Susan and I both have incredibly cold hands. This trait is useful for exactly two things in life:
1. dating (especially in high school):
"Ooh, your hands are so cold, let me warm them up for you!"
"Why yes, please hold my hands for the next three hours, that would be lovely."
and 2. working with polymer clay on a fine scale.
The ideal working temperature of polymer clay is generally when the clay reaches the consistency of stiff chewing gum. Colder clay tends to crack or split when you try to form it into small shapes. Cold clay, however, is easily warmed up by rolling it between your palms.
Clay that is too warm is a much more common problem, and one that can be especially frustrating for beginners. Particularly those that have warm hands, since the heat from your hands will transfer quickly to the clay and make it overly sticky. Clay that is too warm will take on your fingerprints, and stubbornly refuse to hold fine details or sharp lines. For example, if you try to slice a pie when it is still too warm, the blade will mush the pie instead of create a clean cut.
If you're finding that your clay is very warm, and not holding the shapes you want, the absolute best advice we can give is to slow down, set aside your project and let it cool off between steps. We realize this is tough advice, especially when you're excited, but it will yield the best results! For example, if you're making an apple, and the shape keeps mushing into something oblong instead of spherical, try rolling the apple into a ball, then setting it on your tile for 10 minutes or so to cool down. The sphere will be firmer, and you can then move on to shaping it.
Set it aside again, then insert the headpin when the clay is cooler. Headpin insertion in particular is much easier when the clay is cool. When it's too warm, the headpin tends to drag a lot of clay along with it when it exits the charm, and this really distorts your piece.
One way to allow enough time for the clay to cool is to make a couple of projects simultaneously (or more than one of the same project). If you're making three apples or cupcakes at once, for example, the two that you're not actively shaping at any given time will be gradually cooling off on your tile between steps.
Another trick is to cool down your hands by washing them with cold water. This technique has the added benefit of keeping all kinds of dust and color residue from getting onto your clay.
We'd love to hear your tricks for working around your warm hands!
Sometimes, tiny food just doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped. Or you forget to thoroughly wash your hands between the dark red and white clays and end up with pink sesame seeds. Or that color mixing experiment you tried just didn't come out the way you'd hoped. Or you finish a project and end up with some weird leftovers. The longer you work with clay, the more little random bits of "off" colors you'll generate.
When individual colors are not salvageable, we tend to squish everything together into a pile of ambiguous mush. It generally turns into a brownish, oliveish, pinkish mass that looks thoroughly unappetizing. The clay isn't bad- just not useful for making tiny food (unless perhaps you're making an MRE or those sad green beans from school cafeterias). There's no reason to throw it out. You just need to get creative in how to use it!
Our favorite way to use up ambiguous mush is to hide it inside of larger pieces. Basically, if your piece won't be sliced open (such as a pie), then there's no reason you can't cover an ugly color with a beautiful one. You'll want to use a thinnish layer to cover the mush. Make sure the covering layer is not too thin or too much lighter, otherwise the mush color will show through.
Cover the mush completely, making sure that none of the mush color is showing through the top layer. You don't need to worry too much about making the top layer a perfectly uniform thickness. The main thing is to make sure the top layer is completely covering that underneath.
Roll the whole ball completely smooth. At this point, it's best to immediately sculpt the finished piece you have in mind. Why? Because a covered ball is indistinguishable from a pure color. It's very easy to forget that you've created a covered ball, and next thing you know, you'll grab it, pinch off a bit and realize that that lovely ball of black is not indeed just black! (We speak from much experience here.)
Et voila! A finished sushi platter with a bunch of very olive-colored clay in the middle, and no one (unless they read this post!) will ever be the wiser.
