Vid #024: Really, There Is No Difference Except That…
… with marbling, you stop mixing well before the two colors become thoroughly blended.
My favorite marbling technique is to start with 2 polymer clay colors, each rolled into separate logs of about the same size. Spiral twist these logs around each other like strands of rope. Then on a flat work surface, roll them together as one. Bend this new single snake of clay in half, re-twist, and re-roll. Keep doing this as many times as it takes to get the marbled clay effect that you are happy with.
But like I said above, if you go too far, your marbled pattern will turn into a solid blend pretty quickly if you are not paying attention.
>> Polymer Clay Tutorials <<
The full version of the “Marbling Polymer Clay” preview video shown above, is included in my Polymer Clay Bead Making Fundamentals Course [SEE Video #24 of 39]. In this video I demonstrate how to do the twist-roll-twist technique for marbling polymer clay. As well, I show how to use your pasta machine to monitor the fineness or coarseness of your marbling patterns.
In this video I use 2 colors to demonstrate the polymer clay marbling technique. But it can work just as well if you start with 3 or even 4 colors strands.
Cindy’s last blog post..Hemp Jewelry Beads – The Biggest Problem Is…
When you are marbling clay and you want to use it for a lentil bead or another type of bead that needs a lot of rolling, do you barely marble it to begin with or marble it till it almost look like you want it before you cut off pieces to make the individual beads?
When marbling can you use different brands of Polymer clay together or does it always need to be the same brand?
Actually Katina it is OK to mix brands of polymer clay as long as they are all the oven bake variety. Mixing a hard clay with a soft one can make a very good mix too!
Dear Cindy,
You are the best!!! I wanted to thank you for sharing all that you do! I want your video series so much, and will get it when I can find a way to afford them…in the meantime, thank you so much for sharing what you do! Keep on smiling, Girl! Your goodness is catchy!
Sincerely, Cindy
You’re Welcome Cindy… You are the reason why I like to teach!
Thanks for all the great video tips and for the color recipes too. Cindy, you’re the best!!!
You’re very welcome Andrea!
Hi, Cindy,
I’m going through my recipe cards in preparation for mixing up the colors.
When I have baked my sample for each card, what would you recommend that I use to glue it to the card? I suspect Weldbond, from your use of it in many of your projects.
Also, I tend to use only Premo and I notice that some of your colors are in Fimo or Kato clays. If I decided to mix those colors, how compatible are the clays to one another?
Nettonya
Hi Nettonya – Your suspicions are correct! Weldbond works beautifully for gluing your baked color dots to your recipe cards. For this kind of thing though, double stick tape or a glue dot will also work.
As far as mixing colors, if you mean, can you swap out Premo colors for Fimo or Kato colors in a recipe, the answer is no. Although you can mix brands together, the color pigments and strengths are not the same. For example, 1 part of Black Premo would not mix the same as 1 part Kato or 1 part Fimo.
With those older recipes, just stick to the brand it suggests. Somewhere along the road, I decided to stick with Premo for my color recipes to avoid that very issue as well as keep things consistent. It will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Thanks, Cindy.
I appreciate your time and concise answers.
I bought some Kato for a particular project for a workshop, as that is what the instructor uses for strength in her projects, and find it difficult to condition.
A member of our guild uses Fimo almost exclusively, for the same reason (strength), and I also have difficulty with conditioning it. So, to see your article on the mixing of Premo and Fimo Quick Mix was interesting. For now, I think I will stay with Premo, as I can condition it better than the others.
I only use Premo and no longer have any Fimo or Kato and have no wish to buy them for the sake of a few colour chips, so I had a problem when I came to mix up some of the older recipes.
For some I just substituted the nearest Premo colour instead – the mixed colours weren’t exactly the same as Cindy’s version but I liked them anyway and they worked as a palette so that was fine with me.
For some other colours my substitution recipe made colours that either I didn’t like, or were very different to Cindy’s. For these I experimented and ended up creating my own recipe for the colour and I got pretty close to Cindy’s, as far as I can tell comparing against the colours on my screen anyway. Either way I like the colours and my Premo-ified palettes work so I’m happy.
Thanks, Silverleaf. I was thinking much the same as you. When I need colors for which the recipes call for Kato or Fimo clays, I will mix the closest I can get through the use of Premo.
Hi,
Iam a beginner in polymer clay. Iam trying to make some earrings. Its harder then I though :D
My main problem are air bubbles. Most of the time Iam mixing colors and making marble patterns and always there are air bubbles after bake (before bake I cant see any). So, I would like to ask you, how to marble (I havent find it on you channel, sorry if I missed it). Iam trying to avoid catch air in clay, but when Iam doing marble, I have to twist it differently and thats probably why I have this problem. With solid colors I learnt to be careful :)
Thank you for your time and answer :)
Pája
PS: Sorry for bad english, Iam not good at it :D
Your English is just fine! :) I have several videos that teaches about avoiding bubbles and fixing them if you do get them. Go to the top of the page and do a search for air bubbles. Scroll down past the Google ads and you will see I have several posts that talk about air bubbles that should help. Good luck!