Help with Sculpey

[Joyce "Delfinia DuSwallow" Howard]

I 'm trying to make my favors, and I'm doing this with sculpey. When the favor comes out of the oven is it suppose to be hard or does it get hard as it cools? What am I looking for?After trying a couple of times can you have to much powder in the sculpey?
HELP! & Thank you.

[Sonata]

Sculpey (and all other commonly available polymer clays, to the best of my knowledge) should come out of the oven hard. If yours isn't, then you're probably either not baking long enough or your temp is too low.

You may need to get an oven thermometer to check your temp, in case the thermostat in your oven isn't calibrated correctly. Baking it at a temp that's too low results in incomplete firing and soft pieces, baking it too hot burns it - it stinks and can affect the color in weird ways.

[Sonata]

Also:

1. How big are your pieces? The amount of clay that you're firing can affect the required baking time.

2. How much are you kneading the clay before you shape your pieces? If you're not kneading enough, the clay won't be fully blended and can crack really easily.

3. What to look for: The pieces shouldn't really look all that different, they'll just be hard. I think the clay shrinks a bit as it bakes, but I've never done a piece large enough for the shrinkage to be noticeable to the naked eye.

[Joyce "Delfinia DuSwallow" Howard]

Thanks Sonata, I'm going to put some in the oven now. They are all uniform in size and look pretty good. Wish me luck! Here goes. I'll be back to let you know the results. Thanks again, man I love this site.

[Sonata]

No problem, glad to help! I love polymer clay 

Can't wait to see how they turn out... (*hint hint* pics!!)

[Joyce "Delfinia DuSwallow" Howard]

ok- here they are.

[Sonata]

I'll have to look later today, I can't see the image on my work computer

[Sonata]

Very nice, I've always liked that design!

[Joyce "Delfinia DuSwallow" Howard]

Thank you for all your help Sonata, much appreciated.