Adallae Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 Michaels is having a sale on polymer clay this week - and having recently purchase Angie Scarr's book on making miniature food, I was so excited to stock up and try my hand at it! Unfortunately, my local shop has let me down once again, as I discovered they sell a few colors of FIMO :tongue4: . So my question is - can I mix different brands of polymer clay? Which one do you prefer to use? I've heard such great things about FIMO, but my local store stocks more Sculpey, and mostly Premo. Are these just as good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doogster Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 As far as I can tell Fimo and Premo have essentially the same characteristics, so choosing between the 2 would be a matter of taste, we just get either and both depending on colour. That is we get which ever has the colour we want. Can they be mixed? In a single model, prolly, but to mix the 2 brands to create a single unique colour. I have no idea, and would advise against it. Polymer clays can give off some stinky fumes when cooked (we got a dedicated oven) a combo could give off poisonous fumes. That would not be a cool scene. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hydroped Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 Hi Adallae, Lots of miniaturists mix different brands of polymer clay together. I've never read anything about the possibility of poisonous fumes by mixing them - the only warning against mixing them that I've read about is that the manufacturers warn that they don't know about the long term effectiveness of the mixed clays - basically if they'll become brittle or not. I've used Sculpy which I like ok - I've used Premo which I probably like a little better. Fimo is supposed to have a higher resin content most other brands but basically they're all the same - some are softer than others and that seems to me to be the biggest difference in brands. I don't really like mixing the different brands because with some being softer and some firmer I think it's harder to mix the colors uniformly - especially if you're dealing with skin tones - when clay is baked any imperfections in color blending will become more evident, but like I said I know quite a few people who routinely mix their brands. -David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doogster Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 David has a whole lot more experience than me in this, so I'd go with what he says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 My "dedicated" clay oven is my toaster-oven that lives on the back screen porch so fumes are not an issue. I mix Fimo with Sculpey to get more realistic flesh tones on my dolls so I didn't think twice about doing it when I made my Coventry Cottage's veggie garden. There are slight differences in formulae that could alter the characteristics of the baked clay as regards brittleness, etc, but I tend to handle my finished "masterpieces" (ha!) with care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 My "dedicated" clay oven is my toaster-oven that lives on the back screen porch so fumes are not an issue. I mix Fimo with Sculpey to get more realistic flesh tones on my dolls so I didn't think twice about doing it when I made my Coventry Cottage's veggie garden. There are slight differences in formulae that could alter the characteristics of the baked clay as regards brittleness, etc, but I tend to handle my finished "masterpieces" (ha!) with care. LOL! I too have been mixing clays and some mixes work great others has been slightly "rubbery" or rahter a bit sticky as they got very soft, but a spell in the fridged helped in getting it more together and less stikcy. Other than that I never had any problems with it. The main thing to take in consideration is to make sure they have the same curing temperature so that it will sett in the oven instead of just melt. Hugs and good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irene Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 I haven't used Fimo or Sculpy yet...When I got the "clay" bug, I started looking on-line for a starter set at a reasonable price. I discovered set of Kato Polyclay that included all the colors that they made...They carry a sampler set at the clay station.com, 1 oz. bricks of all the colors for a very reasonable price and the shipping wasn't too bad either....as far as the "firing" goes, I just use my oven, but I place my creations on a cookie sheet and wrap the whole she-bang with aluminum foil...I have had no problems at all with the fumes.. You can easily mix the colors, they give you a chart explaining the color mixing process... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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