Handicraft has become very popular in recent years, and handicrafts are valued for exclusivity and originality. Sculpting from polymer clay is one of the areas of home creativity available to every craftswoman. High plasticity, many techniques and unpretentiousness in work helped plastic to take its rightful place among the materials for the manufacture of decorative crafts. It is used to create stunningly beautiful artificial flowers, figurines and jewelry. The article tells about what the material is, what types of plastics are, and how to bake polymer clay in the microwave.
What is polymer clay
Polymer clay is a plastic mass intended for the manufacture of small sculptural compositions, dolls, Christmas decorations, artificial flowers, jewelry and accessories. The material is characterized by high plasticity, whichallows you to create fine workmanship, including flower petals. Polymer clay feels like plasticine to the touch, but ready-made crafts made from it are stronger and more durable.
The composition of the plastic includes polyvinyl chloride and plasticizers, which evaporate when the material is heated above 100 degrees Celsius. The strength of the products is given by baking. Finished crafts have a dense, slightly elastic structure. They can be painted and varnished.
At present, manufacturers offer a wide range of plastics for arts and crafts: white and colored, flesh-colored for making dolls, mother-of-pearl, with the addition of sparkles and mica, with metallic powder, transparent and liquid. The latter is used as an adhesive when joining parts, as well as to dilute the dried mass for modeling.
Types of clay
Polymer clay comes in two varieties: self-hardening and baked. The first hardens in air. It is great for beginners, as it can be sculpted and remade from it almost endlessly, the main thing is not to allow it to dry out.
The second type of clay requires heat treatment for polymerization.
Advantages and disadvantages of self-hardening clay
The main advantages of self-hardening plastics are the following:
- The molding process can last as long as you like, it is enough to periodically moisten the product with water. If the work lasted for several days, the workpiece can be wrapped with a damp cloth so that it does notsolidified.
- Mass does not collect villi and dust, and in case of contamination, it is easy to remove dirt with water.
- For hardening it is enough to leave the finished product in the air. You can speed up the process if you dry the craft at temperatures up to 70 degrees Celsius.
- The product can be completed, altered and restored by simply wetting it with water.
- Crafts can be painted with any paint and varnished.
The disadvantages of the material include the following:
- Large items may take several days to dry until fully cured.
- Small parts are very fragile and difficult to shape. The material may crumble from a lack of moisture or spread from its excess.
- The finished product always requires additional processing: grinding, painting, varnishing.
- Due to the porosity of the material, the paint is instantly eaten away and can only be removed by scraping off the top layer.
Advantages and disadvantages of baked clay
The main advantages of working with baked clay include the following:
- Allows you to create crafts with very small and fine details.
- Dries in a short time.
- The finished product is very durable, including delicate parts.
- The surface of the dried craft is smooth and even, does not require additional grinding or painting.
- Freshly applied acrylic paint washes off easily with water.
- The material does not shrink when baked.
To disadvantagesbaked clay applies the following:
- Dust and lint easily adhere and are difficult to remove later. It is necessary to keep cleanliness when sculpting and use medical gloves.
- Bake clay at a temperature of 110-130 degrees Celsius in the oven.
- The clay becomes very soft when baked, and then hardens, so fine details can be deformed.
- If you exceed the recommended temperature even slightly, the product will melt.
- It is impossible to fix or redo the work after baking.
Baking Methods
It is recommended to bake the plastic in the oven, but for this purpose you can also use a microwave oven, convection oven, slow cooker or boil the product in boiling water.
Products made of polymer clay are placed on ceramic tiles, a flat faience plate or baking paper and placed in an oven heated to a temperature of 110-130 degrees Celsius. For plastics from different manufacturers, the recommended baking temperature may vary, so be sure to read the instructions so as not to spoil the product.
To keep the shape of small flowers or beads, they are pricked with toothpicks or metal needles and stuck into a hemisphere of foil. The pieces on the toothpicks cook faster because the backing does not absorb the heat.
Depending on the thickness of the parts, the baking time varies from 3 to 40 minutes. Experienced craftsmen recommend not making the walls of the product thicker than 1 cm, sinceplastic may not bake inside and become brittle over time. As a filler for three-dimensional figures, paper or foil is used. This method, among other things, helps to save material.
When heated, plasticizers from the mass evaporate with the release of toxic gas, so it is important to work in a well-ventilated area, and after use, thoroughly wash the oven with soapy water. For baking, you can use a closed ceramic, heat-resistant glass dish or a roasting sleeve. In this case, only the container itself will have to be washed.
It is better to overexpose the product a little at a given temperature than underbake it. If the recommended temperature is exceeded, the craft may melt. In this case, you must urgently turn off the oven and ventilate the kitchen well. If there were food left on the table, they will have to be thrown away due to the high toxicity of the gas released by the plastic when heated.
Following the above recommendations, you can bake plastic in an air grill.
How to bake polymer clay in the microwave?
Microwave is in almost every kitchen, and in the absence of an oven, it is often used for cooking. The question of whether polymer clay can be baked in the microwave is of interest to many needlewomen. It will not be possible to give an unambiguous answer.
The appliance heats food by acting on waves of water molecules contained in it. There is no water in the plastic, so the product cannot be baked. You can bake polymer clay in a microwave equipped withgrill or convection function. When operating in these modes, the oven does not radiate waves and works like an oven.
The question naturally arises: how to bake polymer clay in the microwave? General recommendations for technology are similar to working with an oven. The correspondence between the temperature and power of the device in different models is different, therefore, before putting polymer clay in the microwave, you should read the instructions for the latter. The manufacturer provides a table of the ratio of power and temperature in the user manual.
How long to bake polymer clay in the microwave? The answer should be sought on the plastic packaging, because different manufacturers can vary the time. On average, it is 3-40 minutes - depending on the wall thickness of the product.
By the way, self-hardening plastic can be dried in the microwave on normal mode, as it contains water. This method will help to reduce the hardening time. The main thing is not to exceed the temperature of 70 degrees Celsius so that the product does not melt.
Microwave cooking
In addition to the method described above for baking polymer clay in the microwave, products can be welded. This method is suitable for small crafts and beads. Ceramic cookware is not recommended for cooking as it gets very hot.
The products are placed in a container and poured with cold water so that it covers the craft at two heights. The calculation of the cooking time is made based on the thickness of the parts: each millimeter of the product is boiled in 1 minute. Asthe boiling point of water is 100 degrees, this method is only suitable for plastic that hardens at 110 degrees.
The container is placed in the microwave and timed. It is important to ensure that the water completely covers the product. Ready-made crafts are cooled and polished with a soft cloth from s alt deposits. With this method, harmful substances do not evaporate, but remain in the water, so you only need to wash the dishes.
The jewelry and accessories made of plastic amaze the imagination with their beauty and grace, and the flowers can be distinguished from the real ones only by touch. There are two types of material: self-hardening and baked. Products from the latter require heat treatment to give them strength, so the question of how to bake polymer clay in the microwave worries many needlewomen.
