Using a Pasta Machine with Polymer Clay - More Tips

- The machine's settings limit the thickness of the sheets it can produce. If you need sheets that are thicker than this, make several and stack them. And remember that you can vary the thickness of the stacked sheets by changing the settings on your machine. (This can be very useful when you're making stacks for mokume gane.)

- Rolling really thin sheets of clay can be hard, even in a pasta machine, because the sheets tear easily. Try rolling a sheet of paper through with the clay, or even sandwiching the clay between two sheets of paper. Not only will the clay sheet be really thin - thinner than you could get using just clay - but the paper will stabilize the sheet and keep it from tearing. (Don't use the sheet right away, though. It's always a good idea to let it rest, maybe in the refrigerator or freezer, before working with it.)

- The machine won't keep the edges of your sheets even; it just can't. It may also distort patterns on the sheets run through it. This can be used for some very interesting effects (see the photo of my artist trading card made with flower canes here). But it may not be what you want at all. If you're worried about what the machine will do to your design roll it by hand with a brayer or dowel instead.

- If your clay has inclusions mixed in it be careful about putting it through a pasta machine. Hard inclusions, like chopped crayons, pieces of already-cured clay, and sand, could scratch the rollers. To be safe, roll these sheets by hand.

- Repeated passes through the machine will warm up the clay. If the clay was already soft to begin with (like Sculpey III) it could stick to the rollers or other parts of the machine. To prevent this, start out with "rested" or cooled clay and limit the number of passes you make at a time. If the clay gets too warm you can always let it rest a little and then do more passes later.

- There are pasta machines made just for polymer clay that produce only sheets. But if you happen to have a machine that was made for food and has attachments for other kinds of pasta - for example, linguini - try those out with clay. They'll expand what you can do with the machine - and with the clay.

- Pasta machines can make a lot of manual tasks easier, but cranking can still be hard on your hands. If this happens, consider getting a motor for your machine.

The pasta machine can make working with polymer clay a lot easier, but it isn't unbreakable. Treat it well and it will serve you well for a long time.