Introduction: How to Renew Dried Out Sculpey Cheaply

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About: I adore instructables and use it when I'm playing with ideas for my students (I'm a certified art teacher and the Art Director for a children's summer camp). I have found that it fuels my creative process as …

Ever had sculpey that was dried out,  crumbly, or to be able to work with it would take an act of god?

You are not alone.  I have worked with sculpey this hard and it made my hands so sore I wanted to cry.  I found out about some great stuff sculpey makes to renew it back to "health" but a small bottle wasn't cheap.  If you have an 8 lb size container of sculpey that's gone bad, you would need a truck load.

Then I went to an art confrence and picked up a great tip!  I tried it and low and behold, it was like the clouds opened and sun shinned down on me!  I couldn't keep it to myself and felt I needed to share with the instructables community.

Let's get started!

Step 1:

Step 2: Materials Needed

Materials Needed:

Old Sculpey
Mineral Oil (or Baby Oil)

Optional:

Gloves
Ziploc Bag
Mason Jar

Step 3: Crumbles

Nothing is more irritating then working with scupley and it is crumbling apart or hard as a rock.

Here is how to fix that, get your crumbling sculpey and lay out out on a surface you don't mind getting oil on. 

Step 4: Oh BABY Oil!

Add oil to the clay, start with a little then add more.

Mineral oil is the best, however you can use baby oil.  

Mix the oil in with your fingers.  If you aren't wearing gloves, your hands will get the color of the clay you are working on, all over them.  Don't fret it will wash off.

Note:

You can put oil in a mason jar with the clay or a zip lock and let it soak a while first before working in the oil.

Step 5: Voila!

Voila! Your sculpey is like new!  Now, if you get to much oil in the clay and it's too tacky, you can work the clay on cardboard and the cardboard will soak up the excess oil for you.

Step 6: PoofRabbit's Tips and Tricks

Mason jars can be your friends, you can store your sculpey in them and add oil if needed to keep it pliable

If you add to much oil you can work it out by pressing your clay onto cardboard

Adding a little oil to moisten clay can make it much easier to mix two colors together.

If you take a small amount of clay and saturate it with oil you can use a paint brush to brush on color to bake onto the clay.