Video Tutorials:
1: Mica Shift Mermaid Scales
2: Sculpted Ranunculus Flowers
3: Texture, Texture, Texture
4: Hand Torched Headpins
Well another month has gone by and the Volume-050 Back Issue Videos have now been added to the Polymer Clay Library (a golden anniversary milestone for us). If you missed your chance to see these tutorials as they were released each Friday during the month of July, now is your chance to add them to your collection as a convenient bundled package.
Today’s photo above, shows thumbnail images for the 4 videos included in this Vol-050 Package:
Video-050-1 Mica Shift Mermaid Scales: These shimmery iridescent scales of a lovely Mermaid, are beautifully created from two blocks of pearl clay and a regular old drinking straw! You’ll be amazed at how easy and cool this Mica Shift Technique is. Plus there is no need to limit yourself to only mermaid scales. The technique translates perfectly into sparkling fish scales, dragon scales, lizard scales and the skins of whatever fantasy creature that you can come up with. Makes great looking beads and jewelry projects too!
Video-050-2 Sculpted Ranunculus: Once you see a Ranunculus Flower with all of its ‘millions’ of delicate petals, it is a love at first sight experience! At least that’s how I felt the first time I laid eyes on this amazing beauty. Now you can recreate these incredible specimens in polymer clay. Perfect for gorgeous handmade jewelry projects with feminine flair. By the way, they’re not as hard to make as they look.
Video-050-3 Texture, Texture, Texture: Great looking beads don’t have to be complicated to make. Sometimes all they need is the right color and some Texture, Texture, Texture! And guess what? Most of the tools needed for these cool looking beads are probably already sitting in your kitchen right now! This is a tutorial you need to add to your polymer clay bag of tricks!
Video-050-4 Hand Torched Headpins: Really unique handmade jewelry pieces come from great findings and supplies. Adding hand torched headpins to your jewelry designs is great way to take the artisan look right through your entire piece. Plus they are easy to make, the equipment and supplies are inexpensive and you can make them any size, gauge and type of metal you want. Way better than having to order them online and wait for the package to arrive… don’t you think?
Also included in this Volume-050 back issue package, are the A-Series recipe cards from the Sedum Stonecrop Color Palette.
To read feedback from members who have already benefited from the videos and recipes in this Vol-050 back issue package, click here: Mermaid Scales | Ranunculus Flower | Texture Texture Texture | Hand Torched Headpins
And, Sneak Peak Preview Clips are available for viewing here:
Polymer Clay Tutorials [Videos]
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… If anyone else would like to add a review for any of the videos or color recipes in Volume-050, 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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Cindy, I have two questions on 2 different tutorials. I just tryed the Faux Jade technique and could not get it as dark as yours. I added extra ink and embossing powder but it is still light to medium color.
How can I get the darker jade color?
The other tutorial is the Inked Butterflies technique. I also just finished this and it turned out very nice except there are white spots
that show through the translucent and I don’t know how they got there. I followed the instructions closely so am at a loss. Can you
help me find out what is wrong? Thanks so much.
Hi Dixie Ann, sorry for the delay in answering this. Am working right now the plans for our first roadtrip. (Used the sponsor list you guys put together for making a few contacts, so thank you so much for doing that for us. That sheet will come in extremely handy as we get going here!)
On the Faux Jade, you could put a pinch of some darker colors like black, purple, navy, ultramarine or even alizarin crimson (if you are careful not to put too much and make it muddy.) A dark embossing powder or alcohol ink can work too. The beauty of Jade is that it comes in many colors and shades, so you can’t really go too wrong with your color choices.
As far as the inked butterflies, my guess is that the translucent is so soft (the last batches I have got have been very squishy) and that air is getting trapped in it too easily and causing little white dots when baked. Other possibility is that moisture from the air or sweaty hands is getting trapped inside and causing the same problem. See if leaching out the clay will help. Also try pulling and stretching the clay sheet a bit to release air before laying it down. You’d be surprised how much smoother the clay will be after baking if it is stretched a bit.
Hope that helps. if you need anything else. just ask. :)
Thanks so much Cindy for all the help on those two problems. Will follow all of your advice.
Could it be the little white plaque like things that you can get with translucent clay. I had that happen once; don’t know why but it has not happened again.
Hi Cindy!
I just found your site and have started looking through it. Yes, I did join your guest list! I am NOT a beader so I am actually not looking here for beading information, but rather just some basic polymer clay information. I sculpt small animals with polymer clay and until now, have just been winging it, but have had some problems that I would like to find solutions to so I began searching the web and that is how I found you.
Though you have many tutorials on an incredible array of subjects, I, first and foremost, have a simple question: HOW DO YOU KEEP THE LIGHT COLORED CLAYS FROM PICKING UP DIRT?? I swear! I wash my hands like crazy, air dry them then I take a ball of any light colored clay and start to condition it in my hands and before I know it, there are streaks of blackish whatever in the clay!! Makes me crazy!! Have you experienced this? Any suggestions? Perhaps you talked about this somewhere, but I haven’t managed to wade through your vast library of information yet to find it so thought I would ask you first.
I understand if you have no time to answer, but do know that I would love any suggestions you may offer!
Do know that I am in absolute awe of all that you do and have done…. I can’t wait to try some of the tutorials (once summer holidays are over) you have here and may even look into becoming a paid member. Those gazing balls look really, really cool and I would love to try one of those!! I am rather new to this medium, but not to creativity, so am at the stage where I need to get through the basic ‘hoops’ so I can go on to create items that will hopefully impassion not just myself, but others.
I thank you in advance for any suggestions you may have!!
Take care and greetings from Prague, Czech Republic!
Cat
Hi Cat, welcome to the blog. If you want to do a search at the top of the blogger page, type in
“how to keep white clay white” You will get some great tips. Hope that helps. You most seriously want to think about joining Cindys tutorials. I have learned so much in the short time I have been here. I too was hesitating about joining but it was the best thing I ever did. I’m sure there are a whole lot of members out there who will tell you the same thing. Never have I experienced great teaching methods and the best tips as I have from Cindy. My frustration level went from 10 down to practically nothing. I am now starting to sculpture flowers and smaller things with a great deal more confidence. You will find a big family of wonderful Clayers here in all different levels. Good luck Cat!
Thank you Dixie Ann for helping out Cat! I appreciate the help more than you know!
Cat, been thinking about this for awhile. I am a smoker, thus oils, ash, etc., are all over and I pick them back up again quickly. I have found two solutions. Baby wipes before touching clay, or if project allows, using very tight fitting gloves. I wipe the clay, the surface, the blades, the gloves, constantly and that seems to do the trick.
Watch the wipes, some brands can be too fuzzy and fibers fall into the work. Sometimes I put alcohol in a small spray container and use low fuzz paper towels or napkins instead of the baby wipes.
Thoroughly clean your pasta machine. Tiny little crumbs get in there and can pop into a sheet at the craziest times. This is a common problem and to counteract it a lot of us use two or more pasta machines to completely avoid the possibility, lol.
Dust in air can be enemy as well. If I have to leave my workplace, I immediately cover it with a transparent acrylic tablecloth or place work in a plastic bag.
Lots more tips up in the search facility, so make sure to check it out. Hope it helps and best of luck. You will love this site, the tutes, and the peeps.
Hi Cat
we share our home with 7 rescued kitties, ages 17 to one, so there is always ‘something’ in the air just waiting to land on my clay lol
so I did a search here and decided to bleach my small round milli beads, cuz there was no way my hands could sand 178 12mm to 7mm beads
at the same time I bleached the matching milli tube beads 20mm to10mm, there were 159 of them:)
I used 2:water to 1:bleach and left it to soak about 18 hours
the results were dramatic !! (in a good way)
the lady that sells my work at her bead store took all of them YAY!!!!!
ps: left w/ my commition check and went to Michaels to get a set of sweet pea cutters … plus other ‘must have’ crafty items
Cindy I picked up some plain craft sand ( I feel a faux stone need coming on) and I will be ‘trying’ to color it myself with alcohol ink —- my question concerns the use of sand and my pasta machine: Is it true that we should not put the clay/sand mixture through the pasta machine?
thanks bunches for all you guys do for us – Sherry
Hi Sherry, that was a great tip on bleaching clay beads. What does the bleach do to them? You mentioned you didn’t want to sand them all so I’m guessing it makes them nice and smooth and round? How would the bleach affect colored beads? I am dying to know! LOL (pun intended)
good morning Dixie
The bleach doesnt effect the smoothness or the roundness of them at all (wish it did, lol) it just makes those annoying stray bits of lint or grime go away (or from curing in a dirty oven–just too hot here to clean it ;/ )
as for how I avoid fingerprints on beads that cannot be sanded or are just too small for my hands to sand I pick up ‘finger cots’ from my local pharmacy (they special order them)
the cots also are great for keeping ink off my fingers – like yesterday when i was experimenting with cindy’s faux jade tutorial — Now that was a GREAT way to spend my afternoon! made up 6 different color ways funfunfun…
Dixie
ck out Cindy’s jan 10 ’09 article “Is your PC oven making your beads all dirty and discolored”
there is a before and after photo from Martha Aleo :)
Thanks Sherri, after your last comment I went in and did a search and spent quite a while checking out everything. Went over to Goodwill and found the perfect ceramic pot to bleach soak my beads in!
Hi Sherry
I would never put anything gritty like sand or glass bits, or other inclusions that would get stuck in the mechanisms or scratch your rollers, unless you have a pasta machine that you can dedicate just to using those types of mediums and you don’t care if you run into a problem.
I don’t think I’d even use an acrylic roller on those inclusions because it might be scratched or marred. I’d look for a metal rod or large metal knitting needles to roll it out, then keep it marked for use with future inclusions.
Hope you enjoy your project and share pics of the results. Best of luck.
Hi Jocelyn :)
You have made 2 wonderful points !! I actually have another pasta machine (sans motor) that could be dedicated to only ‘rough’ use
But I would not have thought about digging it out of storage w/o your comment
Also – thanks for the reminder about my acrylic roller – I reach for it w/o thought all the time and I’m sure I would have this time too if not for your words of caution
The people at this site are the BEST :D
Thank you Jocelyn for taking the time to respond with such well thought out advice -sherry
You are welcome. I speak from past experience on this, lol. When you use the old pasta machine, cushion the grit clay combo between two pieces of manilla folder like Cindy demonstrates in a few of her tutes or use sheets of deli wrap.
Keeps it together and minimizes scratching.
Hi Cindy,
I wanted to mix a color recipe from Volume 26, however Premo does not make Sea Green or Zinc yellow anymore. Are there substitute colors?
Thanks,
Necole
Hi, Necole, at this link you can download a PDF file with an “official” mixing guide for the discontinued colors. I have tried mixing Sea Green, however, and have found it to be grayer and greener than the original color. I am not very good at mixing, but I have found this recipe which seems to me closer to the original: 8 parts navy blue, 6 parts green and 1 part turquoise.
Hope it helps! If anyone has a better recipe, please share it, I really miss Sea Green!
Malena
Thanks Malena, for helping Nicole. It’s great to see everyone supporting each other like this.
Here is another link to where the Sea Green topic came up just recently.
And don’t forget to use the search box at the top right of every page here at the blog. For example, if you use “Sea Green” as a keyword in the search box, you’ll discover lots of other ideas and suggestions to follow up on as well.
Necole, I was working on a project in my studio the other day and needed some Sea Green, but I was worried about using up what little Sea Green I had left. I wanted to try the recipe, but my computer was in the house. I made my own recipe which I thought was pretty good. I used 8 parts Green, 8 parts Peacock Pearl, and 1 part Black. I compared a slab of this mix with a slab of real Sea Green and it looked virtually identical. I didn’t see evidence of pearl in the mix, even though I’d used the Peacock Pearl.
oh wow … this is so disheartening … I was under the mistaken impression that there were still 3 online sites that sold the zinc yellow and cobalt blue … and in looking them up, I see they don’t carry these clay colors anymore, either … anyone know of any other resources, or is that it for those primary colors?
Yeah me too Maria! To be honest I think they just placated us by making us feel like they had ‘saved’ those colors from extinction because of our fight to keep them, when all along they had no intention of keeping those low profit colors. It is a little like removing a few of the colors from the rainbow, because everyone likes the other colors better!
It is extremely frustrating when companies don’t see the bigger picture and only see the bottom line. I wish they would have taken my advice on putting those low selling colors into a variety pack, like they did some of the other primaries. That way they could still have the product available, but not have to rely on it to sell on its own.
Oh well. Most colors can still be mixed using some of the other colors in the line like Wasabi, for example. It is just a little trickier and it takes more fussing around to get it right.
As a person who makes hundreds of color recipes, I wish they would bring Cobalt Blue, Zinc Yellow, Sea Green and Violet back, but I have learned to work around it. Sometimes an artist has to adapt even if it is kind of stupid to have to!
Just saw this post. For anyone in UK – or who doesn’t mind paying international postage – Penny Vingoe of Clayaround still has these colours in stock (except for the violet). Hope this helps.
ps ….. and as to the plaquing problem with translucent clay – I’ve found Pardo translucent to be waaaay the best. No plaquing at all during recent experiments! As an added bonus, it’s also easily the clearest of all the translucents.
hi Maria
just went to Polymer Clay Express and they have a ‘limited ‘ amt of zink yellow left :)
Well the first PCT roadtrip is over, can’t wait to find out what happened, so thought I would welcome Cindy back with this ode to RAINBOWS.
I took this block of hard strange stuff
and chopped it into chunks.
I squished it and I rolled it
to get out all the lumps.
I dribbled on some coloured inks
Yellow Red and Blue
My pasta machine was put to use
Voila! a rainbow hue.
Then rolling up into a log
I sliced it up quite thin
Smoothed each slice with cornstarch
and pushed it on the pin.
Now I had to sit and wait
for the baking to be done
One whole hour at 265
The wait was not much fun.
But when I dusted off the beads
and strung them on a wire
I had a lovely frosted rainbow
for my friends to all admire.
(Thanks to CINDY) welcome back
………Cheers xx……
I just love you Elaine! Your inner poet speaks a language that I understand so well. Thank you for sharing your kind and creative heart here at the blog. It is a wonderful asset to our community!
Our first PcT Roadtrip was a big success! We learned so much, we saw so much and we connected with so many. This was the first of many more to come. I am really looking forward to sharing our adventure with everyone!
Happy Homecoming !
hey Cindy – that weird feeling you’ve had since getting home— it’s all of us waiting w/ bated breath ( big silly grin)
Really though welcome back and know you guys were missed :)
what a real sweet poem Elaine
thank you for the smile -Sherry
Welcome home Leitz family. Can’t wait to hear about your
big adventure. Elaine your poem was wonderful. You better get that copyrighted girl…..your such a poet at heart!