Souffle: New Polymer Clay

We all have a favorite brand of polymer clay, but some of us use Polyform's brands almost exclusively (Sculpey, Premo, etc) because they are more readily available where we live. So it's not surprising that there's some excitement about Soufflé, the new product made by Polyform, released just a couple of days ago on April 30th.

I wanted to write an article for us miniature food crafters, to summarize what it means to us. If you have already tried it please share your opinion! Also let me know if you want me to write more articles about other brands.

Characteristics (taken from Polyform's page):

• It's lighter than regular polymer clay, but not as much as Sculpey Ultralight.
  Great for those of us that create jewelry, specially earrings. Other than that, I don't think it'll make a lot of difference, really small objects could actually benefit from being a little heavier.
  
  
• They claim that it's perfect for caning.
  I would love to try some complicated canes like a strawberry and see how it holds the detail. Caning for us is a lot different, since miniature food canes sometimes have a lot more detail and don't tolerate distortion. If I could find a clay that would let me do canes without distortion, I would never use another brand in my life.
  
  
• It's advertised to hold detail.
  Sounds great for complicated textures (like cakes) and small details without smudging, but it also sounds like it'll hold fingerprints. I have achieved great results with Sculpey and Premo, but Fimo soft is too soft to hold detail without smudging.
  
  
• It's said to be strong.
  I think this is an interesting characteristic, tiny miniatures can easily crack. I often battle with leaves on fruits and lettuce,so I hope it's as strong as promised.

• Suede finish.
  I honestly have no idea what it means, or what it could mean to us. Maybe time will tell.
  
  
• 22 "fashion forward" colors.
  I'm not amazed by the colors, and they seem really unbalanced. The name says it all: they're designed for jewelry and fashion, not for mini food. A few of them seem usable, but we'll have to do a lot of color blending to get the best colors. Notice that all the greens are very pale and unsaturated, so we'll have to mix the right color to make bright avocados and fresh veggies. 

I also recommend that you read this amazing review from The Blue Bottle Tree, this really nice lady already tried Soufflé and made a very in-depth review of it. What worries me the most about her review is that she says that Soufflé is very opaque, and real food is naturally translucent. Soufflé doesn't include translucent clay either, so all the colors are opaque without the option of being translucent. This is probably the most important point, and why maybe it won't work for miniature food if anyone can confirm this, I'm sure we would all really appreciate it. I'm going to try to get my hands on it, I'm excited to try it too

If you try it, please let us know how it works for you!

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the team at semi-sweeties