can you cook fimo twice?

Question

i am making a hill with people on top and i want to know if i can cook the hill, put the people on top and then cook the whole thing, but i don't want to try because it can sometimes ruin it.

Answer 1

The answer to this depends a lot on several factors, but bascially, if you can make sure the temperature never goes above the temperature you're supposed to be using, theoretically polymer clay can be baked for a very long time, and baked repeatedly. It can be hard to make sure that temp never rises though, and certain brands of clay will darken more easily if baked longer than necessary (like Sculpey --Premo, Kato, FimoClassic, and even FimoSoft, would darken less and be stronger after baking too).
There are ways to protect the items you're baking though so that probably wouldn't be a problem as long as you buy and use a cheapie oven thermometer ($6 at grocery store) as well (....many ovens don't actually heat to the exact temp shown on their dials, or the temp can spike even after preheating).

Also, you don't mention the thickness of the items you'd be baking... you shouldn't bake polymer clay itesm that are thicker than 1 1/4" anywhere because they can crack (you'd need to use an armature underneath like scrunched aluminum foil, or a form like a bowl or something else underneath that could be removed after baking, if you needed more than that thickness).

You can find loads of info on all these baking things on this page, as well as strategies for avoiding darkening or scorching the clay, etc.:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/baking.htm

Btw, you can bake the items together, or you can make them separately then join them after baking, or you can make the people and bake them to harden, then impress them into the raw clay hill and bake the hill, then join them back, etc.

How you'd connect the pieces would depend a lot on their sizes and how they'd fit together though... if they were all baked, you could join them with a 2-part epoxy glue or even E6000; if one were raw and the other baked, you might want to use liquid clay instead then bake them together (possibly also joining them with a wire or toothpick between for added strength).

Check out this page for more on glues that can be used with raw and/or baked polymer clays:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/glues-Diluent.htm

And look on this page for almost any other topic you'd like to read up on about polymer clay:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/contents.htm


HTH, and good luck,

Diane B.

Answer 2

How To Cook Fimo Clay

Answer 3

Yes you can cook it as many times as necessary. It is recommended to bake together then using glue (I can't remember the specific name) to ensure it stays.

Answer 4

why not cook them separately then join them?