Extrusions

I tried the Polymer Clay Express extruder today after watching one of their DVD's. I have been trying to figure out how to do the little bangle stretch bracelets and the DVD made it look so easy I ran in there to try it. They used Premo clay and I was using Kato, so when you take the circle out of the oven and have to slice it in half the problems begin. Kato is almost like rubber hose after it is cured. They made it look so easy to slice the cooled clay and I know better. When I sliced it the stuff almost crumbled. Not sure if that is a characteristic of translucent clay or something else but I will have to overcome it. Next time, (tomorrow) I will let it cool first. It can't be that bad to slice. Well, I hope not. Can't be worse that when it is warm. It didn't slice cleanly that's for sure.

Lots of Rocks

Unbaked above, names added below.

I got a commission to do some polymer clay rock paperweights for the folks that I work with recently. Ok, so I went to Joann's and got some nice smooth river rocks, painted them with white glue for grip and then covered them with five different colored tsunami canes (I fell in love with the ease of the tsunami cane and went a bit nuts, it has thin layers of silver mica clay for sparkle) . Then came the hard part. Trying to figure out how to get their names and a slogan transferred to the face of each rock. Luckily Jeanne Rhea came to my rescue and sent me all kinds of different transfer paper to try. I ended up using the waterslide method and loved it. The "decal" type transfers lay on any irregular surface and really look nice when they are done. I had a bit of a scare when I started painting them with Future. When I turned them over to paint the bottom one of the transfers came off, luckily it went right back on. I decided that they didn't need any more Future on the bottom after that little scare. I'm pretty sure none of my coworker look at my blog so I can post the photos here. Yep, now you know their names......

The Shaving Cream trip or should I say fall

My local guild is doing a shaving cream on poly clay beads today and I couldn't go due to scheduling problems so I thought I would try it myself yesterday. The tutorial was in the Summer 2005 issue of Polymer Cafe so I used that. I had the Ranger Inks but I also had Tsuneiko Inks that are heat set so I wanted to try them also. First of all, my husbands shaving cream has a nasty smell, guess I should have gone shaving cream shopping first. Ok, so the first beads I tried (they are all the same size and shape per the tutorial) where covered with a shade of pink, Tsuneiko ink, it came out looking kind of like the ones on the cover, spotty but more color than not. On the seconds ones I used a butterscotch Ranger ink, they came out looking like it had been painted on, no spots just solid color and not very bright. I decided at that point to stay with the Tsuneiko inks for their color, I did another set of yellow ones so that they would all at least be the same value, in case I decide to do something with them. What was so weird is that even the different Tsuneiko inks didn't bake/cure on the same. Not sure if I will use them for anything but, hey, I tried it and know that I'm not missing a whole lot at guild. Well, except for seeing everyone. I will miss that. I added a photo of the Tsuneiko inks just in case you have never heard of them or seen them. I got the cute little holder and the sticks are used to draw on fabric or whatever. There are two for each color, one sharp one blunt. They work well with fabric and all you have to do when your done is heat set with an iron.

Continuing the layerig journey

More trial and error with the layering. This first piece is probably my favorite so far. I used a lettered stamp and filled in the lettering with colored liquid clay, it looks like an old piece of stone. The second one is my least favorite. I was trying to replicate the look of dichroic glass encased in clear glass. I made a silicone mold and placed the pieces of foil covered clay face down in the mold, then I covered it in liquid clay. Way too many bubbles. Maybe next time I will try a layer or two of liquid clay first. I am a glutton for punishment, I just can't stop with these. I had to bring down the second toaster oven so I could have two going at the same time. Hitting them with the heat gun right out of the oven is the answer to getting the best clarity out of the Kato liquid clay. And its so fun to watch it magically clear up before your eyes.

Layering-the journey continues

I'm still playing with layering liquid clay with thin canes, pencil and micro pigma pens. I am really liking the results, they just take so long. Here are the most recent pieces. I think the glitter stick went a little crazy and didn't stay where I put it. Next time I will let it dry a bit more.

Journey through the layers

I wanted to play with layering different things on a base piece of clay. I did the following layers:

Translucent clay base

Pencil layer- squiggles and stuff

Five layers of liquid clay cured after every layer for 10 minutes, (then Donna tells me I need to hit each layer with a heat gun to make it really clear) this will certainly add to that time it takes to do these layers.

Thin strips or pieces of canes that are made up of a color and translucent clay and maybe draw around some of the under layers of pencil with a permanent marker.

Four more layers of liquid clay cured between each layer.

Turquoise strip of clay next to a strip of translucent clay that disappeared.

Three more layers of liquid clay.

I think the layer where I used the pieces of canes, they are too big. The scale is off. The little round stuff is ok but those strips of white were way too big. You slice off a piece of it and lay it on the acrylic work surface and roll it thin, this tends to make it get larger. Guess I should cut it through the center and only use half of it as the scale was way to big. Need to figure out why the tops are so rubbery. They shouldn't be.

Also, today when I use the pencils I am going to make that layer very dark. More color. And maybe a few canes or something on the bottom layer. I don't think I can use the pencils up on one of the translucent layers. The stuff is a bit rubbery. Maybe that's because I didn't hit them with the heat gun after curing. I'll try that today too.

I baked a couple of little pieces of pearl last night to play with today. I noticed upon looking up really closely at a few of them that you have to be really careful and wipe off all of the pencil dust as it floats up to the top of the liquid clay. I love looking down through the layers.