Sculpey Baking Safety Concerns?

Question

Hi! I was wondering, is it safe to bake the sculpey polymer clay in a home oven? I have heard that people usually use seperate ovens for their sculpey art. Does anyone know if it make a difference if the clay was baked in a covered up casserole dish (to prevent chemical stuff from going everywhere)? =S
Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Baking polymer clay in your home oven is completly safe if:
1) You don't overbake it causing it to burn. The fumes are toxic, and
2) You probably shouldn't use the same utensils for polymer clay and chocolate chip cookies.
Very cautious people do use different ovens for cooking and clay.
Here's a pretty level-sided discussion of polymer clay toxicity: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art33912.asp

Note: Did you know that it IS possible to cure or "cook" polymer clay in a microwave? It must be submerged in a large volume of water and has to "cook" for a longer time. Make sure that the water doesn't boil away which would burn the clay and created those toxic fumes. Don't leave the room and always keep an eye on the microwave should you decide to experiment. NEVER use a Microwave oven to try to cure "bare" clay. Burning polymer clay is nasty! Here are three articles about the process which is great for bead makers and other small items:
http://www.garieinternational.com.sg/clay/shop/microwave.htm
http://www.garieinternational.com.sg/clay/shop/twenty.htm
http://www.garieinternational.com.sg/clay/shop/comparison.htm

Answer 2

None of my polymer clay books mention any concern about chemical fumes. I haven't had any effects from it, myself, and I am extremely sensitive to chemical fumes. It actually ended a career I had, so, at least in my book, I don't think it's a problem. If you are concerned, bake it with the window open in the kitchen or the stove fan on. To verify this info, try sculpy.com. I'll be they discuss it somewhere on their website. Cook it up!

Answer 3

I'm not dead yet and I don't recall ever getting sick after cooking sculpy. Remember we used to use ovens to make shrinky dinks too. I think you'll survive.