{"id":19475,"date":"2015-02-19T03:05:44","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T11:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=19475"},"modified":"2015-02-13T20:27:47","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T04:27:47","slug":"understanding-mica-shifts-metallicpearl-polymer-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/understanding-mica-shifts-metallicpearl-polymer-clay\/19475\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Mica Shifts &#8211; Metallic\/Pearl Polymer Clay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=19475#video\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin: 0px; border: 0pt none;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/2015-02\/19-90630-mica-shift-magic.jpg\" alt=\"The Magic Of Mica Shift - Polymer Clay Tutor\" width=\"255\" height=\"146\" \/><\/a><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Video #630:<\/span> It all has to do with how the tiny mica particles in the clay are aligned&#8230; and how they reflect the light.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/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;\">The Magic of Mica &#8211; Understanding the Secrets of Metallic and Pearl Polymer Clays.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">There are some very sparkly, metallic and pearl polymer clays out there&#8230; Premo Accents are particularly beautiful because of their high mica particle content.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">They come in all kinds of different colors. Premo has the following metallic and pearl colors: Gold, 18K Gold, Antique Gold, Copper, Bronze, Silver, Pearl, Bright Green Pearl, Magenta Pearl, Purple Pearl, Peacock Pearl and Blue Pearl.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">There are some things that you need to understand about these Metallic and Pearl Clays.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Often called mica clay because there are mica powders in the clay to give them sparkle.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">If you just grab a chunk of metallic clay (I used Regular Gold Metallic Premo Accents) and rolled it into a ball, the color will appear to be marbled.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">This marbled look is because the mica particles in the clay are unevenly aligned and are reflecting light in different directions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I show an example of a checkerboard pattern made only from one color of clay (Gold Premo). From the look of the sample it appears as though I have used two different colors of clay.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">These two shades coming from a single color block of clay, is possible because of the way the mica particles in the clay were aligned and how they were cut.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I show some other beads and samples where this color shifting property is used to create beautiful effects.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">One technique that takes advantage of this unique property is called Mica Shift. In the technique the clay is sheeted until the particles are aligned and an impression is made into the surface using a rubber stamp.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Other objects can be used for stamping as well.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">When you stamp an &#8220;aligned&#8221; sheet of metallic clay, the impressions serve to re-align the mica particles and the finished surface has the illusion of being dimensional, even though it is completely smooth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">One way to describe why the mica particles do this is to think of them as ultra tiny bits of glitter or mirror shards.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Mica particles are flat particles that are shiny on the top sides and dark on the edge sides, much like a piece of mirrored glass.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">When the particles are sitting in the clay at funny angles, light gets lost in the random edges and makes the clay look dark.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Where the particles are laying flat, their shiny surfaces bounce the light off and make the clay look bright and shiny.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Rolling the clay through a pasta machine repeatedly, forces the tiny mica particles to lie flat&#8230; making the sheet of clay look all shiny&#8230; because the particles become aligned.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">However, when you cut into the slab of clay and then look at the sides, you are now looking at the sides of the particles&#8230; which are dark.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">In the checkerboard pattern, the clay was cut and pieced together in a manner where both the top shiny pieces and the side dark pieces were shown in the different sections side by side. This made it appear like two colors of clay were used, when in reality there was only one.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Hopefully this all make sense to you and I was able to help you to understand the unique properties of this wondrous clay better!<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><a name=\"video\"><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9plFceQLWv8?rel=0\" width=\"575\" height=\"323\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Related Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=6738#video\">Polymer Clay Mica Shift Technique<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Related Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=18728#video\">Reptile Hollow Lentil Beads<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Related Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=15717#video\">Mermaid Scales Mica Shift Tutorial<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Related Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=6970#video\">Mica Shift Polymer Clay Beads<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Related Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=18932#video\">Joan Tayler Rubber Stamps for Polymer Clay<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Do you have any suggestions for videos on tips, techniques or products you would like to learn more about? Let me know in the comments section below!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">My goal is to help you to learn 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=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9plFceQLWv8\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"external external_icon\">How Mica Shifts Work With Metallic Pearlescent Polymer Clay<\/a><span style=\"color: #808080;\"> &#8230; 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\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/cindy-sig.jpg\" alt=\"Cindy Lietz Signature\" width=\"114\" height=\"99\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/polymer-clay-tutor.jpg\" alt=\"Polymer Clay Tutor\" width=\"200\" height=\"26\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video #630: It all has to do with how the tiny mica particles in the clay are aligned&#8230; and how they reflect the&#8230;&nbsp;<span class=\"cmtcnt\">15<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2662],"tags":[2782,2679,1162],"class_list":["post-19475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pct-studio-tips","tag-mica-shift-metallic-pearlescent","tag-patterns-sheets-color-gradients-mokume-gane","tag-molds-stamps-stencils"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19475","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=19475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}