{"id":16793,"date":"2013-03-28T03:05:17","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T10:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=16793"},"modified":"2018-11-02T15:45:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T22:45:15","slug":"how-to-polish-polymer-clay-beads-in-a-rock-tumbler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/how-to-polish-polymer-clay-beads-in-a-rock-tumbler\/16793\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Polish Polymer Clay Beads in a Rock Tumbler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=16793#video\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin: 0px; border: 0pt none;\" alt=\"Polishing Polymer Clay In A Rock Tumbler\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/2013-03\/28-90363-pt0-polymer-tumbler-substrates.jpg\" width=\"255\" height=\"146\" \/><\/a><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Video #363:<\/span> Introducing a new polishing substrate to use in your polymer clay rock tumbler.<\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080; font-size: large;\"><strong>Topics Covered In This Video:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Small round beads can be a big pain to sand by hand, so a rock polisher can help out by\u00a0 polishing your beads while you do something else&#8230; like make more beads.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">In one of my previous tutorials about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/polymer-clay-tutorial-polished-beads-lortone-rock-tumbler\/3890\/\">Rock Tumblers and Polymer Clay<\/a>, I demonstrated how to use unpolished river rock as the substrate for polishing polymer beads. Since then I started using a new plastic material in 3 different grits.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The plastic substrate can be purchased at Otto Frei (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottofrei.com\/Coarse-Cut-Brown-1-4-Plastic-Pyramids\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"external external_icon\">coarse<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottofrei.com\/Medium-Cut-Dark-Green-1-4-Plastic-Pyramids\" class=\"external external_icon\" target=\"_blank\">medium<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottofrei.com\/Fine-Cut-Light-Green-1-4-Plastic-Pyramids\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"external external_icon\">fine<\/a>).<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">How-to tips for this new substrate with polymer clay beads.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Final step in the process uses <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottofrei.com\/Porcelain-Balls-3-mm-Diameter\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"external external_icon\">small porcelain balls<\/a> as a polishing\/buffing substrate to get a nice soft sheen.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I use a Lortone 3lb capacity Rotary Rock Tumbler\/Polisher.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Rock tumbling won&#8217;t remove larger flaws such as fingerprints or deep scratches, but it will create a smooth and lightly polished surface on your polymer clay beads.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The information I share in the video can be used with any shaped bead, including sculpted ones. But they must be able to handle being tumbled around for several hours. Always test first, to see how your beads will fair.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Don&#8217;t pack the barrel of the tumbler too tight. The beads, water and substrate need room to move around.<a name=\"video\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cLRfKkXOCGc?rel=0\" height=\"323\" width=\"575\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<strong><span style=\"font-size: large; color: #808080;\">Question of the Day:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Do you use a rock tumbler to polish your round polymer clay beads? Or do you prefer using other methods?<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I look forward to hearing from you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">By the way, if you have a polymer clay question or challenge you&#8217;d like me to address in an upcoming video vlog, do post it in the comments below. I&#8217;d love to help you find quicker and easier ways to bring up the professionalism in your polymer clay art.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #808080;\">Oh and don&#8217;t forget to give these videos a<em> Thumbs Up<\/em> click at YouTube if you are enjoying them. The more <em>Likes<\/em> a video gets, the higher it rises in the searches. And that means even more people will be able to join in on this polymer clay journey of a lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Also, by subscribing to our YouTube Channel directly, you will receive notifications as soon as new videos are uploaded. To subscribe, click here&#8230;<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/cLRfKkXOCGc\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"external external_icon\">Polymer Clay Rock Tumbler Tips<\/a><span style=\"color: #808080;\">. The Subscribe Button is right near the top of that YouTube page.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Looking forward to hearing from you!<\/span><\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 575px;\" border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 200px;\"><\/td>\n<td align=\"right\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cindy Lietz Signature\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/cindy-sig.jpg\" width=\"114\" height=\"99\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Polymer Clay Tutor\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/polymer-clay-tutor.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"26\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video #363: Introducing a new polishing substrate to use in your polymer clay rock tumbler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2699],"class_list":["post-16793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finishing","tag-polymer-clay-sanding-buffing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}