Poly Clay PSI Polymer Clay and Canes

[Pkweiss]

Has anyone had luck with PSI new Polymer Clay Canes? After I make the clay tubes and bake them, they are still leathery, will no get hard. I have a thermometer in the toaster oven and had tried various times and settings with no luck. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Phil

 

[magpens]

I am interested in the answers you might get, Phil, so I am going to "listen in".

 

[CreativeCanes]

Hi Phil
I am sorry I never saw this post earlier.

As a cane artist, the brand of clay is SUPER important and I notice that PSI doesn't mention a brand of clay, just that it's polyclay (I didn't even know they sold canes apart from in the starter set).

Some clays like Sculpey III, bake shop pro, and unbranded names are brittle and weak. So getting the name of the clay used is important to knowing what temps to bake at (they are different between brands) and can make or break your blank OR if you are successful at baking, when the pen is dropped it could shatter with these unknown brands and which you are working with.
Good clay's like, Kato, Premo, Souffle, Fimo Professional & Cernit are good strong professional brands of clay and they do vary with baking temps.

I know this may not answer your question directly, but being unable to know which brands of clay is used, it's hard to answer what it should feel like as they all have different qualities and texture.
But clay on the blank once fully cured and cooled should be firm but you can still gouge it if done hard enough, just like wood may dent if dropped onto an edge of something. If cured in a sheet (not on the tube) you want flexibility in a good quality clay. if it doesn't flex and snaps it could be a weak clay or not be cured correctly.

Lacking this information on their website is not a good idea as it's vital to having a pen that will last a lifetime. Under cured clay over time will break down and crumble away like chalk.

Again I apologize for this not answering your question directly, but again it's hard to give correct information when your dealing with an unnamed clay.

Mel

Has anyone had luck with PSI new Polymer Clay Canes? After I make the clay tubes and bake them, they are still leathery, will no get hard. I have a thermometer in the toaster oven and had tried various times and settings with no luck. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Phil

 

[magpens]

I am interested to hear these comments from Mel.

I bought some Sculpey III, from Michaels, thinking it was a good brand.
I'll have to check if they have one of the brands that Mel recommends.

Not that I have much need for PC ... all I was going to use it for was to fill some large voids in some blanks I have.

 

[CreativeCanes]

Sculpey has a lot of different brands of clay available. The one I use from the Sculpey series is Premo, it's the clay I use for most of my canes, for more detailed canes, I do use Kato as it's a firmer clay.
Sculpey is also the maker of Sculpey III and Bake Shop (and a few others). If you have a package of Sculpey III and a pack of Premo, do a bake test to see the results of the two clays. Roll out two sheets same thickness around 2 mm and bake for at least an hour at 275 (with use of an extra oven thermometer). Let them both cool and once cool do a stress test on them both. The premo will be a lot more flexible then the sculpey III, the sculpey III may snap instantly where the premo will flex. I have taken a hammer to some of my cured premo and it didn't even dent it, I'm sure if I wack it as hard as I can it will, but my stress tests where brutal lol.
Many starting with clay will always grab the sculpey III and we see it time and time again, "why did my creation break?" and III is usually the culprit and sometimes wrong curing temps and time.

Hope this helps.

I am interested to hear these comments from Mel.

I bought some Sculpey III, from Michaels, thinking it was a good brand.
I'll have to check if they have one of the brands that Mel recommends.

Not that I have much need for PC ... all I was going to use it for was to fill some large voids in some blanks I have.