As much as sculpting and taking care of my tools is essential for me, storing my clay- medium correctly does not just prolong their shelf life, it also ensures that my creations will turn out good.
So, in this post, I am going to show you how I store my clay.
Most of the time, I keep my clay in their original packages not just because it easier for me to identify the names of the color but, because most of the manufacturer's packaging are designed to prolong the life of the clay.
I even use the other dividers/ organizers from the original packaging to separate different colors of clay.
The picture above was an original packaging for some polymer clay brand I bought in a craft store. If you can look at the picture below, you can see that underneath the huge blocks of clay, there is a tiny divider of metal coloured clay.
I do have a policy- its first open, first use policy. It means to say that whatever clay package, I opened first, I have to use that before opening the second one. In that way, I would ensure that I have a steady stream of "fresh" clay that I can use when I want to make something different. Its also easier to use them as they are more pliant/ soft compared to the exposed clay.
Yes, even though polymer clay can only be cured by baking, environmental factors like dust, sand, glue or any other household items like liquid soap, baby oil, rubbing alcohol can affect its properties ultimately rendering them useless for your crafts.
Not all plastics are compatible with polymer clay. I discovered that the hard way.
Here are my polymer clay stock. This is just a rough estimate as I have not yet bought some colors that I wanted.
Here are some of my scrap clay. They might not look fancy but once I mix them together, you'd be amazed on the quality of work this can deliver.
So for my clay canes or any other colour mixtures that I want, I store them on this tool box organizer. My principle in life, as long as the clay are not pressed tightly together, they will not adhere/ affect each other.
The top shelf was the first picture on this post.
The bottom most part.
Top view.
I know that a lot of you might take this for granted but as I have been saying before, there is more to clay sculpting than just creating pieces. As an artist, you need to learn how to take care of your tools, ensure that you have the best quality medium to work with and, generally understand the nature of the materials you work with.
In my experience, while it is often reasonable to use expensive clay- for special projects, any polymer clay bought in any craft store or stationary store is acceptable. Its the details, its the time used on creating them that makes pieces expensive.
So, happy creating guys! I promise to catch up with you in the next few days.
