Welcome to a new polymer clay love article, specially written for #projecteducate, find the program for the third Community Week here. If you missed the previous articles, please check out Introduction to Polymer Clay and Polymer Clay Secrets Revealed. This time I'm going to guide you through some of the best polymer clay food tutorials currently available in deviantART, enjoy and don't hesitate to leave a message if you have any question or suggestion for future articles.

Food. Polymer clay food. There's a strange fascination between polymer clay crafters to make food, if you ask many of us won't even be able to explain what's so addictive about making fake food. Some of it is crafted for doll houses and doll props, some people make beautiful jewelry with food, but some just make it because it's so incredibly fun.



Polymer clay is fantastic when it comes to creating food, it has three qualities that make it ideal for almost all kinds of food crafting: adjustable translucency, a liquid clay to manipulate its consistency and the ability to create virtually infinite textures.

Translucency

Polymer clay is unique in that the translucency can be adjusted, allowing you to achieve realistic rock candy, freshly cooked rice or wet looking slices of fruit. Almost all the brands sell translucent clay, some even provide translucent colors to facilitate the process. The following tutorials will give you a pretty good idea of how to use translucent clay, a staple of the fake food crafter.

TIP: You can use pastel chalks or colored clay to make translucent clay colors. Add little by little, too much clay or chalk will make the mix opaque.

Consistency

Most polymer clay brands make one of the most beloved and hated tools available: liquid clay. Liquid clay can be used alone with pigments to make sauces, syrups and jelly, or mixed with regular clay to different consistencies for frosting, whipped cream or marmalade. Liquid clay can be very challenging for the new clayer, luckily the DA community never fails to provide with a good amount of tutorials and even substitutes:

TIP: *monsterkookies generously shared her technique to make the Perfect Frosting and how to make everything from blood to peanut butter in her Liquid Clay 101.

Textures

Polymer clay can be manipulated to create a wide range of textures, it allows to create complicated or delicate textures without distorting or shrinking, so details are retained after baking. Most of the times it is texture what creates an hyper-realistic piece, but mastering textures requires patience and attention to details. The following tutorials demonstrate texturing techniques, useful tools and how important textures are in fake food.

TIP: Look around for things that can be useful for texturing! The most popular tools include old toothbrushes, toothpicks, stiff brushes, and tin foil. You don't even need to spend money, so keep your eyes open for things with interesting textures.

Practice!!

I say this a lot, but really all it takes is practice. There's no magic tool or secret technique, you will need to practice to achieve super realistic or incredibly cute food. This time I focused on the three things I believe are the most important in polymer clay food crafting, here's some easy/medium level tutorials that will help you practice them and that will show you how to make some more amazing food!



I hope you found this useful, feel free to leave any question you may have or suggest new polymer clay articles.
^Talty