How to Cook Polymer Clay Beads

Once you've created your polymer clay beads and you're ready to set them, all you have to do is put them in the oven. Polymer clay requires only an oven and a baking dish to bake. Baked polymer clay can't be altered, so you must make bead holes and any changes before placing it in the oven. Use a fimo oven or a toaster oven if you have one, or just use a conventional oven if you don't have a smaller oven for baking clay.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fimo oven, toaster oven or conventional oven
• Baking dish
• Aluminum foil

1. Preheat your oven to 275 degrees F. Check the packaging of your polymer clay to find out if a temperature is specified for your brand or type of clay, but most polymer clay bakes at around 275 degrees F.

2. Use a glass baking dish or a metal baking pan with aluminum foil laid inside so that the clay won't stick to the surface. Make sure that the pan has sides so that the clay won't fall off into the oven.

3. Arrange the beads on the pan so that none of them are touching one another, and preferably so that none are touching the sides of the pan. This can be difficult if the beads are round, so be patient. You may want to flatten the ends where the holes are and stand the beads on end to bake.

4. Bake the beads for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the bead size. Larger clay projects will need to bake for longer. If you're baking 2 different sizes of beads, put the larger beads on a separate pan from the smaller ones so you can take the smaller beads out earlier when they're done.

Tips & Warnings

• Poke your beads lightly with a toothpick to see if they're done. Finished beads should feel firm, but not brittle. If the beads start to look darker than they did initially, they may be overcooked.
• Allow the beads to cool for at least 15 minutes before you work with them.

[messytanka]

on 9/10/2008 thank you :)