Polymer Clay Daily

Tips and Tricks

Polymer goals

Ponsawan Silapiruti’s latest post describes her experience with Ring-A-Day 2010.

She says, “What did I get from the RAD project? Well, let’s see. I was asked by Lark Books for permission to publish pictures of some of my rings. Some will be exhibited alongside others made by members of the group in Seattle and sponsored by SNAG. I have never had my works exhibited before. I made a bunch of friends. I woke up every day for a year to see incredible and crazy ideas of how to make ring.” Pretty impressive results!

There are more than 16,000 ring pictures on the group’s Flickr site! Here are all the rings from polymer artists.

Ring a day has changed to ring a week (RAW) for 2011. Another project, True Addicts of Daily Art (TADA), asks members to commit to making progress on art jewelry creations every day. The goal is for each artist to have at least one show ready collection or series by the end of the year.

Trick #38 in the Creative Sparks book encourages you to impose limits on yourself as a way to push your art further. Join a group, enter a contest, set a deadline. Since I’m energized by groups and deadlines, I’ve decided to take the plunge for 2011. I joined TADA. These projects may help if you’re in a goal-setting mood and need a push.

Faux electroforming

I’ve been on a bit of an electroforming jag lately. Here’s a new link from Tavostia in Russia and some experimenting from Cynthia Blanton.

For those of you who, like me, are trying to resist the urge to impulsively invest in more equipment, I’ve come up with a faux electroforming trick that may help.

First I made silicone molds of some bumpy unidentified berries from a neighbor’s tree and cast white polymer beads from the molds and fired them. Then I pulled out my alcohol inks, colored the white clay and let the inks dry.

To give the berry beads a metallic/electroformed look, I pulled out my secret weapon – gilder’s paste! Sue Sutherland and Ellen Prophater let us try theirs at a conference and I was hooked. The paste reminds me of the old-fashioned shoe polish that comes in flat cans. A swipe of a paste-coated finger over the top of a design highlights it with a metallic sheen which becomes permanent in a few hours. Gilders paste can be moved around or wiped off in the first few minutes which I find a big benefit over Rub and Buff or paint.

Copper-colored highlights would have passed for electroforming so I’m adding that to my supply. Sue and Ellen are building their site over at Filigree and More and you can email them to order.

Giving thanks, giving back

Pennsylvania’s Genevieve Williamson starts this week of giving thanks with a sweet little fiber-y bead tutorial.

As Genevieve says, “I’ve had some polymer artists extend themselves and share their knowledge and present me with great opportunities. Kindness should overflow, shouldn’t it? So it seems appropriate that I make my first small attempt to give back with a tutorial at the beginning of America’s week of Thanksgiving.”

The kindness flowed back from Germany in the watery colors of Kathrin Neumaier’s fish bead necklace. Kathrin acknowledges that her idea for carving the fish beads came after seeing the rough hewn look of Genevieve’s carved beads and rings. The link was sent in by Margit Böhmer.

There is much caring and sharing in this community and yesterday was an example of your goodness. See Monday’s post if you missed all the ruckus and the happy ending. As Angela Mabray said, “Now that that’s settled, let’s all get back to work.”

Fabi faux

These graphic faux enamels from Fabi (fperezajates) have a hip new look. Fabi carves her own patterns into erasers and I’m guessing that she used metallic clay for the polymer base.

Inks and powders seem to be involved and she finishes the look with a layer of resin.

Like yesterday’s Natalia, Fabi is from Madrid where they’re obviously pouring it on for the EuroClay Carnival.

Fabi has also embellished some small crocheted purses with polymer buttons. Sweet!

Browse through her site and you’ll see what you’re missing while they frollick in Madrid. So much enthusiasm. Thanks to Eva Ménager for making us more  jealous.

Extruded string beads

Since several people have inquired about extruded string beads lately, it must be time to feature them again.

As luck would have it, the link to Vera Kleist’s “rough cut” extruded bead necklace came to me today via Lindly Haunani.

And Annerose Doering had just emailed me the address for Dominique Franceschi’s tutorial (from 2006) for the technique.

Annerose prefers a smooth finish on hers. She says, “Before I smooth the clay around the scrap base bead, I let the beads rest for a few hours so that they are not too soft. This helps to get clearer lines. I let them rest again before I pierce them.”

The basic material for these colorful, chaotic beads is dry, old clay and most of us have that readily available.

Fago’s carving tips

The latest discovery in my hunt for polymer and texture techniques led me back to Celie Fago. She posted these carving and texture plate tips on her blog a while back and I happily stumbled upon them.

When Celie first started in polymer, she spent many hours carving warm, baked polymer and she developed many tricks, including ways to keep tools sharp.

Time-intensive carving made her think about creating texture plates which she now uses for both metal clay and polymer. You’ll see evidence of both techniques in her Etsy shop. I hope your weekend is filled with texture.

Textures for fall

Helen Breil’s recent polymer works (and some new stamps) show off more of her expertise with textures. A sneak peek at her radiating lines tutorial has convinced me to try textures this week.

I was also encouraged at a recent retreat by a chance to inspect Laura Tabakman’s stash of homemade texture plates made from Super Elasticlay.

She creates and collects graphic elements that transfer in a deceptively simple process. Of course arranging the elements is the trick and learning to use the plates is another art.

Look at the works of these two artists to get an idea of the possibilities.

Maggie’s missing link

Link to video

When Maggie Maggio quietly fiddles and fusses at a retreat, you know that she’s brewing a new scheme. She generously agreed to share with you her latest development, polymer clay split ring chains. Making this design was a relaxing way to look busy, get rid of scrap and have great looking new jewelry. By the end of the week we had heaps of links. I got out my camera and you can see the resulting video in the right column.

Students of Maggie and Lindly’s color book will probably pounce on the concept and come up with great variations. We only scratched the surface. Many thanks to Maggie for showing us her new method which she’s calling Maggie’s Missing Link.

Download the split ring template sheet and read Maggie’s latest blog post here.

Travel toys and tutorials

The Les Ethiopiques site is full of free tutorials and French polymer fun that will keep you kids busy in the back seat while I travel to Colorado for a week in the mountains. With any luck, I’ll keep posting daily about old friends, new products and moose.

Les Ethiopique’s faux leather ties in nicely with this week’s earlier Biker Chick post. Though her tutorials are in French, the photos say it all and you needn’t translate to get the gist. Just look for “tuto” and click away. Her generosity in creating all these free how-to’s is refreshing.

Thanks to Eva Ménager for the link. Have a refreshing weekend!