This was originally a reply to a comment on this picture
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but it go so long that I thought I should put it in a journal instead. So anything that seems to reference something that is not here is on reference to the model in that picture.

Go ahead! asking and learning from each other is great! its nice to share
Most of these models I have on here are made from polymer clay. It's soft of like clay or plasticine and it comes in lots of colours and when you bake it it turns into plastic.

My favourite type is FIMO soft
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because you bake it for the same amount of time, no matter how thick it is.

Other brands I have used are Sculpey III
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And Ozzle (an Australian brand). With these ones the baking tie depends on how thick the item is.

This tiger was the first thing I made from Ozzle, which took a lot longer to work than the fimo does. I made the whole tiger out of one colour, and after it was baked I painted the white and the stripes with acrylic paint. All of the polymer clays can be sanded, drilled, filed, painted, after being baked.

For moulding the clay I use my fingers a pin and a toothpick. This piece is 9cm long, nose to tail, and would probably be the equivalent of a bit less than a 56g block of fimo or sculpey. The cheapest place I have found it near me is $4.20 per block. the blocks are small so its sortof expensive, but only if youre gonna go making large things. that's why all the things I make are so small.

Remember of course I'm working in Australian dollars, so you may have to convert that, although the prices are probably not the same in other countries anyway so you would have to find out the price near you.

I bought a very large block of the ozzle so it worked out a bit cheaper, but personally I don't think its worth the extra trouble of how difficult the ozzle was to work with.

Because I have made quite a few things and plan to make many more things I went and bought quite a few different colours, but I also mix colours a lot to, they blend really well. If you're just starting out maybey only buy couple of colours and If you want more colours on your model you can paint them on with acrylic paint.

It comes in fun colour effects too. There's glow in the dark and metallic colours and translucent and skin. When you use the translucent though, moisture gets into it and when it is baked pockets of steam form and create white crescent moon shapes. To avoid this you have to bake it at under 100 C, the boiling temperature of water. Unless of course you want those marks there to help make it look like stone. This goes for skin ones too because they are translucent too.

Although the ozzle does have its uses because if I put toothpicks or Apoxie underneath the polymer clay I find that the fimo and sculpey don't stick to it very well but the ozzle does and the fimo and sculpey stick to the ozzle, so over my armature I put a layer of ozzle then fimo or sculpey over the top.

When I bake the clay I put it in the oven on tissues on a piece of thick cardboard. I make a little tent sort of think out of alfoil and put that over what I am baking - this helps stop the clay from browning.

I really really recommend buying an oven themometer. I think theyre only cheap from the supermarket and they are a lot more accurate than the themometer on the actual oven. It turned out that my over was about 30 degrees F (I don't usually wotk in farenheight, but the oven is old) hotter than it said it was.

Here polymer clay is sold in a few craft stores but it's not all that common. I don't know where they sell it in other countries but I would guess craft stores.

Lately I've started putting alfoil inside sculptures (to save clay). The best way I have found to do this Is make a really tight ball of alfoil and then mix up some Apoxie sculpt and put a layer of that over the foil, poke a couple of holes in it and leave it to dry. When I have put the polymer clay over the top and finished the creature I poke holes in the clay that go into the holes in the apoxie sculpt. This is so that when it is baked the expanding air in the alfoil can escape. If your just starting off I'd recommend just using solid clay for now and you don't have to use the apoxie sculpt I just what I do.

And of course my way is not the only way. there is lost of information about polymer clay out there on the internet, just google polymer clay and have fun exploring.