How to cook the Fimo paste?

Baking Fimo clay is an essential step in making jewelry, small decorative items, or trendy accessories. Why bake Fimo clay? It hardens your small sculpted creations.
Baking time and temperature are the two key factors for properly baking your polymer clay—and thus ensuring successful creations!

How do you bake Fimo?

• Preheat the oven to 110°C. Work with your Fimo on a tile surface or a silicone mat.
• Place your creations on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (baking paper). Be sure to space them out well so they don’t stick together during baking. Caution: Avoid using this same baking sheet for food.
  If you’re making beads and don’t have a Dremel, don’t forget to pierce them with a toothpick—and be sure to stick the toothpick into a ball of aluminum foil so they don’t flatten during baking. You can also arrange them on a baking rack.
• When the oven reaches 110°C (thermostat 3), bake your creations for 30 minutes. It is essential to follow the baking time and temperature exactly. If you’re unsure, refer to the Fimo polymer clay packages for instructions.
• When the baking time is up, remove the baking sheet from the oven.
• Remove your creations from the baking sheet to prevent them from baking further, and let them cool.
• Leave the oven door and window open to let the oven air out.
• Once your creations have cooled completely, you can sand, polish, buff, or varnish them.

Note:

• When you take your creations out of the oven, are they still soft and malleable? That’s normal! Fimo will be completely hard only after it has dried thoroughly—not before. Patience, patience!
• It’s important to take certain precautions: work in a well-ventilated or well-air-circulated room to avoid any toxic fumes.
• If the baking temperature is too high, your creations may brown, blister, or even melt.
  If the temperature is too low, your Fimo polymer clay may remain soft even after it has cooled completely. To monitor your oven’s temperature, you can use a suitable thermometer.

What is Fimo clay?

It’s one of the best-known brands of polymer clay in France, created by Staedtler, but there are many others: Cernit, Sculpey, Kato Polyclay...
This type of modeling clay can be used to make DIY costume jewelry and decorative items, such as pendants, earrings, cabochons, keychains, figurines, and home decor...
There’s a wide range of Fimo clay blocks, such as Fimo Soft, Fimo Effect, and Fimo Kids… You can also find liquid Fimo and Fimo Air, which hardens in the open air!
Fimo also offers a wide selection of colors and effects that remain unchanged after baking. Plus, they can be mixed together perfectly.
Fimo is baked in a traditional household oven or an electric oven (but never in a microwave, a gas oven, or a pot of hot water).

What can you make with Fimo clay? Need some creative ideas? Get inspired by our free tutorials for making polymer clay jewelry or decorative items. Let’s get started!
New to Fimo clay? Check out our list of essential tools to get started on the right foot. Our tips and step-by-step guides will help you learn how to use Fimo clay. You’ll then find it easy to create beautiful jewelry designs or animal figures.