Polymer Clay Advice for Beginners

A little bit of background: I am detailing the journey of Polymer Clay infancy to being a Polymer Clay toddler. Eventually I will strive for adulthood, but like any art form, that is a process that can take many years, with lots of hard work. This will be a summary of my experiences with specific tips and advice, and some helpful web links at the end.

Due to its versatility, even beginners are able to make beautiful, cool, creative, and in some case useful things working with Polymer clay, but it takes actually conditioning that clay, molding it, and in some cases, finding a book or two for some help along the way.

I found a book that was great for me. There were simple projects that had a result I was looking for (Fantasy creatures). More importantly there were also intermediate and very difficult projects that had a wide range of techniques that you used from the easiest to the most advanced project, therefore giving you a solid foundation.

Tips:

Just do it! Nike was right when they came up with this slogan. Polymer Clay is easy to begin, and difficult to master, but you will never get anything done unless you try it.

Find a good book with clear pictures and projects ranging from easy to difficult. This book will then grow with you.

If you can not find a book, start with modeling a fruit. An orange, though essentially a sphere, has several nuances that will help you begin modeling.

Start with a very soft Polymer clay like Sculpey, and even though it seems soft, you should still spend a good amount of time conditioning (kneading) the clay. This will give your Polymer clay creation strength. To be honest, I still prefer Sculpey because it is soft.

Find some websites to help you learn some different techniques.

Polymer Clay Central

Before I started investing in books, or even taking books out from the library, this website not only showed me a lot of great techniques to practice, it also gave me some good places to start in finding books to use. I would suggest going to the Polymer Clay Central for some more specific information on Polymer Clay.

Polymer Clay Christmas Ornaments
Polymer Clay Experimentation
Polymer Clay for Beginners

These are three of my Associated Content articles on Polymer Clay at different (beginner) stages of the process. you how to make some pretty, and decorative Polymer Clay ornaments for your Christmas tree, or for Yule or Winter decorations.

A Google Search for Still Life Photographs

If you can't find a book for beginners, on sculpting different things in Polymer Clay, try this site for some awesome inspiration!

Good luck, and happy sculpting!