Sunday, March 23, 2014

Polymer "Pottery": Modified Faux Ceramic Technique for Cuffs

Thought I'd share what I did last night.  This is sooooo easy, and I love the results!  As I was working on more ceramic effects in polymer, I realized everything I was making was on a flat surface.  I need at least a few brass cuffs for the show.  I didn't think the liquid polymer with alcohol ink approach would work on a curved surface without a lot of dripping, so I decided to see if I could make the other technique work.  I simplified the steps I'd used on the pendants, and I think the cuffs turned out nicely.
The steps are simple:
Condition your clay.  For the ceramic looks, I make my own cream color that is a mixture of white, pearl and small (tiny) amounts of ecru and yellow.  Rolled out to a thickness of 2 (Atlas), the clay fits well on the channeled cuffs.  A texture or design can be imprinted on the clay first, then a strip can be cut out and placed on the cuff.  Alternately, the clay can be placed into the cuff, and then impressed with a design.  Be sure to use a release if your texture plate requires one.  Once the clay is pressed into the cuff and the edges and ends are evened and pressed in, the fun part begins.
Of all the various color techniques I'd been using doing the faux ceramic look, I found using pastels the most fun.  The tutorials and ideas I'd found suggested using your finger to apply the chalk. However, that approach sometimes left prints or made a spot of color that was too large or dark for what I wanted, so I decided to use small paint brushes to add the color to the design.  The first photo shows two cuffs after the pastels have been added and the cuff baked.   Each cuff has 5 or more colors.  I found that the results looked different if all the brush strokes went in the same direction, or if different colors were laid on in different directions. Experiment!  The second photo is the same 2 cuffs after being sprayed with PYM2. I liked both looks, but wanted to be sure the pastels were protected against wear. Easy, fun, and and definitely ceramic-like.
  

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks so much! They are rather easy to make, and a lot of fun to wear. I do hope you give the ceramic look a try sometime.

      Delete