Studio Experiments: Exploring Liquid Polymer Clay Ideas

This post is a little different from my usual tutorials as I’m simply experimenting with some liquid polymer clay ideas and sharing the results.

A while ago, the folks at Sculpey sent me a box of their products to try out, and among the goodies were a few bottles of their liquid clay. I was intrigued. Up until now, I’ve mainly used translucent liquid clay as an adhesive for attaching clay pieces together. While I’ve seen the solid colors before, I haven’t explored their possibilities.

In this post, I’ll share the process of what I did with the liquid polymer clay. It’s less of a tutorial and more of a “watch me mess around” kind of post.

What is Liquid Polymer Clay?

As the name implies, it’s a liquid form of polymer clay that comes in a little bottle with a flow-control twist cap, just like the translucent liquid clay I often use. It bakes at the same temperature as other Sculpey products (275°F) and remains very flexible when cured.

First Impressions

One reason it took me so long to dive into my box of Sculpey supplies is that I wasn’t sure what to do with any of it. My main focus with polymer clay is building canes, and liquid polymer clay doesn’t play a part in that process. However, I liked the colors I received: green, light orange, purple, and a blue-gray metallic.

I have to confess—I don’t like Sculpey Soufflé clay.

Unpopular opinion, I know.

I received several blocks of Soufflé as well, and I wasn’t eager to use them. I know many makers love Soufflé and it’s a good product, especially for making jewelry. I’ve never enjoyed working with it.

But I decided to give it a try. I picked out a couple of Soufflé colors and a couple of liquid polymer clay colors and sat down to play. Here’s what I did:

Tools & Materials

• Non-porous work surface — I work on either glazed tile or glass)
• Pasta machine dedicated to polymer clay use — I use an Atlas 180 and will refer to the settings I use on my machine. If you don’t have a pasta machine an acrylic roller and some playing cards will do in a pinch, it’ll just take a little more work.
• Sculpey Soufflé in Citron and Jade
• Liquid Sculpey in Green, Light Orange, and White — as well as my old bottle of translucent
• Polymer clay blade
• Makeup sponge — dollar store variety is perfect for this
• Stencil
• Acrylic rod
• Baking tile
• Domed piece of glass (optional)
• Texture sponge
• Shape cutters
• Craft knife
• Dotting tool
• Jump rings, earring posts, and stringing material — to finish the pieces

Liquid Polymer Clay Ideas

• Make a simple blend with the Citron and Jade clay. I used a 1/4 bar of each
• Sheet on setting no.3 and cut into two pieces. Place each piece on separate glazed tiles

Using Liquid Polymer Clay with a Stencil

• For optimum results, before using liquid clay be sure to mix it well. Liquid polymer clay settles and separates when it sits for a period of time. I simply stuck a wooden skewer into each bottle and gave them a good stir

• Pour out a small amount of each color of liquid polymer clay and make a third color by mixing the first two together
• Place the stencil on the sheet of clay and roll gently to adhere securely

• Use makeup sponges to dab the liquid polymer clay over the stencil. I used the Light Orange over the Jade clay, the Green over the Citron, and the blended colors down the middle
• Peel the stencil off the sheet of clay and set aside for about an hour until the liquid clay no longer smears when touched
• Reposition the stencil and apply more liquid polymer clay

• When the liquid clay is dry to the touch cut out a pendant, shape over a domed piece of glass if you have it. Mine’s thrifted, I have no idea what it’s original purpose was
• Bake, tented with foil, for 45 minutes at 275°F

Finishing the Pendant

• When cool sheet a piece of Citron clay on setting no.5 and texture with a sponge for the pendant backing
• Sponge translucent liquid clay over the back of the pendant and apply the backing piece. Set aside for 5 minutes

• Cut out a teardrop shape from the textured Citron clay and smooth the edges 

• Trim the backing clay with a craft knife
• Add a drop of translucent liquid clay and place teardrop piece, textured side down, on the back of the pendant. Secure by pressing a dotting tool into the clay
• Roll a small scrap of paper into a tight roll and place over the dots. Bring the loose part of the teardrop over the paper and secure in place with more liquid translucent and dots
• Bake again for 45 minutes

• Sand the edges if needed and string with your choice of stringing material

Marbling Liquid Polymer Clay

• Burnish the sheet of clay securely to a glazed tile. Use a shape cutter with a cutout already in it or make your own as I have
• Squeeze a pool of White liquid clay into the cutout of each earring. Spread the clay out evenly with a dotting stylus

• Carefully add a few drops of Green and Light Orange

• Swirl the colors together with a dotting stylus

• The extra dots of color were a last minute decision but I was having fun experimenting
• Bake, tented with foil, for 45 minutes at 275°F

• When cool I finished the backs using my favorite technique outlined here
• I baked the earrings and pendant together for the second curing on a clean kitchen sponge

Reflections

Although I’m not crazy about the color combinations I used for these pieces (I was working with what I had) I think both techniques are worth exploring some more. 

I think the stencilling would look great on a solid color sheet of clay with a little more contrast in the liquid clay color choices. And if I were to do a blend again I wouldn’t bother mixing the two colors together beforehand. Personally, I would just dab them together to mix on the sheet.

I really liked the marble effect but I think the white was a little too stark. Next time I would very lightly tint it. I would also like to try using translucent clay in the “window” for a stained glass effect. Of course, the earrings wouldn’t be covered on the backs to finish them in that case.

Then there’s the dots. 

Just before I discovered polymer clay I spent a lot of time painting dot mandalas. I’ve never felt a need to translate that into polymer clay but I do think the simple embellishment of a few colorful dots may be my favorite takeaway from this experiment.

If you’ve enjoyed my liquid polymer clay experiments and have been inspired to try your own please tag @bysandracallander on Instagram!

Do you regularly use liquid polymer clay? What’s your favorite technique? Share in the comments below, I’d love to discover some new techniques to try!