polymer clay
BySandra Callander Skills & Techniques

Polymer Clay Tools for Beginners

Embarking on a new creative journey, such as working with polymer clay, can be both exciting and a little intimidating when you look at all of the tools involved. If you’re anything like me you’ve got a tote (or five) tucked away in the back of a closet full of unused craft supplies. The last thing you want to do is invest a more of your hard earned money on a bunch of new supplies that may end up abandoned in one of those totes.

Well, the good news is that you don’t need to break the bank to dive in. This blog post walks you through the essential tools that every beginner should have in their arsenal to kickstart their polymer clay adventure. You just need a handful of easy-to-find, budget-friendly tools to bring your polymer clay creations to life. And if you end up loving working with polymer clay as much as I do, I’ve included a shortlist of some of the tools you’ll want to add to your advanced toolkit.

Setting Up Your Work Area

If you don’t have a dedicated craft area the kitchen table is a perfectly acceptable place to set up a polymer clay work station. It’s worth mentioning that you should avoid sitting on a fabric upholstered chair or over a carpeted area. No matter how carefully you think you’re working, you WILL end up mashing small bits of clay into the chair and carpet. Yes, I am speaking from experience, and while it is possible to get the clay out with some patience and rubbing alcohol, it’s a pain in the butt to do so.

To set up your work area, you will need:

  • Something to work on — glazed tile is your best option. It’s easy to find at a hardware store and comes in multiple sizes, you use it in the oven to cure your pieces on, and it cleans up easy. I have several in both 6” x 6” and 8” x 12” sizes 
  • Something to hold your tools — this one doesn’t have to cost you anything — recycle a jar for this and you can make it pretty by covering it with a polymer clay veneer. Yes, you can put the glass in the oven to cure the clay!
  • Ziplock bags — use these to store open packages of polymer clay so it stays dust and lint free
  • Something to store your tools & supplies — a plastic tote with a lid will work well but there’s no reason why you can’t reuse that ridiculously large cardboard box Amazon used to ship your toothbrush. If you do go the plastic tote route, be careful that you don’t use polycarbonate or polystyrene (recycle numbers 6 and 7) as raw polymer clay will melt those plastics

Getting to Work | The Basic Tools

Now that you’ve got your work area sorted, let’s move on to the tools. While it’s incredibly easy to overspend in this area because there are so many fun tools out there you think you may want, you really only need a few simple tools in your arsenal to get you started:

  • Polymer clay blades — while a set of blades consisting of a flexible blade, a more rigid blade, and a ripple blade are nice to have, utility knife refill blades work too
  • A craft knife — with a regular ol’ #11 blade
  • A roller — plastic or acrylic will do, but avoid wood
  • A deck of playing cards — use these as guides to roll out you clay to an even thickness by stacking an equal number on each side of the clay you’re rolling out. Add more cards or take some away to get your desired thickness
  • Course grit sandpaper — makes a nice texture
  • A ruler — that’s self-explanatory, right?
  • Rubbing alcohol & cotton swabs — gently wipe off that lint from your piece before it goes in the oven! I keep a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol handy for cleaning up too as it dissolves polymer clay
  • Baby wipes/paper towel/microfiber cloth — for cleaning up your workspace, your tools, and yourself. I use all three in my studio

Baking & Finishing

Once you’ve finished creating you’re piece, it’s time to cure it and, if need be, refine the finish. Here’s the basics you’ll need to see you through the last steps:

  • An oven — your kitchen oven will do just fine, that’s what I use, but if you don’t want to tie up your kitchen oven you may want to research a smaller option
  • An oven thermometer — the temperature you set your oven dial to does not always mean that’s the temperature your oven heats to. For properly cured, and not burnt, polymer clay make sure you are baking your pieces at the recommended temperature on the package
  • Baking sheet & tin foil or foil pan — this is your baking set up and depending on what you’re curing, it may look a little different. I bake flat earring components, without any texture, sandwiched between tiles with printer paper or card stock. Anything that cannot be sandwiched like that gets tented with foil. I’m still using the very same disposable foil pans I bought when I first started working with polymer clay in 2020
  • A pin rise hand drill — it’s much better to drill holes for jump rings after your piece is baked rather than poking a hole in raw clay with a tooth pick which could distort your piece
  • Emery board nail file — cheap, easy to come by, and work well for cleaning up the rough edges left from shape cutters
  • Wet/dry sandpaper — for more refined finishing pick up several different grits of wet/dry sandpaper from he hardware store. For larger decor pieces I start with a 400 grit and work up to 1200 or 1500. For smaller, jewelry pieces I start with 600 or 800 grit
  • Acetone — while it is always best to properly prepare your clay before it goes in the oven sometimes a fingerprint, a bit of lint, or an air bubble will mar your cured piece. A bit of acetone on a cotton swab can wipe away those sins but do be careful as too much acetone will eat away more than just the surface blemish

Building Out Your Toolkit

Once you’ve decided polymer clay is a craft you’re going to stick with, it may be time to flesh out your selection of tools and make a few upgrades. Personally, I think the first thing you’re going to want to invest in is a pasta machine, which will make conditioning polymer clay, blending colors, and sheeting clay so much easier. I have an Atlas 180, and that, along with the pasta machine motor, is the one tool I would not want to be without. And remember, once that pasta machine has been used for polymer clay it is no longer suitable to be used for making pasta.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, here’s a look at some of the tools that are nice to have as you build out your polymer clay toolkit:

  • Cutters — from basic shapes to just about anything you could imagine, it’s easy to spend a lot of money on shape cutters. 3D printed cutters have taken off in the past few years and it’s easy to go wild with all the options available
  • Texture mats & stamps — these are almost like cutters in that there’s so many to choose from, there’s always new ones coming out, and it’s easy to want them all. I love using different textures to finish the backs of my jewelry pieces and making mokume gane and mica shift
  • Dremel — use this to drill holes, sand the edges of jewelry components with a felt pad, and buff the face of smaller sanded pieces to a beautiful shine. When I want to buff larger pieces I use a cordless drill with a wool buffing pad
  • Extruder — there are several extruders available that work just fine, my first was from Walnut Hollow and I’ve read that the Makins extruder works well too. But if you have the cash to splurge a little then I can’t recommend the Czextruder from Lucy Clay enough
  • Cane slicer — if you don’t do a lot of cane work then skip past this one but if that’s something you want to get into, then, again, Lucy Clay is the place to go—the LC Slicer is a dream machine, allowing you to cut thin, even slices consistently
  • Glass grid — I mainly work on a tempered glass cutting mat with a 1” grid and I find it is especially helpful when I’m making canes since I don’t have to pull out my ruler every time I’m making a cut or reducing my cane to a desired size
  • Rolling cart — a tiered metal rolling cart is handy to have once you start collecting more tools and materials

What About the Polymer Clay?

There are a number of different polymer clay brands on the market and I haven’t tried them all but I can recommend a few of my favorites. 

My go-to for making canes is Fimo Professional because I like how well it slices. I’ve had success making canes with Premo and Fimo Soft as well and other polymer clay artists cane with Sculpey Souffle and Cernit. I’ve never tried Kato but I’ve heard it’s great for making canes and plan to get my hands on some one day. 

Cernit metallic and pearl clays are wonderful for mica shift and I’ll often add some in when I’m using the mokume gane technique for a bit of shimmer. Cernit also makes a great translucent clay that is a favored among many artists.

Since I haven’t tried any of the other brands on the market I can’t say whether or not they are good. However, I do know that while Sculpey III has it’s place, it is likely too soft to cane with and too brittle when cured for jewelry. Avoid that clay if those are projects you’re drawn to.

There You Have It

Getting into polymer clay doesn’t have to break the bank, the clay itself is reasonably affordable and many of the tools you may already have on hand while the rest are easy to find and fairly inexpensive. 

So go ahead and get claying!

And if you have any questions or comments, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you.