Hi everyone, a number of people has been asking me about the differences between polymer clay and air dry clay. There are many sites that already shows comparisons, but here’s another one :
|
Polymer Clay
 |
Air Dry Clay
 |
|
Oven baked
|
Self-hardening with air
|
|
Dries hard and solid
|
Dries hard (not as hard as polymer clay)
|
|
Plastic-like
|
Porcelain-like
|
|
Does not shrink
|
May shrink a little
|
|
Dries slowly
|
Dries faster
|
|
Can work with slowly (till baked)
|
Need to work faster with
|
|
Made with polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
|
Can be made at home (google recipes)
|
|
Used to make anything but mostly smaller things
|
Used to make anything, works well for bigger pieces compared to polymer clay
|
|
Tend to be more costly
|
Tend to be cheaper
|
|
Need not be kept air tight
|
Must be kept air tight
|
|
Baking time matters depending on thickness (check package for instructions)
|
Just leave it to dry. Appx 1 or 2 days to harden completely
|
|
May get burnt with brown/black marks (oven)
|
Will not be burnt (Dries with air)
|
|
Water resistant
|
Melts in water and heat
|
|
Doesn’t need a seal coat to be water resistant
|
Need a seal coat to be water resistant
|
|
Need to condition the clay before usage
|
Soft and easy to be used right away.
|
|
Has a few precautions
|
Non-toxic and child safe
|
|
Comes in a variety of colours
|
Comes in a variety of colours
|
|
Colours can be mixed for more colours
|
Colours can be mixed for more colours
|
|
Can be painted with acrylics
|
Can be painted with acrylics
|
|
Popular brands : Sculpey, Fimo
|
Popular brands : Das, Hearty, Makins
|
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.