How to make polymer clay?

How do u make these kind of polymer clay icing w/o clay extruders link below:?

• clay extruders are very expensive can u provide info if i can make my own clay extruder or how to sculpt these kind of polymer clay icings(links below)or can i use a piping bag w/ nozzle? If i add clay softener & LTS to my clay can it soften enough that i can use a piping bag? http://hanmei.deviantart.com/art/Whipped-Cream-Shortcake-88723858 http://anatego.deviantart.com/art/Down-the-rabbit-hole-cupcake-117361692

• Answer:

  First, a basic clay extruder (aka clay gun) is not expensive at all... around $10 for the extruder plus 20 dies to fit into it. The clay in the links you gave actually used icing tips though probably (...although some of the newer extruders may come with icing tip-type dies or tips). So there are various ways that shapes like those can be extruded, and which ones you'd use would depend partly on how soft the clay/liquid clay is when you extrude it. You can make the clay softer by conditioning it very well, and/or warming it in various ways, or by mixing it with a thinner like liquid polymer clay or other things. So you could just put a metal icing tip into a hole in the corner of a strong plastic bag (then add the connector ring to hold it on), or you can rig the icing tip up to a clay gun. Or I've done it sometimes by just pushing small amounts of clay through the icing tip with my finger. If you thin the clay enough, you can do the same thing with a bag (which wouldn't have to be as strong)... or use other extruders like empty syringes/etc if you don't need a fluted shape, etc. (Remember that for some of those things, you may use or "lose" more clay than you want because of the amount of clay that's needed for the size of the bag/etc.) There is loads of info on doing all those things on several pages at my polymer clay "encyclopedia" site. I'll try to come back in a moment with exact links to those pages, but YA seems not to be liking actual links right now so you can also just go to those pages yourself by doing the following (sorry for the hassle). ... go to glassattic DOT com ... click on the first letters of the following pages from inside the alphabetical navigation bar (then click on the specific categories specified by a > mark): MINIATURES >Foods >>Icings, Frostings, Etc. CLAY GUNS >Icing Tips HTH, Diane B.