This is really frustrating, because I had really high hopes of Staedtler's new microwave clay. However, the results were extremely disappointing. I opened my sample pack last night to work with it. The texture was really soft and fluffy- similar to Model Magic by Crayola. Okay, I could have lived with that, BUT- it left a sticky residue on my ceramic tile worksurface that quickly dried and had to be scraped off. Then, I noticed that it seemed to be drying out as I worked alcohol ink into it- no colors available yet except white and terra-cotta. Okay, maybe it doesn't like alcohol ink- acrylic paint was somewhat better. I extruded a rope and made it into a loopy shamrock (more on that later). The clay did not stick to itself when it overlapped, but that was livable. Microvaved it for 10 minutes on medium power per the directions with a cup of water (half full- also in the directions) and when it came out- it was hard! By this time my daughter was calling, it was late, so I left my colored balls of clay, along with some uncolored clay on my table and left it.
By this afternoon, everything had dried out! Colored clays, uncolored clays, and when I picked up my shamrock, it broke! It seems to me that someone discovered you could microwave air dry clay and speed the drying time! I am NOT advocating that anyone try this, but the more I think about it, the more the stuff I used last night has many of the same characteristics I associate with air-dried clay. I wonder if someone at Staedtler's lab got a bright idea to try the microwave on their air-dry clay and it worked, so now they are marketing it as a microwave clay.
Bottom line- I'm sticking to FIMO until they reformulate this stuff.
