Cernit Translucent is the translucent polymer clay in the Cernit range, made in Belgium by The Clay and Paint Factory. It is among the clearest translucents available — you can read through a thin sheet — and cures to a frosted-glass look rather than a plastic one. It contains an optical brightener, which gives it a faint violet glow in daylight.

It resists the browning that spoils most translucent clays, and translucency always depends on thickness: thin sheets read far clearer than thick ones. All the colors intermix with each other and with the rest of the Cernit range.

Expect the color to deepen: unbaked, the colored translucents look pastel. After baking they darken and intensify, sometimes dramatically. If you want the paler shade you see in the block, cut the color with clear translucent before you bake. It also stays cloudy while hot and only clears as it cools, so judge the result once it is cold rather than straight out of the oven.

Working with it: consistency varies between batches and with age. Fresh stock is often soft and stretchy — a little like taffy — and goes sticky in warm hands, which makes thin sheet work fiddly; older or firmer batches can be stiff and crumbly instead, and that is the batch rather than anything you have done. Either way it suits vessels, hollow beads and larger forms.

Supplied as a 56g block.

Baking: 230–266°F (110–130°C) for up to 30 minutes in a conventional home oven. Do not exceed 266°F. Use an oven thermometer rather than the dial, and cover the piece — overheating is what causes browning. Thicker pieces are also more prone to plaquing, the small internal air patterns translucents can develop; baking slowly from a cold oven reduces it.

For a look at the colored translucents and what they do over different backgrounds, see Ginger Davis Allman's Colored Translucent Polymer Clay at The Blue Bottle Tree.

New to translucent clay? Her Translucent Polymer Clay FAQ covers plaquing, browning and how thickness affects clarity.

If your block is on the sticky side, Ginger Davis Allman's How to Leach Polymer Clay walks through firming it up with paper.

• Cernit reference: CE0920056080C
• Color: Glitter Silver
• Size: 56g