How to Sand and Buff Polymer Clay?

There are various stages involved in finishing the Polymer Clay. Let’s look at how to Sand and Buff Polymer Clay in detail.

Before starting, make sure to clean it thoroughly with acetone to remove dust from the clay.

You will need sand paper of different grades like hard, medium and fine for the Sanding process. Start with the hard sandpaper and work towards fine grade to make the clay smoother. Use lukewarm water in a bowl to help collect the dust. Put the clay and coarse sandpaper inside the bowl.

Start scratching the surface of the clay to remove any dust particles. During the process, keep dipping the sandpaper into the water to clean it. Once cleaned using this sandpaper, repeat with the medium grade sandpaper. Remove scratches on the clay by rubbing medium sandpaper all over. It will make the clay smoother and clean out the dust. Once done, move to the finest grade of sandpaper. Rub the fine grade sandpaper for over 5 minutes to smoothen the clay even further.

On completing the sanding process, the clay pieces have a smooth but matte finish.

So to add shine to the clay, we now buff the clay. There are several ways to buff the clay.

The first way to buff is to use a fabric and rub vigorously against the clay. Rub the fabric against the clay all over until it is nice and shiny.

You can do this more quickly using a dremel.  You can use a buffing wheel into the dremel. Hold the clay piece tightly and move the buffing wheel at low speed against the clay surface all over while pressing the clay lightly. Now you will get a nice shine on the clay pieces

On completing, the clay pieces have a smooth and shining finish.