CREATIVE CRAFTING

Archive for the ‘Polymer Clay’ Category

The Penguins are ready for the holidays. Are you? I have started making small Christmas Ornaments for friends, neighbors, and anyone who happens to be passing by the house. This is a very easy project to make and takes very little time.

The individual penguins are made up of one black ball approximately 1″ in diameter with a white ball sitting on top that is about 3/4″ in diameter. The eyes are no more than a 1/8 inch ball of white clay with a black dot painted on after baking. As for the hats…make a cone out of any color you want and fit it to the heads. And don’t forget the beak…orange 1/8″ ball worked for me.

I used blue metallic for the base and made it so that both penguins could sit on it comfortably. The tree was made with a 1/2 ball of green clay shaped into a cone and textured to resemble branches..then I rolled the tree in different color small glass beads.

The sign can be a little more advanced for the beginner, but still easy to do. Get some liquid Sculpey. On transfer paper print the greeting you want the penguins hold up. Take your liquid Sculpey and put an even coat on the transfer, place it up side down on a tile and bake. Once cooled remove the paper backing and place the greeting on a very thing sheet of clay…color of your choosing. Use a small amount of liquid Sculpey to the transfer to have it adhere to the little sign. Sometimes this will take some practice and you might have to do it a couple of times if you have never done it. Be patient as Liquid Sculpey is going to become your next best friend.

Polymer clay can be used in a wide variety of craft projects. Use polymer clay to make embellishments for scrapbooking projects, elements for jewelry making, miniature items for dollhouses, toppers for handmade cards and a wide range of other items.

Unlike other clay mediums, polymer clay requires very little in the way of special tools and most people will have the basics at home. Once you have progressed past the basics then one or two additional tools are worth purchasing. One of these is a pasta machine. A standard domestic pasta machine is suitable. You do not have to purchase anything fancy.

As a polymer clay tool a pasta machine will prove to be very useful and can be used in a variety of ways. Condition polymer clay, roll even, flat sheets of polymer clay, different decorative polymer clay techniques can all be obtained through the use of a pasta machine.

Polymer clay fed through the pasta machine squeezes the clay between two rollers and produces a flat sheet. Pasta makers can be adjusted to bring the rollers closer together or move them further apart thereby allowing you to control the thickness of your sheets.

The ways that a pasta machine can be used include:

• Conditioning polymer clay – The action of running the polymer clay through the pasta machine several times produces more pliable polymer clay. Start by working the clay through the largest setting on the rollers as the clay becomes fully conditioned you can adjust the setting to a smaller width.

Here is a fun polymer project that took only minutes to complete but the potential is limited only by your imagination.

I took a small blank block of wood purchased at Michaels.  Scraps of polymer clay, leftover scrapbook embellishments and made a wall hanging.

The only way to mess this up really is to blend your scraps too much.  You want the individual colors to show through as the background for the piece.  You don’t want it looking muddy in the background.

The embellishments can be anything you want; I used a field of flowers.  I am currently working on a larger piece that I hope will look like a winter scene with Santa.

Roll out the clay.

Place your clay on a flat surface and put the block of wood upside down on the clay and press hard.  You want to make an indentation in the clay of where you want to place your scene.

Remove the block of wood and cut around your indentations.  I left a little hanging over the side about 1/8 inch.  I then placed the clay square onto the wood. (I found the clay did not need anything extra to stick to the wood, but if you have difficulty try some liquid clay first.)

Bake the clay according to instructions right on the wood.  When cooled glaze the piece with your clay glaze, then it is ready for embellishments. Be sure and seal the wood after baking, not before. I used a brush on Polyurethane to see it. You could paint the wood, stain it, or whatever you like.

Finding interesting polymer projects to post on here is not a problem.  The problem is after I try them which ones do I post?

Carol Duvall who is the “queen of crafts” as far as I am concerned always had wonderful ideas and instructions for most crafts, but she is no longer on TV.  So I have to rely on other sources and my own imagination.

My daughter collects watches.  So I am in the process of making her one for her birthday, which is coming up.  Happy Birthday Jenn!

Project courtesy of Lynne Manning of Milton, Mass.

Materials and Tools:
blue, white, pink and black polymer clay
watch with watch attachments
15″ elastic
20 large-hole 6mm beads, silver colored
super glue
pasta machine
acrylic roller
thin slicing tool
cardboard
clay-dedicated oven

Steps:

1. Condition your polymer clay by running it through the pasta machine about 20 times.

2. To make the face cane: Draw a face design in a 2- to 3-inch circle. Start making the eyes of the cane by rolling a black snake 2 inches long. Run some white clay through your pasta machine at the #1 setting. Wrap this around the black snake, making sure the ends meet. Smooth the seam. Do another wrap with the white clay. Make sure to smooth the ends again.

3. Run some black clay through the pasta machine at the #5 setting. Wrap this around the white clay, making sure the ends meet. The end of the cane will sort of look like a bullseye. Flatten this piece slightly lengthwise so that the ends look oblong.

I found this project at Better Homes and Garden Magazine, and I thought why couldn’t you do this out of polymer clay?

All you need to make these out of polymer would be a 4×4 tile.  Roll the colors of clay out that you want, in the designs that you want, wrap the edges of the tiles.  Play around with designs and colors.  After baking I would be sure and seal the clay with sealer.

You could use the tiles as trivits for drinks, hang on wall for decoration, use as a stand alone candle holder…any number of uses come to mind.

Of course if none of that appeals to you and you want to just make the fabric wall art..here are the directions.

Fabric Wall Art

Make a triple trio of fabric-covered wall plaques to add spice and splash to a special space in your home. Designer Tari Colby wrapped three fabrics over artist’s canvas squares and secured the fabric using a staple gun to make this quick, easy, and inexpensive textile display.

Although Tari used 6×6-inch prestretched canvases as the foundation for this project, you can use any size for your wall art. Cut fabric 1-1/2 inches larger than your canvas on all sides.

Wrap excess fabric to the back of the canvas frame, pulling it taut and smooth. Staple to the frame beginning at the center of each side and moving to the corners. Miter the corners and secure with staples.

If you are new to Polymer clay you are sure to hear both of these terms used. Both terms refer to a type of clay loaves. Clay loaves are created by layering tiny sheets or ropes of colored clay. The technique itself is an old one that was originally used with glass and ceramic clays to obtain some really beautiful patterns on objects. The same technique is used to make colorful candy during the Christmas season, or to make layered candles.

The trick to the whole process is to start very large and then stretch and reduce the diameter of the cane or loaf so that the image appears smaller. It is also important to have a very sharp blade to use for slicking, so that the design is not distorted by the drag of the blade itself. I used a wallpaper replacement blade from the hardware store and it worked great.

The millefiori canes will last up to six months and can be used on a variety of projects. You can also purchase canes from several clay manufacturers.

Here is an example of one of the easier canes to make:

Checkerboard

It takes a little practice to make so I would suggest not using your favorite colors the first time around. Stick with black and white for now.

First roll two ropes of contrasting colors. Be sure the diameter of the ropes are as close to size as possible. Flatten the top slightly by rolling with a brayer or rolling pin. Then cut the ropes into equal sizes.

In my previous article I gave you formulas for making different skin color tones. Hopefully some of you found it helpful.

Most skin color tones base color is beige with a touch of raw sienna or ecru. Has anyone found ecru in a polymer clay? I haven’t…so what is ecru and is there a color that you can use as a substitute? What is the difference between beige, ecru, cream, off-white, and eggshell?

It depends on who you ask I have found out! Apparently the color ecru is determined by the amount of
of yellowy brown in each of them as it changes from white. We know it is in the beige family, but not really what we think of as beige.

A very light beige as one answer put it. So isn’t that cream? No it is between white and cream???????????

Still another opinion: Sort of like cream, but lighter and more yellow-ish. I think. It is also similar to the color called Champagne.

Aha! Now I am getting somewhere. I did see Champagne polymer clay somewhere and it was very light beige.

So I did my own color mix of 2 parts beige and one part white and came up with a color that I think is ecru.

The important point here is that if you can’t find the color you are looking for in a polymer clay, don’t be afraid to experiment with different blends until you achieve the color you are looking for.

Polymer Clay is a versatile product to use. Making the correct flesh tones for an individual sculpture can be a little overwhelming for the novice. Here are some tips to help.

Every brand of clay makes a variety of flesh toned clays. Most are translucent and produce a realistic impression, but that same quality, translucence, can cause problems. The sheen of unbaked clay, especially translucent clay, makes it difficult to detect seam lines, fingerprints, or tool marks. These flaws become noticeable when the sculpture is baked. Wet sanding, scraping and wiping the surface with acetone will eliminate most surface flaws, but not the problem of “plaquing,” which is a problem with translucent clays. The surface will feel smooth, but appear to be pocked with blisters shaped like crescent moons, which in fact is trapped air in the clay.

For this very reason when creating a flesh tone use only semi-opaque flesh tones. However after baking, glazing with acrylic paints or water based oils you will have created the illusion of translucent flesh.

Flawless flesh tones begin with a color that will capture the ideal of the figure you want to mold. The masks to the left illustrate what can be achieved using a blend of translucent beige and a least one part of opaque clay.

• a. Asian ancestry…6 parts beige+ 1 part Ecru
• b. Northern European…8 parts beige + 1 part Ecru
• c. American Indian…8 parts beige + 1 part Raw Sienna