“Yay, another lovely
technique to learn. I
LOVE playing with Pearl
Ex Powders. The colors are rich and they shimmer
so pretty!” ~DJ
On July 13th, I posted an introductory preview clip for my Faux Dichroic Glass tutorial. Today, the full version of this video lesson (Vol-026-3) is available for viewing at the Polymer Clay Members Library. Here is the link: A Fast, Simple and Easy Technique for Making Faux Dichroic Glass
For anyone who is not yet a paid member, if you did not know, the cost works out to only $3.32 per month. This gives you 24/7 access to the full versions of my Friday video tutes. Plus you also receive four A-series color recipe cards. This week’s color is: Horsetail (3A) from the Marsh Reeds Polymer Clay Color Palette.
I highly recommend Cindy’s site. I am a member and the videos and recipes are worth the fee. Maybe there is information for free on the net but you have to have the time to sift through all of it. Cindy’s tutorial comes to you and they are very easy to follow with a wealth of information. Cindy always takes the time and is very prompt answering any questions and helping which you will not be able to get through any of the other free info out there. ~fp
I’d like to second the comment about value for money. Your videos are great information. Thanks so much, Cindy.
~Sue-W
I have been playing with the idea of purchasing your course and the weekly videos, and now I’m convinced that it will be worth it! I’ve been wanting to play with clay for awhile. Thanks! ~Joyce-R
If you want to become a paid member, here is the link:
Polymer Clay Video Library
Or if you are brand new to polymer clay, the best place to first learn all of the fundamentals is here: Polymer Clay Beginners Course
To browse other video tutorials that are available for purchase without becoming a subscribing member (in other words… just a one time fee), you can go here: Polymer Clay Video Back Issues
Weekly Wrap Up… Please use the comment sections of these Friday posts to discuss anything you like… from polymer clay challenges that you need some help with… to success stories about your jewelry creations… to requests for upcoming video tutorials… to general community chit chat. In other words, it’s an open mic :-)
Last week the Friday discussion topics included:
- A British wedding.
- Casual funny stuff references.
- Nice site, nice people, nice feelings.
- Carving beads with Dremel flex shaft.
- Graduated rocker bead necklace.
- Urge to put on some Rolling Stones music.
- Sterling feather beads.
- Glass dagger beads.
- Video buffering issues.
- 10 tabs open, follow the links.
- Hours of reading enjoyment.
- Open Mic Fridays are so cool.
- Red faced when her necklace broke.
- A Dremel with a million parts.
- Am I allowed to say that?
- Fibromyalgia, sitting too long.
- Tai Chi Therapy.
- Practice makes perfect, or at least a little better.
- Afraid that the world might come to an end.
- Yep, tab overload.
- Finding Future Floor Wax in San Diego.
- Graceful jewelry, graduated beads.
- Osteoporosis and Osteopenia.
- Never recovering from a broken hip.
- Shimmery Faux opal finds a new home.
- Faux bone tribal bead necklace.
- Arthritis, feet, ankles, knees.
- Mother of Pearl dagger shaped beads.
- My head is full of color designs.
- Finding a use for very old canes.
- Blue Morpho Butterly jewelry.
- Flate beads… what are those :?
- Wal-Mart Pledge with Future Shine.
…in the Automotive section! Go figure.
- Actually said “OOOOOOO!” outload.
- Unakite fans.
- More calcium in your data… mmmm cheese.
- Vitamin D and bone health.
- Boy Scout carving knife.
- Trigger point injections.
- Trigger point pressure points.
- Keeping your beads on string for finishing.
- Tie your hair back around spinning objects!
- Long list of comment links in right side bar.
- She bought all 3 of my Gospel Bead Pendants.
- Free prescription drugs.
- Keeping beads in the fridge to cool them down.
- Battery operated tooth brush sander.
- Sanding flat spots not a concern.
- Emery embedded string.
- Ordering Velcro dots from eBay.
- Favorite Motorhome spots.
- Claying on the road.
- Clay storage article.
- Moving bead to the Dremel instead of Dremel to bead.
- And much, much more…
If you need to catch up, here is the link to the article where last week’s topics were discussed in detail: Rocker Beads Video
Otherwise, you can use the comment section below to start talking about some new topics and ideas. Happy Friday!!!
Help, I am having an anxiety attack. Every week I was able to receive my weekly connection to Cindy’s by e-mail. Now today I am not receiving that. Good thing I saved Cindy’s last e-mail with the A and B series colors. Now I am totally confused. What am I doing wrong?
That happened to me and I found out I accidentally canceled the subscription! Also look in your spam box…. just in case.
@Carolyn K: Oh dear… I most certainly don’t want you having an anxiety attack. With how you worded your comment, it sounds like you did not receive today’s copy of the Friday Email Newsletter containing all the links to the color recipes as well as the video tutorial for this week.
Normally I try to address issues like this privately, via email, so that everyone else doesn’t have to sit through a trouble shooting session when the issue does not specifically apply to them. But… this is kind of timely in light of the blog post I did just yesterday about email deliverability problems.
Hopefully the information I post below will serve as a good reference to point other members to who may need help in the future. So here goes…
——————————————————————
Carolyn – I checked to make sure that your email is included on the Guest List, and it is. So this is not a case where you accidentally unsubscribed from the newsletter, as is what happened to Melinda above [Thanks Melinda for offering that tip].
The newsletter goes out on schedule every Friday morning, like clockwork. But unfortunately even at the best of times, some emails do get “lost in cyberspace” and don’t arrive at their intended destination.
However, your Internet Service Provider will be able to provide you with options to help ensure that my weekly emails continue to get through to your inbox. There are various names for the process including: Whitelisting; Friending; Approved Senders; Allowed List; and probably many more. Please see yesterday’s post for more info, tips and instructions.
The bottom line is, you need to communicate with your Internet Service Provider and let them know that you are not receiving my emails, and that you definitely want to be receiving them. If they ask, tell them that the emails are being sent from Aweber, which is the name of the Email Service Provider I use to send out the Friday Guest List emails.
In a worst case scenario where an email deliverability problem persists, the easiest work around is to re-subscribe to the Polymer Clay Guest List using a completely different email address.
The Google Gmail service usually works well. It’s free to use… and having a back-up email address is always a good thing.
Please follow the advice I provided above to make sure that you don’t miss out on future newsletter issues… and so that you don’t have anymore anxiety attacks :-O
And also please note that even if you did not receive the last newsletter, you can still log into your Polymer Clay Tutor Library account at any time, to access the weekly member videos and A-Series color recipes.
Hopefully Carolyn, the above information adequately addresses your situation. I very much appreciate that you are member here at the Polymer Clay Tutor community.
~Cindy
Since I had done dichroic glass pendants – the actual glass stuff , I was really curious to see what method Cindy was going to teach us to do faux dichroic glass. The pendant looked so beautiful I couldn’t wait to see her doing it. As always, she had a wonderful video for us; it was so simple and the result stunning! I think I’d stick with faux dichroic glass and polymer clay instead of all the cutting, grinding and the hot kiln.
Cindy, I love the look of the UV resin, but right now I cant afford it or the lamp sooo I was wondering if you knew if the product from Stampin Up! called Clear Effects would work? It is clear and makes a 3D effect on paper, leaves, and flower petals. Do you think it would work?
Thanks for another great tut Cindy. There are certainly lots of tips and tricks there. Eye shadow?? I was always told mica powders were dangerous to ingest or breath and you girls allow that to maybe get into nasal passages from eye shadow. Hopefully there is not enough mica involved to harm you.
Maybe later this summer I will get involved with UV resin. I really liked Gera’s set-up and Tina’s tips. Hopefully we will soon have a Canadian distributor for the UV resin to avoid the ridiculous shipping rates and long border (customs) wait.
You ,Doug and family enjoy your weekend.
Hi Cindy,
I love the faux dichroic glass video. I hope someday soon to be able to afford the uv lamp so I can make some pendants. I loved the flower stamps you used and was wondering where you purchased them.
@Jeanne Collins: I got that stamp at the dollar bin at Michaels. Hope that helps.
@Tiffany: I’ve not used the Clear Effects product you mentioned so I can’t advise you about that. If you test it out on some polymer clay, be sure to report back and let everyone know how if it is compatible.
Well again, I made a major blunder. Getting too excited about loosing contact with my favorite tutor, Cindy. After I checked my spam file I found that I accidentally deleted the polymer clay newsletter from Cindy. That through me into a real scare. I removed it from the spam file and added Cindy to my address book and hopefully it won’t happen again. Thank you Cindy for helping me through this.
I just received my purchase of a uv lamp. Tried it out yesterday. The only thing I have to add to any comments you all have is that you really have to make sure you have the complete surface covered before you put it under the lamp. With practice I will get it right. It really does leave a nice reflective surface in a short amount of time.
Love the tutorial!!! You’ve done several tutorials lately that have very specifically interested me. I’m so excited about uv resin, butterfly canes and this dichro glass technique that I might have to make a reversible pendant using all three!!!!!
Now that you’ve done this tutorial, I’d really like to see a future one about creating stamps or texture plates for polymer clay. I know that rtv mold putty and polymer clay have both been used for making impressions in clay…but as everyone says, you make seemingly complicated things so much easier. I’m familiar with a few different methods, but I’d love to see how you might do this!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to make your own impressions for texturing beads… no design limits or hunting for special plates?
@Ellabella: One way that might work is using the old lino board, and carving tools to create a design. You could make it a positive or negative image depending on how you carve the space. Easy to transfer your own designs on it prior, just sketch them on. Now, is it thick enough to leave a good image in the clay? Think it depends on the design.
Or you could google rubber stamp companies and have your own designs manufactured. Expensive, but, worth it, when you see what Cindy can do with it dichotically.
Last, use polymer clay to make the carving design, so long as you use a little water for a release, you could make the embedded design as deep as you wanted.
Cindy, as always, another great idea for the future tut list. Bet you’d come up with something truly remarkable.
I feel like Meg Ryan in ‘When Harry met Sally’, shouting Yes! Yes! Yes!
The Magic Glos arrived yesterday … how’s that for timing? … only for me to discover that we no longer have a UV lamp because I couldn’t see a use for it, and had forgotten I’d got rid of a few years ago.
Soooooooooooo, piece duly made, baked and tidied-up and oo-er, now what? Risk the English sunlight? Nothing ventured and all that.
It worked. Late afternoon, direct sunlight and the faux sichroic pendant is glassy and solid and looking every bit as good as a first attempt at a new technique has a right to be. I’ll post a link to my blog when the batteries on my camera etc… you know how it is…
Fantastic tute again Cindy. Thank you. I’m going to like playing with this one. Possibly OH is not going to be so keen because my stock of rubber stamps is quite limited …
Have fun, all
WellingtonsMum
Ooops. That’ll teach me to proof read before pressing the ‘send’ button. Faux Dichroic, of course.
Judy
I love, love, love this technique. I may never try making pendants in the kiln again.
Thank You Cindy.
The stamps you selected are absolutely beautiful. I wondered where you got them. I am heading to Michael’s Dollar bin. A really cool thing to do a for a gift is to make wrapping paper or a card using the stamp on the both.
I am wanting to make beads for pandora necklaces/bracelets. Does anyone know of any where to buy the metal core?
@Kathy W: You can also find the bead cores on rings-things.com and Etsy. See link by my name for more info.
General Note To Everyone… that little search box at the top of the page is really helpful for finding posts and comments here on the blog where topics have already been discussed. By using the search feature, you will usually end up getting answers faster than relying on me or someone else to point you in the right direction. That being said, if you can’t find what you are looking for, by all means post away. That is what this community is all about :-)
I think Firemountain Gems might have a metal core for making clay beads.
Here are links to some questions that got missed over the past week. If a few of you could offer some input, that would be greatly appreciated. Probably best to answer the questions where they were originally asked so that the person who asked will get an email alert. Thanks so much everyone and have a GREAT WEEKEND!
1) Tips for making your own buffalo snow.
2) Shipping jewelry and packaging questions.
3) Confused about bead giveaway contest.
4) Sanding and sculpting tips for figurines.
5) Faux bone still rubbery after baking.
@Cindy Lietz from Facebook Polymer Clay Contest Entries: I attempted all of these but 3 (Ken already answered—Yay, Ken!) Some I had to ask more questions to help figure out a solution… :D
@Phaedrakat: Yay for Phaedrakat too! You are SO missed when you are not around and you are SO good about answering questions.
@Susan B: Thanks, Susan! I took a look at your blog—looks like you’ve been “busy with the bangles!” They’re looking great!
@Phaedrakat: Thanks for visiting my blog and your kind comment! The truth is that I am falling behind and have a rather-too-long list of new techniques that I would like to try. I have some supplies (including the sanding pads — yippee!) which should be arriving by mail which will hopefully get me up and running again and then I will be able to update my blog and try to join in with the facebook fun too!
Well….I tried this and it is easy. The only problem is I only had regular mica powders and it doesn’t have the same wow factor. I will now be ordering the pearlex and try again…..It is a fun technique.
Andrea
@pollyanna: Glad you enjoyed! What kind of mica powders did you use? I have a bottle of Fimo mica powder…
@Phaedrakat: I used pearlustre. The gold was great but the other colors just kind of blended in with the black clay. Not much visiual impact. I have the pearlex coming so hope that fixes that. Thanks for asking.
Andrea
@ Susan – I still can’t get to your blog. Isn’t that strange because I am able to view all the other blogs. I keep trying.
@Cheryl Hodges: Susan’s blog is in Italy. Maybe there’s some kind of country setting that’s keeping you from visiting? I’ve never heard of that, but thought I’d throw it out there, just in case. Can you go to other blogs, like Parole de Pate (the french blog?)
Whoa! Guess what? I can’t go to Susan’s blog, either (or to Parole de Pate—from my desktop PC, which runs Windows XP.) I can go to both from my laptop. Hmmm, must be some setting that needs to be changed in order to visit these sites, or maybe some kind of software or anti-virus I was running at some time or other… Does anyone else have this kind of problem?
Is everyone else able to visit Susan B’s blog? —Her name above links to it… ~Kat
PS: I hope to hear some suggestions from others on how to fix this for you, Cheryl. In the meantime, I’ll try to figure it out (if I can find the time!) and get back to you on it. Sorry I didn’t notice this before, but I rarely get on this PC.
@Phaedrakat: I tried it and I can get in.
@Susan B: Susan, your beads are beautiful! I love especially love your lava beads.
@Tanya L: I am pleased you persisted and managed to visit my blog. I got really hooked on lava beads for a while…probably something to do with the fact that they don’t need sanding! Thank you for your comments.
@Phaedrakat: I tried it and was able to get in. I apologize, Susan, I didn’t have time to read it, but I promise I will when my company leaves in 2 weeks.
OFF TOPIC: @Linda K.: Does someone else have insomnia too??
OFF TOPIC @Tanya L: Oh yeah, you guys are East Coast, so it’s later than the little clock says…
@Linda K.: No rush…my blog will still be there in 2 weeks so enjoy your company in the meantime!
@Phaedrakat: Thank you dear Kat for following this up — you are GREAT!
@ Susan – no luck yet. I keep trying and it says ‘done’ at the bottom of the page and the page remains blank.
@Cheryl Hodges: Thank you for letting me know that you can’t see my blog — I really don’t understand why some people can and others can’t. I have tried an alternative url link which is connected to my blog just to see if this works better. Anyway, thank you for letting me know and for your persistance!
I’ve tried this technique a couple of times now (including just after I’d seen the preview video – I had an idea how to create the same effect and just had to try it, and it turned out to be pretty much the same as Cindy’s method) but I’m not all that happy with my results.
I used black clay and Perfect Pearls powders, and I found that the colours end up duller than I was expecting and don’t have as much contrast against the black as I expected. Anyone else found this with PPs?
I tried the dichroic technique. I had only ordered the small bottle of ultradome so I used Judikins fluxe enameling resin. The pendant looks nice but I must say I prefer the ultra dome. I’m liking the ultradome so much I must order some more. Have to take photos to post.
@Cheryl Hodges: Hi Cheryl! What a coincidence—Kathy G. was asking about Judikin’s resin just this morning! If you get a chance, could you check out her question? She asked if anyone had tried Judikin’s enameling resin.
I’m glad your pendant turned out nice, and I look forward to seeing your photos! ~Kat
I used the search box and didn’t find what I was looking for so I hope I am asking this at the right place. I am finally trying the faux dichroic glass and I realized after I started that I bought the wrong stuff. I bought Pearlustre Embossing powder instead of mica powder. GRRRR… Do you think embossing powder will work on polymer clay? Can someone tell me where to look for mica powder at Michael’s? Thank you in advance for your help.
@Cheryl V.: Hi Cheryl, nice to see you! I’m really sorry this happened. The upside is that embossing powder can be used with clay — it’s used in lots of cool ways, like faux stones/pebbles, or in the Faux Jade tute. It probably won’t work very well for this technique, though. At least, not in the same way. Embossing powder expands or ‘puffs up’ in the heat, which makes it difficult to control your design. It’s not as shiny, and it also gets sticky on the surface of beads (works better inside clay — like in translucent!) You could play around with it, though. Who knows, you could create your own amazing technique! :D
But for Cindy’s Faux Dichroic, you want the shiny, pearly mica powders, which are usually sold in the stamping section at Michael’s. They have Pearl Ex, which comes in a set of 12 (3 sets to choose from — Series 1, 2, & 3.) They run about $24 if I remember correctly, minus a 40% coupon (fingers crossed you have one!) The price is high, but these powders last an extremely long time. You only use a smidge each time — mine have lasted years! You can also buy Pearl Ex in individual colors and/or larger-size bottles online. This Pearl Ex article has a picture of the packaging you can look for at Michael’s.
Michael’s also carries Perfect Pearls by Ranger, which is a similar product with a built-in resin. It comes in sets of 4, so you don’t have to put as much money out to get started. I’m not sure, but I think it’s somewhere between $10 and $15 for the 4-pk (sorry, it’s been awhile since I’ve looked!)
Well, I hope this info helps you! Here’s hoping you find lots of uses for your embossing powder, too. You’ll certainly find lots to do with Pearl Ex or Perfect Pearls! Have fun, and take care! ~Kat
This is an awesome technique! Finally tried it out and now that my micro mesh pads came in, I was able to sand it to a nice shine. Next I will try UV resin (when it comes in) and see how it all looks together. This is so much fun; loving the bright colors :)