materials: 5 oz. (142gm) Yellow Sculpey Flex 1 oz. (28gm) Blue Sculpey Flex Optional: large pea-sized piece of red Sculpey Flex 26 Coordinating 6mm glass beads or Miracle beads 1 Small (2-3mm) glass bead G-S hypo tube cement 3 yd. (91cm) Conso or FE nylon bead cord in matching color #36 Grit sandpaper (preferably plastic-coated)

tools: pin tool hat pin or 000 steel double-pointed knitting needle brayer razor blade twisted wire needle optional

CHUCKLE
with Polyform's new clay, Sculpey Flex

by Lindly Haunani
photos by Jim Forbes and Alice Korach

What do Slinkies, Slurpies, and Silly Putty all have in common?

They all make me giggle and feel like a little kid again. Now there's a new big "S" to add to the list. Polyform Products' latest addition to its rapidly growing polymer clay line is called Sculpey Flex.

This new polymer clay, an improved version of Elasticlay, comes in eight vibrant colors. Despite the drawhack that this new clay tends to be very rubbery and stick to your fingers, it provides the perfect excuse to get a little silly and try things that have been impossible with the less flexible clays. Tendrils that beg to he bent, squeezed, and stretched are doable with Sculpey Flex.

When Polyform sent me some of the prototype clay for experimentation, I could not resist making a graduated "wormy" necklace in graded colors from yellow to green that also features a Sculpey Flex french coil loop as part of the snail button closure.

Sculpey Flex is the softest of all the polymer clays I've worked with. It is also extremely heat sensitive, and as it gets closer to body temperature, it may start sticking to your hands and tools. I found that lightly dusting my hands and tools with cornstarch helps, as does allowing the clay to rest after mixing colors.

Some colors tend to he softer than others. I rolled these into flat sheets and placed them between two plain sheets of bond paper overnight to leach out some of the plasticizer. Other artists are having good luck using Sculpey Flex at 50% to Premo clay. Sculpey Flex is particularly suitable for making press molds. Using a thin coating of glycerin (from the drugstore) as the release yields a cleaner mold than powder releases.

step by step

After mixing the green clay, grade the two tones (yellow through green) evenly into 24 balls. Then shape and texture the balls into tendrils and pierce countersunk holes near the top. Next make the snail button and a thin, hollow french coil for the clasp. After baking the clay, string the necklace. Then go out and make people smile.

color

1. Begin by mixing the green clay. For a brilliant color, mix 2 oz. (57gm) of yellow and 1 oz. (28gm) blue. For a desaturated green, add a large pea-sized piece of red. Condition the remaining 3 oz. (85gm) of yellow. Reserve some of each color for the button, coil clasp, and separator beads (if you're not using glass or Miracle beads).
2. Roll the large yellow and green portions into balls and compress hard to eliminate air bubbles. Then roll each ball into a tapered snake. Match the snakes up lengthwise so that one end is mostly yellow and the other is mostly green (photo a).
3. Now taper the combined snake (photo b). The goal is a log that, when cut crosswise in even segments, will yield a graduated series of large to small pieces of clay, ranging from almost completely yellow to dark green (photo c). Cut the log into 12 crosswise sections.
4. Blend each of the 12 balls. Then cut each in half and roll them into 24 balls.

tendrils

1. Place one of the graded, graduated balls on your work surface and gently roll with more pressure on one side of your hand to make a long, tapered snake.
2. Texture the snake by rolling it over the sandpaper (photo d). Repeat for each of the 24 snakes.
3. Then twist and shape each snake into a tendril. Let the clay rest and cool to make piercing holes easier.
4. So that the tendrils will hang close, you need to articulate a hollow on each side for the hole. This is easy if you press the hole side of a bead into the soft clay (photo e). Pierce the hole marks with the pin tool. Make sure that the holes in the tendrils adjacent to the clasp are large enough to fit four thicknesses of cord easily.

clasp

1. Blend the reserved clay.
2. Roll a large pea of clay into a ball and then into a 1in. (2.Scm)-long, fat snake. Insert the hat pin lengthwise through the snake (photo f).
3. Then roll and center the clay on the rod while moving both hands toward the outer edges. This ensures that the clay tube will be thin and flexible enough to be bent back on itself and that the hole will be large enough for the cord. My mouth dropped open the first time I saw Pier Voulkos execute this maneuver, and I exclaimed, "So that is how to get perfect holes in long, slim beads!" The ends will always he ragged, so trim them off (photo g).
4. For the snail button, roll a walnut of clay into a snake and flatten it gently with a brayer. Add texture by lightly pressing the surfaces into the sandpaper. Cut two clean edges along the long sides and bevel them with your fingers. Then roll up this "tongue" of clay (photo h).
5. Use the pin tool to make a fairly large crosswise hole through the snail (photo i).
6. If you plan to make clay separator heads, do so now with the remaining clay.

finishing

1. Because Sculpey Flex sags somewhat while baking, I nestle my tendril beads into an accordion-folded manila folder for support during baking. Bake according to package directions.
2. Take the tube off the pin. Using a razor blade, trim it at an angle just long enough to fit around the snail.
3. Thread 3 yd. (91cm) of cord through the tubing, sliding the tube to the middle and evening up the cord ends. (Conso or FF nylon is stiff enough to string without a needle.) Tie the cord with an overhand knot, pulling the beveled edges of the coil together tightly (photo P. Dot the knot with glue.
4. When dry, string the rest of the beads on the doubled cord from dark to light to dark; end with the snail.
5. String the small glass bead (use glass, not clay, because this bead receives a lot of stress) on one of the cords. Then knot the cords together tightly against the snail (photo j). Thread both cord ends back through the beads for about three inches occasionally knotting them around the strand cord. Dot the knots with glue and when dry trim the cord.