PMC with the other types of Poly Clays?

Jewelry Discussion
1

newbie message - Is it possible to combine PMC with the other types
of Poly Clays? So that rather than using PMC as a stand alone
material it becomes used as a bead would… not the be all and end
all of a design or function.

Trev

2 
newbie message - Is it possible to combine PMC with the other
types of Poly Clays?  So that rather than using PMC as a stand
alone material it becomes used as a bead would.. not the be all and
end all of a design or function.

No, you cannot combine PMC with any POLY clays - If you’re thinking
of firing them together (the PMC won’t sinter correctly at low
temps, and Poly clays will give off toxic fumes if fired at the
temps necessary to fully sinter PMC… That being said, You can fire
PMC first, fill the gaps with Poly and fire that at the 200-300
degree temps necessary to for Poly clays.;

Have fun!!!

3

You can use PMC with polymer clay. Here’s how it is most commonly
done:

Make your piece in PMC, usually creating an opening or bezel of some
sort with the PMC.

Fire and polish.

Make a polymer clay whatever, to go into the space created in the
PMC. Bake the polymer clay in the oven at 275 for 20 minutes.

You can’t do it the other way around, can’t put polymer clay in the
kiln.

Elaine
Elaine Luther
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com ™
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay

4

Hi Trev,

If you mean to combine by mixing the two, it most certainly wouldn’t
work. PMC has to be torch/kiln fired. Poly clay is oven bake and
emits toxic/acrid smoke and fumes when overbaked.

But, you can create a poly clay shape – cab or freeform — and set
it into PMC like any other material. Both must be baked/cured first.
You can’t fire a poly cab in PMC like you can a lab-created stone.
Just remember if you bezel set your polymer that it’s terribly soft
and will scratch.

Now, what you CAN do is create a PMC piece, then place your polymer
over it, bake the polymer to it’s proper temp, and you’ll have a
bead. Can’t vouch for how successful the paring would be, but many
polymer artist incorporate metal wire their raw work. So it would
probably depend on the design. Something like a bead cap would
probably work OK.

There was an article I remember reading a while back about an artist
who uses polymer clay shapes and bonds them or sets them on her metal
work. They were called wild women pins (sorry, I couldn’t find them
online). I think she glued in her polymer clay and seed beads and set
her gems in the traditional way. Very, very cool line.

Tracy
Tracy’s Treasures

5

Trev,

There was an article in the Fall 2004 issue of Studio PMC by Wendy
Wallin Mallinow about combining polymer clay and PMC. I’d be happy
to send you a copy of the article.

As others have noted, polymer and PMC have very different firing
schedules, so you can’t add the polymer until you have fired and
finished the PMC. Wendy does bake the polymer right in the PMC,
though.

Suzanne

Suzanne Wade
Writer/Editor
Phone: (508) 339-7366
Fax: (928) 563-8255
@Suzanne_Wade1
http://www.rswade.net

6

Adding polymer to metal clay (Art Clay Silver OR PMC) works
wonderfully, and we’ve done it many times. You just add it to the
fired metal clay piece and then bake to the polymer specifications.
You can then polish it as you normally would.

Jackie