Polymer clay

In the modern world, the ability to do something beautiful with your own hands is highly valued, therefore it is not surprising that many parents try to actively develop the creative abilities of their children from an early age. Plasticine is only the first stage on the way to mastering the art of modeling, but if a child has achieved sufficient success in this matter so that he wants to keep his creations for a long time, go to using a more professional material - polymer clay.

What it is?

Contrary to its name, polymer clay or plastic resembles its natural "sister" only in some properties and method of application, but not in composition. This mixture is a product of the modern chemical industry - it began to be produced in 1964, trying to improve the capabilities of ordinary clay. The main ingredient in almost all types of polymer clay is polyvinyl chloride or PVC, but its exact amount and a combination of other components make it possible to create varieties of this material, somewhat different in their properties.

By the simplicity of work, this mixture is very similar to plasticine - it is just as easily molded and takes any shape (except for too large elements that simply do not hold) and allows any corrections to be made to unsuccessful creations. At the same time, it has one radical difference: figurines made of polymer clay, which fully correspond to the creator's idea of what was conceived, can be immortalized, since this material loses its elasticity and becomes solid when heated.

Some varieties of this material are able to solidify even without additional heating, just being in the open air.

What does it look like?

It is rather difficult to accurately describe the appearance of this material in the "raw" state, since, depending on the variety, it can be either solid or liquid. More often, of course, hard clay is found - it usually looks approximately the same as ordinary plasticine and is also sold in sets with a certain number of different colors. In general, its cubes look somewhat brighter than classic plasticine, but there is also a colorless version, which is designed for subsequent staining after hardening.

Finished products made by real craftsmen may look like completely unlike ceramics, because they are not. Hardened crafts are often similar to plastic figurines, although the finish used, which can be different types of paint or varnish, plays a huge role in the final appearance. However, there are also products that are not covered with anything on top.

The use of such figures is appropriate in any situation: they can decorate the interior of the room, be a fun toy or even beautiful jewelry.

How is it different from cold porcelain?

It should be noted right away that some experts tend to consider cold porcelain a kind of polymer clay, but this point of view is not shared by everyone. If we compare the use of polymer clay and cold porcelain, then it is very similar - a variety of objects are molded from both types of plastic mass, which then acquire hardness and constant shape, due to which they can be used not only as an exhibition craft, but also for practical purposes.

However, there are more differences than similarities:

First of all, completely the compositions of the two mixtures do not match. Polymer clay is based on PVC, to which various plasticizers, softeners and other additives are added. They do not always have a natural origin, but all the same, all world manufacturers provide completely safe use of the mass, even for children. Cold porcelain also has nothing to do with natural clay or porcelain, but was invented much earlier and on the basis of only natural ingredients, including corn starch, glue, oil and glycerin.

At a minimum, the difference in compositions gives at least a slight difference in tactile sensations from modeling, and if you wish, such a "porcelain" can even be prepared at home.

In addition, polymer clay usually requires significant (up to 100-130 degrees) heating for solidificationwhereas cold porcelain simply dries outdoors.
Polymer clay easy to paint at home, but often sold already painted, but cold porcelain is often produced purely white with a clear orientation towards the fact that the master himself will paint it.

Composition

Since polymer clay can be of completely different types, it is very problematic to determine the required elements in its composition - you can only highlight general groups to which the ingredients included in it belong:

The most important thing is the foundation, which must be able to keep its shape. In thermoplastics (polymer clay, which solidifies when heated), such a component is polyvinyl chloride, and the same cold porcelain - combination of starch and glue, for other types of mixtures, the base may be something else.

In order for the hardening mixture to at least temporarily be elastic and allow something to be sculpted, plasticizers both synthetic and natural, such as oil. In this case, plasticizers are present in large quantities only in the soft mass, so, depending on their properties, it is determined how exactly the figure should be processed in order to harden. For example, in thermoplastics, plasticizers are boiled out or lose their elasticity under the influence of temperature, but in polymer clays of the self-hardening type, they simply evaporate.

Finally, an important but not required element of many polymer clays is dyes... In some cases, not just dyes are added to the mixture, but whole pieces of the material that the creators of the mass would like to imitate. Chips made of metal or natural stone, as well as glitter, can be present as such filling.

Properties

Most types of polymer clay in their original state are very plastic and resemble ordinary plasticine, although they differ in density. The latter also depends on the temperature: on average, the colder it is in the room, the harder the mass. At the same time, self-hardening mixtures turn to stone from being in the fresh air, therefore they must be stored in an airtight package, but germoplastics retains its elasticity much better.

However, the latter can also dry out and crumble, but usually the phenomenon does not take on a catastrophic scale, and you can restore the original properties of the mixture with the help of a softener - any colorless vegetable oil, such as almond or apricot.

In the hardened state, polymer clays maintain a constant shape, but differ in weight and strength. For modeling flowers, some special types of thermoplastics are used that are distinguished by elasticity: thin petals made of this material are able to bend in half, and then again independently take their original shape without visible damage.

Kinds

Different grades of polymer clay are created to obtain a specific effect in finished form, but experts note that it is not forbidden to mix them to obtain some new, completely unusual result. Globally, polymer clays are divided into self-hardening and baking. Self-hardening, in turn, are divided into heavy and light:

Heavy They are distinguished by their considerable weight, but also the ability to withstand it, which makes them a good material for making decorative figurines and dolls. Moreover, some varieties of mixtures such as Kera plast from Koh-I-Noor, strongly resemble ordinary pottery clay both before and after hardening. And here is the mass of the brand Darwi when frozen, it is perfectly sanded, cut, and if necessary, it is also soaked with water to correct the shape.

Easy self-hardening clay is characterized by increased plasticity and ductility in its original state, which is reflected in the solidified state: it is from this material that bending petals and flowers are made.

Thermoplastics is divided into even more subspecies:

The most common is ordinary thermoplastic, which looks like hardening plasticine and does not change its shade during firing.
The translucent version is capable of transmitting light, and if it also contains dyes, it changes its color after heat treatment.
Filled thermoplastic allows you to create crafts that look like they are made of natural stone or metal, but liquid thermoplastic is more often used to create enamel, glue parts, or to transfer a design from paper to the surface of a product.

Colors

Today, colored, white and colorless polymer clay is produced. They work with color by analogy with plasticine, so for children (at least those who are just learning the art of modeling) it is best to purchase just such a solution.

The white mixture does not fundamentally differ from the color one, it simply does not contain a dye, therefore it allows a wider flight of the master's imagination, allowing him to choose the exact shade himself. At the same time, you can paint both the raw mixture and the ready-made, frozen sculpture, but in the first case it is better to use oil paints, and in the second - acrylic paints.

Complex compositions, such as dolls, are usually made in solid white and only then painted.

Stamps

There are a huge number of varieties of polymer clay, but most of them are still aimed at adults, and even then - not just any, but perfectly mastered the skills of working with it. As for children, the assortment available to them is already much more modest. For them, by the way, they usually choose exactly thermoplastics (a special plasticine is used to harden in air), however, due to the nature of the material, it is not recommended for children under 8 years old, and the firing of finished figures should only take place in the presence of adults.

One of the most popular solutions for children's creativity (and not only) is a mixture Sculpey III (Scalpi)... Despite the American origin, such a mass is relatively inexpensive, but it is distinguished by its amazing softness and pleases with a huge selection of colors. Available in bars of 57 or 227 grams.

A very popular German brand also has a kid-friendly product FIMO, which is deservedly considered a pioneer in the production of polymer clay. This manufacturer called the children's line as simply as possible - FIMO Kids... The product consists of small (42 grams) blocks of 24 different shades, including with the addition of sparkles.

From mixtures made in Italy, you should pay attention to the line Idigo, which produces both baked and self-hardening polymer clays. As for Russian brands, they are mainly designed specifically for children, and not for serious designers. There are two brands at once that are completely devoted to children's creativity - "Tsvetik" and "Yozki".

Which is better?

It is impossible to answer unequivocally which polymer clay is better for modeling, since all its varieties are created specifically for this occupation, they are simply aimed at different types of use. In particular, for children who are just beginning to learn this art, it is recommended to use the products of the above children's lines. There are two main reasons for this:

firstly, polymer clays as a whole are supposedly guided by the safety of the composition, but only in children's rulers it is possible to guarantee the absence of any unpleasant surprises during the careless work of the child;
secondly, such mixtures are, on average, softer and easier to work with, they are aimed not so much at creating masterpieces as at developing general modeling skills.

If the child has already managed to achieve a certain level of skill and even chose a certain direction of activity (imitation of pottery, jewelry, flower modeling), then it is necessary to choose the material for creativity based on the ultimate goal. Every large manufacturer has rulers that copy ordinary clay, metal or stone, as well as those that contain cellulose and can be easily bent even when baked.

Since the vision of creativity is different for each person, specific advice cannot be given here - the child must try different options until he comes to what he really likes.

Moreover, masters who have reached a fairly serious level note that not a single purchased polymer clay is suitable for creating ideal works, much better mix different varieties of them in different proportionscreating a completely new material. However, this level of creativity, most likely, will be available only to teenagers.

How to choose?

The choice of a particular brand of polymer clay depends on many of its characteristics, which can be useful for creating the intended product:

In particular, for primary school children sets are selected that resemble plasticine as much as possible. There must necessarily be a certain range of colors, because at the first stage, this is the only way to lure a child. Very often, the baby's first clay is not baked plastic, but the one that solidifies on its own in the open air, because polymerization of finished products under the influence of temperature can be dangerous if the child wants to do it on his own.

Both solutions are enough to preserve ordinary children's crafts with a high level of artistic content for a long time.

You should go to plain clays in the event that when the level of the child's creative skills begins to resemble the level of the master. At first, they buy ordinary white or colorless clay - this makes it possible to sculpt a complex figure and only then paint its individual parts in different colors, which would be almost impossible to make from an initially multi-colored material. In the future, the baby can reach a level when his creations are no longer distinguishable from industrial ones - at this stage it is time for imitation, and metal or stone chips in the mixture will help to “fake” other material.

Now you can go back to compound products. Liquid clay can be used as fittings, gluing individual parts, and in the process of creating individual parts, extruder polymer clay is used, which does not contain air bubbles and is more durable due to this.

Reviews show that true masters still do not use any pure clay, mixing it with others. If there is a desire to do this really professionally, it makes sense to buy a real extruder.

Technique

Only children usually make their creations from full-fledged color sets, while serious craftsmen use other ways to make your products look natural:

The simplest figure cover is varnish. A layer of varnish protects the surface of the material from mechanical damage, and also gives it additional shine.They usually varnish products that are simple in their shape, in particular, this technique is very popular in the manufacture of beads and other small jewelry, varnish is also very appropriate in combination with polymer clay, imitating another material. Painted items are varnished a little less often.

Paints are used in polymer clay modeling both before shaping the material and after that. If the product as a whole is monochromatic, then it is better to paint the mass before work, for this the composition is mixed with the addition of oil paints, and the master can determine the exact shade of the product himself. To create complex crafts, painting can be used, which is resorted to after the product has hardened - this allows you to draw the smallest details and create intricate patterns.

Large composite structures, whether they are dolls, artificial flowers or jewelry, are made by professionals from clay of different colors and shades, after which individual parts are glued together liquid polymer clay, also known as gel. This approach does not allow making a product with a very complex pattern, but it makes relatively simple designs more believable. This technique can be combined with painting, the same dolls are usually made using a combination of the two techniques.

Tools

To simplify the work with polymer clays, a number of different special tools are used, allowing you to easily give the future product the required shape:

Based on the processing order, the very first tool is extruder - a special container in which the screw auger automatically kneads the clay, and in the best models it also removes air bubbles from the mass. Such a mechanism is considered mandatory for any professional studio or school of creativity, since it greatly simplifies the process of kneading clay, and if it needs to be processed in really large quantities, then you simply cannot do without an extruder.

A very popular tool is and stacks, which should be familiar to children even from working with plasticine. With the help of a stack, you can cut a piece of clay or give its surface a flat shape.
To give the product a complex texture, use texture sheet. Such sheets, modeling a specific surface or pattern, allow you to achieve the effect that a master with his own hands could create much longer than the entire creation as a whole! Such an assistant to the master looks like a piece of silicone or plastic with a mirror-like texture of leather, fabric, wood or any embossed ornament and pattern. It is enough to attach such a sheet to the surface of the future product so that the texture is printed on it, and that's it - now the polymer clay figurine has acquired an unexpected charm!

Even those tools that, at first glance, do not combine with it can find application in modeling from polymer clay. Popular, for example, have become made of this material knitting markers - a metal needle with an eyelet is glued into them with the help of ordinary superglue, which makes it possible to simplify the favorite activity of knitters.

Books

For a more detailed study of the theory of art, as well as the methods and techniques of modeling from polymer clay, you can use special printed manuals, both written specifically for children and focused on beginners in general. At the moment, such literature in Russian is not very widely represented, but it is still possible to find it, although it is rather difficult.

Numerous thematic sites on the Internet will help to supplement the information received from there, where both recognized masters and professional experimenters share their own experience, often with multimedia files.

It is very important to note that thanks to a book alone, neither a child, nor even an adult can learn to sculpt. Such publications are good because they can give direction to the search: suggest how to choose the right material, throw in a few creative ideas, tell about the main styles. They will allow you to direct talent (or persistent striving) in the right direction, but actually learning to sculpt without practice is impossible.

Honestly, even with the desire and the availability of material on only printed publications, mastering modeling is quite problematic, an art school or at least a video from the Internet would help much better in this.

Therefore, you should not completely abandon books on the topic, but you should also not make them the main source of gaining experience in this area.

The choice of a specific book is also quite difficult: there are no universally recognized courses. For a child who takes the first steps in modeling from polymer clay, you can still abstractly purchase a kind of "beginner's manual", but in the future he must choose such literature strictly himself, starting from what he himself finds interesting and useful.

Instructions

Most children's varieties of polymer clay are initially very elastic - so much so that many professionals point out the inconvenience of using them to create truly complex structures. Manufacturers achieve such a consistency on purpose so that the material does not have to be kneaded, since it is at the kneading stage that children most often get bored with modeling from plasticine.

At the same time, even thermoplastics can dry out over time, and there is no need to talk about self-hardening clays - they dry out very quickly if the storage rules are not followed. It is usually impossible to restore the latter (unless the mixture is soaked when water is added), but the dried thermoplastic can be made elastic again by a softener in the form of apricot or other transparent vegetable oil.

Children usually sculpt from soft polymer clay, but at a certain stage of their creative development, they come to the need to reliably connect the hardened parts together.

Professionals usually solve these problems with polymer gel or liquid polymer clay, which is liquid in its raw state, but also becomes solid when baked.

For children's creativity, such a scheme may be too complicated, so many parents are trying to find an alternative solution that allows you to connect the parts. The life-saving alternative is most often ordinary latex glue, which adheres well to most types of cured polymer clay, is not very conspicuous and allows its tint after curing.

What to replace?

Despite the rapid spread of polymer clay in recent years, this material has not yet had time to become available everywhere. If it is not possible to buy it, but you really want to try it, you can try to cook one of its self-hardening varieties yourself - cold porcelain.

To do this, a mixture of 1 cup of PVA glue and 1 cup of corn starch, supplemented (1 teaspoon each) with glycerin, hand cream and table vinegar, is thoroughly mixed and placed in the microwave for half a minute, where it is heated to the maximum. The procedure is repeated four times, as a result of which a soft plastic mass should be obtained, not sticking to the hands, characterized by significant elasticity, but still allowing to sculpt from it.

If the mixture turns out to be too liquid, the procedure can be repeated again, and if the mixture is too thick and elastic, the composition is brought to condition by gradually adding water and thoroughly kneading the resulting mass.