SHAPE CUTTERS
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Shape cutters aka cookie cutters aka kemper cutters - I have all of them!
These are quite a good investment imo, because how can you get a perfect circle with an exacto knife? It's just not humanly possible (unless maybe if you train at it for 100 of years NEVER SAY NEVER HAHAHA)
COOKIE CUTTERS
The most easiest to get cutters are the cookie cutters, which I bought from Daiso HAHAA. These are quite small compared to the normal cookie cutters so I thought maybe I can use them but I never did..........I'm a hoarder and I believe it's better to have than not so there 😂
The heart shapes and bigger circular cutters are "legit" cookie cutters, and those I did use them for bases etc for example this:
or the circle for the giveaway for this:
Especially circles - you really can't get enough of it!
KEMPER CUTTERS
I actually saw some polymer clay crafters on youtube using these miniature cutters, and I just couldn't find it for the life of me. But after countless research, I realised that there were call Kemper Cutters/Kemper Kutters 😍
These are just a tad bit better than regular cookie cutters because they have this little "plunger" that you can press to push the clay out if it gets stuck inside the cutter!
Sure, there might be an imprint from the plunger (especially if the clay is thick and it takes a bit more effort to push it out), but those are easier to smooth out with fingers compared to distorted clay 😊
I bought a set of circular cutters and square cutters from Polymer Clay Express. Here's the link for this category of Kemper Cutters!
Here's the range of square cookie cutters I got 😊 To be honest, I really didn't need it cause I could have just used my blade to cut out squares which is what I've been doing 😶 But I got them before I realised I could do that so....(this is what happens when you get excited about stuff, you just want them allllllllll 🙃 Don't be like me.)
The square cutters also isn't as straight as I thought - you could see the biggest cutter for example, the edges is a little bit concave. Blades are definitely better!
Here's how you use the Kemper cutters! You take the gold part of the cutter (NOT the plunger), press it on the clay, THEN use the plunger to push the clay out if required! 😊 Easy peasy hoho.
Again, I recommend to just get the circular cutters or shapes that has a rounded edge. Straight edges are easy to create if you have a blade, and a blade is essential anyway so that's definitely enough!
AICLAY'S POCKET KITCHEN CIRCULAR CUTTERS
If you know me, you know I'm a big fan and firm believer of @aiclay's pocket kitchen!
In her pocket kitchen, she actually provided circular cutters which was specially made for her kit - you cannot get it from anywhere else! It's much better than Kemper Cutters and I'll tell you why below.
On the left is the Kemper Cutter, and on the right is Aiclay's size A circular cutter. (She named her circular cutters with alphabets for convenience sake for her tutorials in her Pocket Kitchen, and I myself also adheres to that alphabet naming when I make my own colour recipes!)
Out of her 5 circular cutters, there were a few that was the exact same size to the bunch of Kemper cutters I bought, and size A is one of them.
Here's the difference and why @aiclay's circular cutters is better: the plunger is significantly BIGGER compared to the one for Kemper cutters!
That means there's LESS chance for an imprint to happen on the clay when you push it out with the plunger, and even if it does leave a mark, it wouldn't be as deep (smaller surface area = more effort to push the clay out = deeper imprint = harder to remove it)
So I basically did that for all my circular cutters, took out the Kemper cutters with the same size as @aiclay's, and named them according to size! 😍 The permanent marker has gradually faded and I was too lazy to fix it since I already know they're all in different sizes hahahaha.
From top left: A, B, B2, C, C2, C3, D, D2, E
Here's an example. This is the THICKEST setting I use and look how little that imprint is! 😍
Usually I don't even need to remove it since I use it for mixing colours, but I just wanted to show you and prove a point hehe.
Storage wise, I just kinda stuffed them in a very badly thought out styrofoam squares 😂 I just needed them to stay in a place so I know where to reach out for a particular size, and even though it's not really ideal (it's quite tough to put them back etc), it's been working out so far 😆
I MIGHT make one with polymer clay in the future but for now...I have better things to do 😶
GET A DOMED TOP FROM CUTTERS
I learnt this tip from a polymer clay crafter on youtube (I can't remember who and can't seem to find it again sobs), and decided to try it out and was quite stoked when it worked!
Although I've never used this yet for any of my creations, it's a neat tip to know imo 😀
On the left is the one that is domed, and the right was just cut with the cutter only.
Quite interesting right? 😆
Because it's domed, you can see that the height kinda decreased - only the highest peak is the same size as the levellers so do take note 😊
Here's how you do it: Just take cling wrap, place it on top of the clay, and stamp away!
One thing to note though, you don't want to stretched the cling wrap too tightly, as the cutter would just CUT THROUGH the cling wrap 😆 It's a hassle to remove it from the clay. So I found that just laying it on top on the clay loosely helped a lot (the cutter would push the cling wrap down and stretch it THEN, so you need that leeway for that to happen 😊)
Hope that's not too confusing haha. Try to do it yourself and you'll definitely understand what I mean 😀
EVERYDAY ITEMS AS CUTTERS
I've seen people using pipes, or using metal sheets and creating their own cutters. Even though they might not give you the cleanest cut, but you definitely can use them to a certain extent!
For example, I use Yakult's straw as a cutter myself, since it's smaller than my smallest cutter (size E). I try to avoid using it most of the time since for thicker pieces it's difficult to get it out, but it works good for thin pieces, and glossy work surface helps the clay to stick on the surface better too 😊
Hope this helps if you were interested and curious what these cutters are called, where to buy them, and how to use them like I once was ❤ Start keeping a look out for everyday items that can be used as a cutter too - you never know, they might come in handy! 😀