Starting your clay journey you may have asked yourself, “what is the purpose of liquid polymer clay?”. There are plenty of different variations of it as well, such as translucent, white, and many other colors, but what are they used for? In this blog I would like to share some simple tips that incorporate liquid clay and how useful it can be.
If you’re like me, you may love making your own handmade earrings with polymer clay, and if so, you may be familiar with the findings used in making earrings known as eye pins. Eye pins are little screws with a loop at the end that you insert into your earring to attach a hook. When I first started making earrings, I realized that over time the eye pin would pop out of my clay earrings. This is where liquid clay comes in. All you have to do is insert the bottom of your eye pin into some liquid clay, preferably translucent, and insert it into your clay. Then you bake at the suggested packaging time and now your eye pin is firmly attached to your piece!
While liquid polymer clay can act as a glue for attaching metal pieces to your clay, it also is perfect for applying smaller pieces to your clay! If you’ve dabbled in air-dry clay, you may know that when attaching pieces to your clay, you must score it first and then use a slip to attach pieces together. In this instance, slip is what is made when you mix the air-dry clay with water to create a paste.
With polymer clay, it is much simpler to use liquid clay to attach pieces together. For example, when I make my polymer clay cheese crackers, I cut very small pieces of translucent Premo clay that will be used as my salt. However, if I were to simply press those pieces onto the clay, they would eventually come off. With liquid translucent clay, I’m able to delicately brush on a small amount of liquid clay and gently press my salt into the clay. Now my salt is securely placed onto my cracker!
Now, I’ve discussed using liquid clay as glue, but what about using your liquid clay to make art? This is also possible, and liquid clay can help create the perfect texture you are looking for! For example, when I first started working with polymer clay I was obsessed with making pastries with frosting, but I couldn’t quite figure out the texture. I decided to experiment with liquid clay and found that it makes perfect frosting. I delicately brushed white liquid clay onto my pastry and added sprinkles on top which fell perfectly into my frosting. Then, I combined liquid translucent clay with brown acrylic paint and used that as chocolate icing. While this is a delicate process because the liquid clay can spread easily, the results are so satisfying!
I love liquid polymer clay, and I hope that sharing these ideas gives you some inspiration for your next project!