So in part 1 I discovered that for optimum strength you should turn your oven off at the end of the curing cycle and leave your polymer clay pieces to cool down slowly in the cooling oven. This was just an initial test to see if the set up was going to work before I made lots of samples with more complicated curing, and something I had always been curious about. I was happy that the test worked and set about making more samples (got a blister...

It’s my husband Richy’s 40th birthday today. Hopefully he is having fun at work while I bake his cake and prepare a special meal for dinner!He got lots of presents from me and the children but here’s one I wanted to share with you. Rhodium plated pen with polymer clay decorationThe pen looking all fancy in it’s presentation boxYou may remember I made a pen for my mum recently, from a fairly average pen kit and I was...

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop with the lovely Carol Blackburn yesterday. The workshop was organised by Clectic Events (Rebecca Thickbroom) so I knew it would be well organised, and indeed it was! It was great to spend time with so many lovely people. To catch up with some people I now consider old friends and to meet some new friends too! And even better I get to see a lot of them again this Sunday at the London Polymer Clay Group...

In order to find out how best to make strong bracelets I have a series of experiments planned. The first thing I wanted to find out was if polymer clay is stronger if it’s quenched, that is plunged into ice cold water straight from the oven. I’ve heard people say this makes it stronger, polish better and it will keep transparents more transparent. Well I’m using grey coloured scrap Kato clay so can’t comment on...

Since I started improving my polymer clay work by following tutorials and going to workshops I have found it very confusing when people give you a pasta machine thickness as the different brands (particularly Atlas and Imperia the main 2 quality machines) don’t compare easily. I have an Imperia machine which I love, it is easy to take apart to clean, only requiring to remove the end plate on one end (the one without the knob) with 1 screw...

My friend Moe has been making some super cute Hawaiian gingerbread men and hula girls – like this…I got inspired and made some more traditional gingerbread men Christmas earrings.