Bake Tests for Polymer Clay
Bake temperatures 230-265-275 F
Tests conducted on October 11, 2007
Deb Wood--Enchanted Hearts--www.debwood.com
These tests were conducted using Fimo Classic #43 flesh pink, Rose Puppen Fimo, Porcelain Puppen Fimo
Natural Puppen Fimo, Premo in beige color, Kato beige flesh color, Prosculpt Regular, Prosculpt Baby
(and some blends of these clays)
Below are the samples-and a list of each product used to match the numbers
Samples of Groups 1 and 2, baked at 230 F and 265 F :
 
1) 2 parts Rose Puppen and 1 part Porcelain Puppen
    The results were quite pale- and there were a few moonies in this sample
 
2) 2 parts Rose Puppen, 1 part Porcelain Puppen and 1 part Fimo Classic #43
    This one was not quite as pale, there were a few moonies
 
3) 2 parts Rose Puppen, 1part Porcelain Puppen and 1/3 of one part white Classic Fimo
    The results of this blend are quite pale, more opaque than the others, a few moonies      
    and an overall grayish tint to the sample.
 
4) 2 parts Rose Puppen, 1 part Porcelain Puppen, 1 part Fimo #43 flesh pink and 1/2 of    
    one part white Classic Fimo.  This sample was a little more 'pink' and there were no          
    visable moonies.
 
5) 2 parts Rose Puppen, 1 part Natural Puppen and 1 part Fimo #43 flesh pink. This           
    sample was more 'flesh' colored and there were a few moonies- 4 in the sample. 
 
6) 2 parts Rose Puppen, 1 part Natural Puppen, 1 part Fimo #43 flesh pink and 1/2 of         
    one part white Classic Fimo.  I liked this sample the best. The color is good, somewhat   
    pale, but good color. There were no moonies in this sample. To have more                       
    translucency, perhaps try a bit less white.
 
7) 1 part Rose Puppen, 1 part Porcelain Puppen, 1 part Natural Puppen, 1 part Fimo #43   
     flesh pink and 1/2 of one part white Classic Fimo.  This sample was lighter than #6 but    
     still a nice color. 
 
All of these samples were a pleasing, pale flesh color, not 'tanned' like you see in some of
the other brands of clay.   While the photo may not support this, to my eye the colors are
from lightest to darkest in this order, 3, 7, 1, 6, 4, 2, and with 5 being the darkest. There
was not a noticable difference in the colors of the clay in the individual samples, between
the two temperatures. There were just a few more moonie marks in the 265 degree group.
The biggest difference was in the strength, as mentioned below.
 
What is most interesting to me- and the most valuable part of this experiment, is to see
the incredible difference in strength between the two groups of Puppen clays- baked at
the two different temperatures. Clearly, the clay baked at 265 is stronger. This supports
what I have been saying all along- that at 230 the product is just not as strong as it
should or could be. I strongly urge you to use oven thermometers and do NOT
EXCEED 265 while baking these clays- but you can be comfortable baking the newer
packaged clays at 265 and get the benefit of the stronger clay in your sculpt.
Group #3 Samples--all baked at 275 degrees
 
1) Premo Beige- very matte, quite a few swirl marks in the clay sample.
 
2) Kato Beige flesh- this clay gets a sheen to it when it is baked and is very strong.
 
3) 1part Kato Clay and 1 part Premo clay. Nice result- matte finish but not too much      
     so. A couple marks in the clay but not too bad. Probably the most satisfactory           
     results of this group.
 
4)  2 parts Premo and 1 part Kato. A little darker than sample 3 of this group and a few
     more marks or moonies in the clay.
 
5)  Prosculpt regular. Very matte- and again, those swirl marks are visable in the clay   
     like the Premo example.
 
6)  Prosculpt Baby. Lighter than Prosculpt regular, very matte, very opaque and        
the swirl marks are not as noticable.
 
7) Blend #1, 1 part Prosculpt Baby and 1 part Puppen Rose. Nice color, not as             
    opaque as #6, a few very slight moonie marks.
 
8) Blend #2, 1 part Prosculpt regular and 1 part Puppen Rose.  Again, not as dark,       
   with a nicer finish but there were noticably more moonies in this sample.
******************************************************************************************************
 
In the strength test for this last group, you can see all samples broke except for Premo Beige. I thought I would try adding Puppen to the Prosculpt to see if it would
strengthen it- it did, but not enough that I would trust it in my work.  Also, Puppen is
supposed to be baked at 230 or 265, depending on the package- so 275 is a bit hot
for that clay. This is the problem we run into when blending clays from different
manufacturers, the temps are usually different so we're never sure if the clay is
correctly cured.
 
To be safe though, I baked these samples at the temps needed to meet the needs of
the clay with the higher temperature requirements. With the addition of Puppen clay to
the blends, the moonie problem was also worse in those samples.
 
Also, I did bake these samples in Group 3 for 30 minutes, instead of 15 minutes per
1/4", again, because of the requirements of the Puppen clay. Some of the samples
may not have been as dark had the time in the oven been shorter.
And Finally...
 
Another look at those Fimo
products close up- I realize the
color isn't that good in this photo,
but you can see there isn't that
much color shift between the 230
bake temp and the 265 bake temp.
The most change was noted in the
Porcelain color. The greatest
difference is in the strength as is
shown in the first photo on this
page. Just those few degrees
made such a difference!
 
I hope this information is helpful
and will aid you in making the right
choices for your own clay use. I do
believe the polymer clay industry
will be going though many changes
in the coming years and we will
need to adjust if we want to
continue to enjoy this fascinating
medium. Do your own experiments
to see what works best for YOU.
 
Deb Wood