Comments on: Tear Drop Method | The Quickest Skinner Blend You’ll Ever Make

By: Phaedrakat

Phaedrakat — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 23:23:14 +0000

Wait, Dizi’s comment is just like Cherie’s above…what? And Cindy answered her. Hmmm…

Anyway, I realize the question’s more about the width of the blend, not so much the thickness of the sheet. In Cindy’s latest tute, the Sculpted Iris Flower Beads video, she demonstrates how to take a wide blend and make it thinner (as part of her project.) Perfect timing…watch it & you’ll understand perfectly! ~Kat

PS: If you’re not a member (why not? LOL) use the search box for more info. Try “wide blend” or similar, and you’ll find a post Cindy wrote with tips on how to keep your blends from getting too wide…

By: Phaedrakat

Phaedrakat — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 23:12:01 +0000

@Dizi: You can run it through thinner settings, but it’s a good idea to do it setting-by-setting (or at least every OTHER setting.) Taking a thick piece of clay and immediately running it through a thin setting could stress your pasta machine (bending scraper blades, etc.) Better to be safe, and use a thicker setting first, then take it down in increments…using the finger trick with each pass. For example, with a 7-setting PM, take your softened clay & run it thru setting # 6 (the 2nd thickest,) then #4, then #2, etc. — until it’s as thin as you need.

(IMO, Cindy uses the thickest setting because that’s what’s required for that project. I’ve seen her go straight to thin in one of her videos…although she warns us not to do that in the video. She said the reason she was able to do it was because her clay was already so warm from the lights they use for filming…)

By: Dizi

Dizi — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:57:55 +0000

I’ve tried the tear drop blend a few times now and done a few pieces with them. I have a question ; in the video Cindy runs it through on the thickest setting always. Can you run it on thinner settings to lengthen the piece of clay and prevent it from getting too wide? I have followed Cindy’s tip about putting your thumb and finger and gently squeezing to keep it from stretching. Just thought , would it work going to a thinner setting? yes thankss

By: Cherie

Cherie — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 03:00:29 +0000

Thanks Cindy.

By: Cindy Lietz@Polymer Clay Tutorials (Vol-033 Videos)

Cindy Lietz@Polymer Clay Tutorials (Vol-033 Videos) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:15:08 +0000

@cherie: I did that because the clay was quite firm and running it through at thinner setting when it was rolled up, would have been too hard on my machine. I have found with the newer Premo, the clay is softer and it will go through the machine quite easily at a thinner setting. In that case, you are right, a thinner setting would be faster. As far as the sheet getting wider, if you don’t put your fingers on the sides it will eventually keep getting wider no matter how thin you go. If you find it is getting too wide for your fingers to control, just push on the ends of the log when you’ve rolled it up, to make the log shorter. This is one of the advantages of the Teardrop Blend over the folded Skinner Blend, which is tricky to control the width of. Hope that helps!

By: cherie

cherie — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:25:43 +0000

By: Silverleaf

Silverleaf — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:27:25 +0000

@Pam A: You could try using a cookie cutter to cut out shapes from your blended sheet just as it is, and make pendants or earrings from them. Blends are also great for making canes!

By: Pam A

Pam A — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:21:22 +0000

I am a really newbie to polymer clay and am learning the skinner blend. My question though really dumb sounding even to me is when you have rolled up the blend. what can you do with just the blend. If you cut it in pieces and roll into ball won’t you lose the gradient in the rolling?

By: Sue F

Sue F — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:21:37 +0000

Adding one small proviso… the Tear Drop Method is definitely quicker than a traditional Skinner Blend with soft clays like Premo, but it actually takes noticeably longer than the standard folding method with firm clays like Kato (at least with the older, very firm Kato; I’m avoiding the newer softer formulation because I don’t like it as much).

I’m not going to give the technique away by saying exactly why, but if you try it it with both types of clay it’ll be obvious.

Still neat though. ;)

By: Cindy Lietz@Sandy's Creations in Clay

Cindy Lietz@Sandy's Creations in Clay — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:28:16 +0000

Hi Guys – I just came across a link to another article talking about my Teardrop Blend Method and wanted to add it as reference here…

EXCERPT: “Yesterday my Guild had a presentation on Skinner Blends. The Tear Drop Blend was very interesting to me so today I looked it up and found that Cindy Lietz invented this method. It is a far less scientific manner of creating the Skinner Blend. She named it the Tear Drop Blend which is quite appropriate as you can see by the picture…” you can click the link by my name above, for the full article.

Thanks Sandy for your interest in this modified Skinner Blend technique. It really will save you a ton of time.