This
week on our Clay 101 series we are talking about a tool I use every
time I work with polymer clay, my pasta machine. I am so glad I
decided to bite the bullet so to speak and use this pasta machine for
clay.
A
bit of a back story about how I came to get this pasta machine.
Anyone that knows me in real life knows I love to cook, it is one of
my passions and years ago back when I was a new bride my
mother-in-law gifted me with a top of the line pasta machine. I had
seen this machine in a kitchen store that used to be local to us and
my thought was “who would pay that much for a pasta machine” Then
I found myself opening it up for my birthday. I thanked her profusely
and I did attempt to make pasta with it. One time. That was more than
enough times to make it really clear to me that I was never going to
be making fresh pasta. At least not with that pasta machine. I have
better things to do with my time. I would rather make the sauce and
buy the pasta.
Anyway,
the pasta machine sat at the back of my kitchen cabinet for years,
over a decade close to two decades. I would pull the box out
occasionally, wonder what I should do with it. I felt guilty that it
just sat there but I really could never convince myself to make pasta
again. I even moved it to a new house and it took up residence in the
back of a new cabinet. I really felt bad but....
Then
I started working with polymer clay. I read some articles where
people were using pasta machines to roll out their clay. That made me
think... should I? I wanted to but I again felt guilty. I knew that
once I put a piece of clay through the machine I couldn't use it for
pasta again. I debated for a couple of years and then one day I just
boldly took that pasta machine out of the cabinet, un-boxed it and
clamped it to my table. I then found a lump of clay that really
needed some rolling out and I never looked back. The only regret I
had was that I hadn't done this years before.
My
pasta machine and I have spent hours together, it is always clamped
to my work table and I use it every time I work with clay.
Then
there is that second pasta machine, the one that was marketed for
clay. I was at a store closing sale one time and they had this one
machine left and it was marked down to less than $5! I felt like I
couldn't pass that deal up.
My
thought process was that I would be able to use the cheap machine for
dark color clay and the good one for the lighter colors. The problem
is that having 2 pasta machines on my table just took up way too much
table space.
Maybe
some day I will figure out how to use both machines and still have
work space. In the meantime it doesn't take up too much space in the
storage room and I can always dig it out if I need it.
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