{"id":19553,"date":"2015-03-19T03:05:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T10:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=19553"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:34:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T00:34:40","slug":"easier-polymer-clay-mica-shift-technique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/easier-polymer-clay-mica-shift-technique\/19553\/","title":{"rendered":"An Easier Way To Do Polymer Clay Mica Shifts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=19553#video\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin: 0px; border: 0pt none;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/images\/blog\/2015-03\/19-90642-mica-shift-tutorial.jpg\" alt=\"Mica Shift Tutorial - Polymer Clay Tutor\" width=\"255\" height=\"146\" \/><\/a><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Video #642:<\/span> Most everyone says to bend the blade while shaving your shifts&#8230; <em>not me! Instead&#8230;<\/em> try bending the clay!<\/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;\">A little while ago, I did a video on How Mica Shifts Work With Metallic Pearlescent Polymer Clay. The link to that video is posted just below the video in today&#8217;s post.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">What we talked about in that video was how the little shiny particles in the metallic clays and the pearl clays, will have a certain behavior according to how they are aligned.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">If you haven&#8217;t seen that video, be sure to go check it out because it is really helpful to understand how the this whole mica shift process actually works.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">One of the really cool things you can do with metallic clays is manipulate those mica particles so that they look dimensional, even if the surface of your clay is glassy smooth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I show some examples of mica shift jewelry I have made in the past.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">In order to do this technique, you will need to use a metallic or pearl clay.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I use Premo Accents metallics and pearl clays because of their high mica content.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I demo how to align the particles in the clay and get it ready for texturing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The demo continues using a Sculpey Texture Sheet for adding the pattern into the clay.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The raised areas of the textured sheet are then sliced off very thinly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">One trick for easily shaving off the top layer of clay off is to stick your sheet to a rounded surface such as a bottle or jar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">So instead of bending your blade to shave your mica shift sheets&#8230; you bend your clay.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Make sure not to cut deeper than the deepest area of the stamp.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Once all the top layer has been removed, you can smooth the sheet out by running it through your pasta machine, starting at the setting you rolled the original sheet with&#8230; and then dialing down one setting at a time until the surface is smooth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">This mica shift sheet can then be layered onto other clay or projects to make pendants, beads, decor items, or whatever you want.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">This technique benefits greatly by a good sanding and buffing after baking to bring out the rich sparkle, depth and shine.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><a name=\"video\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Mp0gCvlwGRs?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=19475#video\">How Mica Shifts Work With Metallic Pearlescent Polymer Clay<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Related Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=6738#video\">Polymer Clay Tutorial Mica Shift Technique<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Related Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/?p=15717#video\">Mica Shift Mermaid Scales Polymer Clay Tutorial<\/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 Bead Polymer Clay Tutorial<\/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=Mp0gCvlwGRs\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"external external_icon\">Free Polymer Clay Mica Shift Mini-Tutorial (With A Twist)<\/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 #642: Most everyone says to bend the blade while shaving your shifts&#8230; not me! Instead&#8230; try bending the clay!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2663],"tags":[2782],"class_list":["post-19553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pct-mini-tutes","tag-mica-shift-metallic-pearlescent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19553","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=19553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}