Packing and Shipping Supplies

Every so often I get questions about my jewelry boxes and other packing and shipping supplies.

No secrets!  I am happy to share my three favorite on-line companies for these kind of things:

uline.com
papermart.com
packagingsupplies.com

All three of them have a wide variety of packing and shipping supplies and all of them offer good prices.  The quality of the products is about the same in all three companies.  My advice is to compare the products and prices on all three web sites before buying.  Depending on what you are looking for, one of these companies may be able to offer you a better deal.

Ask Eugena - Polymer Clay Help

The most frequent questions I receive are about baking polymer clay.  Here is one recent email, for example:

"Hi 
I purchased polymer clay for the first time probably two years ago, made very cute pieces for being the first time, and unfortunately burned them and quit. 

I recently started using polymer again.

...after watching videos and using precautions, even bought parchment paper, used the toaster oven, kept an eye, and in a fraction of a second noticed a piece burning. 

I found out that it was the tray, it was the toaster tray, regular metal, like a cookie sheet. I'm completely disappointed! I wanted to buy an oven specially for this, but I guess is what I baked them ON. I've read that glass is a good option too, BUT I'm wondering if silicon pan could be more useful. 

Thanks for your time :)
 Mari"

Below is a copy of my answer:

"Mari, 
I am sorry to hear about your struggles with baking your polymer clay pieces.  However, I think you are on the right pass, and once you figure this process out, working with polymer will be much more fun. Yes, your metal cookie sheet could be the culprit, and silicon pan could be a better option. I personally prefer ceramic tiles, because I use them both for working with polymer clay and for baking it. It also allows me to avoid any possible distortions that may happen when a raw polymer clay piece is being transferred from the working surface onto the baking sheet. 

Here is another idea for you to consider. Very often the ovens are not quite accurate. You may set it up to 270F, while in reality it heats up to 305F, for example. I strongly recommend checking the actual temperature of your oven with a separate thermometer. 

Good luck and happy claying! 
Eugena"

Ask Eugena - Polymer Clay Help

Every so often I get questions about polymer clay from my students or simply from people who found one of my web sites.  As I was responding to one of the recent e-mails, I thought it may be useful to publish some of my questions and answers here.  I hope someone will find this information useful.

So, here is an excerpt from an e-mail I received from Cynthia W.: "I have a lot of problems doing sculpey clay...I am just a beginner, but end up with rubbery, bendy beads or pendants...or the bead holes chip away when I add a wire...i do want to learn this but am having trouble...already threw away a lot of stuff."

This is what I wrote to Cynthia (among other things):

Sculpey is one of the softest and most brittle clays, so it may not work well for pendants - it is good only for small sculptures and for round beads.

Also, if your clay ends up too rubbery, you may not be baking it properly (not enough time or the temperature is too low).  You may find more about baking your polymer clay items here in my tutorial How to Bake Finished Polymer Clay Items.