What’s made of polymers, mineral oil, mineral fillers, and pigment and can be baked in the oven? Nope—it’s not what you think. It’s blu-tack, a substance sold worldwide under many brand names. We’ve probably all used it to stick posters to the walls of dorm rooms and apartments, but did you know it can be a polymer clay artist’s best friend (OK, second-best after the real thing itself)?If you use blu-tack in your studio, please share your tips with me, and I’ll pass them along here.

Contact me at suzanne@nimblesprite.com

for housekeeping

Roll blu-tack between your hands often to pick up lint, junk, especially when working on white or light-colored clay

Roll a lump of blu-tack to a point to pick up bits of lint, stray glitter, pet hair, etc., that have landed on the clay--as long as they're not embedded

To replace lost container caps. I’ve had a blob of blu-tack on a tube of white acrylic paint for several years, and the paint is still perfectly good

To prevent messy spills when transporting your supplies, put a bit of blu-tack inside the cap of your Fimo gel bottle; stretch a rope of blu-tack around the spray opening of your Armor-All bottle

Use blu-tack to pick up spilled beads

for sculpting

Sculptor and miniature-maker Pat Smith of Traveler’s Rest, SC, passes along the following uses: When baking in stages, adhere the piece to the tile with blu-tack to hold it immobile while you continue to work on it

Hold 2 (or more) small tiles together with blu-tack when a piece needs to hang off the edge—for example, the legs of a figure in a sitting position (This is kind of like creating temporary jigs with balsa wood and blu-tack.)

When using Kemper Cutters, sometimes using the plunger to push the clay out will leave a depression in the clay. To avoid that, touch the cutter to a piece blu-tack (or even push it into the blu-tack slightly); the blu-tack will grab the clay piece, and you can retrieve it from there

for caning

Use blu-tack on cane ends for less waste in reduction

Put blu-tack under a cane to keep it from getting a flat side when you slice

for bead-making

Use blu-tack to hold skewers or wires in place when curing beads on a baking tray

Use your old, dirty blu-tack to hold toothpicks upright when beads have been dipped in a finish and are drying

for jewelry-making

Use blu-tack as a stopper on the end of a bead wire as you’re stringing

To open a jump ring, stick a small lump of blu-tack on your table and embed the jump ring in it with the opening on top. Stab a sewing needle between the coils of the jump ring into the blu-tack. This will open the ring and hold it open while you insert a finding, etc., between the coils. Then you can grasp the opening of the ring with a round-nose pliers, remove the needle, and rotate the finding until it's free of the coils and moves freely on the ring.

To attach a crimp cover over a crimp bead on a bead strand, stick a small lump of blu-tack on your table and embed the crimp cover in it with the opening facing up. Grasping the bead strand on each side of the crimp bead, place the crimp bead in the open cover. With the blue tack still holding the crimp cover in place, hold your crimp pliers perpendicular to the table and squeeze the crimp cover gently to close it.

for sanding

Patricia Ritz of Boston, MA, writes: “I've been making a lot of lentil beads lately, and sanding the edges so that the two pieces will fit together nicely has been a challenge. The best way for me, so far, has been to put a piece of sandpaper, grit up, on a flat surface and gently rub the lentil half. The problem, however, has been getting a good grip on the bead half. I took the protective plastic covering that you find on most wide solid deodorant sticks, put a bit of blu-tack inside it, and voila! I get a good grip on the plastic piece, the putty gets a secure grip on the lentil half, and good contact is made on the sandpaper!”

for constructing hollow forms

Mold blu-tack into the shape you want; then cover it with polymer clay, cure it, and remove the blu-tack from inside.

A note of caution: blu-tack expands when baked! So the clay piece must have an open seam so that the blu-tack can expand and the clay can allow it to ooze out in a predictable way—without bursting the piece apart. This works well with an inro, where the top can be separated from the bottom by a cut around the circumference of the vessel before baking.

To remove the blu-tack from the cured vessel: pull out what you can with your fingers or a small tool. Then force another piece of blu-tack into the small spaces and pull it out sharply—it will stick to itself more tightly than it sticks to polymer clay.

for photographing your work

Place blu-tack invisibly under or behind objects you want to photograph to support them and hold them in position for the best lighting effects, etc.

to clean blu-tack

When it gets dirty, just knead and stretch, knead and stretch; it’ll clean itself

for non-polymer uses

Use blu-tack to remove labels from CDs and plastic surfaces

Use it to hold stereo speakers on speaker stands (from my husband, Stan)

Use it as an eraser when drawing. See these helpful instructions:

http://www.sibleyfineart.com/tutorial--erasing-pencil-blu-tack.htm

A catalog of uses from Australia (where they use blu-tack even more than in the U.S.):

http://blogs.theage.com.au/lifestyle/renovationnation/archives/2006/11/is_blue_and_tac.html

Pat Smith passes along this classic blu-tack artist website, Enjoy! http://www.worsley.freeuk.com/blutack/