Video Tutorials:
1: Rose Petal Beads;
2: Fill Bezels with Clay;
3: Wax Polishing Your Beads;
4: Grape Hyacinth Cane:
Well another month has gone by and the Volume-034 Back Issue Videos have now been added to the Polymer Clay Library. If you missed your chance to see these tutorials as they were released each Friday during the month of March, now is your chance to add them to your collection as a convenient bundled package.
Today’s photo shows thumbnail images for the 4 videos included in this Vol-034 Package:
Video-034-1 Rose Petal Beads: Sometimes your jewelry creations have a much more important purpose than just looking beautiful. By incorporating the dried petals of Roses and other flowers gathered from a special occasion… such as a Wedding; Graduation; Birth of a New Baby; or the Memorial of a loved one; the beads you make can hold deep significance and meaning. Many Rose Petal Bead “recipes” suggest that you use the whole flower, boiled down to a dark, black/brown (and smelly) sludge, which is then molded into “traditional” rosary style beads. But polymer clay allows you to create a more modern, prettier version that will preserve the meaning and the beauty of any important event. Not only are these Polymer Clay Flower Petal Beads gorgeous, but they are easy to make as well… what could be better than that!
Video-034-2 Fill Bezels with Polymer Clay: With Mixed Media Jewelry being such a hot trend these days, there are many unique jewelry components becoming available in the marketplace. Metal Bezels for example. They allow you to showcase your polymer clay designs and techniques in very creative ways. Although bezels are relatively easy to combine with polymer clay, there are some tips and tricks for using them, that will make the process go a lot smoother. So if you like to use bezels in your jewelry designs, this is a must tutorial.
Video-034-3 Wax Polishing Your Beads: In my opinion, nothing is prettier and more professional looking than a silky smooth glass finish, on smooth-surface polymer clay beads. And the best way to achieve this is by sanding well and buffing… no finish coatings required. But sanding and buffing is time consuming… especially with tiny round beads, or sculpted and molded ones. An alternative to getting a nice sheen on your polymer clay beads, without having to do a ton of sanding, or finishing using heavy gloss coatings (i.e. Future Floor Polish, Varathane, Sculpey Glaze, etc.), is to use a paste wax such as Minwax. In this tutorial I will share with you my time tested tips and tricks for using a paste wax to make the chore of finishing beads, a whole lot easier.
Video-034-4 Grape Hyacinth Cane: The Grape Hyacinth is a tiny little flowering bulb that sends up a cluster of blue or purple flowers in the early Spring. It is the perfect image to capture in a stylized polymer clay flower cane. Because its triangular shape is echoed in other flowers as well, you can make several different flower cane designs from this pattern, just by simply changing the color combinations. That means you get 2… no 3… no 10 polymer clay cane designs for the price of one. Now that’s one pretty awesome cane!
Also included in this Volume-034 back issue package, are the A-Series recipe cards from the Bluebell Palette.
To read feedback from members who have already benefited from the videos and recipes in this Vol-034 back issue package, click here: Rose Petal Beads | Fill Bezels with Polymer Clay | Wax Polishing Your Polymer Clay Beads | Grape Hyacinth Cane
And, Sneak Peak Preview Clips are available for viewing here: Polymer Clay Tutorials [Videos]
If anyone else would like to add a review for any of the videos or color recipes in Volume-034, I would love to hear from you. Or if you have not yet purchased this back issue and have a question, ask away. In either case, use the comments section below.
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Thanks for another month of inspiration. Can I share something I made with polymer clay that seems to have lasted well.
As a Christmas gift last year I was given (chose it myself actually)a new letterbox. I looked around for numbers and a “no junk mail” sign but couldn’t find one I liked. So – I made one, out of polymer clay of course!! It’s about 10cm x 8cm.
I made a sheet of clay a bit thicker than the thickest on pasta machine, I think a number 2 doubled over. Then I made letters from a Sculpey mould and pressed them on, and extruded a half circle length of clay to wrap around the edge to make a neat finish. I put a couple of small holes before baking to screw it into the wood, and also used a waterproof glue on the back to make sure it stayed on the letterbox.
I chose brown for the background, and orange letters and edge to complement my wooden letterbox and brick house colours.
It’s been outside now for three months and looks as good as new, except for a spiderweb. The letters are well stuck and the colours haven’t faded.
I’m very pleased with it, it’s a bit different, a bit quirky and very practical. I think I’ll make more as gifts.
Please help! My acrylic roller has stubborn dried clay, and it is so hard to clean. I tried damping it with wet cloth but still can’t get rid of the clays, i also tried cleaning it with alcohol ; soap with water. but to no avail. What should I do?
@Jan: Thanks so much for posting your creative project here Jan! Isn’t it cool that if you can’t find want you want (ie the right letters, etc.) then you can just make them out of polymer clay! I would love to see pictures. You could post them at the members Facebook Gallery. If you are not aware of the spray called Preserve Your Memories II (PYMII) this may be the perfect sealer for this project. It has UV protection in it so it would protect your clay from fading or getting sun damaged. If you type PYMII into the search box at the top of the page, you will find links to several articles on this great polymer clay safe spray.
@wyne: That sounds very weird Wyne! What brand of clay are you using? Are you certain the roller is acrylic and not another type of plastic that the clay may be reacting to? I have never had clay stick to my roller that isn’t easy to clean off.
Hi Cindy,
The brand is Sculpey
I think the problem came when I sprinkle a small amount of baby powder on my working tile so it wont get too sticky, afterwards I started working on my clay using the roller. You think there might be a reaction to it? Is there a possible way to clean this again?
Wyne
@wyne: I am still not clear on the problem. Baby powder would usually make the clay dry not sticky. Unless there is some scented oil in it or something.
Is the clay just sticking to the roller and not the surface? Is the clay actually difficult to remove from the roller? Is the roller a clear acrylic or is it another type of plastic?
If the roller is made with another type of plastic the clay could be reacting with it and then I could see it being difficult to remove. With a clear acrylic roller like mine, you should be able to remove clay from the roller easily with your hands and then wipe it clean with a baby wipe or rubbing alcohol on a paper towel.
Hello again from México Cindy, I hoper you and your family are grat.
I was watching again video 011-2 the pattern background sheet and I lover de cane you use ther, the one yo call funky flower jjaja, I really would like to know how yo make it, I don´t know if you have it in other video, if you don´t could you include it in one of the next videos??’ thank you so much
Marcela
@Marcela S: Hi Marcela! I had to go back and watch the video to see which flower you meant, now I see. I haven’t done that Funky Flower Cane yet, but if you look above at the new Grape Hyacinth Cane Tutorial, the pattern is very similar. You could use colors like the ‘funky flower’ in the patterned background sheet instead of the blues in the Hyacinth and you could use only one bloom instead of many. You could then add a background if you like but it is not necessary.
I hope that helps you for now. I will be doing lots more flower canes in the future since they are so much fun!
As usual dear Cindy you´re so kind to all your students, thank you so much for answering so soon, I understand what you told me, I´ll try it as soon as I can, and I´ll send you some pictures of my work, I hope you like them
Thank you again
Marcela Saldaña
@Marcela S: Hi Marcela! We all love to see pictures of other people’s work… I hope you will upload them to the Facebook Gallery Page so that we can admire them. :)
@Silverleaf: Thank you I will upload some pictures as soon as I find how jajaja
Cindy, where could I get micro mesh products ?
Thank you
HELLO FRANCINE, Y JUST BOUGHT DE MICROMESH SANDIN PADS FROM EBAY@Francine O:
Hello, I have followed all your steps into making my memorial beads. We had yellow roses at my grandmothers funeral and thats what I wanted to make my moms beads with. When I bake my beads the petals turn brown. Is this normal or can I stop this for happening? Thanks for all your great advice!!
@Chirstin P: Hi Chirstin, so sorry about your grandmother. It is normal for certain flowers to brown in the oven, especially if not dried properly first. Unfortunately, yellow flowers are more prone to this. What can help though, is ensuring the petals are completely dry before adding to the clay. Use the microwave method described in Q&A #2 of this post: Memorial Jewelry – Making Rose Petal Beads.
You can also use inks or small amounts of clay to amp up the color in your beads. Read some of the other articles (there are several!) & comments on memorial/flower petal beads for additional info & tips. Best of luck with your project! ~Kat
Hi Cindy – Is there a finish for polymer clay that creates a hard shell? I’ve been using Minwax Polycrylic to get a satin finish on my “Hang Ups” but the problem is that, as they are used frequently, the finish tends to flake off too quickly. I have an order that needs to be delivered next week so would like to solve this problem before delivery. Can you help? Thanks, Linda
@Linda F: Sorry Linda, I missed this one. When the comment widget at the side of the page broke, I lost a few questions in the mess. Doug pointed out that I missed yours. Sorry about that!
This won’t be in time for your shipment, but I am not sure why you need a hard shell finish. I am not familiar with Hang Ups, but when a polymer clay item is going to be handled a lot, the best type of finish to use, is no finish at all.
A well sanded and buffed piece can have a nice satin finish, and since there is no finish on the clay, there is nothing to flake off.
There are some other finishing options you could try as well. To find out more, just add your keyword to the search box at the top of the page and a list of articles and tutorials will pop up that should help. Good luck!