Work surfaces

I had been using a piece of tile to work my projects on, which served me quite well as it can be put into an oven together with the object without the need to transfer and thus risking to distort my figures. But ever since I moved, I left my old tiles at the old place and came here to find my scrap tiles are all of irregular surfaces. ):

So I had been working on a sheet of plastic wrapper pasted on my table all these while, like this;

While the plastic tears easily especially when cutting/slicing, the plastic sheet also tend to move/fold around when I rolled my clay pieces. So I went to Art Friend @ The Curve to look for surfaces to work on. Few choices I found to be rather useful - glass (RM 4.2 for a 15 x 15 cm piece), acrylic sheets, and finally polypropylene sheets. The glass is useful to directly build the pieces right on top and then send them all into the oven, but I did not purchase it as I have a specific aluminium baking tray for baking clay projects. 

Rummage... rummage... rummage... I finally found my work surfaces!

(To know which type of plastic material that can be used in contact with polymer clay, please refer to Garie's research with super detailed descriptions and photos.)

From the left: Acrylic sheet 2 mm, clear PP sheet .2 mm, and patterned PP sheet .3mm; all A3-sized.

The most useful work surface is the acrylic sheet (a.k.a. plexiglass) which was priced at RM 9.9 from Art Friend. It is rigid and clear, and I can easily slip a piece of paper with important measurements underneath to facilitate cutting/length estimation. Polypropylene (PP) sheets are much cheaper (RM 2 or less) to work on, however with only .2 mm thickness and the light-weighted property, fixation onto a table may be needed. Be careful if you are cutting the clay pieces here, as they can be cut through with a blade. While glass is more superior in this matter, the size offered was too small to make it worthwhile.

Update: Try checking out Ikea's glass shelf - Hemnes 44 x 30 cm for RM 10! Sounds like a better deal for this "off-label" use lol. 

Meanwhile... A curious cat decided to take a bite on the sharp edges.

So there you go, my updates on work surfaces. I still think tile is one of the best surfaces to have, but I also love the convenience of measuring my clay projects under the transparency of the acrylic sheet. I guess an A3-sized tempered glass surface would be my best bet to get the combined features huh? :P Which surface do you like to work polymer clay on? Let us know in the comment box below. Till then, have a blessed weekend and happy crafting. (: