Sculpey III Polymer Clay Really Makes Me Mad
My Little Guy Broken Hearted From His Broken Sculpey Miniature Project:
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I love polymer clay! In fact I even love Premo polymer clay made by Sculpey. But what the heck was Sculpey thinking when they made Sculpey III!?
I’ve made a decent cane or two out of the stuff. And I have Sculpey 3 beads that I really love a lot. So why am I so mad? Because Sculpey iii projects almost always break!!!! Even when I’ve tried to firm up this clay by taking out the plasticizers before molding and baking it.
Both my kids and my cousin’s kids have cried because of Sculpey III! After working hard on little miniature sculptures and beads that baked up beautifully, the kids play with them… Duh!! Then they break. Then they cry!!!
Cheap, soft and in more colors than any other polymer clay, Sculpey III is marketed to kids and to beginners. These two groups, in my opinion, are the last ones that should be using it.
Polyform which makes the Sculpey brand has a variety of polymer clay products, some of which are excellent. My favorite one is Premo! It’s strong and durable yet soft enough to work without of the package.
So why the heck does Polyform bother to make a crappy product (IMO) like Sculpey III? And then market it to kids and beginners who will ultimately quit working with it out of disappointment when their stuff breaks?
I would suggest that Sculpey only offer their super great products that’ll hook customers into their brand for life.
My son is crazy about polymer clay. When he makes something out of Premo it lasts. And then he makes more stuff. He gets better at it and I buy him more clay.
Wake up Polyform! You may think that more Sculpey iii is getting sold because beginners and kids want one of every color. But trust me, they won’t buy more if it makes them cry.
I know you have just brought out the new Studio by Sculpey line that I haven’t even tried yet. Maybe that’s a good one for beginners… we’ll see.
I also know there are other polymer clay artists who are having great success with Sculpey III. But my guess is they’re not following the directions on the package and have their own way to make it more durable.
My suggestion to Polyform is to make more colors and sparkly stuff in the Premo line for the kids and beginners. And then get rid of Sculpey III altogether so that no one has to cry anymore. Polymer clay should be a happy experience for everyone.
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If Sculpey III is to soft and it can break after cured, will leeching it before you make something help with the sturdiness of it? I have a BUNCH of S3, and I am scared to use any more of it as one of my THIN pieces broke. I have so much of it and I was wanting to do some canes and such, but terrified that they will turn out all muddy.
Hi Nixie, unfortunately leaching it won’t really help, but if you bake it longer and use it for things like larger round beads, you can definitely use it up. You can also make it into molds and things too where the strength isn’t much of an issue. Do a search using the search box at the top of the page to find out how to make molds and texture sheets with your clay if that interests you. Good luck!
What do you think about making maybe some small items, but then using them as inclusions in a resin, or use a resin like a shell to protect it? (Probably would have to make it fairly thick I would imagine) I have some resin as well so that wouldn’t be an issue.
That could work too Nixie. Just experiment and see what you can come up with. Good Luck!
For me, Sculpey III is a special use clay. I love it for cabochons, where fragility is not an issue at all, because it requires so little conditioning. But you’re quite right that it’s horribly fragile, and I’d never use it for anything other than thick or supported pieces.
My clay of choice is Fimo Professional. In my experience it’s stronger than Premo, more color accurate, fingerprints less, and takes less conditioning. I used to use Premo, I’ve mostly switched. If you haven’t tried it, do. YouTube has a real lack of reviews of it in English, Cindy, so you might think about doing a review of it there.
That is interesting about you saying that the Fimo Professional had fewer fingerprints for you Crystal. I just got some samples of the true colors from Fimo Professional and I found it made my fingerprints much worse than Premo. I will have to work with it more to see if that changes for me. I will be doing some reviews and demos with it in the future, so stay tuned… It may be a little while though, because I need time to play with it first. But it will be sooner, rather than later. :)
Oh my, scary!! I’ve been working with polymer clay off and on since late 2004 to early 2005. I’m not even sure what Sculpey I started with? I know it was a sampler pack. It had instructions for making a teddy bear. I made a boy and girl set for my mom who spent 3 months in the hospital. I made other stuff too, but my girl teddy bear broke. My mom had let a little one play with it. Now I have to wonder did it break cause of bad clay and not cooking it long enough or because she was to rough with it? I still have the boy bear and so far no cracks or anything in it. I’m learning so much, but learning I’ve done a lot wrong. I also mix clay brands for different color mixes. How bad of a mistake am I making there?
Again thank you so much for all your informative info. I’m learning so much!
Patricia
Thank you Patricia! Sorry to hear about your broken pieces. :( Polymer clay can be brittle for basically just a few reasons.
One reason can be lower quality brand (like Sculpey III, Craftsmart and some import brands.)
Another can be the clay was in poor condition… ie. partially baked by improper storage.
Another reason is under baking… either the temperature is not correct, or it has not been baked for long enough.
These things are not really mentioned in any baking instructions so a lot of people can’t understand why their pieces are so fragile. Like you, they feel like they did something wrong.
This is one of the reason s why we make all these videos… to help people understand the medium of polymer clay, so that they have success. I am very pleased to know that you are learning so much! Thanks for taking the time to let us know! :)
Hello i am a little tad new to this clay thing tho have been doing it for about 8 months now i use sculpey oven bake clay from walmart its soft till u bake it and not varry good for makeing canes i have tryed many times but when i roll it into a log to cut into pieces it gets all mushed and messed up on the inside i have only had a couple things brake on me i made a cherrim pokemon and her head pettles busted off without superglue i cant fix it also a dragon i made its wings broke off i glued it back on with fabric glue but that has gotten old and it has fell off again but other then that most of the things i have made are still in one pice and i like the clay its the only thing my walmart has and were i live thats the only store we have if i wanted to buy better clay i would have to order it from online there are not alot of colors or anything but there are some glitter and some glow int he dark colors in this type of clay and you can mix in glitter to the normal clay to make it glitter and it is easy to mix colors as well you might want to try this clay tho it might still brake if a kid plays with it im not sure i made a snail and my 2yo has played with it and it did not brake
You should try quenching them ^.^
Right after they come out of the oven drop them into ice cold water.
I use Sculpey 3 and so far I love it! I never had anything break. I have several sculptures I made out of Sculpey 3. I just got Premo because it was on sale so I’m going to try it out.
I totally agree!
Hi Cindy,
I am a graduate student that will soon be looking at the cordage markings left on Late Woodland ceramic vessels. Most previous research has used some sort of polymer clay, usually Sculpey, to press onto the potsherd to get a positive impression of the markings. Often, the impressions are detailed enough that individual fibers can be seen. Sculpey is used because it is inexpensive and can be baked, so the impressions can be studied by someone else in the future without having to put the sherds at risk. I had read that Sculpey III was softer and able to take finer detail from molds, so had thought to use that for the impressions, but if the clay tends to break after baking, then this would be useless for future research. Could you recommend a clay that I could use? What I need is a clay that is soft enough to press into small impressions easily so that the risk of breaking the sherd is lessened, that small details can be seen, and that will bake without cracking and not prone to breakage once baked. Also, I hadn’t realized that certain plastics will react with the clay, so wondered if you have a listing of compatible and incompatible materials to use with the clays.
Thank you, Carol
Hi Carol,
Your studies sound very interesting. Your question is a first for me in regards to how you want to use the clay. I think others would find it interesting too. So I may have to mention it in a video sometime.
As far as which clay to use, you have a few options. Premo Sculpey clay is very strong (if baked at 265F-275F for 1 hour) and should be soft enough for your use. Fimo Soft would also work well, (bake it at 230F for 1 hour) and it should also be soft enough to get a good casting.
If your end piece doesn’t need to be hard, there are a couple of molding clay products that would work very well, and would be flexible after cured. One is called Sculpey Mold Maker, which is a very soft and flexible clay that needs to be baked. (Follow the instructions on the pack for that one.) And another option is a two part silicone molding product called Simple Silicone.
As far as plastics that are compatible with polymer clay, there isn’t a simple answer. Each brand has a different formulation that will react differently with different plastic types. That is of course only when raw. Once cured the pieces can be stored in any type of plastic. The best thing to do to test if the plastic container is safe with your brand of clay, is to put a test clump of raw clay onto the plastic and wait a day or so. If it is going to react it will leave a foggy or sticky mark on the container. If not it should be fine, but I would continue to check for a week or so to be sure.
Hope that helps. Good luck with your project!
And do come back to let everyone know how things turned out.
~Cindy
Thanks, Cindy.
I think it’s time for some sampling of polymer clays before I start.
Since the casts will probably be traveling from the curation facilities to my home to be cured, I think I’ll take them for a couple hours of car travel to see how well the different types will hold up.
If too soft, they might become distorted.
Thanks again,
Carol
thank you for your response i will have to take a look at some of the info you suggested, i have made another little mouse slightly smaller baked her on 120c for only 40 mins her ears had just started to toast so the next model i baked for 30 mins and he turned out just fine i also found opening the oven by say 1″ at the end of cooking time seems to help cool the oven a little quicker stopping it from baking so long without cooling the clay too quickly, i read i can mix sculpy with primo since i brought the 30 colour tester kit along with the white that was good news i can still mix my colours i have since ordered some more sculpy III and some primo as the oh wants to try it but he thought the sculpy was just too soft for him.
You’re welcome Shell. I guess I didn’t explain myself very well though… the reason your clay is burning and discoloring is not because of how long it is in the oven, it is because the temperature is getting too high AND you are using White Sculpey III. Switch to Premo and use an oven thermometer to make sure the temp never goes over 275F (135C) and your projects will be fine. Just because you set your dial to 120C, it does not mean your oven isn’t going higher than that. Type ‘baking’ into the search box at the top of the page and you will find more helpful articles on the subject. Make sure to read the comments as well, as there has been lots of valuable hints added by our members. Good luck!
I am sorry to hear you burnt your cute little mouse Shell. :( It was not because you baked it for too long, but because the temperature got too high, and the fact that you used White Sculpey III which will often scorch very easily. Premo Sculpey clay is much better at not changing color or cracking when baked, so next time you make something I would suggest you use Premo instead. Another thing that happens when baking is that the temp spikes a lot higher than the dial says on your oven, so using an oven thermometer is very important. It sounds like you enjoyed making the little mouse, so I would encourage you to continue working with polymer clay. This blog has tons and tons of free information on working with polymer clay as well, we have tons of paid video tutorials and a Beginner’s Basics Course that I highly recommend. I hope you keep trying. Polymer clay can be quite easy and very fun… you just need to know a few little tricks! :)
I have just tried to make my first model i am making my own wedding toppers, i saw some little mice that i wanted bu the price was too high the clay however is a lot cheaper, so i sculpted the groom so far out of sculpty III, recommended for beginner i found the clay to be almost like plasticine where as i went to break it apart it just stretched because it was too warm so i would leave it to cool try work it again bare in mind I’m in the UK so we don’t have super hot temps here, so anyway, the pack says bake on 130c for 20 mins per 1/4 inch my mouse was fat so i baked him for 2 hours he probably could have done with longer but i was worried about the ears, i left him in the oven after baking for a further 2 hours to cool down naturally and well i have just opened the oven he is brown (he was originally white with pink) and had has several gash marks/cracks on his belly and back, he is completely ruined, i could paint him but then how am i going to hide the cracks, I’m not sure what i am going to do atm but i am very disappointed as he was my first run at poly clay it took me hours to make him, last time i used earth clay or any type of clay was over 10 years ago and that was just basic stuff..
Just found your website and this article hit home in particular. I’m new to clay sculpting. Decided to create sculptures of my art animals that I currently sell as gift tags. I thought they would be really cute as three dimensional items instead of just digitally created art.
My first efforts were with S-III. I made a penguin with a scarf and was very pleased with how cute he came out. His scarf was wrapped around his neck with one end tucked under and the other end falling down his belly but not flat against the belly. The back side was against his belly for support but I had turned the front of it out just slightly to make it look more like a woolen scarf. I couldn’t believe it when that portion broke off in my fingers from just picking it up.
I had conditioned the clay and baked it according to the manufacturer’s instructions. I used white as I want to paint them for more detail rather than using colored clays. This is not a clay I will use again. I’ll try Cernit or Premo next but interested in learning more about Apoxie clay. Also, for some of the larger items an armature should help.
Anyway, thanks for posting this. I can certainly empathize with your son as I wanted to cry, too, when my cute little penguin’s scarf broke.
Has anyone tried Kato clays for beads and sculpting?
I bought some when I first started working with clay.
I found it very hard, & it took a lot of work to get it soft enough to work with. Wondering if it has been updated, softer, but not as soft as Sculpey lll.
@Jana S: You will know your clay is conditioned properly if it is pliable and easy to fold in half without cracking. Some clays are naturally soft and others are firm. The problem is that clays tend to get firmer over time. Brand new Premo is fairly soft and will condition very quickly but the old stuff will be firm and may take awhile. I have been able to recondition clay that is over ten years old, with the help of a few tools (food processor and pasta machine) as well as a little additives like baby oil, liquid clay, clay softener, mold maker or Fimo quickmix. I recommend that you do some searches on this blog for tons of information and tutorials on how to soften hard clay. Just type in your keywords into the search box at the top of the page and start digging. You should be able to find the help you need.
@Mavis T: Yes Kato is one of the hardest clays on the market to condition, though they have recently softened it up quite a bit. You may want to give it a try again. You may even like it now.
Hi, I just started experimenting w/clay and over the weekend bought over of clay products. I bought the sculpey 3, the premo & the fimo. I’ve only opened one of the Fimo clays, which was silver, and found that I had a terrible time conditioning it..actually…It never did condition, I don’t think. I didn’t know if it’s because it’s metallic, or if it’s just old, or if that’s just the way fimo is. And I did purchase the clay pasta machine also, this didn’t work at conditioning it either. The Primo also is a little difficult it seems. I constantly run the the clay though the machine, but the edges are always cracked and clay is still very firm.So I guess I’m wondering, how do you know when the clay is conditioned and what can I do to make the clay softer?