Pardo Professional Art Clay – Translucent Review
Video #344: Everyone says that Pardo Translucent is the clearest of them all. Let’s find out...
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IN THIS POST: — pardo — pardo professional — art clay — translucent — comparison — polymer clay brands — germany — (Topics marked with an asterisk* are discussed in the Comments Section below).
Last month I did a comparison review of 4 different brands of Translucent Polymer Clay (Sculpey III, Fimo Soft, Kato Polyclay and Premo Sculpey White Translucent).
Following that video, several viewers requested that I also review Translucent Pardo Professional Art Clay, to see how it stacks up against the other more common brands. Well, thanks to a kind member of the community (Nancy Q from the Vancouver Polyclayers Guild) who gave me a block of Pardo from her stash, I am able to present my findings for you today.
Topics Covered In This Video:
- Availability:
– Manufactured by Viva-Decor in Germany.
– See Resources Section of this post for links to Pardo on Amazon.
– ADDENDUM: The full Pardo Clay line is now available in the USA from Blueberry Beads, as well as some limited colors on Amazon. (See Resources Links below.) - First Impressions:
– No smell, even when baking.
– Made with Beeswax.
– Similar firmness to Premo clay when cold, but gets very soft when worked.
– Stickier than other brands.
– Clarity is higher than other brands, but only when baked for 60 minutes at 250F (120C) and not just the 30 minutes recommended on the label.
– Color whiter or more glass-like in color than other brands.
– Baking temperatures and times.
– Great clay for faux techniques and other projects where clarity is a benefit.
– Strength. Good. (I made a mistake in the video and said Pardo was stronger than Premo when I meant to say Premo was stronger than Pardo. The differences aren’t large, however, so I left it in the video.) - When you buy polymer clay (any brand), do you prefer to buy in person, or are you OK buying your polymer clay online?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
00:00:04 –> 00:00:09 Hi guys, its Cindy Lietz, your Polymer Clay Tutor, and in today’s PCT test lab, I’m going
00:00:09 –> 00:00:15 to be talking about Pardo Professional Art Clay in Translucent.
00:00:15 –> 00:00:21 Now a little while back I did a review of 4 brands of Translucent Polymer Clay, and
00:00:21 –> 00:00:29 a bunch of you asked me to do a review on Pardo Translucent, so I’ve got a block here.
00:00:29 –> 00:00:35 Now actually it was harder for me to get than I thought, there’s only one place that I know
00:00:35 –> 00:00:43 of in North America that carries Pardo Translucent or Pardo, the brand, and that is at PolyClay
00:00:43 –> 00:00:48 Play, and when I went to go order some Translucent, they were out of stock.
00:00:48 –> 00:00:56 So, anyways what happened when I… when I was talking about the Pardo, one of the local
00:00:56 –> 00:01:03 members of the Vancouver Poly Clayer’s Guild, her name is Nancy, she said I have a block,
00:01:03 –> 00:01:10 I’ll pop over and give you some if you want, so thank you Nancy very much, and I’ve had
00:01:10 –> 00:01:12 a little bit of a chance to play with this.
00:01:12 –> 00:01:20 Now my first impressions are, first of all, it’s the same kind of size block pretty much
00:01:20 –> 00:01:30 as a block of Premo, Premo is a 2 ounce block in this is 2.1 ounces, it is, like I said
00:01:30 –> 00:01:36 it’s made in Germany by Viva Décor, and they make a lot of paints and different types
00:01:36 –> 00:01:38 of products.
00:01:38 –> 00:01:44 It is made with beeswax, so it’s a little different than all of the other brands.
00:01:44 –> 00:01:49 And when you open it up, there’s like zero smell, I mean if somebody can smell a smell
00:01:49 –> 00:01:57 it’s not me, so I just can’t smell anything at all working with it so that is nice, baking
00:01:57 –> 00:02:01 it… and I couldn’t smell it either, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a smell, it’s
00:02:01 –> 00:02:03 just one that I didn’t smell.
00:02:03 –> 00:02:12 Also, the firmness of it is… when you first pick it up, it feels pretty similar to Premo,
00:02:12 –> 00:02:17 but then once it starts warming up, it gets quite sticky, so it’s a little bit different,
00:02:17 –> 00:02:21 it’s firm enough to work with, you could do some great stuff with it, so it isn’t totally
00:02:21 –> 00:02:31 mushy, but it is a lot softer, and it also feels a little waxier, and maybe that’s because
00:02:31 –> 00:02:34 of the beeswax in there.
00:02:34 –> 00:02:40 Now this is the Translucent, and I had heard lots of stuff about it being the very most
00:02:40 –> 00:02:46 translucent brand that there is, so I wanted to compare it to the other brands of translucent
00:02:46 –> 00:02:47 that I’ve tested.
00:02:47 –> 00:02:55 So here we go, first of all I rolled out, just like it did in the previous translucent
00:02:55 –> 00:03:03 video, I had rolled out different types of brands, I’ve got the Sculpey III here, Fimo,
00:03:03 –> 00:03:08 Kato, Premo White Translucent and then I have the Pardo Translucent.
00:03:08 –> 00:03:17 I did a couple of tests here, I rolled out two different thicknesses, one at 1 card thickness,
00:03:17 –> 00:03:26 so like a playing card thick, I did that on my pasta machine, and one at 6 cards thick,
00:03:26 –> 00:03:30 just like the previous samples I had done.
00:03:30 –> 00:03:39 And I baked it for what the box said, it said 30 minutes at 250 degrees Fahrenheit, which
00:03:39 –> 00:03:46 is, what does this say, what is that, it’s 120 Celsius.
00:03:46 –> 00:03:52 Now I also did another test sample, same sizes, but I baked it for longer like I’d usually
00:03:52 –> 00:03:57 do with my other clays, and I baked these ones at 60 minutes.
00:03:57 –> 00:04:05 Now, I’ll show you the differences in clarity, first of all, I’ll hold it up to the light.
00:04:05 –> 00:04:11 The one at, and can you see that well Doug, the one at 30 minutes, this first one here
00:04:11 –> 00:04:16 is… has some… a little bubbles and things in it.
00:04:16 –> 00:04:20 When I baked it for longer at the 60 minutes, in this hand here, you can see it’s a lot
00:04:20 –> 00:04:25 clearer, the color stays quite White as well.
00:04:25 –> 00:04:34 Now as the thicker samples, there’s some clarity there, still some plaquing and things on the
00:04:34 –> 00:04:39 60 minutes, but there is still… more light can get through this thicker one than the
00:04:39 –> 00:04:42 thinner one at 30 minutes.
00:04:42 –> 00:04:46 Now compared to the other brands, let’s see.
00:04:46 –> 00:04:52 You can see the color wise, I’ll just take the…the one for 60 minutes so it’s a fair
00:04:52 –> 00:04:54 sample check.
00:04:54 –> 00:05:04 Sculpey of course is terrible, Fimo is pretty good, Kato is too yellow and Premo White.
00:05:04 –> 00:05:09 So I’m gonna compare the ones that are the closest to the… to the Pardo, and you can
00:05:09 –> 00:05:17 see that the Pardo is still quite a bit Whiter, Fimo is very White.
00:05:17 –> 00:05:23 But you can see it when the translucency… where you can really see it is on something
00:05:23 –> 00:05:30 like this, so I’m just gonna take this printed piece of paper, and I’m gonna show you, laying
00:05:30 –> 00:05:37 these pieces on, now the Premo is a little bit Yellower as you can see against the White
00:05:37 –> 00:05:40 here, the…
00:05:40 –> 00:05:47 I’ll just gonna lay the Fimo up across this little lion here and check him against the
00:05:47 –> 00:05:55 Premo, you can see the Premo’s a little clearer, but a little Yellower, but the Premo wins
00:05:55 –> 00:05:56 on that one.
00:05:56 –> 00:06:07 And then I’m going to put the Pardo up next to the Premo, and you can see that the Pardo,
00:06:07 –> 00:06:16 which is a small piece, is clearer and it is a more… it’s not as Yellow, so it’s
00:06:16 –> 00:06:21 not White, White, but it’s more of a clear kind of color, so it is the clearest.
00:06:21 –> 00:06:28 Though I’m fairly impressed with this Premo still, it’s not doing too bad, but it is a
00:06:28 –> 00:06:32 little more Yellow and the Pardo is just that much clearer.
00:06:32 –> 00:06:36 Now this really makes a big difference if you’re going to do some of the faux techniques
00:06:36 –> 00:06:44 like a Faux Sea Glass and some of the techniques like the Faux Labradorite, when you’ve got
00:06:44 –> 00:06:47 the thin layer of Translucent over top.
00:06:47 –> 00:06:53 So how clear your Translucent is can make a big difference, the only challenge is trying
00:06:53 –> 00:06:56 to combine it with other types of clay.
00:06:56 –> 00:07:02 The temperature difference is a bit of a difference, I’m gonna have to do some more testing there
00:07:02 –> 00:07:09 as far as whether I can combine the Pardo with the other brands, so I’ll look into doing
00:07:09 –> 00:07:10 that.
00:07:10 –> 00:07:15 As far as strength goes, I did this before with the other ones, here let me just grab
00:07:15 –> 00:07:24 the Pardo only, so move those out of the way, the Pardo at 30 minutes, let’s do a test here
00:07:24 –> 00:07:34 and see how strong it is, it still will snap, but looks relatively strong, try this one,
00:07:34 –> 00:07:38 this is the thicker one, it will break.
00:07:38 –> 00:07:49 At 60 minutes, this is the thin one, 1 card setting, it’s much stronger, I’ll see if I
00:07:49 –> 00:08:00 can break it, it’s harder, this is reminding me a lot of the Premo, though I have a feeling
00:08:00 –> 00:08:07 that the Pardo is looking stronger than the Premo… was because it did eventually break.
00:08:07 –> 00:08:15 And then on the thicker one let’s try it, it’s flexible but it’s quite…
00:08:15 –> 00:08:19 I don’t think I can break it, so it’s quite a strong clay.
00:08:19 –> 00:08:23 What else did I wanna say about it?
00:08:23 –> 00:08:30 Yes, I did try doing a couple of little test samples, I added a little bit of alcohol ink
00:08:30 –> 00:08:35 into this kind of leafy kind of shape, wasn’t meant to be anything important, I was just
00:08:35 –> 00:08:41 checking it out to see how thin it would go, and see the translucency on it, and it is
00:08:41 –> 00:08:42 quite strong.
00:08:42 –> 00:08:50 I also made a little Faux Jade bead with it, and the light shows through it lovely, so
00:08:50 –> 00:08:58 I think it would make a wonderful clay for using for Faux Jade and that type of thing.
00:08:58 –> 00:09:05 I just wanted to ask you, so if…from what I can see it’s not super available across
00:09:05 –> 00:09:12 North America, Europe, it might be a little bit better, but if you’re…if, I just wanted
00:09:12 –> 00:09:18 to ask you, if you were out buying…when you go out to buy Polymer Clay, do you prefer
00:09:18 –> 00:09:22 to buy it in person or are you okay to buy it online?
00:09:22 –> 00:09:27 I’d love it if you left that comment below and let me know about that.
00:09:27 –> 00:09:35 And then also, if you found this video helpful for you, make sure to press that like button,
00:09:35 –> 00:09:38 that just gets more people seeing it and that would be great.
00:09:38 –> 00:09:43 You can feel free to share it or post it wherever you want to.
00:09:43 –> 00:09:48 So I hope you enjoyed that and I will see you next time.
00:09:48 –> 00:09:49 Bye for now.
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Resource Links:
- Related Video: Comparing Translucent Polymer Clay
- Related Article: Translucent Clay Brands Compared Fimo Premo Cernit Kato
- Related Article: Translucent Polymer Clay Secrets
- Related Video: Using Translucent Clay To Clean Pasta Machine Tip 3
- Related Video: To Quench or Not To Quench
- Blueberry Beads: Pardo Polymer Clay **
- Amazon: Pardo Translucent Polymer Clay **
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Hi Cindy,
Have you tried baking Pardo clay at the hotter temperatures? I see you baked only at 250 degrees F in your review of Pardo Translucent.
I have baked at 320 degrees F for 30 mins, but not for 60 mins, (I used a lot of texturing on the surface so can’t tell much about translucency, but you can still read text through it) and I have heard of people baking at 350 degrees F.
But the thing is that the higher you bake it the more translucent it gets.
When you get near the top it begins to go amber coloured, which can be useful if you want to make faux amber, however at higher temps after amber you get brown and black, and toxic fumes, so don’t go there. At exactly what temp this happens I don’t know – that would be useful to know.
At 320 degrees F I got smoke (or more likely steam) it dissipated very quickly and the clay was not discoloured at all, next time I will use two foil roasting tins, and take it outside to open.
My next test will be at 350 degrees F for 60 mins, and will include some uncoloured and untextured trans, to test for clarity.
Fran
Hi Fran, no I haven’t done anymore testing since this video. The higher heat testing sounds prom icing. I wish I had more hours in the day, to get to all of these cool things. Thank you so much for sharing your results here!! That is extremely helpful for everyone, including myself!
I’ve since done some more baking and found that my oven begins to turn the clay amber at 160C – I’m going to try for 155C next time.
I did some Swirl Mokume Gane beads, some tiny test tiles in black Pardo and some in Pardo trans with gold alcohol ink for the Mokume Gane, looked great before baking, not so good afterwards. (Plus one in Pardo Platin)
I also did a couple of intended pendants using textured black Pardo as a base for Mokume Gane made with trans Pardo, inks and gold leaf, that looks better – but I sliced it so thin (and burnt it at 160C) that some of the metal discoloured as well as the trans clay discolouring. I’ll try again at the lower temp.
FranOnTheEdge
Please link us up. To both of you!
Hello Kelly,
I am experimenting with so many sculptural mediums more fro creating variable relief surfaces an amalgamation of mixed media, with some colouring; for which I use acrylic inks, acrylic mediums and paints, oil colour, self coloured reclaimed stuff. I would label the works as abstract expressionism, a contemporary practice ‘ism’ of some sort anyway. These explorations will eventually become finished works that I will post on my web site. Anyway the salient point is experimentation which inevitably goes hand in hand with exploration; particularly with materials. I am pleased to find your site and will endeavour to watch more videos. Your Pardo Translucent demo presented all I needed to know to be convinced I need to try it out. I picked up on the staining of the leafy form which looked delightful, You used alcohol ink, wow, I like this effect. These polymer clay products are typically sold in small portions, I guess aimed at the consumer hobbyist/craft markets, I know of no bulk offers. Fortunately my pieces are small, mainly due to cost.
I will delve further into your site, for more pearls. Thanks for your efforts with your video posts, really supportive for ‘nubes’ like me.
Kind regards
Phil Dore
Southport, England.
Who’s kelly? I just had an uneasy feeling that I had your name wrong, so sorry,
CINDY!
It’s an age thing.
Phil
:D Lol! Yeah, I’m just a visitor.
Hi Phil, you don’t sound like a ‘Nube’ to me. :) Sounds like only the polymer clay is new to you. I think you will enjoy all the info in here. Use the search box at the top of the page to hunt down the topic you are interested in. There are hundreds of posts and tens of thousands of comments with wonderful gems in them, to weed through, so the search function will definitely help you to find the good stuff.
Polymer clay is probably the most versatile and exciting medium I have ever worked with. It can be molded, shaped, formed, drilled, sanded, polished, painted, stained, inked, gilded, waxed, silk screened, stenciled, blended, mixed with inclusions and made to mimic all kinds of materials like bone, wood, stone, gemstones, leather, metal, etc., etc., etc. Basically it is a mixed media artists dream!
Hang around here often and participate in the discussions. You will get more out of it that way. If you want a good foundations course, make sure to purchase the Beginners Course. And after that you can start getting some of the tutorials.
Do enjoy you new exploration into the Polymer Clay World!
Do enjoy YOUR journey… not YOU journey. :)
Also, you can buy Premo polymer clay (my favorite brand) in larger 1 lb blocks online in places like PolymerClayExpress and PolymerClaySuperstore which should handle any larger projects you are working on.
Just bought some Pardo Translucent to do a commission with, the character requested is one made of fire, so I figured tinted translucent would get the best results. I’m 26 now and have been playing with polymer clay (mostly Sculpey) since I was about 13 or 14. Until the last couple years, I’ve always bought my clay at the stores, Hobby Lobby or Michaels, but without a vehicle now, it’s harder to get there. The Pardo was actually shipped from the Netherlands, I couldn’t find it in the US.
Hi Kelly, Polymer Clay Express sells Pardo Translucent, although I see they are out of stock at this time. Plus I provided the link to Poly Clay Play (Trish Hodgens) in the article above. She is showing stock at her web site.
Excellent. Thank you very much!
I absolutely love Pardo clay and when I can get to another hobby lobby I buy all they have of the colors I want. It’s the only place that sells it that I’ve found other than online. I did the same tests a few months back and found pardo to be the strongest and clearest of all of them as well. I’ll definitely share the link to this video.
My Pardo Clay has finally arrived, I ordered 6 packs and each one including shipping cost $4.64 which to me is quite high priced compared to Premo which I got for $1.25 each on sale at Michaels this past week. I don’t mind spending a little more on a product I have never tried and since it seems the only place I could find it was PolyClayPlay, I did have to wait a couple of weeks for my order too. I am very excited to try it out now but I probably won’t switch over from Premo once this batch is gone. For me the availability and the price of Premo just can’t be beat, but getting to try new things from Cindy’s tutes is fun and informative.
Well My Pardo Translucent FINALLY arrived, I cant wait to get my hands in it, maybe this weekend [jumping up and down like a child]. I want to try faux opal and faux Jade since this is supposed to clearer, we shall see.
Hi Cindy,
I might have missed it, but one thing I would like to know is the price difference between Pardo and Premo? Personally, I have not heard of it before now……. so am presuming it might be a little cheaper because of that? If so, then even more of a thumbs up.
I buy online. I have to due to location. However, I prefer to buy from a business rather than a private seller on the old ‘eBad’, as I have had duff clay sold to me that way before. :D
Price would depend on where you bought it Mrs. Rainbow, but around here, the price has come down and is now comparable to Premo clay. It used to be much more expensive.
Hi Cyndy,
I’m just working on Pardo translucent clay nowdays, in France. I can’t find it in France, and I buy it on Internet, on a german web site.
Thanks for your video. I will had a link in my next post :-)
Have fun,
I should have looked first where I always buy EVERYTHING—Amazon. Amazon has it. Although it looks pricey.
That’s because people on ebay and amazon know the demand is greater than supply, to get it at a “normal” price will take patience, it took a month from placing the order to the clay arriving, but if it really is as clear as they say, it was time well spent.
Hi, Cindy! Thanks again for the great video. Had never heard of Pardo, then all of you were talking about it and now your video and all these wonderful comments have gotten me quite curious. I’m the sort that likes to try new things and experiment for myself so I will search this product out. But thanks so much for the video because, as always, it gives me the information I need to decide whether I really DO want to try something out or just waste my money—and who wants to do THAT? I agree with Tantensherry on all points. The crafts stores here are too far out of my way and when I get there they don’t have the colors I want or they look like they’ve sat there for ages. For some reason they are gung-ho on Sculpey III—probably because it’s geared for children and no one around here even knows what polymer clay is, so it is probably a hard sell for JoANN and Michael’s. I went to Pat Catan’s the other day and they had a good selection so I bought what I needed to fill in. But Polymer Clay Express has been really excellent so I am going with them more than anyone else lately. Shopping online for me is the very best option for most everything as this area is very skimpy on products I want. Dick Blick also has excellent service and the full line of Premo but Polymer Clay Express does have the larger sizes. Dick Blick DOES NOT have Pardo. Thanks for everything! Love to all!
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!
I also found the Pardo at Poly Clay Play but their stock won’t be in until Feb. 16th so am also waiting anxiously. I started out loading up on Fimo but after joining Cindy’s videos I switched to Premo and never looked back. I do want to try Pardo though, just because I’m curious and the video showed the translucent just as clear if not clearer than the premo. I think it’s important to do my own side by side comparison. I will probably never use the color line as I am so happy with the Premo and No one here in Iowa carries the Pardo. I so appreciate these videos learning about other products and techniques that Cindy and Doug put together. The information is acurate, detailed and tested. What more could you ask for!
Hi Cindy,
Thanks so much for this video it was so very helpful !! A friend of mine gave me some different colors of Pardo when it first hit the clay world and I hated it . Then as time went on and I was seeing all of the new art work involving Pardo translucent ( mainly) jewelery making as that’s my field I became very interested in trying the Pardo Professional jewelery Clay in the translucent. Well I found it a PolyClay Play but as you well know it’s on back order it’s very hard to find they can’t seem to keep it in stock so… I am sitting on pins and needles waiting for my order to come in . I understand it mixes well with other clays too so I will be checking that out as I start to work with this clay, But for now, Premo and Fimo are my favorites!!!
Thanks agin so much for the great video you really answered alot of my questions for me!
Peace,
I prefer to buy clay in person but most shops don’t have the clay or tools I prefer. Now that I saw this video, I am dying to get this stuff. i have silver and Black Pardo. It comes in a jar in little 3/4″ balls. So cool. I only have the 2 colors and are afraid of mixing. Il’l have to so its not wasted!
Thanks for the vid!
Janine
Just a side note: the Pardo that comes in balls in a jar is Pardo Jewellery Clay, which is a bit different to the Pardo Professional Art Clay that Cindy is talking about here. (Pardo Professional Art Clay comes in rectangular blocks with clamshell-type outer packaging that can be hung from a rack).
I have a couple of jars of Pardo Jewellery Clay but I haven’t done anything of note with it yet. It’s supposed to be softer than Pardo Professional Art Clay (although it comes in about a zillion colours), although I thought both became roughly equally soft the only time I worked with the two side by side.
I am from México and here I o ley find Sculpey and Premo. Usually I buy on line or when I travel to USA. Your vídeos are very interesting and thanks for the tips. Regards
As Jeanne C. says -Tucson in the summer is NO time to order clay. I order on line for the lb sizes in Black, white, White trans and pearl I order them in Jan or Feb only.
Other wise I go to my trusty -dusty Michael’s. With coupon in hand – LOL.
Thanks so much for taking the time to test Pardo with the other clays. Isn’t it interesting to actually see the difference yourself? I have been dying to try the Pardo Trans. Now I have an idea how it might work. .I will be ordering it soon – before it get hot here. LOL
We learn so much from each other. Polymer clay people are soooooo generous with sharing. I love learning new things………….teehee
WAY YO GO!!!!!!!!!!!