Tag Archives: clay

Ode to Polymer.

I’ve been developing quite the addiction to polymer clays. Alright, so that sounds horrible and isn’t entirely true… but it’s more than just a habit.

And the thing about polymer clay.. is that you can never just have one colour. And you can definitely never have less than three colours open, ready, waiting.. And as soon as you open one color, you want another, you need a black or a cream or a tint or a shine… to blend & mix & marble & do all the fun things that polymer can.

But it’s never enough just to open the package; the clay must be conditioned: worked, softened, released. After a couple rounds it gets soft enough, and after a couple more it’s so smooth that it combines almost sticky when mixed with another….

And before you know it, it’s been four or five hours, and the skin on your fingers is rough and raw from pulling, twisting, kneading. Half a litre (kidding) of that creepy-pumice-orange soap later and I’m still just barely feeling human. And my hands feel horrible. And as for my manicure? Effectively ruined; I never remember that nailpolish does not prefer polymer.

My kitchen smells like slightly-cooked-polymer & I have three full plates of color & shape &
I’m already wishing I had more.

* * *

In other, unrelated news: look for an introduction to polymer art necklaces in the next week or so.