It was the cuteness of miniature food that first lured me into making miniature models. There’s nothing quite so adorable as a tiny slice of cake or a teeny hamburger. When I started making miniature food myself, I didn’t want to waste a lot of money on buying lots of the same clay brand if it wasn’t the best for making small food sculptures.
I did some research and my own experiments and, in my opinion, the best polymer clay for making miniature food is Sculpey Premo or Fimo Professional. These clays have the following characteristics that make them a good choice for making models:
- the clay is firm so it’s easy to sculpt without it going too soft too quickly
- it’s still soft enough so that it’s easy to blend seams or smooth over marks
- it’s firm enough to not pick up too many fingerprints
How Do I Know Which Polymer Clay Is Best For Me?
Whatever models you’re making, you’ll need to try a few types of clay to find the perfect fit for you.
If you live in a warm climate, then softer clay could be a problem as it may become too soft to work with properly.
It’s the same if you have warm hands (like me!), softer clay can become sticky or feel almost like it’s melting if you work it for too long in warm hands. A simple solution to both these issues is to pop the clay in the fridge for around 10 minutes to harden it up before using it.
I would highly recommend buying a small pack of clay from 3-4 different brands to get a feel for which you prefer. I was amazed by the difference between soft clays such as Sculpey III and firmer clays such as Premo. The difference in how they felt, how quickly the conditioned, what they looked like after they’d been baked was really suprising.
You can find out more about your polymer clay option with my post post The Best Polymer Clay For Making Miniature Models.
What Colour Polymer Clay Should I Buy For Making Miniature Food?
It doesn’t take a lot of clay to make miniature models of food, so unless you’re planning to make models to sell, its best to buy small bars in versatile colours, or colours that you can blend easily.
White and translucent clay are great as you’ll use these to make lots of different types of food. Translucent clay in particular is easy to add colour to, such as with chalk pastels or alcohol ink. If you want to find out more about adding colour to translucent Sculpey Premo, then there’s an in depth article about all the different ways you can colour the clay on the website The Blue Bottle Tree.
You’ll also need to invest in some liquid polymer clay as this is used regularly in food miniatures to create everything from icing on cupcakes, to mustard in hotdogs. I’ve written an entire post about how to use liquid polymer clay in miniatures here.
It sounds kind of obvious, but think about the colours you see in real food – there are lots of colours on the white, brown, green, red and orange spectrums, but not so many blues or purples!
Think about the kind of miniature food you’d like to make, if it’s vibrant party cakes and tropical drinks then it’s probably worth investing in a wider range of bright colours. If it’s more day-to-day food you’re interested in then you can probably get away with sticking to more basic shades and adding colour to translucent clay when you need bolder colours.
What Polymer Clay Is Best For Professional Miniature Food Modelling?
As I said at the start of this post, my preferred polymer clay is Sculpey Premo and Fimo Professional. But this is just my opinion after experimenting with different clays and finding the ones that worked best for me. My hands get really warm and I struggle with softer clays so firmer clays are a better fit.
Interestingly, on the Sculpey website, there’s a blog post that recommends Sculpey Ultralight for making miniature food, but it’s described on Amazon as ‘extraordinarily soft’, so may not be for everyone.
You can read more about my experiments in hunting down the best brand of clay for miniatures in this blog post.
As it is just my personal preference, I thought it would be interesting to see what cay professional modellers use to make their miniature food creations. Interestingly, the results are very varied but Fimo seems to be the most popular!
Cernit
I had a total nightmare trying to use Cernit clay as it was just too soft. Some people swear by it though and it’s actually the favourite brand of this crafter, SugarCharmShop, followed by Fimo, although she doesn’t state which type of Fimo.
This crafter’s work is incredible and I’ve happily spent a good few hours watching her make these miniature food masterpieces.
Sculpey Premo
The attention to detail the modeller Heather Wells includes in her work is incredible. She uses white and translucent Premo to make these beautiful cups of tea. There’s also a handy document with written instructions on how to make these as well as the video below. I shall definitely be trying her technique as my teacups were somewhat rustic!
Fimo Soft
I haven’t used Fimo Soft before as I’m not a fan of soft clay, but this modeller (Sweetsofmyown), creates some beautiful, fun pieces out of the brand. The softer texture of Fimo Soft probably makes it a more suitable clay to use for foods such as ice cream.
Fimo
Modeller Stephanie Kilgast doesn’t say which brand of Fimo she uses, but whichever it is it certainly works for her as her creations are so detailed they look real.
What Tools Do I Need For Making Polymer Clay Miniature Food?
You won’t need many tools to get started with miniature polymer clay food. I purposely held back from buying a lot of stuff as I don’t have a lot of room and didn’t want to get overwhelmed by tools and gadgets.
The must haves are:
- An acrylic rolling pin and a glass chopping board.
- A silicone shaping tool for smoothing out seams – I prefer a flat headed one.
- A ball tool for adding indents – I bought this set from Sculpey which actually has ball tools on one side and silicone tools on the other side.
- A toothpick, needle or needle tool.
- A sharp knife such as a craft knife or X-Acto knife.
- Miniature shape cutters – not essential, but great for making mini biscuits or cake layers.
- Chalk pastels for colouring your clay.
I’ve written a huge blog posts about the best tools for working with miniature models, so if you want to find out more, you check it out here. The gist is, don’t buy a lot of tools upfront and just add to your collection as and when you start making things that need a particular tool.
Further Questions
What Are The Best Miniature Model Food Tutorials?
Miniature food is a whole sub-genre in polymer clay modelling – there are literally hundreds of tutorials out there.
On YouTube, there are three crafters who, in my opinion, provide the most easy to follow tutorials that have stunning resuts.
SugarCharmShop
This crafter has been making miniatures for 10 years and they are stunning! SugarCharmShop’s work is incredibly realistic and the tutorials are super varied and really easy to follow.
Below is one featuring a delicious looking Nutella cake:
Stephanie Kilgast
Stephanie is an insanely talented artist who also makes miniature polymer clay food. She does a whole range of food from cookies and cakes to dumplings!
Below is a tutorial on how to make miniature cookies.
Maive Ferrando
This modeller has been making miniature food models since 2011 and her tutorials are awesome. She makes all kinds of miniatures but her polymer clay food looks good enough to eat.
I love the below tutorial for a Victorian tea party – I couldn’t embed the video for some reason but you can view it here!