Mixing polymer clay colors

Mixing polymer clay colors - when making realistic miniature food

This may sound like such an easy post to make, but it's not, at least not for me. I've postponed it so many times because I couldn't figure out how to go about doing it. I first thought of taking pictures for every color mix in an attempt of showing the exact amounts of clay mixed - but truth is, that I always eyeball the amounts of each color; once you mix them, you can add more of some colors to make the shade just right.

Besides - when I write 'basic bread/dough'-color, it's not going to be the color you want to use for all bread and pastries. Danish pastries, as an example, has a very yellow undertone while scone or dinner roll often has a more dull/grey undertone. The colors will need to be adjusted for each project, but I hope this will help some of you get a basic idea of how to mix the right color.

I'm sorry if some of this seems like a 'no brainer/doooh, of course!'-post, I'm just trying to go through the very basics - Definitely leave me feedback if you need something else added or for that matter, if you think this was helpful.

Tip #1: Look at the real thing.

I've told you many times that I have a picture of the real dish/food/item when I'm going to sculpt something. This will help you recreate the right shape, texture and color. 'Baked' stuff like bread or cooked things like a turkey are the tricky ones because you're not going to mix the color that you see on top - you'll need to look at what's underneeth.. Makes sense? eg. take this apple pie that I made; a nice golden brown, right?. No, if you look at where it's been cut you can see that it's an extremelt light doughy-type color. The same with a turkey - go for the color of the actual meat, not the crust.

Tip#2: Layer the colors!

An apple isn't just green or red - If you look closely you'll see lots of different shades which combined creates the final color. If you make a batch of cupcakes the top will become darker than the rest. Use the clay base in combination with soft pastels, paint etc.. Build up the color.

- Of course there'll be some things that are just 1 color; A piece of chocolate could be one of them.

On the pie I used a more yellow shade of pastel on top and as I moved towards the edge I used a golden brown, a red-ish brown and finally a dark brown.

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Working with translucent clay;

The translucent colors are the ones I get the most questions about, and they're the hardest ones for me to explain. My best advice is to experiment; Know the material you're working with, know what it will look like once it's done baking. I find that you always need more of the 'translucent' clay than you think. The color may look too light when you're mixing, but it'll become a lot more vibrant once baked.

You can make small color samples and bake them to see what the final result will come out like before you begin making a huge project.

There are many ways of mixing each color, these are just examples of the mixes I use the most.

- Basic bread/dough:

I like starting of with a flesh/beige color as the base. Cernit fleshtone, Fimo sahara or champagne are great for this. Depending on which type of dough you need to make, you'll have to add more colors to it. Most often I'll mix in some yellow and sometimes a small amount of orange to make the color appear warmer. If I need to lighten the mixture I'll add white, and if I need to darken the mixture I'll add Fimo/Cernit 'caramel' so that it maintains the warm undertone.

- Meat:

Raw: Depending on what type of meat, you'll of course need to use different colors.

For the raw steaks on the tray you see here, I used Premo alzarin (I believe it's called) as the base - a nice deep red. I mixed it about 50/50 with translucent, and I even believe I added some beige/dough colored clay afterwards, just to dull the redness a bit. For the raw hams/legs of pork I mixed both beige, red and orange for the base-mix.

Cooked: For something like a cooked ham I'll mix a pink (midtone to light pink, not hot pink) with some red and a tiny amount of dark brown - then I'll add white as I go till I get the color I want. For poultry (chicken, turkey etc.) I'll use mainly beige/champagne/sahara-ish colors and depending on the undertone of the meat I'll add a small amount of pink, brown or yellow.

- Lettuce

For lettuce I recommend a nice bright/light green - personally I love using 'Cernit light green' - the bright tone will give you that 'fresh, crisp' look. But obviously a piece of lettuce isn't that bright in color, so I usually mix in some white Cernit, but not too much (Or you can mix in some opaque white + translucent). Sometimes I'll even add a small piece of the beige (yes, I use beige tones a lot) to take away some of the green. This mixture is the base and main part of my lettuce - for a more realistic look try mixing in both some darker and lighter shades, creating a marbled look. The variation in color will add so much more to your piece, even though it's barely noticable.

*If there's a color you think is missing, let me know!*

Basics: Making polymer clay canes

Basics for polymer clay caning + Pink Grapefruit/Orange/Lemon/Lime cane tutorial

*Tips til at lave frugt-stænger af Fimo/Cernit til brug i miniature og dukkehus-projekter, smykker, dekorationer og meget mere*

Polymer clay caning is probably one of the most popular techniques, you can make canes and beads for use in jewelry, fruit slices or deco for mini food and nail art and so much more. I mainly do fruit and food canes that I can use in my miniature food projects, but I've also made some for my charms. One of my favorite canes I've ever made is my Hello Kitty cane. I actually made 3 with different background colors; pink, blue and green. You can find the tutorial I made for it here: Click here, I've been using this cane to decorate mini cupcakes, mainly.

I often get questions about canes and how to's for avoiding a disorded pattern, crumbly slices and so forth. Hope this post helps. I know the citrus fruit cane is one of the most basic canes you can make from polymer clay, but we all need to go back to the basics once in a while.

I am planning on posting tutorial for other fruit canes on this blog as well, little by little though, :) I'll be making the tutorials as I need to make new fruit slices for myself. This time I needed new grapefruit slices - for my ham that I showed in a previous post (ehem, the ham tutorial has been delayed... havn't had the time to edit it.

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Grapefruit tutorial:

I always find a picture ofthe real thing so that I have a refference to work from. For this grapefruit I used a picture from Google.

1) - The colors I mixed for the fruit pulp (from left to right) is; Translucent Fimo red, Translucent Fimo white, Pink Cernit. I also mixed in a tiny bit of red Fimo soft.

2) - Roll and shape into a rather flat cylinder shape.

3) - For the white I mixed about 70% white Fimo with 30% white Cernit, but you can use 100% white from one brand. I added a small amount of yellow.

4) - The thickness of the white layers will depend on the size of the cane you're making. For mine I chose setting #7 on the pasta machine for the inside.

5) + 6) - Devide the pulp into as many sections as you'd like and cover every second slice with the white. As you can see I left some excess clay - push this inwards to help "curve" the edge of the sections.

7) + 8) - After pressing the cane together a bit I measured the white for the outside. For this layer I chose setting #5 on my pasta machine.

9) - for the peel itself I mixed some of the white mix with yellow Cernit and orange Premo.

10) - It's now ready to be rolled into a cane :)

11) + 12) - I rolled mine to an approx diameter of 7-8mm. You now have 2 options; Either bake and slice afterwards, or slice and then bake. The second method is more time consuming, but it also allows you to add texture to the slices. Bake at the temp. on the packages of clay for approx. 5-10 minutes.

Basics/Tips for cane making:

The clay you use: Not all brands of clay are good for making canes - Some brands are more crumbly after baking, so if you want to bake the canes and then cut them afterwards, you need to take this into consideration. Fimo is the brand I find is best for cane making, BUT, I use Fimo, Premo, Pardo and Cernit for my canes. If you've tried cutting a cane and the slices turn rather matte/white, a dap of water or glaze will fix this and refresh the color.

It's a good idea to use clays that are of the same consistency - some that are equally soft/firm.

The height of the cane while working on it is important too. Don't work with a piece that's too thick before it's even been rolled to a cane - this will make it harder to control what the middle will look like; Having a pretty end piece is pointless if the rest of the cane is disorded and crooked. A flatter piece is easier to manage.

Packing the cane: Before you begin rolling out the cane, make sure that there are no holes inbetween the layers, that'll cause the inside to be disorded once pressed together. Fill in all gaps - take your time, don't rush. Most canes can be made into "circles" (eg. Citrus, tomato, my Hello Kitty cane after adding the background), try to get as close to a circle shape as possible to avoid getting a messed up image.

When you're ready to roll out the cane; Begin by lightly pressing on the sides all the way around using your fingers. This will both close any air pockets and extend the cane, making it easier to roll it.

It isn't unimportant how you roll out the cane - don't just roll it slightly back and forth so only half the cane touches the work surface. The cane needs an equal amount of pressure on all "sides".

Basics: Keeping away dirt, dust and fingerprints

Keeping dirt, dust and fingerprints away from your polymer clay

We all hate it!, having worked on a piece for so long.. and there! right there! tiny specks of dust or discoloration! or a fingerprint, ruining the look of an otherwise smooth surface... Even though it's almost impossible to avoid having that happen to your clay, it's not impossible to remove.

These are my ways of dealing with it, but feel free to share if you have some different methods :)

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Work surface & clean hands:

These are the first 2 things to consider. A work surface that's dirty or attracts dust too easily + dirty hands will result in a dirty clay creation. I work on sheets of glass - those glass 'trays' made for holding candles. It's simple but effective :) I have a couple of different ones, so that I'm able to work on lots of projects at once,. Or maybe I just got another because I'm very messy when it comes to crafting. Glass is easy to clean whether you've been playing with glue, paint or other sticky mediums. Clean hands are important as well - You can wash your hands with soap and water, but I honestly never do that, as soon as you touch something; a chair, your table etc. your hand will pick up dust again. Baby wipes are very useful to clean both your hands and work surface - especially if you've been using pastels or dark colored polymer clay, and they're easy to keep near you instead of having to go to the bathroom/kitchen multiple times to wash your hands.

My favorite item for cleaning both my hands and work surface though, is polymer clay. A white or light colored piece of clay is excellent for removing all bits of dust - roll it between your hands and on your wor surface. I usually mix about 50% Fimo soft (white or flesh) with 50% Fimo mix quick to make it extra sticky.

Keeping my hands and work surface clean (and cleaning it multiple times while working) almost takes care of any dust problems for me. But often when I sculpt dolls or use my pasta machine without cleaning it (which I never really do), the clay can pick up a bit of dust or small bits from other clay colors.

Removing dust and discoloration from unbaked clay:

- If I see just a few dust grains I'll use the tip of my exacto knife to pick it up. If you do this carefully it won't even leave any marks, but if you make a small nick into the clay it shouldn't be too hard to smooth out.

- If I've rolled out a thin piece of clay on the pasta machine and it shows specks of dust or discoloration, I'll use my clay blade; Holding it in a slight angle and scraping it across the piece, will allow it to pick up everything. You might need to repeat this a couple of times, but it's effective.

Removing dust and discoloration from baked clay:

- As for unbaked clay I often just use the tip of my exacto knife to remove dust on baked clay. Unless the grains of dust have been pushed further down into the clay, this should get rid of it easily.

- Sandpaper/Files For things like dolls (arms, legs, torso) or larger jewelry pieces and so forth, sandpaper and files are probably one of the best ways to remove dust from baked clay. Don't use a very rough grid though, as this will make the clay surface look scratched and uneven. You can buy a set of files from ebay, often used for doll making in larger scales to file between fingers or define nostrils, a set comes with 8 or 10 (I think) metal files in a few different shapes and they're worth the money if you ask me.

Fingerprints:

- In one of my first polymer clay videos on youtube (Where I showed how to make a chocolate dipped strawberry for use with deco den) I used a piece from a plastic bag and pressed it on top of the clay to create a nice smooth surface.

- Using your fingers.. This is what I do the most when making jewelry and miniatures, and you always have your hands.. well, on hand, so why not use them? :) Far most of the time I'll simply use my finger to smooth out any prints left on the clay.

- If working with very tiny pieces that I HAVE to hold to work on them (eg. miniature apples), I'll apply some potato starch to my fingers. This really helps, though it's still possible to leave prints in the clay.

- Gloves. You can always use a pair of latex gloves. This will keep prints from your fingers away for good, but a lot of latex gloves still have a very fine texture that might be seen on your creations, + latex gloves take away part of your sence of touch, and can make some things harder to do, so they might not be suitable for all projects.

Basics: Baking your polymer clay

Baking polymer clay

I feel like I havn't made a post in such a long time, even though it's only been 3-4 days.

I want to talk about baking polymer clay, whether it's charms, miniatures or figurines - I often get questions on my YouTube channel, asking me at what temperature I bake my things, for how long and how I avoid burning the clay etc.

*I dette indlæg vil jeg snakke om bagning af polyler (Cernit, Fimo) Hvilken ovn, hvor lang tid, hvordan man kan undgå at brænde leret mm.*

The very basics:

At what temperature should you bake your clay?

Always check the package - it will tell you the temperature you should bake that specific brand at and how long you can bake it. A lot of brands will say 15-30 minutes, and they'll only have a small difference in the temperature setting. eg. Fimo says 110 degrees celcius, I believe?, and Cernit says 130 degrees celcius... Those have been my 2 favorite brands since I started working with polymer clay, so I do mix them a lot when making my miniatures and charms, and I do take that into consideration when baking. Usually I'll bake my creations at around 110-120 degrees celcius, just so that I don't bake the Fimo at a temperature that's way too high.

For how long should you bake your creations?

Again, check the package - as I mentioned above a lot of brands have a time frame of 15-30 minutes. I most often bake my creations for 20-30 minutes.

If you underbake, the polymer clay won't obtain its full strength and will be more prone to breaking. This can also happen if you overbake, so stay within that time frame but don't take it out of the oven too soon.

Polymer clay is a fairly strong and durable medium but it's not unbreakable. When working with dollhouse miniatures it's not as great a concern as it is when making jewelry - Though both dollhouse miniatures and jewelry should be treated with respect, and shouldn't be thrown around or dropped.

What type of oven?

Kitchen oven: A lot of people have heard that you can't use your kitchen oven to bake polymer clay because of fumes and toxins... Don't worry, you can use your regular oven, but don't burn the clay (this is what causes the "fumes" that so many talk about). However, I remember reading a post on an online forum about this person who'd forgot to turn his/her oven off when leaving the house (while the polymer clay was still in the oven). He/She had a pet bird that was sitting in the room, and though the clay had been baked for way too long and had been burnt, the bird was just fine. Of course I'd suggest following one guideline; If you're going to use a regular kitchen oven (I do), have a special baking tray ONLY for polymer clay. That's really the only concern - don't use a tray that you're going to use for food. You can use a regular baking tray, put baking paper on and then bake your polymer clay, that way you can still use the tray for food since it hasn't been in contact with the polymer clay.

Toaster oven: .... well, I know that MANY use toaster ovens for their polymer clay projects and I can understand why you might want to use one; it's smaller and easier/cheaper to heat up. It's used just for your crafts so you don't have to worry about any "toxins" and it's convenient because you can have it standing in your craft room/corner without taking up a lot of space and so forth.

I've tried baking clay in a toaster oven a couple of times, and my experience is that they're way too hard on the clay. My pieces ended up being discolored or a lot more fragile, so this is not a type of oven I'll be using ever again for clay.

Microwave: No... nope... DON'T!,..

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Tips for baking:

You know how the bottom of the clay piece (the one touching the baking tray) becomes flat or misshapen? That really annoyed me when making three dimensional objects (mainly charms and dolls), and I know that most times you'll be able to cover it up or you won't even notice it because it's the bottom, but sometimes that's just not good enough. I found this ceramic fibre blanket on metalclay.co.uk. It only cost 3.95£.

This is probably one of the best things I've purchased, clay wise, for a long time. In the picture I was just about to bake my "Olsen banden" before making the hands and feet. This blanket is such a great thing to have, especially when making dolls that have their heads turned so the ears won't get squeezed flat. I also use it when making miniature "half pigs/large butcher pieces" that are going to be hanging and have to look good from all angles.

Making a tent out of tin foil is the easiest way to avoid burning the clay. It can probably still burn if you bake it long enough, but I havn't had that happen, even if I've baked something for 40 minutes.

Let me know if you have any other questions in regards to baking polymer clay :)