Weird Clay Trivia

I keep notes in list form everywhere, notepads full of it. One of my lists has weird clay trivia:

  • Premo Alizarin Crimson has speckles in it. You can see this in this rose cane made with it
  • Submerging clay items with translucent in them, in ice water right out of the oven really DOES seem to brighten and clarify the translucent. No clue why
  • Yellow and black clay does not make darker or saddened yellow. It makes olive green. To make a saddened yellow use a browny-grey
  • Liquid clay, a transfer medium, is much more useful as a clay glue, top coat and icing maker
  • Baking some types of magnets decreases their strength
  • Hot glue, the magic of crafts, doesn’t work well with clay. Use epoxy or super glue instead
  • Clay tastes awful
  • You can add a few drops of oil to soften stiff clay. A few drops of scented oil will soften AND scent clay

Any other weirdness you’ve noticed?

5 Responses

  1. i dont have much experience.. but i burned some clay mushrooms i made once. They were swirled with all sorts of different colors. They just burnt slightly so I kind of liked the way they looked. But I’ve read its not good for you (just like burning any kind of plastic!)

  2. Yep, burning your clay is like burning pvc or rubber – releases gaseous acid (hydrochloric or sulfuric) which is an irritant. I’ve only burnt clay enough to do that twice, both in the last six months ironically!

    I have a few pieces that are lightly toasted that I liked the look of too. Added benefit the extra cooking makes them MUCH stronger.

  3. Fun to read “your list”. Thanks for posting it! You reminded me of a few things I needed to be reminded of….like the tendency of aliz crimson (a colour I love) to cause spots in mixed colour formulas. I try to use Fucshia instead, but had forgotten exactly why. I learned something new today from my dentist’s assistant that might fit your list. There are some kinds of two-part dental molding putty sometimes used for making PC molds that will NOT SET UP if mixed by hand by someone wearing rubber gloves. If one uses gloves to mix they must be nitrile gloves. I think that’s WEIRD. Who would have thought? I think that might have been the cause of a lot of my molds to stay mushy, even with new product.

  4. Great list Elaine! Another great glue you can add to your list is Weldbond. It works beautifully with polymer clay. It looks and acts like white glue when it is wet and is extremely strong and waterproof when dry. Will still anything to polymer clay including pin backs etc. It doesn’t smell and is nice to work with too!

  5. Love the comment on yellow & black making green instead of a darkened yellow. Bowny grey? what color is that and what package number is it? Tee hee!!!!