Polymer Clay – Should it still be flexible after baking?

Does your polymer clay bend after baking? Are you wondering if you did something wrong in the baking process? Well, you are not alone. This is a very common query with beginners. Today we are sharing some helpful information on the flexibility of polymer clay after baking.

The regular earthen clay turns super hard when baked. However, that is not the case with Polymer clay. When adequately baked in an oven, Polymer clay gets flexible. As it is made from vinyl, polymer clay is flexible enough to bend if it is thin. If these thin pieces of Polymer clay are baked, it is very normal for it to bend and be flexible. This happens with all brands of Polymer Clay.

Then the next question that arises is how flexible polymer clay should really be? This depends on your project. When thin slices of Polymer clay are baked, they should be flexible enough to bend without breaking easily. When properly baked, you can bend, flex, and roll these thin pieces without breaking. When a project with a medium thickness of Polymer clay is baked, it would be stiff but still be flexible and bend. Obviously, projects involving very thick Polymer clay when baked will not flex much. Such thick pieces will be tough to bend. So if you are baking thick pieces of Polymer clay for projects like jewelry pendants, then you want it to be stiff and not bend.

Now there are several hacks that you can do on the thin pieces of Polymer Clay to make it stiffer. One of the simple techniques is applying UV resin on the thin pieces of Polymer Clay, which will then get stiffer.

Thus to get the perfect project, several parameters need to be considered to bake the Polymer Clay properly.  Now that you know when and how the Polymer Clay bends after baking, this should help you choose the right type of clay for your projects.