Help! Figurines keep breaking!

[Former_Member]

I need help. I am relatively new to polymer clay, and I'm doing cake toppers. My problem is that they are pretty fragile - ears falling off, clay not sticking to itself after baking. Would putting a glaze on it help? Any ideas? Most of my figures are small (under 6 inches tall) and fairly detailed. I'm using Sculpey. I need a product durable enough to ship. I would really appreciate any advice.

[epicycledesigns]

First of all, I would check to make sure you are baking at the right temperature/ Sometimes too hot/too cold/ not long enough is the problem.

Sculpey III is one of the brittle clays out there, as well. I have had wonderful luck with Premo!, by Sculpey. It's a little more expensive, but I find it much easier to work with AND much more durable after baking. Maybe give it a shot, and see what works for you? I've shipped all over the country (and world) with Premo and some bubble wrap, and have rarely had anything break, unless I didn't attach it well enough to begin with!

[MariposaMiniatures]

In terms of making stuff stick well, I like to use Translucent Liquid Sculpey, which is just what it sounds like, to almost "glue" pieces together if I'm afraid they might fall off. Also, when sticking bigger pieces together, I use a combination of TLS and wire. That way, even if it does sort of fall off, the piece still stays on for the most part.

I use Sculpey III and have this problem sometimes, especially when the clay is too cold/not pressed on really well/one piece is too heavy to be supported by the base/etc... Glazing certainly helps a bit, but not completely. It'll keep small pieces a little more stable, but it won't help if you throw a piece against a wall (though I doubt that's what anyone would be doing xD )

[Former_Member]

Thank you both for the advice. I feel much better prepared for my trip to the craft store now....

[valenstar]

Translucent Liquid Sculpey or Sculpey Bake n Bond are great products for making the clay stick to itself. Like Tabitha said, I would definitely go for the Premo over Sculpey III for durability. With any brand, conditioning is important.

Are you baking your pieces for long enough at the right temperature? As long as your oven is at the right temperature, you can bake for longer than the package directions. Even my little beads, and especially my delicate roses and lily pendants, stay in for around an hour.

[Former_Member]

Beautiful cake toppers you have!

I have been slowly phasing out my use of Sculpy III due to its brittleness after baking and am using primarily Premo and Fimo.

If you look at the banner in my shop there is a fisherman figurine that I spent over 2 months working on as a gift for my dad only to have the pants crack and break. I literally wanted to just cry. It was my first really extensive piece of work. I was just so disappointed. Okay, enough whining from me. lol.

The use of toothpicks, wire and foil as armatures will make a big difference. On my snowmen ornaments I use 1/3 to 1/2 of a toothpick to support the connections between the body and feet, and the body and the head. The arms pretty much from end to end are touching the clay on the body and covering a decent amount of surface area so I don't reinforce that connection. For really small pieces, like their carrot noses, I take 22 - 24 guage jewlry wire, fold a section in half, hold the folded end with your fingers or needle nose plyers, and twist. Just like re-twist tying a loaf of bread. Then I cut that twisted wire into approx 1/4 - 1/2" pieces. But whether using toothpicks or wire I always dab a small amount of SoBo glue on the end of the toothpick / wire before inserting. Sobo glue is not affected by the heat of baking and will remain strong after baking.

A new item on the market is a product called Kato polypaste. According to Donna Kato this product is useful for holding raw to raw, raw to baked or baked to baked clay together, without sliding. For instance, if you wanted to attach 2 pieces of already baked clay together and used liquid clay, without support or reinforcement the 2 pieces would slide apart when you tried to bake. But the PolyPaste is thick and tacky, like mud/spackle for drywall, and will hold the pieces together through baking.

In regards to expense, Premo and Fimo are a little more expensive than Sculply III, but I shop at Munro Crafts in Berkley, Michigan. Whether shopping in store or online pretty much all their clay stuff is discounted from 25% - 50%. Check out their site http://www.munrocrafts.com/index.html
Spending just $100 (before discount deduction) puts your purchase at 40% off which makes that $2.79 block of premo just $1.67 per block! Their online catalog is definitely worth taking a look at.

Judy

[Former_Member]

Hi, I'd also like to note that those mega-giant craft stores like Jo-Ann, Michael's and Hobby Lobby have 40-50%-off-one-item coupons practically every week. And it's possibly to print out multiple coupons and if you're good about buying only a block each time, that's a big discount! The dangerous times for me are when they have 50% ALL Sculpey (includes Premo), or Fimo or something, then I've been known to get too much...

I also use Translucent Liquid Sculpey as 'glue' for my work. Good luck!

[Former_Member]

I am also having troubles with my clay breaking. If you look at my store, I have had 2 of my deer skull pendants break. I am baking per package instructions 15 minutes for ever 1/4 of an inch. Which has me baking these at about 30 minutes. They are pretty small but maybe I should be baking them longer? I guess i was baking them at the width measurement of a half of an inch but the length is about an inch and a half so should i be baking them for and hour and a half? I would absolutely love any feedback! I also use wire inside the antlers and the clay will crack when the pendant knocks up against something but will sort of stay in place due to the wires. Each piece takes me about 4-5 hours so having these break is really breaking my spirits. Thank you for your time!!

[BlueTurtleCrafts]

Hi Brittney :)
It's the thickness that matters, I assume the head part is the thickest (maybe an inch?) so that would be an hour of cooking time.
Remember that longer times won't hurt the clay as long as the temp is right.

What kind/brand of clay are you using? The antlers shouldn't be cracking when bumped. I don't really use wire inside my stuff though so maybe that's the difference - maybe you're getting thin spots or bubbles??

As some others said above, Scupley III can be really brittle, Premo! is way way stronger. I tested it once (cut out squares of each kind in different thicknesses) and it was really amazing how much stronger the premo was.

Hope you can get your issue figured out, those pendants are really cool :)

[LadyAstarte]

I am mostly using Kato clay and Kato paste, these days, but I have also used Preemo silver and purple, and the many colors of Fimo Soft and Sculpey regular. I have found that different colors do have different qualities. The Preemo silver is very resilient after baking, the purple not so much. Sculpey is on my "bead only" list because it is wobbly before baking and fragile after baking.
I have used Kato black for very small thin bird feet, and find it is, while breakable, very strong. It is possible to break it, yes, but it would be deliberate.
I like the ideas here, esp. about using toothpicks and wires. I haven't tried that. There is one thing I would like to mention - I mixed white Kato with translucent Kato and put it around a plastic eye to form a complete eyeball, and it shrunk during baking and each eyeball had a crack where it separated. Now, either the Kato clay shrunk or the eye expanded and cracked it, but I do think that the clay shrunk because it there was a slight separation still after cooling.

[Former_Member]

hi im new at the clay making i love doing flower on candles i do them with fimo but someone told me to try fim cair is it that good its air drying clay

[Former_Member]

Another method to make any type of polymer clay more durable is called "quenching". I've tried it, but can't say yet whether it's made my items stronger or not.
This youtuber seems to think it works well though, and she's who I found out about it from. Here's a how-to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szqsx964YRk

[ArcaneArtifactsArt]

I have stopped using sculpey III because it is fairly brittle and I hate seeing my little details break off. I like kato and cernit the most for their strength after baking (and other qualities, like how they buff and hold detail), but I use Fimo fairly regularly, too (I like the colors). Since switching, I haven't had and breakage. When I make sculptures, I also use armatures underneath the clay. Maybe try a different brand and/or use armatures?

[atelierJOKO]

Hi I am using Fimo for more than 25 years and I like it. I have done some investigation about baking.
In the past there was a backing temperature of 130 Celsius. They had to change that into 110 degree. The hardening process is taken place in the first few minutes the rest of the time is making the clay harder. Now I pre heat the oven at 130 and turn it down when my work is in.
For my jewelry it is important that the Fimo is still a bit flexible, so I am baking less than the time that is on the parcel.
Baking a small tube of clay with your work can help you to see if the process was good. Flexible clay is not breaking easily.

[Former_Member]

Hi - we discussed this topic in our last polymer clay guild meeting so I wanted to chime in. 1 - condition the clay beyond what you think it needs before you build your pieces. Once you think its conditioned properly, do it a little more! 2 - make a test piece that you bake and then try to break to figure out your baking times. 3 - you can't over bake your clay so go longer than what you think you need. You may want to bake it in stages , or covered, or in baking soda to prevent scorching. (I have scorched a lot of pieces!)
Premo and Kato should be leather like (if they are thin pieces) when bent after baking but not break without really trying. Fimo and sculpey are more likely to break as they are more brittle.
I hope this helps. I get tired of having to do it but it seems I have to test, test, test all the time to make sure I've conditioned the clay correctly and that the time / temp is correct before baking my pieces to be sure they are cured correctly. When they are it is impressive how flexible the clay is. It shouldn't be breaking without a lot of effort.
I hope that helps!

[Former_Member]

I'm new to polymer clay. I had the same problem with you : hands falling off after a while, clay not sticking to itself after baking, a bit fragile, some small pieces are fell off easily, And I didn't know that until one of my customer complain. Pretty embarrassing. I didn't want that to happen again. So I bought Fimo liquid as a glue, and bought a thermometer oven, although my oven already got a built-in thermometer - but it just a bit hard to read.

Turned out my built-in thermometer gave me false reading the whole time! I use fimo-premo mix and it should be bake around 120 C. When my thermometer oven read is 120 C my built-in thermometer gave me around 175 C ! No wonder almost all my clay creation are so fragile , turned out they are under bake all this time. Now with correct baking temperature, and also fimo liquid as glue - my baked clay are better - more firm, strong, don't break up easily but they get a little bit tan LOL. The beige / skin color get darker when the bake is complete, but no big deal I can add lot of white in my beige clay before baking :)

So yes, a correct baking temperature and liquid clay do help me a lot :)