I am playing with polymer clay lately. This was my first project: life size macarons and tiny macaron fridge magnet for my friend. This was also my first time to handle polymer clay. Although the packaging says "soft" they still have to be conditioned before being used.
What is conditioning?(www.jaedworks.com)
Conditioning is the process that makes polymer clay ready to work with. Most conditioning is done simply by working the clay with your hands until it reaches a good working consistency. The warmth of your hands combined with the physical process of stretching and compressing the clay changes its texture, making it softer and more pliable.
Doing this for several minutes made my fingers, wrist and palm really painful. The small ones are easy but the amount of clay that I used for the big macarons took time conditioning. On my next projects I will use the pasta machine, it's much easier and faster way and less pain to conditon the clay. I still need to practice more on how to handle and mold the clay because even after baking the appearance was still look uneven. But I am very happy with the finished product, specially with the colors I've chosen. Pastel color was really perfect for macaron, they are like pastel jewels inside my glass cake stand. So I guess from now on you will be seeing clay art in my blog.
