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MICROWAVE TEST I have been using polymer clays for over twenty years in my creative works and teaching kids for play clay classes. After completion of your creative project, the standard is to bake in an oven, the best is to bake in a convection oven. Temperature setting varies from 130ºC to 150ºC baking it between 15 to 30 minutes depending on the size or thickness of the finish work. The manufacturer will advice you, DO NOT MICROWAVE the clay. Well, there is a method of microwaving your clay work, I had tested it, you can try following my method cooking the clay beads and other clay creations in the microwave oven. Microwaving method will never over baked your project. To begin with cooking the polymer clay in the microwave oven you need a Tupperware container or any mivrowave safe container. The container is important for good result, do not use ceramic container. Ceramic bowl produce heat and any impurity in the container will have reaction while microwaving the clay work. Depending on the size and thickness, always fill the container with water above your clay work. For any size 15mm diameter you can set for about 10 minutes, do not fill the beads in a oversize container, you must proportion the container with your clay work. For bigger size clay work use a bigger container and set timing to 10min or more. Always check your oven if you are cooking for more than 15min and ensure that there are water in the container. Microwaving process will boil and evaporate the water in the container. You can also microwave the project many times if you feel that it is not well cook, just make sure there is WATER in the container. Otherwise, it will burned the polymer clay within 2 min. in the oven, it will create lots of fume.
Testing begin with six various types of polymer clay with a diameter of 15mm.
Filled the container with water in the sink.
Put the container with the test samples in the microwave for 5 minutes.
Pour away the hot water in the sink.
Cooked polymer clay.
Result The cooked samples are very hard if you pressed them onto the table top. I had also throw them against the wall and floor down at a level of 1.5 meters. There are no damages to all the polymer clay test samples. Splitting them reveal consistent of the clay structure inside out and there are no uncured clay right in the center by scratching it with a metal tool.
Conclusion The test conducted show the success of cooking the polymer clay in the microwave oven. But, there are limitation in cooking the polymer clay, you have to put your clay work in a proper microwave container, filled with water. Microwave container will limit cooking the size of your clay work, as compare to the convection oven, you can bake bigger project. Overall results is very encouraging, for those who do not own a convectional oven, microwave oven can be used in hardening the polymer clay.
Microwaving And Polishing Polymer Clay Beads Microwaving The Multi-Polymer Clay Beads Comparison Test: Microwaving And Baking Sculpey Premo About The Danger Of Microwaving Polymer Clay 20 Minutes: Microwaving To All Types Of Polymer Clay Microwaved Polymer Clay Beads And Miniature Bears After 1 year Finally, A Microwaveable Clay
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Typical container I had used to contain the polymer clay
