Baking

Once your polymer clay creations are complete, it is time to bake them! Ginger from The Blue Bottle Tree recommends testing the bake time of your oven before you bake anything of value. This is because each oven works slightly differently, so it is a good idea to check your oven temperature with a thermometer before you bake anything that you have worked hard on.

Because polymer clay can eat away the finish/paint of your furniture, I work on top of ceramic tiles. Mine are plain, white 10x14 tiles. I also have a dedicated cookie sheet that I use only for polymer clay as you don’t want food to come into contact with things that have been used for polymer clay. You can bake on the cookie sheet, but I prefer to bake on the tile because I think it keeps the pieces a little flatter than the cookie sheet does.

Before I bake my pieces, I place them on top of a plain piece of printer paper. So if we are going from the top down, it goes polymer clay pieces, printer paper, ceramic tile, then cookie sheet. I guess you don’t have to use the cookie sheet if you have your pieces on a tile, but the cookie sheet is easier for me to grab when moving pieces in and out of the oven.

What does this printer paper do? It keeps the backs of the pieces matte. The polymer clay will pick up the texture of whatever you put it on. Recently I baked some pieces directly on the tile without removing them and placing on a piece of paper. I decided to bake them directly on the tile because they had a lot of fine elements (the leaf fronds) and I didn’t want them to distort. After baking they stuck to the tile but pop off easily. You can see that the backs are shiny - but not evenly so - they are shiniest near the edges where the cutter pressed them into the tile. A quick touch-up with acetone takes care of this, but moving to the piece of paper saves this step. (Could you leave the backs shiny - absolutely. I think this is a personal preference thing, but if the front is matte I think it is nice to have the same finish carry around the piece.)

Let me know if you try baking your pieces on top of a piece of paper! I find that the cookie sheet is useful for carrying and organizing pieces during the finishing process as well. I’ll put in a picture of how I organize my pieces on it while sanding.

Top Left: I left these pieces directly on the tile so as not to distort them while baking

Top Right: This cookie sheet serves multiple purposes! I use it to help organize pieces during the finishing process.

Bottom Left: Polymer clay pieces on a piece of plain printer paper for baking, helping the backs stay matte.

Bottom Right: Pieces directly baked on a tile can come out with shiny backs, adding an additional step to the finishing process.