I started this trial on 12 December 2021. Six months on, I looked at the tiles after cleaning off all the sticky residue from the black masking tape (top row in photo). There was slight yellowing of the exposed area on the white and purple tiles but this is not easy to see in the photo. The neutral tiles showed no noticeable change to the colours but the varnish has attracted a lot of dust/dirt, so I would definitely not use varnish on items intended for outdoors.
The bottom row of the photo shows the tiles after three years. The heat of the sun on the black masking tape had almost welded it in place. I decided it wasn't worth the time it would take to try and remove the tape and clean off the sticky residue. It was quite clear that all the colours had faded and the white, pearl and translucent colours had discoloured considerably. The white had yellowed (not so easy to see in the photo) but the pearl and translucent had almost gone brown.
Sadly, this experiment has confirmed that polymer clay is not suitable, in terms of light fastness, for long term use outside.
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