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

mix the liquid polymer clay and apply stencil to sheet of clay

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

apply liquid polymer clay to the sheet of clay overtop the stencil

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 polymer clay is dry to the touch cut out a shape for the pendant

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

texture the backing clay for the pendant with a texture sponge

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 the pendant bail from the sheet of clay

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

shape the bail around a small scrap of paper tightly rolled up

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

cut out earring shapes and fill the hollow with 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

a different colored drops of liquid polymer clay

Carefully add a few drops of Green and Light Orange

swirl the liquid polymer clay colors together with a dotting stylus

Swirl the colors together with a dotting stylus

add a few dots of liquid polymer clay for added detail

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

finish the backs of the earrings and bake again to cure

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!