cheap polymer clay

[Darius]

hey every body i just bought some cheap sculpy.when i took it out of package i saw that its very dry i flattered it and tried to sculpt but still it keeps cracking and its got more like rubber i pull it and it pulls really long thread until it tears.anything i could mix in it alcohol,amonia e.t.c. to make it good for detailed sculpting?

[Merlion]

I had the same problem and partially solve it by repeated mixing, kneeding and rolling it. This is tiring. Later on I bought a noodle rolling machine used in some kitchens to replace rolling by hand.

I have been told adding a bit of oil and mixing it well also helps. We understand these polymer clay is oil based. But I didn't try this idea.

I think this dryness is due to Sculpey not wrapping and sealing the clay well in their packages. After long shipping and displaying in shops over months, they dry up.

By the way, Lithuania must be very cold by now.

[Darius]

what kind of oil?no its no very cold i still go to school with a leather jacket.:)

[Merlion]

I suggest looking at Sculpey's website. Or email them to ask. Looks like this is not an uncommon problem.

[fritchie]

Darius, Checking the website probably is the best advice, but I think most of these clays use fairly heavy oil in the mix - something like automotive motor oil. If you don't get a recommendation from Sculpy, try a small amount of the clay at first.

[Darius]

well i was thinking and i think that using oil isnt very good it can be bad for baking.guess im stuck with flattering and kneading

[SPRINGFIELD]

As far as I know Sculpy does not have any oil in it. It is mostly polyvinal plastic with a thinner. So using oil could very well ruin it. If you go to their web site you will see that they supply a liquid to rejuvinate the old sculpy. this is the only thing that you should probably use and a few drops is all that is required.

[PTsideshow]

http://sculpey.com/:D

Other clay has oils in it, and I have heard glycerin works available at most chemists shops. When in doubt take a small walnut size lump and add some to it with an eyedropper, keeping track of the number of drops and kneading well after each application. The Biggest problem with it and the other polymer clays is poor stock rotation by the distributors. When ya find a couple pallets behind something else. Ya got ta move it out:rolleyes:

[SPRINGFIELD]

Try going to http://www.sculpey.com click on products than on your right click on clay softener.
Sculpey is a plastic not a water, oil or wax based clay. Adding things to it such as oil or Glycerin will probably ruin it. If not right away than in the near future. The only use of glycerin in clay that I know of is that it is used in some water based clays such as WED Clay to retain moisture.
Sculpey is made from fine particles of Polyvinyl Chloride [PVC] suspended in a plasticizer. The plasticizer is most likely a phthalate or phthalate ester.
Adding one of these as your diludent might solve the problem.
I'm no chemist so if it was me I would just get the stuff Sculpey sells under the name of Clay Softener.

[WeiMingKai]

Hello,

With regular water based clay that has not been fired you can recondition it by breaking up the dried clay 'waste', putting it in a bucket, add water and let sit until all the clay in the bucket has softened (then comes a variety of options for processing the clay back into usable form - the most primitive of which is to haul out some of the muddy goo onto a plaster slab and wedge it until enough moisture is absorbed in the plaster and the clay is back in usable shape).

This same idea should be applicable to any sort of clay.

Oil based clay (plasticine) = add some oil & work the clay until an even and desired consistency is reached.

Plastic clay (Filmo, Sculpey) = add whatever 'plasticizer' (solvent) is used as medium or binder for clay particles and then work it until you get the consistency desired.

I went to the Sculpey website and was very quickly impressed by how crappy their website was and how fiddly and difficult it was to locate information. I dug around for a while and after several trips down into the poorly organized FAQ pages & menus I found this page about liquid scupley.

Liquid Sculpey gets used like paint and all painters need ways to dilute/mix their paint so somewhere in a discussion of liquid sculpey there MUST be a description of HOW you can dilute. Once you locate that gem of knowledge you can use it to restore your regular sculpey to usefulness.

http://www.sculpey.com/scripts/technical2.cfm?Subject=29

Have fun reading an unformatted giant block of text without paragraphs - I think somewhere in there they MIGHT divulge the name of a product you can use to 'thin' your dried sculpey back into a decent working consistency.

edit:...or you can look at springfield's post above...

Good Luck!

[Darius]

i dont think il buy that softner i think il try to do that buket and water thing

[SPRINGFIELD]

i dont think il buy that softner i think il try to do that buket and water thing


As WeiMingKai said that will work good for water based clay. Sculpey is not a water based clay . It is not even realy a clay but but is a plastic {PVC]so that won't work. I can understand not wanting to go to the trouble of ordering solvent all the way from Sculpey.
You might go check with somewone who does PVC pipe plumbing and tell them your problem. They use PVC solvents to glue PVC pipes togather. I know nothing about these solvents and how they will work with Sculpey, or of the dangers of working with them.
I still think the best thing to do is to get the Sculpey clay softner. Where did you get the Sculpey? Most stores that sell Sculpey also sell the Sculpey Clay Softner.

[Darius]

i said its not really a sculpey i called it liked that because its a polymer clay .the water method worked im kneading th clay right now.but still it got like rubber any one can tell me what to do with this problem?i cant sculpt normaly my sculpt pulls and destroys all of the detail.

[SPRINGFIELD]

[QUOTE=Darius;47478]hey every body i just bought some cheap sculpy.

All polymer clays are pritty much the same so Sculpey Clay Softner should work for all of them. I hope water works for you it's a much safer materal.

[Darius]

it does i just made a big soft clay ball with it

[Darius]

can anyone please tell me what to do with this rubber problem.the clay now is sof but i can pull it like a peace of bubble gum

[WeiMingKai]

Oh no

I said--> "This same idea should be applicable to any sort of clay."

I assumed you understood that regular clay (water), modeling clay (oil), and polymer clay (plastic) are different from each other and require different specific substances to 'apply the same idea' of restoring them to a working condition.

Regular clay = only use water
Modeling clay = only use oil
Polymer clay = only use whatever they use to soften plastic clay

The product SPRINGFIELD linked to up thread was the perfect thing to soften your polymer clay.

If your polymer clay is an unusable mess now that you've added water to it you may have to roll it out flat and let the water evaporate out of it before you can try to use it again.

If after the water has evaporated your polymer clay isn't the right working consistency for you you may want to get some of that polymer clay softener SPRINGFIELD linked to.

I'm sorry if there was any confusion.

[Darius]

damn it guess il have to try sculpting my models using modeling clay .il try to smooth my finger prints,cool it in the fridge and make a mold.tell me what are the pluses and minuses of modeling clay.sorry my english is terrible