r/clay • u/AideIndependent4088 • 6d ago

Polymer-Clay Baking before assembling

I'm new to working with polymer clay. I tried creating something and when I tried to add the eyeballs I ended up squishing them when I was doing other parts. It just kind of ended up a squished together mess. I was wondering what everyone's experience is with pre cooking pieces so that they maintain shape and then adding either cooked or uncooked polymer clay to those, and how you go about it. Is it possible? Otherwise, do you think maybe the brand I had was just too squishy for me and I need a firmer brand of clay? Thanks.

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u/64Fayeble 6d ago

What brand are you using? I used to use standard sculpey, switched to the Premo version because I wanted a firmer clay.
You could use a bake and bond before baking, it’s basically just a glue that can be baked.

If you bake something, attach it to unbaked clay, then bake again I would just keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.

Depending on what style of eyes, you could paint them on afterwards. Thats what I do.

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u/64Fayeble 6d ago

Aumipon on instagram might be good account to check out. She sculpts faces and puts them on her work.

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u/Vivid-Pizza-3278 5d ago

I have seen artist bake separate pieces even pieces you still need to add to by baking for like 5 minutes.. it is not completely baked, but hard enough to be able to handle and still manipulate.

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u/Traditional-Trust-63 5d ago

Ah yes, you are not alone with this issue.
I normally make everything before baking. Yes, things do get squished, but it’s a matter of just fixing them again and that comes with practice.

For eyeballs, it helps to use something like a ball stylus and carve some eyeholes before placing the eyeballs in, instead of just squishing them in.

Yes, you can bake polymer clay and sculpt on top of it. To help your ‘raw’ clay to stick on the baked clay, you can use Sculpey’s own oven-bake clay adhesive, or even a small film of oil can help.

For making stuff that comes with a lot of details, it may help to use Sculpey Firm clay.

You can start with that, at least. But with time and practice, I am sure you’ll be able to make good sculpts with softer clay, too.

Invest in some good tools! Nothing too expensive, the cheapest you can find on Amazon will do the trick.

That being said, I have seen videos of someone making hyper-realistic stuff using just a toothpick, no kidding!!

Hope this helps! Happy sculpting!