Removing Polymer Clay Grunge from the Floor

Yesterday I had a discussion of a Zen approach to decluttering an art studio. Today we move to the less ethereal topic of Grunge.

I have always longed for a black and white checkerboard tile floor in my workspace. As they say, be careful what you wish "floor". As a polymer clay artist with what my friends affectionately call an "organic" approach, it didn't take long for my crisp black and white floor to be a smeared with a steadily deepening mud toned coat of polymer crustiness accented by a dusting of multicoloured snippets of wool and silk. After trying to remove the clay with WD-40, mineral oil and even peanut butter with no success, I kept the problem under some control with occasional scraping sessions with a garden hoe.

Yesterday, as the studio became cleared with my re-design project, I was convinced that the only solution would be to remove all of the tiles and paint the floor with a Jackson Pollock type faux finish to camouflage the clay crust. I started rummaging in the paint supply box for a tool to pry up a tile and found a can of "Goof Off Graffiti Remover" instead. I had never tried this product so, did a test cleaning on a white tile. I sprayed, gave a quick scrape of the clay with an old tissue blade, then wiped with a paper towel- it worked!

It smells nasty, the room needs to be vented and I think I'll need a few cans to do the whole job but I won't need to replace the floor!

The before and the after views!