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COLOUR SHAPERS - You see me using this in EVERY SINGLE VIDEO HAHAHAHA. I use this tool primarily to blend polymer clays together, and below I'll show you some other methods of using it too! 😊

I've had people telling me how they love it when I use these to blend, and yes, these are so good to use as a blending tool!

Colour shapers are more commonly use for painting, drawing etc if I'm not mistaken! Usually used on paper, some genius tried to use it on polymer clay and wew work well it did! (I'm sorry I have no clue who figured that out, and forgot whose video I got this idea from....but I know for sure it's from one of the youtubers!)

To be very honest with you, colour shapers are just one of the tools that is nice to have but isn't necessary for sculpting. Think of it as a refining tool - if you have it, it'd make your work look potentially neater, if not, using your fingers to blend is good enough! However, if you're want to make miniatures like I do, having a colour shaper will definitely help you to get into those small and tight spots that your fingers won't be able to reach! 😍

They come in a set, and you can obviously see which one is the one I used the most.... 😆

Colour shaper comes in many sizes, and size 0 is the smallest one you can find! Apparently these are the "firm" types and it worked well for me. I've not tried a "soft" type, if I do manage to have the extra cash and buy one, will definitely write about it 😊

Head here to purchase the same exact set I have! Unfortunately, they only sell it in a set and buying just one is just not as worth it, so might as well get the set and hoard the rest - just in case you need it *ahem* 😅

TAPER POINT

The first one I'm going to talk about will be the taper point colour shaper - which is the only one I use to be very very honest 😶

As the name describes, it's basically a basic round silicon that's tapered to the tip. You can see how it's all even around the sides!

This is how one would use a colour shaper to blend a clay piece on another. Basically "pushing" the silicone from the edge of the polymer clay you want to blend to the bottom!

Now, if you somehow noticed that the blending in the gif above seems to be taking quite a bit of effort....yes you're right. If you've read my article about polymer clay, you'd know that I prefer a stiffer clay compared to really soft clay. Since premo clay is generally stiffer, it does take a bit of effort to "move" the clay down enough to blend.

So my tip here is that I'd use my handy thin curved tool to "bring" the edge of the clay down to make a smooth "slope" first.....

....before I use the silicone tool to blend everything and make it look seamless! 😊

The reason why I don't only use the thin curved tool to blend is because while it does a good job in the beginning, you can definitely see the edges that the tool makes. Being on the perfectionist side, I definitely can't let that slide can I?! 😆

Other methods of using this silicone taper point colour shaper is to make holes! If you are tight on cash and you would rather get this instead of ball tools, it does work well to make little holes! As you can see, the more pressure you put in the bigger the holes you make.

One con about using this instead of ball tools is definitely how you'd need to make sure the holes you make are the right size (especially if you'll make a couple of them in a go that needs to be the same size) and that does require some practice and control. For ball tools however, you can have a fix size hole for certain things you want to make (like eyes on figurine) and sometimes it's just nice to know for sure of the consistency you'd be getting.

It does make smoother holes than ball tools though, so it's a good consideration if you need different textures for holes!

Since colour shapers are primarily for painting, if you do paint on your polymer clay item, you can consider using this to mix colours instead of brushes (especially if you need to mix a few different colours in a go 🙃)

Sometimes I use toothpicks, but that's really quite wasteful because...

...you can simply just peel the dried acrylic paint off the silicone tip! 😱

This is a little bit off topic, but if you paint, and you use masking liquid, you can use the colour shapers too! 😊

Masking fluids are basically a kind of material that dries up and you can peel it off. Many people use it to cover up spots that they want to keep white, and paint over the masking fluid and when it's all dried, peeling it off will reveal the white background!

I've heard of people who've tried it on polymer clay with success - I personally did not try it before. I totally should! I'm not sure about brands, because it does differ so this definitely would need some experimentation 🙃

And of course, the satisfying peeling from the silicon tip hehe 😊

I'll show the rest of the colour shapers below, just for the sake of understanding each of them. I really don't use them much AT ALL but maybe it'd be useful!

FLAT CHISEL

When I first saw people using this on polymer clay, somehow, the flat chisel was the one they chose to use.

I personally don't like it as it leaves such an obvious mark on the polymer clay when I try to smooth it? It was just an odd choice for me.

I guess it could be useful to make short squarish imprints if you need it 🙃

CUP ROUND

First thought in my head.....horse footprints? Fish scales? Mermaid tail?

Circular edges are always quite nice to have!

ANGLE CHISEL

If you want to make lines without the sharp and deep indent that needle tools tend to have, this might be helpful! 😊

Here's all I have on colour shapers! Hope this was helpful, and as usual, let me know if you have any questions! ❤