A Review of March 2010

Despite only having the weekends for creative time, I have been busy this month, learning to work with my new chosen medium, polymer clay. It is quite different from the Friendly Plastic, which I was working with previously. You will see by the number of posts this month that I have been trying out lots of different techniques. I have thoroughly enjoyed all this experimenting and during April, I intend to start creating my first proper pieces. In the next few weeks, I hope to make some small decorative photo frames, with polymer clay ‘mosaic’ tiles, and also to decorate a larger, circular mirror frame.

Over Easter, I need to read the instruction manual for my camera. The other day, by accident, I discovered it has a facility for close up shots that I did not know about – hopefully, I will be able to take some better photographs of my pieces, which I have been finding quite difficult because they are so small.

This month I have also read the following three books, which I bought as an introduction to working with polymer clay and particularly for making mosaic tiles:


Book Details


Book details


Book details

Trial polymer clay covered pebbles

Here are my first pebbles covered with a layer of polymer clay - they have worked quite well.

I was a bit concerned when making them that the clay might crack or bubble, or come away from the pebble, as I had not glued it on. However, after baking, the pc has made a nice smooth, tight fit over the pebbles. I will need to glaze the one with the metal leaf, to protect it, but for the other two, I am deciding whether to leave them as they are or to use a satin or gloss glaze to finish.

Thank you to everyone at Clay-Polymer Yahoo Group for your replies to my request for advice on covering pebbles and other recent polymer clay queries.

Art-Brooches featured on the Friendly Plastic blog

What a nice surprise - the two ‘yacht’ Art-Brooches I made from Friendly Plastic are featured on The Art of Friendly Plastic blog today.

Idea for covering real pebbles

This weekend I plan to try encasing a pebble in marbled polymer clay. I acquired some nice smooth, white pebbles last year (which always feel good to hold in your hand) but have no use for them. Rather than create a complete artificial pebble from pc, I would like to cover the real ones, so that you still get that ‘weighty’ feel in your hand. It would be nice if these pebbles had inspirational words on them.

I am now thinking that if this works, it would be a good thing to do with my trimmings, rather than making tiles, otherwise I could end up with hundreds or even thousands of random tiles. I could then sell these ‘inspirational’ polymer clay pebbles, as a low cost item, on my stand at craft fairs.

Amused Creations

Today I discovered Gera Scott Chandler’s blog, which I am busily working my way through, reading every post. I absolutely love her work, especially the brightly coloured pieces, because they so remind me of Friendly Plastic. Gera's 'crackle' technique is fantastic - I have not seen this with polymer clay before. Maybe it is possible to create pieces from polymer clay that look like they have been made from Friendly Plastic (refer to previous post on Sunday March 14, 2010 'Polymer Clay vs Friendly Plastic for brooch designs') - that would be the best of both worlds.

My first ‘ghost’ canes

Caning was something that never really appealed to me (probably because I thought they were just used for making beads), until I saw some beautiful examples of work on the internet, where thin slices from canes had been placed in over-lapping layers – this really appealed to me, so I thought I would give it a try. For my first attempt, I chose to try making ‘ghost’ canes using translucent polymer clay, as I wanted to see how this would look if I rolled it into a coloured clay base.

I made a ‘jellyroll’ cane with white and translucent pc and a simple flower cane with a 50/50 mix of white/pearl and translucent pc. Here is a slice of each of my first canes – I think they are not bad for a first attempt.



Had to keep putting the canes in the fridge because the weather is quite warm at the moment and I noticed that they soon became quite soft on handling, which made them harder to slice. I am not too concerned at them looking perfect, as they will get distorted when I roll them into the surface of the coloured clay.



I just put thin slices on the surface of the pink tile (so the pieces are raised), as this tile had already been baked. I think they look better when they are rolled flush into the surface, as in the blue-green tiles. The pasta machine greatly distorts the shape of the cane, which creates some interesting if unexpected results. Carefully pressing with a roller, equally in all directions, helps to keep the original shape. I will need to practice more to get the really layered effect I am thinking of.

My first attempt at ‘mica shift’

I was quite pleased with my first ‘mica shift’ piece, which is quite smooth to the touch, after being sanded with different grades of wet ‘n’ dry sandpaper. It was made with gold polymer clay and an imprint from a rubber stamp. It seemed a shame to waste the raised parts of the pattern, that I shaved off with a blade, so I pressed them into the surface of a marbled tile I had just made (shown adjacent).

Skinner blend brooch design

Today I also tried an idea for a simple brooch design, using the Skinner blend technique. I started with a blended piece of polymer clay, made with a purple/pearl mix, turquoise/pearl mix and sea green. I have used silver metal leaf in different ways, for the moon and for the reflections on the surface of the sea. The lines have been incised with an embossing tool. As I do not have a silver leafing pen, I have used a silver gel pen (which I read about somewhere) to colour the incised lines. I will have to see what happens to it when I add a pin and backing sheet to this brooch and bake it again.

I intend to coat the sea with gloss glaze, so it looks wet, and also the moon, to protect the metal leaf.

My first attempt at ‘mokume gane’

It is exactly a month since my creative meltdown and I am now happy to say that I am totally hooked on polymer clay. Now I know what medium I want to work with, I just have to learn, refine and perfect my ability with it. At the moment, I am just trying out different techniques, to see which I enjoy the most. There are so many different things you can do with pc, it seems to have so much potential, that at present I can never see myself getting bored with it.


This is my first attempt at ‘mokume gane’. Not brilliant. It looks quite subtle, as I did not use enough contrasting colours in my layers, which I also think I squashed together too thinly. Need to try this again after re-reading the various, differing, instructions I have collected for this technique.

Polymer Clay vs Friendly Plastic for brooch designs

Top row: Friendly Plastic, bottom row: polymer clay

For a comparison exercise, I have tried to replicate my two ‘yacht’ brooch designs with polymer clay, (originally made from Friendly Plastic - Art-Brooch Designs CF034 and CF035). I have to say that I prefer the Friendly Plastic ones for the more rounded, fluid shapes and the metallic colour.

The materials are completely different to use. The polymer clay ones are an early attempt – still so much to accomplish. I may repeat this exercise when I have acquired more skill. I definitely need an extruder gun to get really consistently thin, rounded strips (used for the water ripples) and some more Pearlex powders or coloured foils.

Note: The sails on the polymer clay brooches were quite white after the first two bakings but then I coated the brooch with satin and gloss glazes and baked again for half an hour (as per the instructions). The sails have browned considerably. I could have just put the glaze on without baking again. I wonder if baking the glaze makes it more durable?

Later note: I contacted Polyform and asked if baking their Sculpey Glazes makes them more durable. After consultation with their Chemist, they confirmed that “you would not get more durability by baking the glaze vs. air drying. If anything, the air drying would be better than baking”.