January 28th, 2006
I had spent my Saturday day and night with housework last week. I was my love who found a solution this week. He cleaned the house just before the weekend. I went to the studio today. Then I played racquetball and finally I am writing this post. It is thanks to my love that I still can find time to do the things that I enjoy. I had to give him credit here.
Today, I will introduce a technique that will result in slate-like looking finishes. I had a hard time photographing this work because of the glare. Just trust me that it will actually look better than what is shown here.
Materials: Black polymer clay, roller or pasta machine, black and white acrylic paint, glue, razor, baking sheet, aluminum foil, metal buckle base, paper towel, elliptic or rectangular stencil and varnish.
Application: It is better to use a hard black polymer clay for this application. Fimo classic or Premo! are two of the choices. If you do not have a pasta machine, you can use a hand roller to roll the clay into about a 0.5cm (1/4 in) thin sheet as shown above. If you don’t have suitable stencils, you can just create the desired shape with a computer and print it.
Place the printed page on the clay and go over the lines with a pencil. Then you can cut the clay following the pencil marks.
You will see sharp corners after cutting with razor. Smooth this corners a bit with a piece of baking sheet.
Crumple the aluminum foil and open it back. Place it on the clay pieces that you cut and use a hand roller with just enough pressure to create crack patterns on the clay.
Glue the metal piece to the back of the clay shape. You can also glue an additional small piece of clay across the metal piece as shown. Now you are ready to bake. Place the buckle in the oven such that the clay parts shouldn’t contact with oven surfaces.
After baking, allow it to cool. Mix the black and white acrylic paints and apply to the crack patterned clay surface. Immedeately wipe the paint with a paper towel before it dries. The cracks will be filled paint providing a slate-like look. As a last step, use a bright varnish.
Creator of the technique is Irene Semanchuk Dean
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January 20th, 2006
Jellyroll Candleholder
I used the
jellyroll patterned cane
that I prepared yesterday to make this candleholder. The photo above is
taken with a candle inside. You can see the photos without a candle and
in the dark below. Opaque colors make it vivid even when there is no
candle inside. Translucent clays allow the light to pass through it.
Glow-in-the-dark clays make it emit light in the darkness.
Materials needed to make this candleholder:
- Opaque green, opaque red, translucent and glow in the dark polymer clays.
- Razor, roller, varnish, brush and a bare glass candleholder.
Repeating the same techique that I described yesterday, I prepared another combination with the green and glow in the dark.
Then we cut slices of the pattern as shown above (for covering glass) and below (for covering wood).
The place the slices without leaving too much space in between on a clean flat surface.
Then use the roller to merge the slices. Putting a cooking sheet over
the slices prevents mixing of colors. Now you are ready to cover the
glass. Place the merged pattern on the glass shape and apply a little
pressure with roller again to help it stick to the surface. Try not to
leave any fingerprints. After baking, you can use a
buffing wheel to erase any remaining fingerprints and and provide some additional gloss. Lastly, apply the varnish with a brush.
January 20th, 2006
Jellyroll Patterned Box
Not having updated the site for a few days cause certain amount of qualm
that pushed me to prepare this post about jellyroll pattern with
polymer clay. You can find this example in many resources about polymer
clays. The only reason I am repeating here is that I want this to be in
my archieve. You can choose any two colors. Most popular application is
with black and white but I will use opaque res and translucent clays.
The box above in another example of this pattern.
I normally use glass as working surface but this time I used a baking
sheet. The important thing is that the working surface must be clean
and smooth for successful results.
I rolled the translucent clay to 2 mm thickness (about 0.08 in).
Two layers of clay rolled to the same thickness are put on top of each
other. I put red to the bottom since I want it to be outside the spiral.
Cut the side of the clays at an angle as shown above to make the beginning of the spiral thin.
Then roll as shown above.
A jellyroll!, real easy. Now squeze the clays gently till there is no
space left in the inside. You may shape the clay into a square with the
help of a roller. Just be careful no to distort the pattern and not to
leave any space.
You can also shape it to triangle as shown by squeezing with your fingers.
January 15th, 2006
Curve at the tip of the lip
I made the drawing this morning. Belongs to a real person but when I drew, it does not look a bit like her. It represents the way I understand her smile in my imagination. I dated the drawing but I erased it when I realized that surprisingly, we are not in 2007 yet. I am still sick and feeling tired. I haven’t stepped out of the house for two days but I am in such a state of happiness and peace that even I cannot relate to myself. Probably these flu medicine is making me high.
January 14th, 2006
I was sick yesterday, sleepy. We were at a chinese restaurant with my
love the last and best day of the week. Food was excellent as always
and we ordered more than we can eat as always. We watched the movie "The Island" in the night and the results is that the post I wanted to write yesterday is being published today.
The original work shown above is named kaftanlı kız
or "the girl in kaftan" in english. My later posts about polymer clays
will mostly be in the form of tutorials. For now, I am trying to design
basic applicatins to get started.
January 8th, 2006
I discovered polymer clay three years ago at a time when I was browsing
a small stationary store. I have been reading a lot of books about
polymer clays and trying to reproduce the crafts presented ever since.
But, the one I posted above is one of my original works. I selected
this one to introduce you to the world of polymer clays. It is all
about your liking, you may choose to use translucent clays which
provides a bright look when you light a candle inside. If you want the
color to look vivid even without a candle, you might mix translucent
and opaque colors. You even have the option of glow in the dark clays.
Main
advantage of working with polymer clays is that it can be baked in
regular ovens or even toaster ovens. And it comes colored so you do not
need to paint it after baking. It does not dry during working which is
great if you work slowly, especially for beginners. There are a few
catches though; it is not harmful, however it is not good to inhale the
gases emitted during baking. So you may want to have a smaller oven and
bake your products outside. If this is not possible, carefully
ventilate the area. I personally apply the former method.
This
post is just to introduce you to polymer clays. Soon, I will be posting
detailed information on clay selection, tools and some step by step
applications. I hope you will enjoy working with polymer clays.
