5 Creative Tips For Using Acrylic Craft Paints with Polymer Clay
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Show Me Any Craft Supply… Betcha I Can Work It Into a Polymer Clay Project:
A great thing about polymer clay is that you can use it with so many different crafting materials. This is great news because most of us who are attracted to making polymer clay beads, also have an attraction (addiction :? ) to craft supplies in general. So today I'm going to share 5 ways to use acrylic craft paint with your polymer clay…
1) Paint It On Baked Pieces Of Clay: Acrylic paint bonds very nicely with polymer clay. Paint designs, scenes, backgrounds, etc. onto the baked piece like you would paint any other project. Once dry, it can even be buffed to a rich sheen with a soft cloth or buffing wheel.
2) Antique Finish Polymer Clay Beads: A technique called antiquing is a way to bring age and dimension to a textured or stamped polymer clay beads. Dilute any acrylic paint slightly with water and brush into the crevices and embossed designs in your beads. Then wipe off the raised surfaces with a damp cloth. This leaves paint in the recessed areas of the bead, making stamped images or textured patterns show better. They end up with some 'time-worn' character that looks very unique. If too much paint has dried on your bead than you were hoping for, the excess can be removed with rubbing alcohol.
3) Used As A Highlight: Dipping a paper towel into some acrylic paint and 'swiping' or dry brushing it across the raised surfaces of a polymer clay bead can highlight its texture. This is a nice technique for rubber stamped beads or the embossed images from a texture plate.
4) Used ON Raw Clay: Some polymer clay techniques such as certain mokume gane techniques and crackled finishes are done by painting a layer of acrylic paint (often metallic colors) on a sheet of raw clay and let dry. Then the sheet is stacked or run through the pasta machine to create various crackled effects. Some brands of paint work better for these techniques than others. You will want to find a paint that doesn't stretch very much after it dries… so that it ends up crackling when you roll it through your pasta machine.
5) Used IN Raw Clay: Although it's possible to mix wet acrylic paint into raw clay, it can be a tricky process. You see acrylic paints contain water which will not mix with the clay. It's an oil and water sort of thing. The water in the paint collects in tiny droplets, that later boil or steam during the clay baking process. The steam expands and must escape from the clay, which causes bubbles and little 'crescent moons' in the clay. Tiny amounts of thick tube acrylic paint can sometimes be worked into the clay without negative effects, but you will have to experiment to get the effect you want. That being said, for some faux stone effects, plaquing (moons) can be desirable thing.
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Comments on 5 Creative Tips For Using Acrylic Craft Paints with Polymer Clay
I tried once to paint a layer of acrylic paint on a sheet of raw clay to get the crackled finish you're talking about, but it never dried completely, even after a few days, it was still sticky…
Yeah I've had that problem too with the thicker creamier type acrylics. (These are probably the best kind to try mixing into the clay.)
You could try drying the paint with a blow dryer or carefully with a heat gun, to see if it will set for you that way. Or try a different brand of paint.
Man working with polymer clay is sometimes one big experiment, isn't it?! :-)
Thanks for your comment Cindy!
Thank you SO MUCH for the rubbing alcohol tip! I just used it on some pieces that had too much acrylic paint patina and it helped tremendously. Now they look great!
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You are so welcome intothedawn! Rubbing alcohol is extremely useful in the studio. If you would like to read a tip on how to use it to clean your clay when it gets smears on it from the pasta machine, click the link by my name.
I have had enormous luck with mokume gane using acrylic paints between layers: flickr.com/photos/materialgirlcrafts/3443989600/ The orientation of your brushstrokes will dictate the crackle pattern when the clay is stretched (rolled). I have learned that the crackle is result of the stretching properties of the clay versus those of the dried paint. Since the surface area of the dried paint does not expand when it is rolled out, the clay shows through.
The paint I use dries pretty quickly, but for thicker layers I use my heat gun. A word of caution: use the gun sparingly and keep it moving. A failure to do so can lead to partial curing (i. e. disaster).
Happy claying!
~Mary Beth
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Mary Beth your beads are gorgeous! Thanks for your tips!! You're right about using the heat gun cautiously. It will cause the clay to cure if you're not careful. Thanks so much for passing along your knowledge. You do beautiful work!
Cindy,
I am working on a large pendant for a necklace. I have baked & sanded it. I am now ready for the acrylic paint. Once I add the paint & let it dry, can I add the Future Floor Polish to the painted section? I wanted the pendant to really shine & considered the dipping process you had mentioned in another topic. Do I need to rebake the piece after the acrylic paint dries?
Sure you can add Future to the whole pendant including the painted area if you want to. I actually prefer to brush or Q-tip the Future on rather than dip it. I find it drips too much and leaves blobs. You won't need to rebake the pendant if you don't want to. If you decide to though, make sure the temp is low like 100F so the paint or Future doesn't bubble.
I MUST HAVE MISSED THE FAVORITE TOOLS, BUT I'M SO BUSY LEARNING NEW THINGS ON THIS SITE AND YOU ARE SO NICE THAT I DON'T LEARN HOW TO NAVIGATE IT. MY FAVORITE TOOL IS THE MICROWAVE DINNER CONTAINERS. GREAT FOR SMALL PROJECTS. I KNOW THIS ISN'T THE RIGHT SPOT FOR THIS, BUT HEY, WHAT CAN I SAY.
Thanks for your comment Sandra! There is a search box at the top left hand side of every page. If you type "favorite tool' into the post a list of possible articles will pop up. That is how to find what you need
I also put a link to the page right by my name.
you can use acrylic paint also to make a gold leaf, instead of paying too much for the real thing, just set the bleached polymer clay into the thinest setting of your pasta machine ( u can use wax paper to avoid "breaking" the sheet) and then paint with the gold acrylic in many layer you want, depends on your taste. You can make bronze sheets, silver, just imagine and do it. The rest is up to your creativity ;) maybe next week when i update my blog Ill bring some projects out to see if you guys aproove ;) …. hugzzzzzz
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ohhhh, let it dry in between each added acrylic layer.
Extremely cool idea Gypsy! What brand are you using? The acrylics I have won't crackle, they just seem to stretch.
Cool Cindy, if it stretches you can put them in a lot of use, here I gotta a 0.99 cents discount in my local Michaels for Decoart, Americana and FolkArt so I took a lot of Beautiful colors but many of them were the meatalic colors, (im in a tight budget right now to afford metalic leaves so the necessity is the mother of all creations :P) you can do wonderful with them all, Ill upload smtg as soon as I can to see if you like the idea ;) hugzzzzzzzzzzzzz cindyyyyyy
I would love to see what you come up with Gypsy! Just email it to me and I'll take a look!
Dear Cindy,
I have a question for you. I've seen in 2 different books that you could have a crackled effect on polymer clay beads only with crackle varnish and an acrylic paint layer. I bought already 2 different varnishes and I didn't had success. Then I read in a book that I needed to use a 2 component crackle varnish. Can you please help me with it? Or recommend me to buy a special varnish one?
Thank you and kind regards from Spain.
Question is not for me but let me just leave my opinion here……Personally Amanda, I use one simple and safe step for crackling "One step Crackle" from decoart, it creates de crackle finish almost instantly and you can choose from fine finish or not, it's up to you, you also save on the paint cos you just need an acrylic layer of paint and then wait till it dries so you can layer the crackle on it.
hi Gypsy, thank you for your answer. So for crackle I need to put an acrylic layer, before put the varnish? and then a second one for having the effect?
As I tried to explain in my firts comment I read that I could use the varnish directly on the clay, but not. It's that correct?
So, should I leave the 2nd layer to get dry or can I wape off the reminder paint when it's still wet?Thank you Cindy you are great!
@Amada: Hopefully Gypsy was able to help you well enough. I am not that familiar with the product you are talking about and can't offer any advice at this time.
Maybe there is someone else who can help Amada with her question as well. There are a lot of your who are quite knowledgeable about craft supplies.
@Gypsy: Thank you so much for helping Amada with this! It is very nice of you!
I have been trying all kinds of acrylic paint on raw polymer clay to create a cracking effect but have not been successful. I have tried different brand but the result is the same. Can anyone help me with this problem?
@Rezvan: Yeah I had the same problem with trying to crackle acrylic paints. Most of them just seem to bond with the clay and stretch rather than crack. My guess it either needs to be a lower quality of acrylic paint to work (one with less binders in it) or maybe you have to water it down to make it weak before crackling it? I know others are getting it to work, so it is possible. Just haven't put the time in to figure it out myself. Maybe some one else here has the answer?