Silkscreened Polymer Clay Feathers...a Video Tutorial

Here is a Video Tutorial I made and forgot to post here.

Silkscreens, Pan Pastels and Chalks

When I began to make silkscreens for polymer clay about 10 years ago I never dreamed they would become so popular. The late Gwen Gibson, a Pioneer in the World of Polymer Clay, innovated the use of silkscreens and etching plates with Polymer Clay. Gwen was generous and I was fortunate to chat with her on a couple of occasions. Although I also use acrylic paint, which is the medium Gwen had primarily used with silkscreens, my passion has always been Mica. I then added Chalk and Pan Pastel. I began using Metal Pulvers in 1989 and then moved to the less toxic Mica. Back in 1989 no one told you about wearing a mask when using the pulvers or fine metal shavings and when Jacquard introduced Mica powder for Card making, scrap-booking etc (which we also use in make-up and eyeshadow) this wasn’t necessary. If you use a brush and really go at it, you might want to wear a mask, though. I primarily use my fingers to apply.
For many years I sold this tutorial, but have decided to share some of my older tutorials as I develop newer ones. Enjoy!
“Low Relief Stone Rubbings”
by Tina Holden (2008)
This is an older tutorial, but still valid. I just reformatted the layout of the text. Here I will teach you how to create 'low relief stone rubbings' on Polymer Clay. These stone rubbings are based on grave stone rubbings, but aren't as morbid. Instead you'll discover various ways and possibilities with this technique using silkscreens or stencils.

Tools:
● Tissue blades, rigid and flex (flex is optional)
● Pasta Machine (Atlas 150 used in examples)
● Needle tool or knitting needle
● Silkscreens or stencils
● round, oval or square cutters (optional)
● Flat soft bristle paintbrush
● Oven
● Baking tile or glass
● White unlined paper or card stock to bake on
● Thin Foam texture sheet or other suitable texture such as silken fabric or tulle
● Armorall as release agent
● Baby wipes or Windex for clean-up
● gloves (optional)
Materials:
● Premo! Polymer Clay: 1 small block each of white, translucent or frost, pearl and either Turquoise
Blue or Sea green (note: Sea Green is no longer available)
● Fimo Gloss or Fimo Water based Varnish
● Decorator Chalks (or pastel powder eye make-up in cobalt blue, bright green and yellow) or Pan Pastels in similar colours
● Jacquard PearlEx Mica Powder in Turquoise (optional)
● Embossing powder in green, blue or verdigris
The clay I prefer is Premo but you can use any of the other brands if you prefer, although for jewelry I don't recommend Sculpey III as it is too brittle for thinner pieces. (note…this is the older Premo packaging)

Preparing the Clay base:
Step 1. Mix ½ block each of white, translucent, and pearl with ¼ block of turquoise or sea-green. Roll through Pasta machine on thickest setting (#1 on Atlas)

.

Step 2. Blend clay with 1 tsp. of embossing powder.

Step 3.Blend clay with ¼ tsp. of Turquoise Mica Powder (optional). Roll through pasta machine on thickest setting (#1 on Atlas).

Step 4. Cut sheet in half and lay one half aside. Prepare Silkscreen by using a little Armorall on finger and spread over the 'rubbery' side of the screen. This will prevent the fine mesh from clogging up with clay. Roll out on smaller setting, next size down, #2 on Atlas.

Step 5. Stack Silkscreen – shiny side down onto prepared clay sheet, with foam texture or tulle at backside of clay. Roll through pasta machine on thickest setting (#1 on Atlas).

Step 6. Peel off Silkscreen and texture. You should get a low relief or stamp-like texture on your clay. (I’ve darkened the first photo so you might be able to see the texture a little better)

Colouring the relief texture:
Step 7. Lightly cover finger or gloved finger with chalk and gently stroke or rub
Colour onto your textured sheet. Don't apply too much pressure as you will want to keep your texture intact. Start with one colour and apply in various places on the relief. I used green chalk here.

Step 8. Then apply another colour/s. Second colour I used is blue, third I used yellow. Cover entire sheet until you are pleased with the effect. You may have to go over the surface with more powder to darken it. It doesn't really matter if you apply some green over the blue, it'll actually turn it into a nice teal.

Step 9: Take sheet that you laid aside earlier and roll out at #2 setting and then texture one side with foam texture or tulle. Remove foam or tulle and carefully lay your coloured relief rubbing sheet onto the sheet you textured (texture side down), avoiding trapping air bubbles.

Step 10: Trim away rough edges. Any of the coloured scraps put aside to roll into matching beads later if you want to.

Step 11: Cut into tiles for Bracelet, Earrings, put holes where you need them. Other creative uses would be for coasters or tiles.

Step 12: When putting in holes horizontally, Hold the tile as shown and maneuver a thin needle or needle tool through the tile, just until it peeks through the other side. Complete the hole by pushing tool through from opposite end. For a bracelet you'll need about 5 to 7 tiles, it depends on what size beads you use as spacers, on wrist size as well as the tile size. I do have a tile bead tutorial on both my website and Etsy (links below)

Step 13: Rub some chalk or pastel on the sides and back of the bead tiles also.

Step 14: Bake, Let cool and varnish, then string with elastic. Tie knots and hide knots inside large-hole glass beads.

Note: you can roll your unbaked/uncured stone rubbing through smaller settings to lightly stretch the design which I did with the earrings here.

For variation try other colour combos and other patterns.
Variation: mix a different colour clay base such as ½ ecru, ¼ translucent, ¼ pearl, ¼ raw sienna and use chalks in brown and orange. Always use a light colour clay base to bring out the colours of the chalk.
Have Fun creating!!
Tina
For a variety of silkscreens, molds, tutorials etc…
My Etsy: https://beadcomber.etsy.com

How to make buttons and shanks

While I’m not new at creating tutorials, creating video tutorials is something new for me. I just published 2 videos on how to create buttons or cabochons. The button tutorial is in 2 parts. Part 1 shows you how to use the flex mold, how to imbed a shank with a seamless back, color and finish your button. Part 2 continues by showing you how I  create and imbed a wire shank. I posted the videos below.

If you are interested in some molds, I’ve begun to list a bunch on both my Etsy and ArtFire.

Here are the Video Tutorials. Hope they work well for you…if they do, like or comment on YouTube…

Making buttons with Tina

and here is Part 2

Making buttons with Tina

Now I need to list more molds  among other things, as well as finish some bigger tutorials. They’ll be pdf file format, but in future I have some interesting things in mind…how about live shows?

Good to the last drop

We usually say that about coffee, but here I actually mean that about resin. Not the UV resin you’ve heard me talk about so many times before, but the Little-Windows.com resin. Yes, it’s definitely my new love! It’s a 2:1 ratio resin rather than a 1:1 ratio that most other resins use for combination of Resin and Hardener. I find I just can’t go wrong with this one. I posted a little about it back in April. I’ve tried 1:1 ratio resins but sometimes ended up with beautiful but unusable tacky pieces which I sadly had to toss. And UV resin, while it has great uses, the annoying thing is that you can’t mix opaque stuff into it. And for the LW resin, I don’t have to wait for the sun to shine (here in the North, haha), or plug in my Aluminum foil lined Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) UV oven. Blablabla…ok here is a little idea with a bit more blablabla attached, lol. Notice the teardrop ends of the beads? I’m entering these in the 52 earrings a year which I have fallen behind in. I’m planning on catching up!

I normally use these cute silver little headpins with the round ball ends or the plain flat hammered end ones which I have so many of. Then this idea hit me…why not make some!!

When done working with a batch of resin, as instructed you can wipe the cup with a paper towel to then being able to reuse the cup. But now I make use of those last few drops before wiping it. Well,in case you’re wondering how I then cure them…here they are…

I just used Scotch Tape and taped the pins onto the shelf above my head. They’re not drippy at all, but you could place a sheet of printer paper underneath just in case you have your coffee there or whatever, lol.

Mine are black because I used Fran’s magical black powder that is used with her Dichro tutorial (the video of which you can watch in my April link above). You could also use glitter or colorful embossing powders.

Stay tuned for asap…

The many faces of Tangerine Tango 2012

Tangerine Tango is the Pantone color of Spring and Summer 2012. If you have wondered what this looks like and are a bit confused, you are not alone. If you Google an image of this orange, you will not only get many results of one type of orange which one would image ONE color to be, but you will get many shades of it.

I made a small palette of Tangerine Tango, although I could add to those shades, lol.


Here is my version in Premo Sculpey polymer clay:


Back in August 2011 I was in a big Orange mood and sure reminds me of these colors. Maybe subconsciously I saw a trend coming? There were also other oranges on my blog such as these...

For my 2011 Pantone colour recipes and free tutorial, go visit this page

Polymer Clay Colour Play Tutorial

With so many fashion colours this season I decided to play a bit with colour and made some recipes for the popular Pantone Spring 2011 Fashion Colours. Here is a chart of these 10 popular colours and my interpretation.

While these colours vary from monitor to monitor they are probably not quite accurate because when you tilt your computer screen the colour changes as well. Also my photography lighting makes a difference also as my silver in the photo looks slightly more blue than it really is.
Here is a link for a cool Pantone Color Table Matching System
and the link for the Pantone Spring Fashion Report for Spring 2011. It's a pdf file.
Paint chips would have been much better and easier to translate, but they don't come cheap. Perhaps a visit to the nearest Home Depot is in order. If you like my colours tho, I posted the recipes (using Premo) below.

Honeysuckle:
Violet 1 part
Fuschia 3
White 5
Translucent 3
Pearl 4

Coral Rose:
Orange 3
Raw Sienna 1/4
Ecru 1/4
Alazarin 1/8

Peapod:
Seagreen 3
Turquoise 3
Cobalt 1
Pearl 3
Translucent 1
White 1

Beeswax:
Ecru 2
Orange 1
Pearl 1
White 1
Translucent 1

Silver Peony:
Honeysuckle Pink mix from above, 1
Pearl 7
White 3
Translucent 1
Violet 1/4
Cobalt 1/8

Russet:
Raw Umber 1
Raw Sienna 1
Ecru 2
Alazarin 1
White 1
Ultramarine 2

Regatta:
Cobalt Hue 4
Turquoise 4
Pearl 6
Translucent 2
Ultramarine 1
White 1

Blue Curacao:
Cobalt 2
Turquoise 4
Pearl 6
Translucent 1
White 1

Lavender:
Violet 2
Cobalt 2
Pearl 7
White 2
Translucent 3

Silver Cloud:
Silver 3
Pearl 17
Lavender (from above) 1/4
Translucent 2
cobalt 2
Fuschia 1-1/4
White 4

If you find an improvement on the colours, leave a comment as many of us are curious! :) Enjoy!

Beginner Polymer clay - Marvelous Marble

Got Scrap polymer clay or don't know what to do with it? Make Marble. Click on the photos to enlarge...