Clay has the advantage of being moldable into any number of forms, but most people don’t keep a kiln in their house.  That is why polymer clays, like Fimo and Sculpey, come in handy.

Fimo and Sculpey are essentially the same thing, but different brands.  They are both polymer clays.  They carry a different selection of colors in each brand.  For the purposes of model building, white or grey works quite well, and is cheaper than the colored versions.  They are especially useful for organic kinds of model pieces like trees, but I have also it to make a couch, and some other furniture pieces.  It can also be used to build oddly shaped molding, like molding that curves.

Both are clays that do not harden until after being baked in your oven at 275 degrees for about fifteen minutes per ¼” of thickness.  The clay does get a little softer after working with it in your hands for a minute.  Because it stays soft, you can start working with it, leave it for a while, even a couple weeks, and come back to it later.  You can also buy this clay in bulk and not have to worry about it going bad on you.

Because it doesn’t dry, detail work is difficult.  Usually, with clay, as it begins to stiffen with air drying, it is easier to work fine details into the clay and you can make it softer again with water when necessary.  You lose this advantage with this material.  There is a softener available, but it’s just not the same process at all.

If you bake it too long, it does discolor a little.  After baking, it can be carved a little.  A dremel is the best tool for this, but also has a tendency to chip a little more than intended, so use caution.  It can also be sliced fairly easily, which is how those flat beads that were popular a few years back were made.  It is sandable, so smoothing a surface that ended up too rough is quite possible. 

The baked surface is also quite paintable, so after taking all that time to mold and paint a model piece, you can finish it perfectly.  Plaster and plaster bandage also stick well to the surface, so detailing can be achieved that way as well.  Most glue seems to work well with polymer clay, however for most permanent application “crazy glue” kinds of glue are recommended.

This clay is technically safe to use, yet it is not safe to ingest.  There is a substance in the clay that feels oily, but is a liquid plastic kind of thing.  It is not easy to completely clean it from a surface, so don’t use your food utensils to work with it… it’s just not the smart thing to do.  It also can leach out of the clay and into surfaces, like wood, and leave stains.  Also, the fumes that are created when cooking it aren’t great for you, so ventilate when baking.  Birds tend to be extra sensitive to fumes like this, so keep them away from it.

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