Polymer clay

Jelly roll gaps

BobR — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:36:41 GMT

I've done millefiori rolls before, but from assembling strips and rolling them, but I never did a jelly roll. My first one seemed to be ok, but now I find there are gaps in it, before the two layers I used have not bonded, leaving an air gap.

I'm wondering if this is failure to bond because some of the clay I used is old, or whether I should have rolled the two layers with a brayer before rolling, or if my technique is wrong.

Who is the polymer mosaic bear artist (male) USA?

beadaft — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:02:24 GMT

My husband wants an idea of what to buy me for Christmas and ages ago I saw beautiful bear covered in tiny squares of millefiore polymer canes in very muted colours. The canes were all geometric designs. I know he is American. I cannot find him on the internet, but I know he has a website and also makes turtles and penguins and possibly rabbits.

Can anyone tell me who this guy might be?

thanks

Current thinking on toaster/craft ovens

dressagewoman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:19:22 GMT

I've read the back threads on this subject, but I'm looking for an update and some new opinions. I am thinking of getting a small oven to put in my studio, not so much because I'm twitchy about using my food oven for PC, but because if I do that I can tend it and keep working. I have a toaster oven in the kitchen that was modestly priced with a convection feature which has at least been reliable for food. I was thinking something like that might be good for PC (or I might even clean it up and then get a spanky new one for the kitchen.) I don't mind spending a bit on it, but I can't house a full-sized oven in the space. What's the best small-oven choice for PC? Are the ones labeled for PC actually any different from inexpensive toaster ovens? My instinct is that a better-quality toaster oven is probably a better bargain and a better tool.

Best work surface for clay

BobR — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:21:11 GMT

What is the best worksurface for polymer? I will be doing most of my cutting and rolling in my living room - so I need a portable setup. Sanding and dirty work I would do in my basement.

I have a couple of marble slabs available, and some kitchen counter cutofs and some glass that I used to use for cutting on.

The counter top would be the most convenient for portabilty, it wont break and weighs the least and I can cut it to the size I want - but I'm not sure how it holds up to repeated blade cutting

The marble is the worst, its heavy

The glass from previous experience is good for cutting- but the highest risk of breakage, and I will have to pay for the piece I have (which broke) to be cut down to size and edge finished.

Mounting a cabuchon

BobR — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:45:45 GMT

If I make a polymer raised oval - I guess like a cabuchon and want to mount it in a metal finding so that it can hang from a chain, does it have to be baked and then glued into the mouont, or can it be made and fitted into the mount and then baked with the metal?

I would like to do it with both a style of mounting that is solid on the bottom, so that only the top of the polymer shows or one that is just an open oval, so the the caly can be made tow side, and either side would show.

I'm assuming such an item exists, but since I dont know what to call it, I do not know how to search for it to find a vendor. I tried local bead supply stores but the have nothing like that.

Old clay

BobR — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:30:53 GMT

I just decided I want to start making PC jewelry, but I have no real experience with the medium - I did make some millefiori type beads several years ago. Now I want to make wirewrap.

I have a box full of clay and have no idea how old it is - probably at least 3 years. maybe some of it much older. The box has been kept in a cupboard and covered and not exposed to direct heat. Most of what I have is unopened.

I had several packages of Fimo that were open and very hard and I dumped them. I have some other open packages with no name on, so I do not know what brand they are - I took a strip of one, and it's still soft, I could roll it between my thumb and forefinger and get it pliable into a roll very fast (to my surprise) and it baked ok, These packages are unlabelled and each slab is 2.25" x 1.75 x .75" and makred into 4 sections with indents on each side. Any idea what brand?

I have about 20 slabs of Fimo, both small and double width and have not opened any to test softness. Also I have a package of 30 Sculpy 3 slabs unopened.

Is it safe to use these - I dont want to make stuff that ends up cracking or breaking later on.

Cracking & Crumbling

Janeway — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:08:55 GMT

Hi Everyone!

I'm new to working with polymers.

A problem I have ~ after baking, my beads will often crack when i am stringing them , or when I am sanding etc.

Are there any Do Nots?

Can different clays be mixed together, such as Kato & Sculpey?

Thanks for replies!

Translucent after baking

beadme — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:33:03 GMT

When I tint translucent, it gets a lot darker in color after baking. Anyone know what to do to keep it the pretty light color it started with?

Kato Clay

joanp62 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:33:00 GMT

Hi, I am new to these forums but not new to polymer clay. I have been using Premo mostly, but have heard so many good things about Kato clay.

However, I have had so many problems with Kato clay and was wondering if any one here has had the same. I purchased Kato clay directly from Donna's site, Prairiecraft. I purchased several colors and found that each one was practically unconditionable. I bought them for a class, and everyone else was getting these soft, smooth conditioned pieces and mine just continued to crack all over the place. No matter how many times I tried to get the pieces together and warm them up, they would crack in the pasta machine.

It did not matter which color I worked with. After that fiasco, I have been extremely hesitant to try Kato clay again. And I really like Donna Kato!

Is her clay really hard to condition and do you need to add something to every bar of clay to get it conditioned?

Thanks, Joan

Satisfaction

beadme — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:19:16 GMT

My granddaughter told me she wanted me to make her a necklace to go with her new dress. She just wanted a black rectangle. We discussed size and texture. She showed me a picture on her phone and later emailed it to me. It is sort of turquoise in color with a deco design at the hem with black and white. When I printed out the picture I decided to try to match the color of the dress to make a pendant that was mostly black but with some of the turquoise. I mixed turquoise and pearl. When I got the color right, I was afraid that the color would darken when I baked it. It didn't. I made several for her to choose from. The plain black has a deco stamp in the middle which she will probably put silver mica powder on. I really like how they turned out and hope she picks the pendant with the two colors.

Anyway, I got a feeling of satisfaction getting my colors mixed up right.

I went to skool!

dressagewoman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:14:12 GMT

I took a "Foundpunk Gardens" class with Christi Friesen this weekend. It was quite fun! It was the first class I've actually taken. I learned quite a bit about what makes PC look less "plastic" and had fun with mica powders. We did molds of Victorian elements with a 2-part molding compound. It also forced my to go way out of my comfort zone design-element wise, not having a natural affinity for either steampunk or botanical elements. Anyway, here's my class piece. Because of the limited class time, I spent less time on some of the finishing touches than I probably should have, and I'm seeing the flaws more and more, but I still kind of like it! I strung it on braided rubber cord and it's pretty fun to wear. I'm going to clean up the edges and put a nice backing piece on it and re-bake.

Christi is something else! I kept wanting to hit the pause, rewind, playback button. Very nice and lots of information bandwidth. I'd recommend any of her classes.

Heat, heat, and more heat!

curlyhead — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:19:12 GMT

I'm living in central Texas, and we are near our 50th day of triple-digit temperatures in the past 60 days. My studio is at the front of the house, and keeping it cool enough has been a challenge. I'm wondering if my clay is reacting to the increased temp in the house (near 80 deg) over a long period of time? Should I keep it in the refrigerator and take it out a few hours before I plan to use it? Some that hve been conditioned into blocks and wrapped up have begun to get a light streak around the edge.

Attaching PC to a Wire shape

dressagewoman — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:01:05 GMT

I've started incorporating polymer clay with my wire horseheads. The first one I did, I trimmed the PC around the outside of the wire shape and used the mane to permanently attach the PC to the wire, by attaching the strands of clay to the back of the pendant and wrapping them forward over the wire neck, to the PC again. Is this likely to be sufficiently durable? The PC at this point actually seems to be pretty firmly attached to the wire. I'm wondering if it would be better to bake the wire and background first, seperate them and glue, then attach the mane, bake, then put a neat backing on, bake. Will superglue or GS Hypo or E6000 survive baking OK?

Clay Corbières Créatives I - France

Lunes — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:22:26 GMT

6 amazing workshops....6 fantastic international teachers.
South of France - March 2010.
Organised by Kylee Milner of Lunes Bijoux (www.lunes.moonfruit.com) & Organiser of Euro Clay Carnival France 2009!

For more information: http://corbierescreatives.com/#/clay-corbieres-creatives-i/4534814497

Take a peek at these bezels!

Iamfenian — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:20 GMT

I just love these...wish I had the talent (and money) to make my own bezels. These are great ...sterling and bronze! Just had to share the link : Susan Lenart Enjoy!

Still around...would like to try this tute!

Iamfenian — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:48:01 GMT

Hi everyone! Still around although stopped making PC jewelry. Trying different things. Have done some vases....my next project is to frame a mirror with PC tiles. So I came across this tutorial and love the pendants (or from my perspective...TILES!!) here is the link: Faux Ceramics . Hope everyone is doing well and creating!.

Polymer Clay Art Dish

Aminaja — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:14:06 GMT

I had fun with this one. I had done what I call Polymer Art Tiles for some commission work and had a small block of cane left over and decided to make a shell dish. Gold mica, micro glitter, translucent clay along with pearl clays make up this cane.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mKKWt0RQgOk/SjlpFDCO8pI/AAAAAAAAAWY/hrjJDiR07ac/s1600-h/polyshell.jpg

Mucha, finally framed

AndyPan — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:56:55 GMT

Took me a while, but think I came up with a winning design for my framing competition. Just finished her up this afternoon, and I think it came out pretty awesome. Comeptition is June 1st, so will let you know how I did later. But here she is:

Not Jewelry, but it IS polymer clay

PenguinTrax — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:29:14 GMT

Crystal nail files with polymer clay handles:

Jewelry past its prime.

beadme — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:29:28 GMT

What do you do with your jewelry you have made when it hasn't sold and you are tired of carrying it around? If you sell it at a discount, what percentage do you take off and where do you sell it?

Polymer Gemstone Brooch

Aminaja — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:19:19 GMT

I had some peridot chips and a tourmaline gemstone I thought I would set in my' Polymer Leaf' pin. The peridot chips surround my mokume gane cane work. I finished the whloe thing off with a dusting of copper mica.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mKKWt0RQgOk/Sf1t3V4rC1I/AAAAAAAAASM/I0xuwWLTuNA/s1600-h/falbrooch.jpg

How do you price your PC pieces?

dressagewoman — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:29:30 GMT

Here is the latest installment in "Deborah has first gig and is panicking" series. I've been using materials cost + labor at an hourly rate = wholesale and twice that =retail as a guideline for my wire and bead stuff. Then I compare to similar stuff on Etsy or elsewhere as a reality check. If I price my PC pieces using the same guidelines, the PC itself is practically worth nothing in terms of it's raw material price... what do you guys do to get a ballpark price?

Brightening colors

beadme — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:08:03 GMT

Recently we had a post about muteing colors. Now I'd like to know how do you brighten colors? I see pieces that are much brighter than the color of the polymer clay I buy.

IPCA Retreat - Now More Budget Friendly

PenguinTrax — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:06:32 GMT

Just passing on some new info on the retreat...in order to make it possible for more to attend in these tight economic times, the IPCA has made the following changes:

Lower prices, a fabulous option to make payments in installments, and additional free demos by Judy Belcher, Seth Savarick, Lisa Pavelka & Julie Picarello and a full day with Christi Friesen.

Be sure to check out the website for full details. Hope to see many of you there!

Barbara

Faux cloisonne wall piece (updated)

Eugena777 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:39:30 GMT

I am working on a custom order. It is a framed wall piece, about 5” by 7”, in my faux cloisonne style.

This piece is based on an old Russian movie Scarlet Sails. It is about a poor peasant girl, who was told by a traveling storyteller that one day a prince on a ship under scarlet sails would come for her. She kept dreaming about this beautiful ship despite being constantly laughed at and teased by everybody in her village. One day young Captain Grey saw her sleeping by the sea shore and learned about her story. Taken by the girl's beauty and her kind and romantic character, he ordered to make sails for his ship out of the brightest red silk he could find, and then he came for her, just as it was predicted.

The wire work for this piece is almost done. I need to decide whether to have the sun in this composition or not. Originally I wanted to have it there, but my customer is afraid that it may interfere with the ship. Any thoughts?

All the parts for the sun are not attached to the base yet and can still be removed without any trace.

There are more in-process pictures in my blog: http://eugenascreations.blogspot.com