Sizzix and polymer clay

[Irwin]

Has anyone used the Sizzix personal die cut system to cut shapes in
raw polymer clay?

A while ago, I tried it out with baked sheets of polymer clay with
fairly good results especially with very thin sheets of flexible clay.
(Not sure where I put my "experiment" or I could tell you what
thicknesses/clays worked.)

I didn't buy the machine, but now I have ideas that would make it
worthwwhile - if it worked with raw clay.

I just came back from A.C. Moore and the sales staff discouraged me
from using it with polymer clay. Among the drawbacks cited were -

1. Clay would muck up the foam in cutter.
2. Low clearance between cutter and cutting board would allow only
very thin sheets to be cut.
3. Clay could stick to cutter and require extra handling to remove
(thus distorting the cutout).

If i had a machine to experiment with, I would try several things to
overcome these problems, e.g., applying a release to the cutters,
using thiner cutting block. But at $70 for the machine alone, I can't
justify buying it without knowing it will work successfully.

Any information on the subject is greatly appreciated.

--- Irwin

Take a peek at some of my work at -
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=3008938

[@pittsburghpolymerclayguild.org Shayla Anthony]

I dont use my sizzix with raw polymer clay, because you just end up
squishing the polymer clay from the pressure of the sizzix machine. Besides
it will stick to the foam under the dies and in the dies, and on the metal
blade inside. I don't recommend wasting money on it to play with raw clay.

I do use it however for allready baked sheets of clay for shapes, etc..
works really well.. although I know that sizzix does not recommend its use
for clay, and will probably void the warranty on your machine and dies if
they knew what you were using it for (blah blah blah).

However I'm sure there might be a way to modify the dies (remove the foam
core, and drill a hole through the top to be able to "push" the clay out of
the die once cut) But then again with the cost of the sizzix dies, I think
that you would be better off cutting paper templates and hand cutting raw
clay yourself by hand then reverse engineering the die itself to be used
with clay.

Shayla

[>^,,^< Miracle]

I use large metal cookie cutters, since they come in such a huge
variety. I looked at the Sizzix dies, and the shapes seem to be as
simple as cookie cutter ones.
Am I missing something?

--
>^,,^< Miracle
(My older stuff is here:
http://mycraftyphotos.homestead.com/index.html )

[Sjpolyclay]

>I do use it however for allready baked sheets of clay for shapes, etc..
>works really well.. although I know that sizzix does not recommend its use
>for clay, and will probably void the warranty on your machine and dies if

Try using the clay in between two sheets of tissue paper, that would protect
the foam.
Sarajane

Sarajane's Polymer Clay Gallery
http://www.polyclay.com