Comparing Translucent Polymer Clay Brands
Video #334: Which polymer clay translucent product is right for you? Premo Sculpey, Kato Polyclay, Fimo or Sculpey III?
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IN THIS POST: — translucent — premo white translucent — sculpey iii translucent — fimo transparent white — kato polyclay translucent — polymer clay brands — translucent polymer clays — (Topics marked with an asterisk* are discussed in the Comments Section below).
Topics Covered In This Video:
- Comparison between 4 Brands of Translucent Polymer Clay:
– Sculpey III Translucent
– Premo Sculpey White Translucent (5527)
– Fimo Effects Transparent White
– Kato Polyclay Translucent - Sample chips of all brands rolled out to two different thicknesses:
– 1 playing card thick and
– 6 playing cards thick - All samples baked for one hour at recommended temperature for each brand:
– Sculpey III @ 265F
– Premo @ 275F
– Fimo @ 230F
– Kato @ 300F
(To be fair, I haven’t tested the longer baking times with Kato, so the 1-hour may have been a detriment to strength rather than a benefit like it is with Sculpey III, Premo and Fimo. Further testing needs to be done to find the ideal baking time for Kato Polyclay.) - Comparisons were made with each brand on the following properties:
– Color
– Clarity
– Strength
– Flexibility
– Transparency
Looking forward to hearing from you!
00:00:03 –> 00:00:07 Hi guys, its Cindy Lietz, your Polymer Clay Tutor, and in today in the PCT Test Lab I
00:00:08 –> 00:00:14 am going to be comparing 4 different brands of translucent Polymer Clay.
00:00:14 –> 00:00:22 Now the four brands that we’re going to be comparing today are Sculpey III Translucent,
00:00:22 –> 00:00:34 Premo White Translucent, Fimo Transparent White and Kato Polyclay Translucent.
00:00:34 –> 00:00:39 So what I’ve done is I have taken each of these brands of clay and rolled them out at
00:00:39 –> 00:00:41 two different thicknesses.
00:00:41 –> 00:00:48 The first I did it at a thin setting, so all of these ones across the top are rolled out
00:00:48 –> 00:00:57 to 1 playing card thickness on my pasta machine, and then the other samples that I made were
00:00:57 –> 00:01:01 rolled out at 6 playing cards thick.
00:01:01 –> 00:01:08 And I wrote on each of the samples, I baked them each for an hour at the temperature that
00:01:08 –> 00:01:15 it says on the package to be baked at, I made sure to use an oven thermometer so that I
00:01:15 –> 00:01:20 had a controlled environment, and then I used my timer to make sure that I was baking them
00:01:20 –> 00:01:23 for the same amount of time.
00:01:23 –> 00:01:30 Now you can see here that the samples…and I’ll move them a little closer together, there’s
00:01:30 –> 00:01:35 quite a difference in how the different samples look.
00:01:35 –> 00:01:45 The Sculpey III for example here, is quite a bit more Yellow than the Premo White Translucent,
00:01:45 –> 00:01:54 the Whitest of them all was the Fimo Transparent White, and then the Kato Polyclay, I was actually
00:01:54 –> 00:01:58 surprised that it was as Yellow as it was.
00:01:58 –> 00:02:05 To be fair, it’s possible that the Kato Polyclay doesn’t respond as well to the longer baking
00:02:05 –> 00:02:11 time of one hour, I haven’t done enough working with the Kato clay to know what the prime
00:02:11 –> 00:02:13 amount of time is.
00:02:13 –> 00:02:19 But I like to bake all of my brands of clay with a full hour so that it shows some extra
00:02:19 –> 00:02:23 strength and I’ve done a video on that before as well.
00:02:23 –> 00:02:30 Now the… as far as the transparency goes, they each have different levels of transparency.
00:02:30 –> 00:02:35 I’m gonna just hold them up to the light here and show how…
00:02:35 –> 00:02:41 I’m gonna use the thicker pieces, and to show the translucency of them.
00:02:41 –> 00:02:48 The Sculpey III has quite a bit of kinda flakes and things in it.
00:02:48 –> 00:02:55 The Premo White Translucent is much clearer and more consistent.
00:02:55 –> 00:03:05 The Fimo is Whiter looking but it’s actually not quite as clear as the Premo White Translucent.
00:03:05 –> 00:03:13 And then the Kato is quite consistent and quite clear but it’s on the Yellowish side.
00:03:13 –> 00:03:17 The…now let’s see what else about them?
00:03:17 –> 00:03:21 The strength differences, I found quite a bit strength difference.
00:03:21 –> 00:03:29 The Sculpey III breaks really easy, in fact this is my least favorite clay, you’ve heard
00:03:29 –> 00:03:31 me rant about that before…
00:03:31 –> 00:03:35 Sculpey III just isn’t very strong.
00:03:35 –> 00:03:42 The Premo, baked at this thin setting is quite strong, I probably won’t even be able to break
00:03:42 –> 00:03:44 it…
00:03:44 –> 00:03:50 Tried hard here but I’m not getting it to break, good, it’s my favorite one.
00:03:50 –> 00:03:55 The Fimo, it is… can I break it…
00:03:55 –> 00:03:59 I might be able to break it, but it’s more work, it’s still quite strong, oh, and there
00:03:59 –> 00:04:03 we go I was able to break it.
00:04:03 –> 00:04:09 And then the Kato clay, let’s see what I can do here, oh it did break, now I’m still not
00:04:09 –> 00:04:15 positive on the prime strength for… ‘cause Kato is supposed to be really, really strong,
00:04:15 –> 00:04:21 so maybe the one hour baking isn’t ideal, so… but at that level, that’s what we’re
00:04:21 –> 00:04:22 at.
00:04:22 –> 00:04:27 Now as far as the way the clays feel… well that one broke really easy… the thicker
00:04:27 –> 00:04:30 setting broke really easily.
00:04:30 –> 00:04:35 The Premo White Translucent is quite flexible.
00:04:35 –> 00:04:42 The Fimo, this is a little smaller piece, but it is stiffer, it’s quite a bit harder
00:04:42 –> 00:04:49 than the Premo And then the thicker version of the Kato is really hard, I can barely bend
00:04:49 –> 00:04:56 it, so for a pendant and that kind of thing it is going to be very, very strong.
00:04:56 –> 00:04:58 So those are the main differences I find…
00:04:58 –> 00:05:05 I have found between these particular brands of Polymer Clay, I think you’ll find this
00:05:05 –> 00:05:07 test quite interesting.
00:05:07 –> 00:05:13 Oh, and I missed…the… one more part, as far as being able to read through the clay,
00:05:13 –> 00:05:20 I’m just gonna use this card here, you can see that it’s not, it’s a little bit on the
00:05:20 –> 00:05:24 milky side here with the Sculpey III.
00:05:24 –> 00:05:32 With the Premo White, it’s almost completely see through.
00:05:32 –> 00:05:39 With the Fimo Translucent, it’s pretty close to the Fimo…or to the Premo but it’s just
00:05:39 –> 00:05:43 a little bit more milky.
00:05:43 –> 00:05:50 And then the Kato, its…it is a little bit… it’s not near as translucent.
00:05:50 –> 00:06:00 So that is my comparison test between Sculpey III, Premo Fimo and Kato clay.
00:06:00 –> 00:06:06 I hope you found this very helpful, if you did make sure to give us… to press that
00:06:06 –> 00:06:07 like button.
00:06:07 –> 00:06:12 And share this video if you like with… wherever you want.
00:06:12 –> 00:06:19 And also make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you don’t miss any other testing
00:06:19 –> 00:06:21 type videos.
00:06:21 –> 00:06:25 If you have any questions or if you have a product that you would like us to test, make
00:06:25 –> 00:06:28 sure to leave your comment below.
00:06:28 –> 00:06:31 So I hope you enjoyed that and I will see you next time.
00:06:31 –> 00:06:32 Bye for now.
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Resource Links:
- Related Article: Translucent Brands Compared Fimo, Premo, Cernit, Kato
- Related Video: Translucent Pardo Professional Art Clay Product Review
- Amazon: Premo Sculpey Polymer Clay White Translucent **
- Amazon: Fimo Polymer Clay Translucent **
- Amazon: Kato Polyclay Translucent **
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Thank you so much for this comparison, Cindy! I’m going to try Premo white translucent. I wish I would have watched your video earlier. I used Kato translucent and learned the hard way that it yellows unless you tent it.
In Donna Kato’s book, “The Art of Polymer Clay,” she advises 10-15 minutes at 300 degrees for translucent clay. I’ve baked it for 30 minutes at 275 degrees and so far if, it’s tented, it doesn’t yellow.
Thanks for passing that info along Phyllis! That is very helpful!
Cindy,
I wonder if you have ever compared Premo’s White Translucent with Premo’s Translucent?
Hi Fran, I should do a comparison video of the two alright. Thanks for the suggestion!
I’ve noticed that you didn’t use Premo “Frost”. Which I use as my transparent clay of choice. Have you ever compared Premo’s “Frost” with Premo’s “Transparent white”?
Hi Yvonne, Premo White Translucent and Premo Frost are actually the same product, they just changed the name to White Trans. a couple of years ago but the product is the same.
For anyone interested, I’ve just seen a link to another comparison of translucent clays, covering Pardo, Cernit, Kato, Fimo, Sculpey III and Premo. Cindy gets a mention it in too!
Great job on this, Cindy. Not only did I learn enough to be happy with my Premo, but your video gave my creativity a big boost.
Thanks Linda! Nice to see you. I’ve missed you around here. Hopefully you have found your muse and will be busy making wonderful clay stuff again. Love having you here, part of our sweet polymer clay family!
Great!!!! Info Cindy. Thank you so much for always looking to help us keep informed!! =)
I picked up a few packages of the Pardo on clearance at Hobby Lobby too a few months ago. A lot if it turned to powder when I tried to work with it – it must have been sitting around for a while. One package was OK, another kind of so so, and another…powder. I have been able to use it though. I either sprinkle a couple of colors on some translucent and roll it out, cool effect, or use it to tint the translucent clay. I never bought Pardo before because it was so expensive. Probable the fresh packages work well, but I like the effects I’m getting with the clearance rack clay. If I paid full price for it though and it did that I wouldn’t have been happy. Love the lab coat Cindy! Thanks for doing all the research.
Thanks Cindy for doing all the research for us! So far Premo translucent has been my favorite. i’ve heard that Pardo was the best, however trying to get it is near impossible. I heard Hobby Lobby sold it and drove 214 miles (round trip) to a Hobby Lobby to have them tell me they don’t carry it anymore, she said it wasn’t selling. I’ll just continue to use Premo since it works for me and it’s always in stock at Michaels.
Love the lab coat.
One of the last times I was at Hobby Lobby (some months ago) they had Pardo on the Clearance shelf, so I picked up a bunch just to give it a try. Unfortunately, all the translucent must have been gone already as I did not get any. (Haven’t done anything with what I got as I have so little I wanted to research it to ensure I make the most of it as it will be hard to replace if I like it.)
Thank you guys! I just got an email from a local member Nancy Quinn who has a package of Pardo Translucent that I can test for you guys. Should have it in the next few days and will get a PcT Test Lab filmed as soon as I can. THANK YOU Nancy! You are a total sweetheart. It means a lot to me that you would be so giving!
The reason I have not yet tried Pardo Professional Art Clay or the other Pardo Jewelry Clay even though I had heard good things about it was a few of reasons.
First of all, Pardo is not readily available. I only know of one place in the US (PolyClayPlay) that carries it. Nothing in Canada, as far as I know. If it is not easy for my students to find, I usually avoid using it in my tutorials. But now since I am doing these new review and test lab type videos, I am OK with showing you what is out there, even if it is hard to find or even too expensive for most beginners and intermediate clayers. You can always dream… right?
Secondly, when I did try and order some translucent clay, they were out of stock and not expecting a new shipment until at least February.
And lastly, shipping clay to Canada is often such a huge pain in the butt. The shipping is often way too expensive, there sometimes brokerage fees and sometimes not, (its a bit of a crap shoot) and it can sit at the border for weeks sometimes. That can be very hard on clay if the storage facility is too hot.
It would make me more that EXTREMELY HAPPY if Michaels, our one and only craft retailer in Canada , would carry all the brands of polymer clay. They do carry Sculpey III, Super Sculpey, UltraLight, Fimo, Premo, Pluffy, some airdry clays and a couple other non-polymer clays, so it is not too bad. But I would love it if they added, Cernit and Pardo to the aisle as well. That would make it a whole lot easier for me to use the stuff.
Ooooo, and the site you recommended reduced the price on Pardo…….
Thank you Nancy and thank you Cindy for making it possible to test this product asap. “Glass-like” is soooo intriguing, cannot wait to see what you find.
Cindy – its a very long time since I contributed to your comments, but I still follow your blog. Inevitably I just have to tell you that I was the first person in the UK to supply Pardo Professional Art Clay and have produced a website to showcase it – I thought your members might be interested. I absolutely love the clay and the translucent is second to none and simply flying off the shelves. I thought it was expensive when I started buying it, but now that all the other suppliers have increased their prices it is actually quite reasonable!
Incidentally I keep having requests to supply to America and can’t make a decision as to whether to – as you say postage and duties are a block.
Apropos of Kato – it is still my favourite clay and I absolutely LOVE the smeill – I am quite adicted to the smell and will sit with a load of the clay on my work table simply to take it in. Interesting how different we all are!
I think you should try if you can find some the Viva pardo Translucent . I think it’s whiter than the fimo. Strong , bendable when thin. I liked your research on the trans clay. Love to follow each week.
I love your reviews!!! You answered so many questions that I was thinking. Keep up the great work!
Yay! My favorite Premo White Translucent wins!
Jocelyn, I posted a reply earlier which is currently in the moderation queue because I forgot to delete the first part of the image links I included, but when it gets approved there are a couple of Pardo Translucent sample photos to show how clear it is even when relatively thick, plus some brief notes on it. I also noted that an hour of baking time is too long for Kato: it’s weakening again by that point, as well as being overly yellowed (but immersing it in baking soda/bicarb soda as you pointed out should help a bit).
Sue, thanks so much for sharing those photos and your fine information. That Pardo is like glass, so amazing, and cannot wait for Fall to have a little in the budget to buy and experiment with it.
Great PSA Cindy….love the lab coat!!! Tee Hee.
Wonder if the ones that yellowed would resist that tendency a little more if totally immersed in bicarb of soda or baking soda while baking? That top coating of bicarb really affects my results from browning or tinting.
Also, would love to see the results with Pardo. Some of the translucent art I have seen made with it recently seem almost to be “glass like,” which is really exciting.
I’m still using the older formulation of Kato, but an hour of baking time is definitely too long for that, and it is actually weakening again by that stage according to my own testing. Note that the package recommendations for Kato are only 10 minutes baking at 150C/300F, so while an hour of baking is double the package recommendation for Premo, it is SIX TIMES the package recommendation for Kato!
I use about 40-50 minutes for Kato, and on the shorter side of that for thin or flat pieces. There will be less discolouration than when baked for that time too, although it will still have yellowed somewhat. (I know of one well-known polymer clay artist whose signature pieces require strong clay; her Kato baking time recommendations were the same as what I’d come up with independently, and it was nice to have them confirmed that way.) The strength of the newest formulation might be different, but the older Kato is by far the strongest of all the clay brands I’ve tested.
Saying all of that, I don’t use Kato Translucent _as_ translucent because it’s the least clear of the translucent clays I’ve tried (I usually apply the “can you read through it” test for that, which up close also shows the internal imperfections that some brands get too).
Kato Translucent buffs up to a super high shine, so I do sometimes add it to other clays to enhance their final shine. It’s also nice to add a bit to mica clays so that there’s even more visual depth to them (particularly good for mica shift techniques!). And it is good for semi-translucent effects.
However, when I want a translucent clay in the normal sense, e.g. for a cane background, I too use Premo (::gasp!:: LOL) I haven’t tried what Premo call White Translucent because I still have quite a lot of Premo Frost, but I understand it’s effectively the same thing.
Pardo Professional Art Clay is actually even clearer than Premo Frost. (I’ll just call it Pardo from now on because that’s a stupidly long name, although there is also Pardo Jewellery Clay which is a different product.)
Anyway, a couple of photos of my Pardo Translucent sample chip will show what I mean. My sample chips are rolled to 6 playing cards thickness, as illustrated by this first photo.
This second photo shows how easy it is to see through Pardo Translucent even at 6 playing cards thickness, and you can also see that it’s stil quite white. You can see my equivalent Premo Frost sample chip in the upper left of that photo for comparison… at 6 playing cards thickness it’s relatively hard to even see the sticker on the back of the Premo Frost sample.
Pretty amazing, eh? The downside is that Pardo becomes very soft and very sticky quite quickly when working it in hot weather. I started using some the other day but found it become totally unworkable before I actually got to use it in the technique I was experimenting with. It’s also relatively hard to get — I order mine from Germany — and the packaging isn’t as conducive to efficient shelving as any of the other brands. Pardo Translucent also needs minimal handling to retain optimum clarity: you get more internal imperfections if it’s handled a lot, and they show up comparatively more because the rest of the clay is so clear.
That’s not translucent, that’s bordering on transparent. WOW! I’ve got to get me some PPAC Translucent to try my faux jade on.
Wonder how it would do in a faux amber… hehehehe this has gotten my mind spinning again with so many ideas. It might even work better for Cindy’s faux opal too.
It should make great faux jade, Ken! I’ve seen real (extremely expensive!) jade that’s much clearer than typical jade, with no discernable internal flaws, and it looked spectacular with gold. (I haven’t made faux jade for ages, and I don’t think I’ve ever tried Cindy’s technique for it, so I’ll have to give that a go soon. Thanks for reminding me about it! :D)
And it should make wonderful faux amber too. I’ve used Premo Frost for that a couple of times and deliberately overbaked it (hotter than normal, for much, much longer than normal) to get the golden colour instead of using an additive to colour it. The deliberate overbaking had the nice side effect of making it almost transparent; the first experimental batch turned out so clear that I put faux insects inside my second batch (I need practice at making them actually *look* like insects though!). But I haven’t tried it with Pardo, which wouldn’t need all that extra time. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
I’ve got to get my hands on some PPAC Trans. first, the one site says late jan or Feb for availability. I’m going to try using the Tim Holtz inks since I think adding bits of another colored clay might take it too far from the clarity that the pardo has. It could be nice to do both types of amber and put them together.
I’ve done a jade (not Cindy’s :( though) with premo trans., it looks good but there’s just something that’s not right yet. Either there is still too much premo colored clay in the translucent or the translucent just isn’t translucent enough.
Most recently I’ve bought Pardo from Marwel Design in Germany if that helps. Here is their Pardo Professional Art Clay (PPAC) product page.
I’ve also bought PPAC and other products from Poly Clay Play, the company mentioned elsewhere in this thread as a Pardo stockist, and I was very happy with the products and the service from there too. I just found the PPAC availability better from the German site, which is not really surprising since that’s where it’s made!
Awesome Sue! Thanks for sharing the ideal time for Kato. I will take that into account when I do my own tests. That is very helpful!! I will be getting some Pardo trans to test myself in the next day or two. A local member offered some of hers for me to try out and share the results with everyone. Looking forward to seeing what it is like!
My pleasure, Cindy. :)
One other thought on baking Kato… If you want it to be somewhat flexible but still strong, bake it for a bit less than I said (maybe 25-30 minutes); it has greater tensile strength at 40 minutes and is much stiffer, but there are some cases where you *want* some flexibility instead. It weakens somewhat if you bake it for too long, and while my own tests show it weakening again by an hour, I actually would have expected it to still be somewhat stronger than it looked in your test: I’ve rolled Kato out as thin as my pasta machine will go, then have put it between paper and rolled it further by hand until I can’t make it go any thinner, and it’s normally still difficult to break or tear. I’m curious now whether the new formula is quite as strong as the old formula… I do have a packet or two of the new formula somewhere so will try that out.
And it’ll be great to hear your thoughts on Pardo! I’ve played with it and have used it in a few items, but haven’t done any systematic testing on it. (I’ve actually only used the translucent and the metallics, and haven’t got around to the colours yet!)
That was a good side by side test but it would have been nice to see Pardo clay tested with them too.
a lot of good info in this video guys – thanks :)