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My Bic white stick pens melted when I covered them with Sculpey clay?
I've made interesting pens in the past, so I was extremely disappointed when I opened the toaster to see everything a curled, bubbly, smokey mess. Can it be that my clay is too old? Why did the pens melt? I couldn't even put the ink back in.
The *white* Bic Stics should not have any problems being covered with polymer clay then baked unless the temp was too high (or a similar baking problem--see below). . . well, unless the type of plastic Bic uses for their Round Stics has changed recently.
The *clear* Bic pens will definitely shrink/distort/etc though.
I'm supposing that you either aren't using an oven thermometer so you can be sure that the temp in your oven is actually the same temp you've set on the dial (it often isn't) or that some other baking factor is creating too much heat on or near the clay, like:
...clay too close to the upper heating coils
...clay too close to the sides of the oven
...clay in a "hot spot" in your particular oven
...clay too close to the bottom coils and not protected from the underside
...clay on a baking surface which heats up more than the surrounding air (like ceramics and some other materials) and isn't protected from it
...you didn't preheat the oven before putting the clay inside, or you used an oven which is "Self-Cleaning" which can burn because of the spikes in temp it causes ("Continuous-Cleaning" is okay)
...you used a different oven and haven't learned its differences from the oven you used previously (even a toaster oven's location can matter somewhat... sitting too close to a wall on one side, summer days vs. winter days, etc.)
If you're doing all the things above, then you can also use extra baking techniques to protect the clay by moderating the temp that reaches it (at every second).
The first is to bake on a "good" baking surface, and you can further protect the bottom areas of the clay by lifting the clay or insulating it (pens can be baking in a piece of accordion-folded paper, or any clay can be set on top of a cloud of polyester fiberfill or tissues or cotton fabric or it can be set on a pile of baking soda, etc).
Clay can be protected from the top and sides by being tented with something (aluminum foil is most common, or a box top, etc) or draped with a damp paper towel, for example... that's called "partially enclosing." Or the clay can be "completely enclosed" during baking by being placed inside a box or other oven safe container (which will also eliminate smell problems and any plasticizer that might get onto oven walls, though will take a little longer baking time), or even inside something like a turkey roasting bag, etc.
Of course, anything you put on top of the clay will need to be far enough from the upper coils not to cause a problem too, especially in toaster ovens.
One more consideration if you don't know is the particular brand/line of polymer clay you're using. Three of the main "Sculpeys" are the worst clays to use for darkening/burning and also for strength in any places after baking where they're thin (and coverings for pens would be thin). Those are original Sculpey (boxed) which is the worst, followed by SuperSculpey-flesh and Sculpey III. FimoSoft is stronger, but FimoClassic, Kato Polyclay, Premo, and Cernit are much stronger (and if thin, would simply bend if stressed rather than breaking).
Here are some pages at my polymer clay "encyclopedia" site with info/lessons/troubleshooting/etc about baking, covering pens, the characteristics of various brands/lines of polymer clay, and covering many other things including some made with various kinds of plastic:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/baking.htm
http://glassattic.com/polymer/pens.htm
http://glassattic.com/polymer/Characteristics.htm
http://glassattic.com/polymer/covering.htm
HTH, and have fun,
Diane B.
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