Polymer clay is one of the most popular types of clay art forms. It’s accessible, simple to use, and a lot of fun! It comes in a wide range of attractive colours that appeals to both children and adults. Moulding your polymer clay is very easy and enjoyable, but baking it is where many problems seem to arise.
Not everyone has a basic oven in their home, and some might think this problem is easily remedied by microwaving their clay, but that is the worst thing to do. A simple fix for this problem would be to buy a toaster oven. In this article, we’ll let you know the best toaster ovens on the market for your clay creations.
Got no time to read? Here are our best picks and why we picked them.
| Product Name | Why We Chose It |
| Mueller AeroHeat Convection Toaster Oven | It has a wide range of capabilities and a large interior as well as a sleek exterior. |
| GE Convection Toaster Oven | It’s a convection oven that comes with the perfect accessories. |
| Black+Decker Toaster Oven | An inbuilt timer. |
| Hamilton Beach Toaster Oven | Sleek and simple with a compact and unique shape. |
Best Toaster Oven For Polymer Clay
So what toaster ovens should you be investing in? Scroll through our selection to check out the best brands for polymer clay baking.
Mueller AeroHeat Convection Toaster Oven
This toaster oven is one of the most popular on the market! This is because it has a wide range of capabilities, where cooking is concerned, which means that there’s also a wide range of temperatures perfect for baking polymer clay. It also means that it doesn’t have to just be for polymer clay, you can use this for many different purposes too. And because it’s so advanced and spacious, you can cook yourself a nice snack while you wait for your clay to finish baking as well.
The temperature is more precise than others and it’s also large enough for you to fit in your sculptures whilst also small enough to comfortably fit on your countertop. The Mueller AeroHeat toaster oven also has a powerful convection fan that works to evenly distribute heat throughout the oven, ensuring even baking.
GE Convection Toaster Oven
This toaster oven comes with a multitude of accessories such as a rack and a baking tray. A baking tray already provided means that you won’t have to go through all of the fuss of trying to find a perfectly flat surface to place your clay creations. A provided rack will also help with space so that you can bake more than one creation, as well as delicious snacks, at the same time.
Ge Convection oven also comes with a halogen heater that helps to hurry along the pre-heat process, which is great if you’re in a hurry, but you need to be careful if you’re worried about burning! Due to the fact that it’s a convection oven, though, you won’t need to worry about even heating at all.
Black+Decker Toaster Oven
The Black+Decker stainless steel toaster oven is a lot smaller and sleeker than the previous toaster ovens mentioned above. If you’re not sure you want to make any large sculptures and you think you might prefer making small things like keyrings, jewellery etc… Then this is perfect for you. It won’t take up too much space and it’ll do exactly what you need it to.
It has an inbuilt timer which will give you peace of mind if you’re concerned about overbaking/underbaking. Once the timer goes off, the oven will automatically turn off, so you can do other things and not worry too much about your creations. The Black + Decker toaster oven also comes with accessories, like a rack and a silver baking tray too!
Hamilton Beach Toaster Oven
This sleek model is great if you want something small and simple to fit perfectly on your countertop without taking up too much space. It’s incredibly simple to use with several different functions, the most important being baking and a timer that automatically shuts the oven off when the time is up.
The Hamilton Beach toaster oven is also very modern and sleek. No matter the theme of your kitchen, its unique shape and compact size will suit any space you put it in.
What to Consider When Buying a Polymer Clay Toaster Oven
1. What Sort of Creations Will You Bake?
If you’re thinking of creating large sculptures, you’ll want to make sure you buy a toaster oven large enough for this that can also withstand enough heat to effectively, and thoroughly, bake your creation. If you only want to bake things like jewellery or small charms, however, then this doesn’t matter so much.
If you’re thinking about bigger things, however, like sculptures, dishes etc… Then you’ll want to think about, not just the size of your toaster oven, but also its capabilities. A convection oven is always a good idea for polymer clay, but especially if you want to make larger pieces. It will guarantee effective heating that will thoroughly bake your clay all the way through at the correct temperature.
2. The Best Tools To Ensure A Smooth Baking Process
Baking polymer clay isn’t as simple as just putting it in the toaster oven and hoping for the best. If you want your creation to turn out beautifully, then you’ll need to protect it in the baking process.
- Keep your creation on a flat surface like a ceramic tile, parchment paper or glass tile. This will keep the bottom of your clay model smooth so it will be less likely to need sanding. It will also keep your clay from getting stuck to anything. Simply putting your clay on a metal baking sheet might cause your polymer clay to stick to it, and cause problems later on in the process.
- Create a foil tent to cover and protect your clay in the oven. A foil tent will prevent random brown spots from appearing that might make your model look burnt. The random brown spots often appear due to ineffective heating, where some parts of your clay creation receive more heat than other parts. If you don’t have a convection oven, then a foil tent is a great alternative.
3. Thermometers Are Your Best Friend
Like with all clay, the temperature is important. When you’re baking polymer clay, you need to make sure that you thoroughly read the packet and bake it for exactly the right time at exactly the right temperature. If you underbake it, your clay will be prone to breakage, and it won’t have that elasticity that polymer clay often has, if you overbake it, it can burn and become crumbly.
Burning your clay can also result in harmful chemicals being released. These chemicals won’t hospitalize you or cause anything severely bad like cancer, but they can cause nasty headaches etc… To prevent this, you’ll want to pick up a thermometer, especially because toaster ovens are known to have sensitive temperatures. They can overheat at times or the temperatures can randomly spike at times.
4. Choose The Right Brand
Toaster ovens are a great option for all brands of clay, but some brands will fare better in the baking process than others. A recommended option would be Polyform polymer clay. It’s the most reliable brand that’s been around for years, constantly altering its ingredients to create the best clay for everyone.
FAQS:
Can You Use a Toaster Oven For Polymer Clay?
Definitely! Toaster ovens are accessible, easy to use and perfect for polymer clay. You can control the temperature and the time, and ensure that your creation gets heated all the way through without taking up too much space or energy. Many prefer toaster ovens to regular ovens for this particular reason too.
Does Polymer Clay Ruin Your Oven?
As long as you adhere to the cooking instructions and don’t overbake your clay, it should be the same as baking chicken nuggets in the oven. Polymer can’t melt either, modelling clay, however, can. Modelling clay can often get confused with polymer clay because of its colourful nature and smooth exterior. It’s an easy mistake to confuse one for the other.
You’ll want to make sure that you’re using polymer clay before baking it though. Putting modelling clay in the oven to bake it, as you would for polymer clay, can make the clay melt and get stuck to your oven. This is something you would definitely want to avoid.
What Is The Best Temperature To Bake Polymer Clay?
All polymer clay packages should come with instructions. It will list the best temperature and time to bake your clay to ensure it’ll come out of the oven perfectly. Each brand will have varying instructions, just because polymer clay contains different ingredients which vary from brand to brand, however, if you’ve bought a packet online and it doesn’t tell you how to bake it, then a general rule would be to bake your clay at 275F for 30 mins per 1/4 inch of thickness.
Make sure you check on it regularly though to ensure it doesn’t overheat.
Table of Contents
Leave a Reply