The Changing World of Polymer Clay
By Sarajane Helm
As my mother recently reminded me in my birthday card, I never really did stop being a child in many ways. Although I'm now entering into my second half-decade, and in a century other than the one I was born into, I still appreciate the colors of beads and the patterns into which they can go with the same "wooooohoo look at THAT!!!!" enthusiasm. It's a joy to see them, touch them, put them together and take them apart. It's the same with textiles, paints and colored pencils, and clays. Now there is more access to more supplies for more people than ever before in our history! We have a huge wealth of creative resources that include inspirations, materials and information.
 Inspirations are made up of all the things we've seen or heard or experienced, and we bring the best of them from the past into our present lives to make them part of what we do. We begin learning as children, and layer our experiences on top of that foundation. Perceptions change as we get older, but some things stick with us.
Materials and information go through changes too. It is even said, "There's nothing so constant as change". Polymer clay has gone through many changes in my lifetime, and in the 25 years that I have been using it.
Two years ago, changes in European law regarding plastics in the construction industries caused suppliers to change some of the chemicals used in making PVC pipes. This in turn caused changes in polymer clays, because the manufacturers all use a PVC product as a base with plasticisers to keep it soft until curing at 230-300 degrees F. Each brand uses their own formula and there are differences in colors, translucence, shine, strength, ease in preparation and handling, baking temperatures and more. Artists have their favorites and yet things change…
European law has also recently made changes concerning plastics used in toys, and polymer clay is classified there as a toy in some instances. As toys are considered more likely to be put in the mouths of children than artists' supplies, there are different sorts of regulations. US laws may follow this path in the future, and in order to sustain marketability all the polymer clay brands have been recently again reformulated to comply with the new laws.
FIMO classic and FIMO soft (white)
Fimo classic (detail)
All the clays have changed quite a bit from what they were five years ago, or two years ago. I recently purchased clay from a local hobby supply store for a class. I had small blocks of white in FIMO soft, FIMO classic, Premo, and Kato Polyclay and compared them. All the whites were visibly different from each other,  all brands were texturally different, and they smell different. They don't handle the way that I'm used to them behaving. And yet--I too can be flexible and learn about the new ways of doing this.
Remember too that with differences in the chemical makeup of clay come changes in the information. Our old information about what is compatible and what worked well in the past may no longer be valid. Long-term tests on compatibility and durability were done on the old formulae, and this is a brave new world. We'll have to learn as we go, and not be too caught up on what we think we already know.
Which, as any child can tell you, is how things have always been and always will be!
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Kat West
