THE AQUA TEST

 HOW POROUS IS POLYMER CLAY?


For many years I have been creating polymer clay models and ornaments for the aquarium.
Also teaching kids to create toys to play in the water, be it scuba diver, submarine, turtle, 
shark, dolphin, boat etc. Creating aqua polymer clay toys and accessories are really fun for the 
children and adult. 
One question on my mind is "How porous is polymer clay? I decided to conduct an aqua test 
on the various clays, Dukit, Cernit, Fimo Soft, Fimo Classic, Sculpey 3, Sculpey Premo, Super
 Sculpey, Granitex, Super Eraser, Super Flex, Sculpey Elasticlay.
  

Using small polyball is the best way of floating the polymer clay.

Flatten the round polymer clay and wrapped the polyball with the clay.

Baking the polymer clay balls in the convection oven at 130ºC for 20 minutes, allow it to cool.

Put the polymer clay balls into a container filled with water( photo was taken on day one and day three).

After nineteen days of floating all the polymer balls in the water, they were cut open to check for moisture inside the balls.

It is easy to cut Fimo Soft, Fimo Classic, cutting Super Sculpey and Sculpey III cracked and brittle, all the inside are dry

Cutting Sculpey Eraser is easy, but the inside is wet, Premo Sculpey also cut easily, except Granitex a little brittle, 
both the clay are dry inside

All the clay like Sculpey Eraser, Super Flex and Elasticlay retains the rubberize quality. There are more moistures in 
Super Eraser lesser for Elasticlay and Super Flex, they are the most porous clay

Floating Level Between Various Type of Polymer Clay

Result

Cutting open the polymer balls after nineteen days, I found that most of the clays are not porous, 
except Sculpey Eraser, Sculpey Flex and Elastic clay. The most porous is Sculpey Eraser. The 
experiment also show the quality of certain polymer clay to be brittle went soaked in the water. 
The clay, Sculpey III, Super Sculpey and Granitex are brittle when cut, therefore they are not 
suitable to use in creating aquatic clay model.

Conclusion

The test result will take us one step further into understanding the use of polymer clay to create 
 aquatic models, adding them into pond. Create diorama, best examples, making a fountain or 
waterfall with a miniature pump with polymer clay stones and rocks. Teaching kids to create 
Aquatic polymer creations, clay duck, boat, swan, jelly fish, etc.

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