Leaching Soft Polymer Clay To Make It Firmer

Video #399: When your clay is too soft, sticky or squishy to use, there are quick and easy ways to firm it up... More Info: http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/?... Polymer Clay Tutor.

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In a previous video not too long ago, I talked about buying fresh polymer clay. Sometimes that means the clay is very soft and squishy, and may be difficult to work with for some polymer clay techniques, especially caning.

In this video I will show you how you can remove the excess plasticizers and oils (leaching) making the clay much firmer.

Role out your soft squishy clay with your pasta machine to make a sheet.

Place the sheet of clay between two sheets of plain white office paper (no printing on it) and set on a non-porous surface for a day or so, for the excess oils to soak into the paper, making the clay firmer.

Don't set your clay and paper onto a porous surface like a wood table or a stack of books... or they will get stained by the oils.

I like to weight mine down with some ceramic tiles, to speed up the leaching process.

For a faster way, roll out your sheet of soft clay and put it in between a folded piece of paper, and run it through the pasta machine (paper and all), to force the paper to soak up the oils more quickly. You may need a clay blade to scrape the clay off the paper, but you will find this quick method to be much faster than having to wait for a day or so for the leaching to happen on its own.

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