How to Work with Polymer Clay
in Light Colors

Light colors are challenging to work with mainly because of two issues: dust and color contamination. Strictly speaking, dust can accumulate on any polymer clay project, no matter what color it is. However, any trapped dust particles are more visible in projects using light colors. The same is true for color contamination. Whenever your tools, working surface, or hands come in contact with polymer clay, there is a chance that some polymer clay will stick to the surface and then later, it may get transferred onto your next project. Again, this is more obvious when switching from working with dark clays to lighter-colored ones.

So, how can you minimize these problems in your work?

Here are a few tricks you may find useful. Pick and choose the ones critical for your work environment – implementing even a couple from each list may be enough to significantly improve your situation.

To minimize dust contamination:

• Keep your working space clean and dust-free;
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• Put any open clay in storage bags and/or storage containers;
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• While working with clay, wear non-shedding clothes or an art smock (this is especially critical during winter, when people wear warm clothes that tend to shed more);
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• Run a lint-roller over your clothes before starting to work with light-colored clay;
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• While working with light-colored polymer clay, turn off any fans or other devices that may stir any dust in your room;
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• Do not work with open windows (to prevent stirring the dust);
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• If working outside, choose a location away from any dust sources;
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• If you have pets, restrict their access to your crafts room, if possible;
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• Cover any unfinished projects with clean plastic bins of appropriate size.

To minimize color contamination:

• Keep in mind that the biggest source of color contamination is the pasta machine, so
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  • regularly clean your pasta machine, especially when switching from dark clay to light-colored one;
  • to minimize cleaning time, plan your work so that you start with the lightest color of clay first, and then progress to darker ones (and not the other way around);
  • better yet, have two pasta machines – one for light colors only, and the other one for dark colors;
  
  
• Do not work on any porous surface; glass or smooth ceramic tiles are the best working surfaces;
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• Clean your working surface and tools when switching from dark clays to lighter ones (baby wipes work great for this task);
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• Wash your hands before starting to work with light-colored clays (even if you did not touch any clay before that);
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• Sometimes, the darker clay may be removed from the surface of your light clay with a sharp blade;
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• Minor color contamination may be simply worked into the light-colored clay by extra mixing (this is not always possible, of course);
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• The red clays seem to be the most difficult to works with – even the tiniest amount is enough to contaminate your light-colored clays, so be extra careful with these;
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• Store any open clay either individually wrapped, or grouped with clays in similar colors.