Getting started in a new art medium usually requires some sort of financial investment. At the end of this list I’ll recap what I think is the best and most affordable way to put together a shoestring starter kit that WILL take you far. 

Here is a great amazon.com list to help to you to price out and better visualize some of the items described below.

Cutting Tools:

-6 inch cutting blade

-Singe Edge Razor blade

-Circle Cutters (for cakes and pies) and a Heart shape

-Craft Knife

Dotting Tools: I encourage small, medium and large. The small & medium sizes are what I mostly use.

Rolling Tool:

Silicone roller

Needle Tools: There are also various gauges of needle tools. I only own a medium sized one.

Working Surfaces: Many options

Plastic Flexible Cutting Board: These are cheap, easy to clean and effective. This is what I work on. I usually have a few I use.

Ceramic Tile: It’s easy to buy any white bathroom tile at a hardware shop. One advantage to using ceramic to work on is that you can put it directly in the oven with your piece on it without pulling or tugging on it to remove the piece to bake.

Glass Cutting Board: I actually use a flexible cutting board on top of a glass cutting board.

Making Gooey Creations:

Sculpey: Translucent Liquid Sculpey. This gives an opaque look perfect for frosting or grilled cheese.

Fimo Liquid Decorating Gel,  Also known as Fimo Decogel : This gives a more clear look for soups, syrups, melted butter, pie fillings or drizzling toppings.

Limono UV Resin is my favorite brand so far as it dries hard, not tacky, and doesn’t smell horrible.

Teresa UV Nail Bed: Surprisingly, not all UV nail beds don’t work well with UV resins. I love how the Teresa bed works.

Mineral oil works well to soften clay if your clay is crumbly or too hard. But mineral oil will not make frosting.

Whipped Cream:

Wilton 16 Star Cake Tip: You can use the tip alone and push the clay out of the tip with your large and medium dotting tool. You may also use plastic ziplock bags instead of cake bags.

Silicone White Caulk is something I’ve been using recently for frosting. Silicone 1 takes 1-2 days to set. Silicone 2 sets within 30 minutes to a few hours.

Pastels or Paints? You can use both or either. I use both. 

Chalk Pastels: These can range from $12 to $100 for a set. Choose a set that has a good variety of browns, yellows, reddish browns as these are the most often used food colors. More expensive pastels may go on easier, be more vibrant and softer. Cheaper pastels will also work. Pastels can be used dry as a powder to dry brush on a piece, or when a tiny bit of water is added, pastels can be applied wet like a paint and painted on after baking. Some people even use pastel pencils for accents because there are so many colors. 

Paint: I use a cheap set of acrylic paints. They work great. The more colors you have however, the easier painting will be because you won’t have to mix the colors.

Synthetic Cheap Paint Brush: Use for glazing, painting, and adding pigment. A medium and small brush will work.

Texturing:

Old toothbrush: gives great texture. I use this tool often.

Course Grain Sandpaper: Great for texturing. Almost every piece gets textured with this.

Craft Knife & Needle Tools: These are the best for texturing and already have been mentioned above.

Rolled up aluminum foil ball textures well

Cake Frosting spreader modeling tool. This can be wood or plastic and it’s like a 45 degree little pallet knife. (Link)

Glitter: Clear coarse glitter and clear fine glitter will make your foods look sugary and delicious.

Clay Colors for Starters: I use fimo regular & soft as well as sculpey III, sculpey soufflé (soft) and premo.

Sculpey III: Yellow

Red: Any real bright red sculpey, premo or fimo

White: Sculpey or Fimo. Recently I’ve used fimo white soft and like it. Premo Sculpey works well too. (I buy a pound).

Brown: Premo Burnt Umber (I buy a pound).

Tan or Ecru: Buying this color will make any bread or pie crust you make much easier than mixing the white, yellow and brown together. I used to mix my clay colors together to achieve a crust. My results were inconsistent bread or pie crust colors that took a long time to achieve. Save yourself the headache and get the clay.

Non-latex gloves or finger cots: I have them but only use them when I’m at risk of contaminating clay colors with my finger tips or am leaving finger prints on too smushy clay.

I buy polymer clay at amazon, Hobby Lobby or Michaels, but for difficult to find colors, here are the direct links:

Fimo Website: https://www.staedtler.com/

Sculpey Website: https://www.sculpey.com/

Adhesives:

Gorilla Glue Gel: I did a ton of research on this. Please don’t use E6000. After time the E6000 won’t work on polymer clay.

Sculpey Bake & Bond: Great way to make sure two pieces stick together well. Bake & Bond cures in the oven.

Finishing:

I choose Varvethane water based polyurethane in Matte, not glossy. It is really inexpensive.  A small can will work just fine to glaze your pieces for years.

Fimo has a matte glaze that people really like but it’s much more $ than a can of Varvethane

Rotary tool: I use a Milwaukee cordless rotary tool with a sandpaper head to sand down any pointy or sharp edges. Sandpaper or a sandpaper block works fine also to round out pointy edges or get rid of finger prints.

Acetone: Nail polish remover is great to clean up scuffs, fingerprints or lint on clay before or after curing. Be sparing as it can make the clay weak.

Alcohol: Either Acetone or Alcohol sparingly is good to clean off lint or mistakes. Both are good to clean tools and working surface. Alcohol or alcohol based hand sanitizer is a better way to clean off hands than soap and water.

Screw Hooks: I add these in the clay before baking and then secure them after baking with a miniature drop of UV resin.

Oven:

My home oven stunk up the house with polymer clay. I now use a toaster oven outside. I still use the indoor oven with the venting fan on occasionally. Any toaster oven new or used will work.

Oven Thermometer: You will need one of these. The oven may not be heating up to the right temperature, OR some areas may be warmer or cooler in the oven. You can adjust your oven accordingly.

Extruders & Pasta Machines

I use my extruder so infrequently that I don’t even recommend getting one. They usually don’t have a star tip for frosting. Extruder cleanup is usually a terrible ordeal. The last time I made polymer clay spaghetti, I hand rolled my snakes and they came out fine and were made just as quickly as using an extruder. Many people opt for the new crank extruder instead of the normal push extruder.

I started out with polymer clay making large statement necklaces using premo and sculpey souffle polymer clay. My pasta roller machine was perfect for that. I broke two pasta machines in one year from constant use; not abuse.  I’ve never used a pasta maker in making miniature food though.

Molds: You may want a cupcake mold

Cupcake Mold: I finally bought a cupcake bottom, top, and frosting mold on etsy. It has made a world of difference. (Link)

DIY Molds: Amazing Mold Putty and Easy Mold are brands that I use often if I want to cast a mold for a creation. They are both 1:1 parts, and after a minute of mixing the two pieces together, I make my mold. They also set quickly.

Shoestring Budget Starter Setup:

A brick of each of the clay colors mentioned

Sculpey Translucent Liquid Clay

6 inch cutting blade

Use a pin or needle for texturing. When you do buy a craft knife you will be amazed. It makes everything look so real.

Find really some super course sandpaper. This you can reuse and I send it in our kits

Work on plastic wrap on a hard surface. Flexible cutting mats can be bought at Dollar Tree)

Small dotting tool

Single Edge Razor Blade

Silicone Roller

Needle tool

Cheap synthetic (nylon) paint brush: tiny, small and medium

Pastels or Acrylic Paints. I would go for the cheapo chalk pastel kit if you are on a budget. Make sure it has lots of browns, reddish browns and yellows

Use hairspray to finish if you don’t want to buy the varvethane matte water based polyurethane to glaze. But you will need a glaze asap.

Screw hooks

Oven Thermometer. Buy or borrow one.

Nail polish remover

Alcohol

Paper Towels

Plastic Wrap

Aluminum Foil

Gorilla Glue ( Eventually you can buy Sculpey Bake and Bond) 

Medium Grain Sandpaper: sanding off fingerprints or rough edges

Eventually, depending on your interest in sculpting realistic miniature food charms, you may want to take the UV resin and UV light plunge. Not only is this a great way to make sure your screw hook stays put, BUT you can also make beautiful liquid looking glossy finishes like toppings, melted cheese, drizzles, soups, and more. Plus, UV resin will dramatically strengthen charms. It only takes a few minutes under the lamp to set.  I couldn’t imagine working without it.

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