Sculpey oven-bake clay was a happy accident! The compound known as Sculpey oven-bake clay today was first created in the early 1960s, with the original idea being to use the clay as a thermal transfer compound which would conduct heat away from the cores of electrical transformers. However, the usage of the compound for this purpose turned out to be unsuccessful. The material was set aside in the lab and forgotten about. Then one day the Director of the lab was playing around with it and discovered that you could shape it and then bake it at a low temperature and it would stay in that shape. He then did more testing and discovered that the compound could be molded, baked, sanded, drilled, carved and painted. It became a highly versatile medium for the craft industry. Getting Sculpey into the hands of crafters was a grass roots effort! We traveled around the country to craft shows, street fairs and demonstrations in small art stores. We brought talented artists with us to show people all of the amazing things you could do with it! Sculpey clay started out as just a white clay. It wasn’t until years later that we started making the beautiful colors you know and love today! We still partner with artists today to showcase all of the amazing things you can do with our oven-bake clays and liquid polymer clays.