Cernit: It is similar to Fimo and Sculpey. The finished product is supposed to be more durable and harder than the other polymer clays. You can carve, sand and buff it. If you want to see what has been done with it, check out www.cernit.com.

Valerye

Cernit Polymer Clay: I can tell you that they have the most realistic flesh color but it's very soft and translucent. I've been trying my hand at 1/4" scale dolls and the color is perfect but I have warm hands and I have to keep sitting it aside to cool off and harden a bit so it will keep it's shape.

Gail Dillards

FIMO: Regarding hard, crumbly FIMO. Sculpey makes a liquid dilutent that works well on hard fimo. It only takes a drop or two to soften a thumb-size piece of FIMO. I also use Sculpey as a softener for old FIMO. If a close color of Sculpey is used, it doesn't fade the color of the FIMO.

Kathie

Cooking without Baking: Some people keep a pot just for polymer clay items, and BOIL them in water for same amount of time as it would be cooked in an oven. The temp for boiling is within the suggested range, and it does no harm to the mini.

Rose

Fimo: Everything I've ever read or seen about working with Fimo emphasizes that a pasta maker, chopper, blender, etc. that is used with Fimo or any poly clay product should never again be used in the preparation of food. In fact, there are crafters that have a toaster oven used only for baking Fimo, etc.

Jan

Softening Old Fimo: I have some that I've had for a long time that is that way. If I have some Mix Quick on hand, I use that. I also use petroleum jelly, smearing it thinly on a thin slice of Fimo. I stack up a few slices, then knead them, adding more slices as they soften. If I get too much petroleum jelly, I just add more Fimo. The excess petroleum jelly seems to help keep my hands soft, too.

Marsha Heeter

Fimo: To soften the fimo, warm it first, sit on it or put it in your bra or pocket. Use glycerin to soften it as transparent is not a softener, but mix quick is or use the dilutant put out by sculpey. Fimo is easier to work with if you have a food chopper to do the work for you as it is very hard and needs lots or prep work. You can also mix it with softer Sculpey to make it easier to handle. I personally like the Premo Sculpey as it handles very well for the prep and is firm enough to make your item easy.

Charlean

Storing & Hardening Polymer Clays: I've been making stuff out of polymer clays for over 11 years now (mostly Fimo, but I use all brands), and it is extremely important to store conditioned un-baked clay in wax paper or baggies - it will start to eat through plastic immediately. BUT if you bake it, and haven't baked it completely, the plasticisers will slowly leech out and eat through stuff.

One case in point: I had some fruits and veggies I made in my first days of experimenting. I stored them (baked) in some stacking plastic boxes – the round clear ones that screw together. About 5 years later they were stuck to the insides of the boxes - it took that long to show up.

I also participated in a "bead swap" on a clay news group, where we all made clay beads and mailed them in, and got back one of each. One person's bead was beautiful, but the hole was too small for a needle. I took my mini hand drill and gently started to enlarge the hole, and the whole bead crumbled in my hands - it wasn't fully baked, but felt fine from the outside.

I always bake my objects a bit longer than the directions call for, watching the oven like a hawk with light colored clay to keep from discoloring. Make sure your room is well ventilated because of fumes given off during the baking, and most important, have fun!

If you have questions with clay, the rec.crafts.polymer-clay newsgroup is extremely helpful and friendly (check out their FAQ file for great info), and if I can help with questions I'm glad to - if the mistake can be made, I've made it!

Beverly Michie

Crumbly, Dry Fimo:  Take that Fimo and break it into small pieces and then knead and knead it (perhaps with a little Transparent), it will soon work up and be soft again. I never knew that being crumbly wasn't supposed to happen when I first worked with it so just persevered and it soon became soft enough to use.

Dottie

Fimo Warmer/Softener: For any one interested in a warmer for Fimo: You can make a warmer that will work great. It is made like a bean bag. Cut two rectangular shaped pieces of heavy fabric about 5" x 10". Put wrong sides together and stitch (zigzag or surge) around 3-1/2 sides, leaving just about a 2-3" opening. Turn the fabric and fill loose packed with UNCOOKED rice (not instant) moderately full (1/2to 3/4). Stitch up the opening.

This rice bag can then be placed in the microwave for a couple of minutes (experiment with time) . It will heat up the rice and stay warm for awhile. Place wrapped Fimo (unless you want to stain your bag) on top of one end of the bag and fold over. This will keep the Fimo warm for about 2 hours. This could also be pre-made into an envelope shape to slip the Fimo in. These are also great to make and take with you when you need a neck or hand warmer at outside events.

Debbie Laue

Storing Fimo: It was explained to me that, until it is cured in the oven, Fimo is "alive" and will "eat/melt into" certain type of plastics. Usually it will not "eat" the soft, opaque plastics like the round containers about 1.5" tall with lids, or plastic bags. Keeping it in plastic wrap or plastic bags seems to keep it from getting crumbly as fast, even better than the unopened wrap it comes in.

One hint - when you have mixed a special color, be sure to mark it some way as to what you used it for. I have several bags with several shades of color that I don't remember what exactly they were for. If I have a large quantity, I'll actually scratch the info into the clay because I've found that ink on paper bleeds when in contact with the Fimo, and I don't seem to remember to mark the outside of the bag, which would probably be the best way to do it.

Marsha Heeter

Fimo Instructions: Tom Berkner of Earth and Tree has some great books on Polymer Clay as well as all miniature related topics at

http://www.dollhouse-miniatures.com/

Mary Kaliski

Fimo Warmer / Softener: You can make your own Fimo warmer, just fill a white sock with regular white rice and sew it up. Use it for pains. It works great.

Mel Varisco

Sculpting: Bic pen caps get saved because they're one of my favorite sculpting tools. I'm sure there is something professionally made that would work as well, but I like them!

Beverly Michie

Plates: Recently there have been several people asking about plates so I thought I would contribute as follows, although this will be old news for many of you: I make plates and bowls from a two part clay that we can get in South Africa. It is similar to Prattley's putty that is used for fixing car parts. However, in England I think Milliput would be the closest. Otherwise air drying clay such as Das, which is available in white, would do the trick and maybe now Paper clay. These instructions are for the two-part clay:

I take a pea-sized piece of each clay and mix the two together thoroughly. I then roll it between 2 pieces of wax wrap, on a tile, using a glass as a rolling pin. This gets the clay smooth and thin. I take my mold, which is usually a lid of some sorts, and put a THIN layer of Vaseline as a release agent. I lay my clay over it and use my craft knife to cut off the excess. I smooth edges with a "wet" finger. (Sorry, nothing else works!) I leave these to dry overnight and then pop them off their molds. I wash them with HOT soapy water to remove any Vaseline residue. A light sanding smoothes off any rough edges and imperfections.

I make colour photocopies of plates reduced to the right size. They must be full face on, bright and clear. Of course, if you want a dinner service, and not just plates to hang on the wall, then you must make bowl-size copies and side-plate-sized copies, as well. I paint these with decoupage transfer medium, leave to dry and then cut them out VERY accurately. I then soak them overnight or longer (they take no harm left for weeks). Meanwhile, I paint the back of the plates with decoupage deco-varnish to give the back a finished look. I rub the paper off the back of the photocopied plates leaving a thin transfer. I slide this onto the wet plates with deco varnish, position it, smooth out any bubbles with a wet brush and then leave them to dry. 3 coats of deco varnish, with drying time between, finish them off with a shiny finish.

Barbara B, South Africa

Halloween Minis: Halloween fun instructions!

Remember making the little ghosts out of lollipops as a kid for your elementary school Halloween party! OK, so maybe not everyone did that! Well, make some in mini! Just make a small ball of Fimo about the size of a whole black peppercorn seed. Fimo color doesn't matter because you're going to cover it. Insert a little piece of floral wire or (other semi-stiff but tiny in diameter ) into the ball for the stick. Wire would be best as it doesn't melt when you bake it. Bake the little ball with the stick in it for appropriate time. Then when the ball has cooled, take a tiny square of white tissue paper (not toilet paper, but tissue paper like you put in gift boxes). Place the tissue paper over the ball and gather at neck of sucker. Tie with a tiny piece of Halloween colored ribbon. Then you can use a fine point black marker to draw your face on the ghost. We usually just made black circles for eyes and a mouth like it's saying "Boo"! Voila...you have sucker ghosts to put in your favorite Halloween treat bag.

You can also make candy/caramel apples using this Fimo ball and stick method. Just make the ball of Fimo a little larger to represent an apple. Also these are better done with the appropriate Fimo color. You can also coat your caramel apples with a little fine sawdust to look like nuts! They look so delicious when done!

My final suggestion is to pick up a couple of packages of those great cupcake sprinkles they make for different holidays. I bought some sprinkles in the cake supply section of a local store and they are so cute! They have little white ghosts, pumpkins and bats. They make great mini "cookies" to put on a Halloween plate. They can also be tucked down inside a bucket or bag of treats to look like someone got "homemade" goodies on their Halloween night trick or treating trip! They also make Christmas, Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day sprinkles that you can have fun with on other holidays. I have also used these sprinkles as the candle holder on mini cakes before! They are made of confectioners sugar and what not so, you can't get them wet or they will melt.

Donna Baird

Colored handle silverware: You can try Dragonfly for the colored handled silverware.  I have a couple of packs in the fiesta warestyle--their handles are a variety of colors, but I think you might contact Deb Laue(Dragon@psyber.com) and she might have a set all with red handles.

Dottie

Molded Clay Plates: Patricia Laker, a multi-talented Ohio miniaturist, taught me this way to make plates about twenty years ago. Maxant Buttons to Cover are shallow, straight-sided metal bowl-shapes with smooth rims, in several sizes for making fabric-covered buttons.  The technique:  roll clay to a thin sheet, press bowl down into it, and in one motion "cookie-cut" a disc of clay and lift it out, still inside the bowl.  (Works more often than you'd think it would.)  Then bake the clay or leave it to dry and flip or tap out the hardened disc.  The result is a coupe-style plate, edges slightly lifted.  Pat started with an air-drying clay called Pendo, and found that slight shrinkage resulted in plates exactly to-scale.  That brand went off the market.  I settled for Sculpey, and the results were still pretty good.  Now there are more options.  You can start with colored clay, or paint as you wish, or provide a white base and apply decals. I made some decals from color photocopies, getting different sizes from a single original.  Imagine one could do this resizing on a scanner, too - right?).   Button forms made by Prim and Dritz have a saw tooth rim (not always visible inside the package) that doesn't work, though if you have some on hand you can try for a fancy-edged plate.  Maxant's refill packages are a better buy than the ones with the forming tool inside.  I'm sorry, I don't know about international availability under this or another brand name.  Best bet is probably to visit or phone places that sell sewing notions and inquire.   (And if you find you don't like making plates this way, you still have a set of shallow bowls.  Or planters.  Or potential buttons.)

Mary

Annie