Polymer Clay Canes | Rainbow Quilt Design Perfect For Pillow Beads

Love it !!!! I just wish I could get that pillow bead down, all I can do is practice, practice. LOL

Yeah I know what you mean Donna about the pillow bead.. they can be tricky! Is the pillow bead a shape you would be interested in buying a course on? I could film that as well if anyone is interested.

I am so happy to finally find this website. I have been making jewelry off and on for about 6 years, and I recently began to incorporate polymer clay beads into my jewelry.

I love making large focal beads, but for some reason I keep messing up when I try to give the bead an embedded glass look. I have tried embossing powder (it turns yellow), floor wax (too sticky) and various other products with similar results.

Now I want to try using melted glass,but I don't have access to a kiln. I read about small ceramic kilns that you put into your microwave. Has anyone tried this, and if you have what are the pros and cons of it? I am also interested in trying PMC. Would this kiln work for that too?

Yes, I would if some of the others would. I know if you did it I cold get it down.

Thanks, Donna

@Judy: It is so great to have you here! You may find a greater success getting that embedded glass look with polymer clay using a 2 part epoxy instead. I haven't done it myself yet but many have.

As far as the kilns in the microwave. I've never heard of that. Sounds kind of weird though since the temps are extremely high for working with glass and I can't imagine it getting that high in the microwave.

If anyone has heard of these kilns let us know about it!

@Donna: Thanks for letting me know about your interest in the pillow bead videos!

It's been some time since this post, but as I don't see any other comments I thought I would through one in there! lol…
There is a microwave kiln available. They run around 100.00 to 200.00 us dollars. They are very small about 4 inches on the platter and aroung 6 inches high. You have to have a high wattage microwave to do this also. They look like a little igloo. Somehow this material enclosed the platter and will get up to 1200 degrees F. They have been available where I live at Hobby Lobby for about a couple of months. I used to see them on ebay as well.

Also the embedded glass look can be acomplished fairly easily. Menards lumber stores sell enviorntex 2 part epoxy. Equal parts of each part a and part b. I put that after mixing for about 2 minutes or until it's clear, into plastic ketchup bottles or small craft plastic bottles with a small opening nozzle. This stuff can get very messy while in the liquid form…so place something under your work area until you are done. Anyways this form of resin is self leveling and you can basically squirt it onto the flat surfaces of baked polymer peices. It takes a bit to get used to how much to use before it runs over the sides.

After it hardens usually overnight, it really looks like it has been encased in glass as it dries crystal clear. You can put the pigment powders in and etc to color the resin as well.

I don't know if there are Menards stores where all of us are at……they do sell the resin environtec mix at Micheals, and Hobby Lobby as well, but much…much more expensive, so take those 40% coupons with you!

Debi, thanks so much for the great comment!

Now I know what you guys are talking about. I saw one of those microwave kilns in a beading magazine. That is amazing you can get the temp so high like that with it! Do you know if you can fire Artclay Silver in something like that or is it just the fused glass?

Thank you, as well, for passing on your epoxy resin tips! It is one more thing on my huge list, of things to try. I love how it looks! I'm sure your info was helpful for Judy!

I don't know what temp you have to have for fireing artclay silver at, but I'm bettin it will work for PMC also because I know an artist that does the silver and she only uses a butane torch. So I guess the temp for fusing glass is much higher, then maybe it will work. The next time I am in Hobby Lobby I will check the box and read the instructions and etc…

I am really happy that I came across this site. I have found so many helpful tips that I feel like I'm cheating if I don't share some too!
Thanks for all of your hard work Cindy!

That's sweet Debi! I love hearing your tips and tricks. Thank you so much for sharing them with everyone!

Wowza! Another great tip!

Thanks everyone!

Thanks aims! Glad you like it!