People
keep asking me why I am not selling my earrings on Etsy. The truth is, I did have an online shop on Aftcra, but I think they are close to going bankrupt. I
do not want to sell anything on Etsy. Etsy eats up almost 1/3 of your profits
and I think it's more for professionals who know how to photograph their
product and who do not have very brain-intense, full time jobs. I could be
wrong, but I don't have a lot of brain power left over after my day job to
perfect every listing. Also, I am a paralegal, not a photographer, and it
shows. 🤓
👆 There is another reason why I haven't gone whole full
hog (a Texas saying?) on selling my earrings. I am still learning! I only sell
a fraction of the earrings I make. I only sell them if I am 100% comfortable
doing so.
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Speaking
of being a beginner...the clay I used for the earrings below is called
"Pearl". It's a very light, pearl color. HowEVER, when I baked it,
the clay turned into "Unintended Brown". That was disappointing. I'll
tell you why below. Look for the 🤔guy.
While troubleshooting various errant results, I found that that oven thermometers lie! 🤥
They lie like a rug! I can promise you this because I've used two thermometers simultaneously and they've read different temperatures at the same time. Jerks!
Another issue is that sometimes the oven is too cool. 🥶 It's supposed to maintain a temperature of 275° or the polymer will not cure. For sure if that happens, my earrings will probably break.
🤔The discolored earrings above happened because they were not covered while baking, most likely, and not as a result of the oven being too cool. I have found that with light colored clay, there needs to be something covering them while baking, or it will discolor. It isn't burned. You have to consistently reach temps of close to 350° in order to burn polymer clay, and you'll know it if you burn it. 😖
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Finally, because my husband cannot stand the smell of clay baking in our kitchen oven, I have had to try other methods of baking clay. I have found that I cannot use a toaster oven to bake polymer clay. The temperature is way too inconsistent. This past week, I finally purchased a turkey roaster oven. Very important purchase!
I put ceramic tile in the bottom, then parchment paper, then the raw clay, and then I place a foil baking pan over the top of that and bake it. No kidding! The temperature is so much easier to maintain, probably because of how turkey ovens maintain heat. I now have confidence in the bake, which goes a long way to making me feel comfortable selling my earrings.
It just goes to figure that the girl who cannot cook buys a turkey roaster oven to bake clay earrings in it.
Fini.
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