General Discussion

hey! I'm working on a clay project rn and im in the process of glazing it, but i had a piece fall off and it is never to be seen again. my project has already been through the kiln once, so i was thinking about just replacing it with polymer clay. obviously i thought i couldnt glaze polymer clay because it's made out of plastic, can burn in a measly oven, and id assume it'd melt in like a 3000 or whatever fahreinheit kiln. although, i just saw someone glaze polymer clay on youtube, and I'm really confused??? is there a special type of glaze or what? let me know because i'd really like the broken part to match the rest of the project

uhhhhhh no. unless it's a special kind, polymer clay bakes at 275F and a kiln would be waaay too hot. ceramic glaze is also meant to be used on ceramic, not polymer. so maybe if you had a special kind of polymer clay glaze made specifically for that you could glaze it and bake it regularly in a normal oven but putting that in a kiln seems like a bad idea

but, after you have fired the glazed ceramic part, you could make a polymer piece to fit there exactly and bake it separately in the oven as you typically would. then you could paint it to match as closely as possible (with normal acrylic paint) to your glazed ceramic piece and finish it off with a gloss coat. that may work?

Indeed, polymer clay (which is a plastic, unlike ceramic clays) is not suitable for a kiln.

The go-tos for sealing polymer clay include polyurethane waterbased varnish or resin. Other glazes may not be safe to use with polymer.
(Polymer clay does not need to be sealed unless painted or containing mixed-media add ins. So do not worry if you can't seal it straight away!)

You can make the replacement piece with polymer clay, attach it to the ceramic with liquid clay (also known as bake and bond), and bake 'em together as per the polymer clay's instructions, for a secure repair. After the piece is cooled, you can seal the repaired polymer part with a polymer clay safe sealant.

@ewspirit @zenzic thanks for the advice! i was thinking about leaving both matching pieces blank and painting them the same :p

Just a fair warning if you plan on sealing your Polymer Clay with Varathane/Polyurethane: If the piece is painted, the Varathane does tend to pull up the paint if you are not careful. You can prevent this by dabbing the Varathane on gently with a very soft brush. I found this out the hard way. Still, I think the risk is worth it as Varathane really looks wonderful once dried.

I don’t think UV resin does this (never say never), but UV resin is also trickier to work with. I’d say it is up to preference.