The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Brand of Polymer Clay for Your Project (2023)

How to choose the right brand for the projects you want to create? It's all about who creates and the purpose of the clay.

The "right" brand to use is one that you can easily get and that works well for the projects you want to do!

• Click, Sculpey, Sculpey III, don't turn Fimo i Cernit-they are available at most craft stores such as Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Joanne's, and others. Kato, PuppenFimo, Cernit Doll and other special types (and in many cases extensive color options) are only available online. Of course, if you want to buy clay in the store, you can also expect good sales. Most online stores do not offer this option.www.MunroCrafts.comit offers a 50% discount if you buy more than $200 worth of products, so give it a try if you want to buy in bulk.
• Robne Marke Polyform Sculpey:https://www.sculpey.com/products/polimero-arcilla
• carved soufflé
• The soufflé is smooth, easy to prepare, very opaque and has a chamois-like matte texture after baking. This makes it ideal for accepting acrylic paints and alcohol ink markers, as it has a "tooth" after firing. It's also incredibly flexible and strong - there's a video on our YouTube channel that shows Kira folding pieces of fired clay in half and returning it to her original shape. It is fired at the same temperature and time as other Polyform clays and can be mixed with them for color and texture variations.

• original sculpture
• Available in white, terracotta and concrete, it is VERY smooth after packaging. This clay is best used to solve problems with clay; keep it in the studio to make "mockups" of new ideas. It's a good choice for small artwork, items you might want to paint with plaster, acrylic, or spray paint. Create small pieces to attach to a larger hanging sculpture or mixed media. It's not a good choice for anything that can be used, touched, or needs stability, as it's almost non-existent after baking and very brittle. It also doesn't hold its own weight well, so don't make BIG art out of it. Ideal for quick tasks with children.
• Sculpture III iit is smooth and easy to work with. Fits easily by hand and goes through clay guns. This clay comes in many colors. The colors blend easily, which is good for mixing colors, however it is quite soft and brittle after firing, especially when making thin pieces. It is usually used as children's or school clay. Don't use it for jewelry only, it's not professional enough for portable items (may break).
• Sculpey III can be mixed half and half with Prem to create new colors and increased strength so you can use it on veneers intended for portable devices.
• However, it works PERFECT for artwork that won't be touched much. In our opinion it is not good for working with cane, but there are people who have success with it, we do not prefer it because it crushes under pressure.
• super sculpture
• Beige or "flesh-colored," this clay is easy to prepare and very stable when fired. It makes excellent armor for a larger piece, great "bones" for puppets and creatures, and makes a good baking stand too; For example, if you want to make a large item that needs to be supported while it bakes, you can make a "Support" out of Super Sculpey and then use it while you bake a large piece. First sprinkle it with cornstarch to prevent sticking.
• Super Sculpey firm and medium
• It only comes in grey, perfect for creating something you'd like to style up. It is strong and holds detail very well. For example, you can create a beautiful sculpted object in SSF, bake it, and shape it to create duplicates. That's what it's for and it's used by children who sculpt action figures.
• ultralight sculpture
• This clay is extremely soft and easy to knead, and after firing it becomes very hard. It's only available in white, but you can plaster it, paint it with markers, paint it with acrylics, or even spray it with colored ink. You can also carve it - it cuts like butter when baked, making it a great choice for "faux wood" projects. It is an excellent filler for larger polymer clay balls. Make your bead with a hole in it, bake it and cover it with another type of clay.
• woolly
• If you can find this clay it appears ultra light in color, after firing it is incredibly hard and not at all flexible. It's sold in kids' project kits and this is a really good use because it's VERY smooth, requires no preparation, but it also has a "silly" consistency and is hard to get to fit specific details (think modeling clay). It is not as light as Ultralight when baked. Overall, it might be the best brand for making children's projects that will last a long time, perhaps Christmas decorations, because it doesn't get brittle after baking and projects made with it are quite durable.
• Bake and Bend & Eraser Clays της Polyform
• Interesting plasticines for children's projects, they come in project sets. Some people have successfully mixed Bake and Bend clay with regular Prem to create a mixture that can be bent without breaking after baking. Imagine weaving or tying rope knots!
• MoldMaker de Polyform
• This is a white or off-white clay that can be used to make impressions or molds. You can also mix it with Prem to make a flexible clay, about 50% of each. Molds or texture sheets made with MoldMaker will require a release (sprinkle with cornstarch) to remove the clay, as they will stick. Not generally the best choice for mold making, you'd be better off using a 2 part silicone mold putty like Amazing Mold Putty, but it's good as a last resort or if that's all you have.
• A living Sculpey doll
• Available in 4 multicultural skin colors and large bricks, it has similar properties to Premo and PuppenFimo. Great for, you guessed it, doll making!
• On! Sculpey and Premo! The shades are softer than FIMO Classic, but harder than Sculpey III. Premo clays are quite flexible after firing, making them less brittle even in thin pieces and therefore quite strong. The "Accents" line includes a variety of shimmers, metallic mica, and shimmer colors, while Premo's regular colors come with traditional names like aqua or cadmium red. Premo is our favorite brand because it has a good combination of properties, colors and is very functional and stable after firing. Ilysa's hands are warm, Kirina's are cold, and both can work well with Prem.
• Sculpted Bakery
• Very similar to the previous Craft Smart brand. If you want to do projects with kids, try Sculpey III. This is more like play dough (it won't last forever) so make something fun with this clay.
• Fimo Kids and Soft Fimo
• Fimo Kids and Fimo Soft have very similar properties to Sculpey III. Lots of colors, soft to work with, not so strong in the finished product.
• slime effect
• Fun colors with glitter, mica, clear, glow in the dark, rhinestones and more. Generally smoother than Fimo Pro paints.
• Professional Fimo Art clay for dolls (formerly PuppenFimo)
• It is available in large cubes of 500 grams, in 6 colors. It has very beautiful translucent qualities, similar to the colors of the Cernit doll. Soft to the touch, it has a very bright color ideal for fairies or dolls.
• Fimo Professional (bivši Fimo Classic) true colors
• It comes in 24 colors, of which 6 are "true" colors that can be mixed: true magenta, true green, true yellow, true blue, white, and black. A mixing guide is available that tells you the exact recipes for creating hundreds of colors from just these six. We made a video review that you can see here:https://youtu.be/G9vDWvqHh4w
  This clay works quite well, is relatively easy to prepare (compared to the much harder Fimo Classic) and did well in the recipe test; the color we got didn't exactly match the color chart, but it was close.
• skin effect slime
• This clay really looks, feels and behaves like leather when baked. Perfect for bracelets, small bags, tassels and more.
• Fimo Pro paints tend to be stiff and more difficult to prepare, so they hold the shapes and colors you want, making them a very good option for working with sticks, but not a good option if you have cold hands. or weak. It takes a lot of preparation in the pasta machine to get it going, but don't let that put you off: it has the same great combination of properties as Premo: good color and great durability. It's just harder to work with, literally.
• carve
• ProSculpt Doll Clay requires very little kneading and comes together without showing seam lines. Two of its most important characteristics are its ductility when uncured and its strength after curing. Available in a variety of multicultural skin tones, in 1 pound bricks. This one is harder to find but is sold by doll sellers on Ebay.
• Below
• Kato is the hardest of all polymer clays, but it is also the hardest when fired. It has a really nice sheen after it's baked, not shiny, more like a satin color (between matte and shiny). Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to get started, so the best way to prepare it is to hit the sealed packet HARD with a hammer a few times to start, then run it through the pasta machine. It has a distinctive plastic smell – when you open the package, it will smell like a plastic shower curtain. That is why we avoid working with it, although it has excellent working properties. You have to be able to stand the smell, we warn you. It comes in pre-mixed primary colors and has a range of pre-mixed liquid color concentrates that are great for special effects.
• Look
• Cernit comes in many colors and has a full spectrum of multicultural doll skin colors. All colors (except glam, which is pearlescent) have a translucent quality, making them a great choice for leather effects, veneers, faux glass, and more. This clay is easy to prepare, but it is sensitive to the heat of your hands and can become mushy if you overdo it. It is very strong after firing and is excellent for dolls, sculptures, and jewelry. It is not so easy to find in stores, but it is available online.
• clever craftsmanship
• Craft Smart is a Michael Store brand. It is very similar to Sculpey III in that it has many colors and is smooth and easy to use when you first open it. However, it dries quickly and becomes very hard and brittle, which is not characteristic of any other brand. It's definitely not a good choice for any serious work, but it's a great, cheaper option if you just want to do a quick project with the kids and don't mind if the finished project takes forever (because it won't).
• Hobby Lobby Crafter Collection Clay
• This clay is new on the market in 2022 and there are 2 versions: Craft and Advanced. The Craft version is similar to Sculpey III. Advanced works very well as a professional clay type and is worth a try if you can get it, as it is about 50% the price of other clays in a similar category. It appears to be made in Europe and is "private label" so we think it may be made by Fimo but have not confirmed this.
• Brown art clay, brown jewelery glina και Brown translucent
• If you can find Pardo, you might want to give him a try. Viva-Decor is a German brand. It's available in some beautiful colors, including a range of shimmery smoke colors that no other brand can match, is easy to use (softer to the touch), and quite strong when fired. It has a VERY good pure white color, from the lightest clays. It wasn't popular in US markets, it may not have been much discussed. But it's worth a try if you like soft clay. Good American Source: https://shop.blueberrybeads.com/clay/pardo/
• LIQUID CLAY:
• There are three main liquid clays on the market.Kato, Fimo y Polyform.
• Sculpey Translucent Liquid:Mark less clear, milky white when hard. It's a great softener, mix some into hard clay to help the softening process. It's also good as a "glue" when you need to make sure that two pieces of unfired clay really stick together. Another use is as a top coat for "leather". You can brush it on, let it sit for a minute, and then bake it; this will create a translucent top layer for the creature's or doll's skin. Paint it with alcohol paints.
• Sculpey Liquid Medium
• Transparent: It is a useful liquid clay, you can paint it with clays, inks, oil paints and add other accessories to it or just use it transparent. You can give it a high gloss using the same heat gun method as below for FIMO and Kato fluids.
• Colorful and Metallic: Liquid Sculpey is now available in many colors including Black, White, Maroon, Navy, Copper, Gold, Silver, and Pearl. They have added new colors seasonally so check them out. Ideal for pouring into jewelry molds and creating special effects.
• Fimo gel and liquid Kato:They are so similar that the description is the same. The difference is that Fimo comes in a small container with a large spout that you can control, but you can get Kato in a large 8oz jar. Highly transparent glass effects can be created. The best way to use them is to first bake them for the recommended time and then blow them gently but quickly with the craft heat gun, as the full curing temperature is over 300 degrees. Watch the finish go from clear to glossy, and then back off, because if you're not careful, you're going to burn. Practice makes perfect, so make a bunch of test sheets and practice with your heat gun before testing them on a finished piece. If you want a nice thick layer of vitreous, you'll need to apply thin coats. You can also mix colors into the liquid, such as alcohol ink, pearlescent inks, and acrylic inks. You can create convincing faux enamels using a combination of liquid ink and pearl powder.
• If you like soft clay, try Fimo Soft, Sculpey III, Cernit, Pardo and Original Sculpey.
• If you want to make sticks, try Premo, Premo Accents, Fimo Classic, or Kato Clay.
• If playing with children, use Sculpey III or Fimo Soft for colors and Original or Terra Cotta Sculpey if you want to paint baked goods.
• If you are using mixed media and want to plaster or paint your finished product and attach it to something else, use Ultralight or Original white Sculpey.
• If you want a cast or glazed finish, use liquid Kato clay or Fimo Gel.

This is an excerpt from our eBook 202 Tips for Polymer Clay Art and Crafts. If you liked this article, you'll love this eBook!