Yesterday, I yielded to temptation and went to Hobby Lobby to get a little more polymer clay, "just a couple of packs" to enable me to make something I'd seen in a tutorial.
I already had a couple of 2-oz packs of Sculpey clay in my basket (at roughly $3.50 per pack) when I noticed another brand of polymer clay - Creative Hands ClayStudio" - hanging above the Sculpey. There were six 2-ounce packages of clay in each box, and there were four color themes - warm, cool, primary, and neutral colors. Each box of clay cost $9.99. My razor-sharp math brain calculated the price of each pack of ClayStudio clay to be a little over a dollar-something per pack. On top of that, there was a sign that said, "Clay 40% off." SOLD! I bought a box of each color theme.
I wasn't sure the 40% discount applied to ALL clay, so when I got to the cashier, I asked if the ClayStudio clay was part of the sale. The cashier said that the clay sale didn't start until Monday. I said, "But there's a sign...." She paged the manager, he checked (and took down the sign), and I got - 24 2-ounce packs of clay for $23.something. SCORE!
When I got home, I googled the brand and found only one mention of this clay, a short video made by someone who had bought the brand at Dollar Tree. The video said that the clay was very soft and sticky, with the consistency of already-been-chewed gum.
I opened a pack and began to condition it by rolling/folding it in my hands. It was sticky straight out of the package, and the color was uneven. I tried rolling it through my pasta machine. Instead of coming out smooth, it looked . . . leprous. I was able to get it smooth with an acrylic roller, but it was impossible to lift it off a tile without stretching it, and impossible to get it out of a cutter without mangling it.
Eventually, I made a pendant and some earrings, all of which were misshapen by the time I took them to the oven. The package said to bake them at 250 for 15 minutes. My pieces were about 1/4" thick. I was afraid that 15 minutes was not long enough, so I baked them for 30 minutes. Left to cool overnight, when I attempted to sand them, they crumbled.
This morning, I tried again. I skipped the whole conditioning process and tried just rolling out the clay with a roller. It was sticky. When I tried to cut out a shape, the edges came out ragged. At this moment, I have a 1/2" thick log of the clay on a tile in the refrigerator to see if cooling the clay will make it easier to handle. I probably should have made a slab instead of a roll so that I could get straight to the cutting.
We'll see.
Admittedly, I am not an expert at handling clay, but I cannot give this clay a passing grade.
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