Broken Clay :(

[StarfallsAtDusk]

I made a whole bunch of narwhal ornaments last night and popped them in the oven. I must have put too many narwhals in the oven (how often can you say that?) because two of them cracked. :( They each have a small split going up the side. Other than that they look fine. Obviously I can't sell these in my shop but I don't want to throw them away. What do you do when something goes wrong?

[HiGirls]

Sometimes you can make lemonade out of those lemons! Try filling in the cracks with liquid clay, maybe add some sort of decorative embellishment over that.. don't know how big your narwhals are if that's possible. ;-)

[Former_Member]

If you can't find a way to fix them you can always just make a clearance section in your shop. Sell those for a discounted price. :) A lot of people are fine with slightly damaged goods.

Best of luck to you!

[exZuberant]

Fixing cracks is not a big deal. It took me a while to realize that polymer clay pieces can be rebaked an unlimited number of times, with repairs, new pieces added, etc. Your pieces appear to be tiny, though, so that will present a challenge.

If you have some of the exact same clay, put a small amount of translucent liquid clay into the crack. Let it set for a few minutes, then fill the hole with the matching clay. Smooth the surface carefully and bake the pieces again. You may have to gently wet sand the surface with fine grit sandpaper to get it to be smooth.

I don't think your pieces cracked because you had too many in the oven at once. I suspect it had more to do with the age/condition of the clay, the oven temperature, whether you mixed anything into the clay (translucent liquid sculpey, mineral oil, or clay softener) or some other factor. Check out Glass Attic to see if you can find anything about cracked clay. www.glassattic.com. There is an enormous amount of information there!

[Former_Member]

I agree with trying to fill the cracks. I find that sometimes if the clay is too thick in an area, or it hasn't been conditioned enough, it will crack. I also fill the crack with liquid sculpey and then the same color of clay and rebake.