I can`t get my sculpey to turn translucent.?

Question

I been tried to add color to my traslucent sculpey, but always baked it never turn translucent, I am not sure what I been doing wrong, I try to use as little color as I can, but it never works... What I am doing wrong???

Answer 1

The translucent color of Sculpey III polymer clay, like all the translucents made by the other brands, never will be transparent unless it's very-very thin (and perhaps baked hot if possible for 5 min, sanded and buffed, or just covered with a gloss acrylic sealer).

If the translucent clay is not very thin, it will simply be translucent (not transparent), and only translucent down "into" the clay surface a short way (but still a very cool effect!).
It's also important to keep air and moisture out of translucent clays to get the clearest results from them.

If you add color to a translucent by using a colored clay, unless you use only a little bit you're actually decreasing the translucency of the clay by adding an opaque clay. To keep the translucent clay as clear as possible, you'd want to tint it only with artists' oil paint or an alcohol ink like Pinata.
(FimoSoft also makes about 5 translucents which are pre-tinted, but they're mostly available online.)

Each brand of polymer clay makes a translucent (and some make two), and they vary a bit in how clear they become, etc. The Sculpey III translucent is good when thin, but if thicker, it has a kind of pinkish tint to it that I'm not crazy about. Premo and Fimo and Kato have translucents that aren't pinkish when thicker.

There's a load of info and lessons about translucent polymer clays (including Glow-in-the-Dark), how to treat them, how to bake them, how to get the clearest results, etc., on this page of my polymer clay website, if you want much more detail:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/translucents-glow.htm


Diane B.

Answer 2

Translucent clay is really a misnomer. It never becomes translucent. I wish I knew what your project was, so maybe I could give you some help to achieve the look you want.