Wyoming GoldSculpting, Casting, Moldmaking & More!

Would modeling clay work as an alternative to Sculpey clay?

I was thinking of making my own necklaces and was advised to use Sculpey clay, however i don’t have any. So could I use cheap modeling clay or Playdoh? Could those type of clay bake and harden the way Sculpey could?

You’ve gotten some good answers so far, but to recap and clarify a few things:

Sculpey (including other lines of Polyform-manufactured clay like Sculpey III, etc.) is a *polymer* clay; it’s oil-based, and it won’t ever harden without heating (in a home oven). It doesn’t require sealing like air-dry clays.
There are better brands/lines of polymer clay though than original Sculpey and Sculpey III since those will be more brittle after baking than other brands/lines in any thin areas, and are also pretty mooshy to get good detail with and to avoid distortion. Sculpey (& Sculpey III & SuperSculpey) isn’t used much by those who are really familiar with all the possibilities… more would use Kato Clay, FimoClassic, Premo, Cernit, and FimoSoft (in that order, pretty much) if they wanted a pre-colored polymer clay to get better results.

“Modeling clay” is also oil-based but becuase of the added wax cannot be heated (will melt), and it will never harden by drying either. These are the kinds of heavy clays kids have used for 75 years or so… some of the better brands of it though are ClayToons and Plastalina if you’re ever interested.

“Air-dry” clays are water-based, so they *will* dry in the air to harden (the drying can be speeded up a bit in the oven, but that isn’t necessary).
Air-dry clays can be made at home (for example, bread clay, salt dough clay, paper pulp, etc) or they can be purchased in various forms and qualities.
“Better” brands of air-dry clay (esp. for jewelry) would be Makins or Hearty if you could find them, or white ones you’d need to color or paint yourself like Creative Paperclay and Crayola’s Air Dry Clay, as well as cornstarch-based clays. Worse brands would be ones like Model Magic, PlayDoh, Celluclay, Mexican Pottery Clay, etc.

Better brands of air-dry clay are sometimes used for jewelry, as are polymer clays, but “modeling clays” are never used for jewelry since they can’t be hardened.

Air-dry clays must be sealed after drying (which takes up to 24 hrs), often taking the form of acrylic paint or diluted permanent white glue; polymer clays require no sealing but can be given glossy finishes/etc, if desired with various clear (usually water-based) liquids and they can be hardened in a home oven in about 30 minutes at a low temp.
In general, most polymer clays will be a lot stronger for use as jewelry and a lot more things can be done with it than air-dry clays too, but you can certainly make “necklaces” from virtually anything if you want.

There’s loads more info about using polymer clay, the various types and brands and the rest of “the basics,” as well as lessons, examples, etc., covering virtually every topic in polymer clay at my polymer clay “encyclopedia” site, if you think you’d be interested in it.
Here’s a link to the Table of Contents page for the site which is a good place to start because it lists all the topics and pages, as well as all the categories and subcategories, so you can see the real breadth of what polymer clay can do:

http://glassattic.com/polymer/contents.htm

(…scroll all the way down the page to browse everything… then to go to any page you’re interested in for lessons/etc, select that page’s name by its first letter from inside the alphabetical navigation bar on the left )

Since you mentioned jewelry in particular, here are direct links to some of the specific pages you might want to check out that have to do with that topic:

http://glassattic.com/polymer/beads.htm

http://glassattic.com/polymer/jewelry.htm

http://glassattic.com/polymer/pendants_cording.htm

http://glassattic.com/polymer/buttons.htm

http://glassattic.com/polymer/miniatures.htm

http://glassattic.com/polymer/wire.htm

HTH,

Diane B.

Handsome Sexy Physically Fit Muscular Adult Nude Male Man Sculpture.

Clay Rolling Machine $18.99 Clay Machine…A clay roller for use with all types of modeling clay. Features include 7 thickness settings a removable handle and a clamp to hold the Clay Machine on your table. Rolls clay evenly and neatly. Endless possibilities for art jewelry scrapbooking craft projects and more!…

POLYMER CLAY GLOW-IN-THE-DARK $3.39 SuppliesNet item (PE25703)…

Sculpey Iii Clay Stonewash $2.15 Soft and ready to use right from the package. Plus, the product stays soft until baked. Work on projects for days without worrying about dry-out. Bakes in the oven in minutes. This very versatile clay can be sculpted, rolled, cut, painted and extruded through the Sculpey(R) Clay Extruder to make just about anything. Great fun for everyone! 2 oz. bars….

Sculpey III Multipack – Classic Collection $10.40 America’s original oven-bake clay! Sculpey is soft and pliable, works and feels like ceramic clay, but will not dry out when exposed to air. Perfect for everything from molded items to free form jewelry pieces, figurines, ornaments, and scrapbooking embellishments. Shape, bake, and once cool can be sanded, drilled, carved, glued, inked, and painted with water based acrylics or Sculpey Brand Glaze….

Keepsake Clay Set-Boy -Blue Clay $11.85 SCULPEY-Keepsake Clay Frame Set-Boy (Blue). This clay activity set includes ten ounces of specially formulated extra-soft Sculpey Oven-Bake blue clay hinged metal frame for clay imprint; 4x6in to 5x7in photo pane and mat; clay roller; modeling tool for writing name; age and date and easy-to-follow directions. Takes only 20 minutes from start to finish! Just push clay into frame; press your baby…