Cleaning King find the best glue for all uses with clay.
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It feels horrible when your grandmothers’ favourite vase or that special plate you got as a wedding gift gets dropped and cracks apart. If you’re unfortunate enough to drop it on a hard surface like concrete then it may even smash into hundreds of pieces!
The good news is that with the right glue and some patience, what is broken can become whole once more.
The team at Cleaning King sat down over a coffee and confessed to all the valuable things we had broken over the years. The length of the list suggested that we have a rather clumsy staffing team! We compared the glues we have each used to fix our many broken items, and did some research on other peoples experiences as well.
Take a look at our reviews below, and follow our useful buyer’s guide with expert advice, to help you make the best decision on the best glue for clay!
Best for all types of clay
Whether it’s air-dry, oven dry or polymer clay, epoxy resin will be able to glue it. Keep in mind though that epoxy resin can be toxic, so you should take care to use it in a well ventilated space. It can also be painful to have epoxy resin on your skin as it can cause contact dermatitis. This product comes with gloves and applicator sticks in order to avoid that. While this will be the most effective glue for your clay, if you’re not comfortable working with toxic glue, you may want to check out some of our other options.
Easiest to use for all types of clay
The gel consistency of this product from Gorilla Glue makes it super easy to use for clay repairs. The glue stays in place while you work, even vertically, so it is perfect for intricate jobs. It sets in 10-30 seconds and will work on oven dried, air dried and polymer clay.
It creates a strong bond that will work well for most applications with clay.
Best Glue for Polymer Clay
This glue from Mont Martre works great with polymer clay, but doesn’t do so well with air-dried and oven-dried. If you’re not sure which type of clay you have, check out our article below.
The glue wont stay in place during use as well as the Gorilla Glue GEL, so you need to be careful with how you position your pieces of clay and it’s a bit more fiddly.
Best Glue for Ceramic Pots
If everything else is out of stock....
If all the other options are out of stock, you can get this one! It’s not a BAD glue as such, just not perfectly suited to clay. The beacon product is an all in one catch-all craft glue.
Make sure that the two surfaces you are gluing are clean. Giving them a wipe with isopropyl running alcohol prior to adhesion will give best results. Apply a thin layer of glue to each of the two surfaces and then push them together lightly. Depending on which type of glue you’re using, and its’ dry time, you may have to brace the pieces somehow to keep them in position while the glue dries.
Oven dried clay is the mainstay of traditional potters and ceramicists. Requiring baking in an oven or kiln after use, this is the type of clay used to make most commercially available earthenware. A little more difficult to work with than the other types of clay, oven dried clay can be glazed, drilled, sanded or polished after it has set.
Air-dry clay comes in a variety of colors and is very soft and yields easily to the touch. It dries with air contact, so no baking is needed. Air-dry clay is a bit less dense and gritty than oven dried clay, so can be really good for using with kids.
Polymer clay is plastic based and is not actually clay, in the true sense of the word. It has become very popular in recent years though due to its ease of use and its’ durable and waterproof qualities. Polymer clay comes in many colours and requires a bit of kneading to make it pliable. Once you have crafted your masterpiece, polymer clay needs to be baked a low temperature.
It is baked at a low temperature until firm to set your piece permanently. It can also be painted after it has set.
Polymer clay isn’t really clay. It’s a PVC based product similar to clay which has become popular with home crafters because it’s easy to work with. Polymer clay needs to be baked at a low temperature to set, and makes a durable and waterproof product when finished.
Air dried clay, as the name suggests, dries in the air! It doesn’t require baking and is great for use with kids.
This will depend on which type of clay you and which type of glue you use. An epoxy resin bond will often be stronger than the original clay and if you break your item again it will likely break in a new spot rather than along the glued line. Using the other types of glue here, your item will often break along the glued line.
If the item isn’t dropped or damaged, you can expect the glue to hold for many years.
Epoxy resin is once again the best bet here.
