope". Cut the "sausage" for it you need as thin as possible, only a few millimeters. An interesting effect is provided by the so-called filigree - the finest technique, in which tiny pieces of polymer clay, imitating threads, combine into complex patterns. For such work is best suited polymer clay with the effect of metallic.

When working with this material, you should follow certain precautions. So, the baked clay, when the permissible temperature exceeds +130 degrees, releases a toxic substance - hydrogen chloride. Self-curing polymer clay, according to some experts, when working with it, releases harmful substances - the result of a reaction that culminates in its curing. However, on the assurances of the producers of this material, polymer-based clay is absolutely safe, however, when working with it, it is necessary to follow the instructions exactly.

In general, the question about what polymer clay is, can be answered in the following way: it is a beautiful, bright and easy-to-use material that allows to implement the most daring creative ideas for creating author's ornaments and voluminous miniatures.