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Friday 26 September 2014

Polymer Clay : Things to know and remember : Beginners edition

I recently started working with polymer clay , just a few weeks back and I am seriously hooked.I am no good at it yet but I am surely getting there.The amount of possibilities totally floor me! And then there are some amazing artists out there who are willing to share their experience and help us newbies out.

The Blue Bottle Tree is an amazing place , the explanations are simple and easy to understand even for a newbie.I keep visiting to learn new things.

On a separate note ,this post is mainly for me.I am really bad at remembering things , I mean I forget everything from where I kept the keys to whether I have written an exam.Its pretty bad.What I do  to combat this ,is make lists.They remember for me. All I have to do is remember where I have kept them.So you understand why a floating list is so appealing to me.


As somebody incredibly new to polymer clay, I have found there are "plenty" of mistakes to make.While mistakes are the greatest teachers , it might be more cost efficient and prudent to learn from others mistakes as well.I would like to list here the problems I have faced , the "what do's" vs the "what not to do's ", so that you need not repeat it ( unless you want to of course).I don't mind mistakes so much,  as they normally direct my attention to something I have ignored till then, and usually gives me a different perspective.However I do not like to repeat mistakes if possible.So this is a selfish list ( primarily) ,however I do hope this would be highly useful to you also.

The list is just what I learned so far ,which is not a lot.What I intend to do  is regularly update this by learning from my own mistakes, hopefully learn from the more experienced and ask their permission to share their advice.This is not in any particular order, just as I learnt them.

1.Conditioning is important. Soft clay makes it easier to work with , and once the clay is soft enough , I find that my hands do a lot of the work without much prompting from me.

2.Store them safely and out of the sunlight. I left a half used cane on the table and pretty much forgot about it. Nothing happened to it per se , but it became much harder.The cane sections were easier to cut , but they were not adhering very well to other clay .Another version of the same clay that I had stored in a Ziploc bag , and that in a container, remained quite soft.

3.Clean work space. I am a lazy person so cleaning is a conscious act for me.There were some minute specs of polymer clay left over on the plastic sheet I use, before I kept it away,  I did not really pay any attention to it when I opened it out even though I had made a mental note to clean it and use it, the aftermath was that my clean white clay had little specs of colour. While cute, I eventually had to use them as scrap clay.

4. Effort and imagination.Most of those gorgeous canes ,beads trinkets that you see online are the result of a lot of hard work and thought.The finish that they have ,it cannot be achieved within a weeks time(Maybe you could , but it would definitely be difficult and you might be a genius at this ). I think this statement is relevant " the master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried".

5. Patience. 1.It is very important to let the canes rest a bit before reducing them.
                    2.It is also very important to let them rest a bit after reducing them so that it cuts better.
                    3.Let the beads rest for a while before piercing them, they hold better then.
( I have read your fridge can be used to speed up the process, I haven't tried it yet.Nothing against fridges , I just forgot about it)

6. Utilize the resources at hand : I despaired of not finding a pasta machine but I think a roller does just fine unless you work with a lot of clay.I wanted texture sheets , so I made a few impressions by using the things around the house.If you have graph paper , tape it neatly to your work space and top it with glass rather buying a fancy table for this.You already have a lot of the things you need , just start looking from a different angle.

Monday 15 September 2014

Polymer Clay : Experiment 2 : Simple canes : Bulls eye

One of the most fascinating things about polymer clay is the ability to make canes.There are many types of polymer clay canes , however for my trial here I have chosen to start off with the bulls eye cane.This seems to be the easiest cane to make.

Items I have used: Detailed explanation here.

1.Polymer clay : I have used purple,gold,black and white colors from Premo! by Sculpey.
2.Dedicated cutter
3.Dedicated blades
4.Rolling pins
5.Plastic sheets
6.Tooth picks
7.Aluminium foil trays : 2
8.Binder clips : 2
9.Oven Thermometer
10.Toaster oven
11.Wire : I have used 20 gauge
12.Cornflour
13.Zip Loc bags


Process : These are very simple to make.I have not followed any tutorial here.I have made some bulls eye canes then just cut them and rejoined them.In two places I have wrapped them again in other colors such as black and white.
It does take a bit of time , but its fun :)


1. I cut equal sized pieces of purple and gold clay.Just mash them with your fingers to soften them , then roll it in your palm to make little globes.Once they are merging seamlessly , the clay is conditioned.Store unused clay in separate Ziploc bags.






2. I made snakes with all the separate colors.Then I used the rolling pin to flatten them.Do this till you have two identical pieces of flattened clay. I cut both the flattened snakes into half.

3.I took one half of both the flattened pieces and rolled it again into equal sized snakes.Wrap the purple snake with the gold piece and gold snake with the purple piece.Ensure it gets covered completely,only leaving the ends free and then cut off the extra from the sheet.



4.This is a bulls eye cane.But I didnt like the look of it a whole lot , soI then rolled them into longer but equal sized snakes.I cut of the ends.



5.You can see how the cane has turned out. I got through the very first step when it comes to making polymer clay canes , not very neatly I am afraid.

So that's the bulls eye cane !

Now that the boring bit was done , I had lots of fun re-arranging them,putting on different colored layers and squishing them to different shaped canes.And this is the fun part , this also takes time though.I used basic colors because I dont really how colors combine in polymer clay and these were safe options.


I made a base of scrap clay, thinly sliced the canes I made , stuck them on the base , used slight pressure on the rolling pin to blend it.I then used cutters to make them into even sized bits and baked them.





Baking
I have baked the items between two aluminum foil pans.I pre-heated the oven for ten minutes for 130 degree Celsius, then baked them for 45 minutes. 
Thankfully , nothing got burned and I was a happy girl !








The very first one is lightly sanded and polished by hand , the other two are quite raw.They do not look professional by any standards yet.

Thanks for reading.Your comments are always welcome :)

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Polymer Clay : Experiment 1 : Baking

The story so far :

The first time I stumbled on to polymer clay was during my 12th standard board examinations.I am not quite sure how , but suddenly there were these Google pages full of polymer clay and cool things made out of polymer clay.I saw stars and dreams in a millisecond.Just looking at the fascinating possibilities kept me in check for a little while , then I decided I wanted it.

Accordingly I started searching for its availability in India.Even as I searched  extensively, I drew a  complete blank .There was nothing online and nobody in any craft shops knew what I was talking about.I reached out to some Indian artists working with Polymer clay, I learned that  :

1. They were settled outside of India, where polymer clay is easily available.
2.They have friends/ family settled outside India , who bring the P.C to India or ship it in.
3.They buy it from web stores based outside of India.

At first I was greatly excited by the 3rd option and I thought ,"Wow! I shall now buy it from web stores !".I calculated the conversion charges from foreign currency to Indian rupee." Hmm", I thought",Expensive ? Yes.But not super expensive !I can totally buy this ! ". 
Unfortunately for me , I had not looked through the shipping charges involved.The second I did so, there was a big BOOM ( in my head ). My dreams blew up , and floated down to the earth in little realistic pieces.
You see , the shipping charges were 5 to 6 times the value of the clay.I could not afford it at all.

That rude awakening happened around seven years back.I still found P.C fascinating,I read up as much as I could anticipating the wonderful day where it would be affordable for me.At first ,I checked the prices every few weeks,then every few months , but seeing no remarkable change, I became resigned to my fate and stopped looking at all.

In the meanwhile ,I found cold porcelain around 2 years previously.Its pretty great , and absolutely affordable .The only hitch is that  I don't trust the durability for making jewelry.I found that sometimes, metal corroded in reaction with it.Clearly the metal needs to be put in after the clay has cured (air dried ) completely, but if the metal is not put in immediately , it may not stay in.It was a bit of catch 22. I still love making beads with it , I leave it to dry for a few days and make sure I don't put any metal in it during this time.

Last month we were shifting houses and to alleviate my nervousness and snappy behavior, I started looking at polymer clay art (which calms me down),and somehow I stumbled onto  yahoo answers with the link to where polymer clay can be bought in India.I thought it would be fake or at least misleading ( a lot of links go back to non Indian websites that ship it to India at a very high rate ).This particular link was real enough though, and affordable and I bought a sampler pack !

I was very excited.I tried to make canes, needless to say,it did not turn out great.In the meanwhile I read that toaster oven temperatures are not very reliable so ,I ordered for a oven thermometer to use with  the Croma toaster oven I purchased.
So everything's good till now , except I got impatient. And that's how my first experiment with P.C came in to being.

Note: I did not take any before pictures for the first lot, so only the outcome pics are here for that.
     
Experiment 1 :

Materials used : (Please go through here for a more detailed explanation of the basic tools).The materials italicized are not mandatory for making a bead , I had them so I used them.
1.Polymer clay : I bought Premo! by sculpey. Its a sampler set with 1oz of 12 colors. The quantity as you figure is not much.I just mixed up some colors to use for my first baking trial.
2. Toaster oven
3. Plastic sheets
4. Rolling Pin
5. Dedicated clay knife
6. Dedicated Cutters
7.Oven thermometer
8.Fire extinguisher ( not used , only for emergencies )
9.Some wire : I already had some 20 gauge, color coated copper wire that I purchased from a hard ware shop. If the shop person does not know the gauge,look for a thickness approximating earring posts.Again,any gauge can be used,its just easier to work with this gauge.If you can get regular copper wire ( without color coating) , that is always better
10.Jewelry pliers

If this is the first time you are doing this please set aside at least an hour or two.It is lots of fun , and you know how time just passes by without you knowing anything about it when you are having fun.
I am not going ahead into the making a bead part of it , mainly because I already conducted the first experiment before making this blog and I only have the outcome pics.

What did I do :

1.Condition the clay : The clay is quite stiff when left alone.Before using it for any project , roll it in your hands , or using the roller so that clay softens. Using your hands works out well, because the  heat from your hand  warms up the clay a little , which in turn softens it.Once it becomes soft knead it well, so that all air bubbles ( if any) are released , which ensures that cracking will reduce.

2.Make the bead :I just rolled up two identical pieces of pc in my hand , of a color I liked.I wanted to make a pair of earrings , so I shaped them identically into something vaguely resembling a dagger. Trust me, its quite easy to do.

3.I made a little horse shoe shaped wire piece, and put it into the bead.(One end of the wire is a loop , then it comes together and then separates out).This is not a mandatory step as this further requires jewelry making pliers.You can just poke a hole in the bead and be done with it.

4. Now this has to be baked at 130 degree Celsius (275 Fahrenheit). I thought frankly this was going to be the easiest of the whole job.Oh boy! To put it simply , I set up the rack of the oven , set the dial to 130  and the timer to 30 mins and then I went about my merry way.

5. This was the result :


While I tried to prettify it ,as you can clearly tell, this is an experiment that did not go well.To put it simply it was major burrrn for my "I can get everything done right, the very first time" attitude.It looked like bird droppings hanging from a wire.The whole kitchen smelled really toxic , and I had to open all the windows and doors.While it did put me back in my place ( that of a novice who has no practical knowledge) , I was thankful that it did not poison anyone else and did not set fire to anything.So another thing added to my list : fire extinguisher.

The reason I put up the picture was because there are hardly any pictures of what happens when things go wrong.Hopefully I will get better in time and I wont put up such gruesome pictures anymore.Anyway, to proceed ,

What I learnt : ( After going through search results for " why did my polymer clay get burnt")

1.Invest in an Oven thermometer.Even though your toaster oven may have a temperature dial , its accuracy may be well off. ( My oven is off by around 50 Celsius )

2.Try to keep temperature consistent.Ovens have a tendency to both spike the temperature and cool down sporadically to maintain the temperature on the dial.But this may mean that the oven may heat up to a higher degree than 130 and burn your clay before cooling down.

a. Keep the polymer clay inside two aluminium foil containers ( such as the ones restaurants commonly use for packing food ), clip it and then cure it.The temperature inside the aluminium foil remains more consistent.

b.Preheat the oven before curing clay .I did not know this at all, since I have never used an oven before this.

c.Use ceramic tiles to line the oven and containers that are being used.

d. Do not disappear after putting on the timer.Be physically present so that you may check the temperature to dial it down if required , or to remove the item if it starts burning.

e.I also cook it for an hour at least now.I have found my oven is more even tempered while cooking longer duration's.But do not put pre baked and then painted pieces in for an hour , 10 mins is sufficient.( updated : 19.02.2015)

That's all for today ! In case you were wondering, I did make the beads once more , and it came out all right.I shall update on how exactly I did that very soon.
Thanks for reading.Please do drop in with your comments , they are always welcome.


Tuesday 9 September 2014

Basic tools list for the frugal crafter : Polymer clay

To work with  polymer clay does require a few tools ,but many of those are already available at home.


Basic Tools : Rolling pin,dedicated knife,dedicated cutter,sealant,acrylic paint,paint brush,wire,oven thermometer,polymer clay slabs


1. Work space :  I don't have a dedicated work space for my crafting.So wherever that I am planning  to use as a temporary work space,I use plastic sheets to cover the area ( cut up the spare plastic covers ).Paper will also do for a short period of time but it is not a good idea if you are working on it for more than a few mins.If you are using news paper,the print gets transferred to clay at times , which does not look very nice ( unless that was an effect you were going for ).If the clay is left on the paper for long the moisture will also get leached out of the clay making it brittle and difficult to work with.
The best option is find some ceramic tiles on which you can flatten or cut clay.

2.  Rolling Pin : I use a wooden rolling pin that is easily available. Please do not use this for food. If you have to use this for preparing food , please ensure you use a plastic sheet between the clay &rolling pin , so that clay does not come into direct contact with the wood at all.
Another easier option to flatten smaller pieces of clay is to use a glass bottle , or a metal drinking glass.

3. Dedicated clay blade : While I have had better results from a clay blade such as from Sculpey , a cheaper option can be razor blades. These are not very efficient at cutting through large pieces , but they are very sharp and excellent at cutting small canes & thin sheets of clay.
I have used paper cutters & non striated knife for cutting clay as I started out , and they are not a bad option unless you need to cut canes.To cut canes , make sure the blade is sharp.
Another option is hobby cutters. These blades can be replaced when they break or tarnish.

4. Dedicated Cutters : If you can find some cookie cutters that would be useful.They must not be used for preparing food.Another option is to use the household items that are easily available such as bottle caps.There are some good tutorials on making cutters from soda cans etc also.

5.Oven ( to be used with polymer clay) : You can use the convection oven or a toaster oven. I bought a toaster oven from Croma.
DO NOT USE MICROWAVE.
Curing through boiling water alone will not cure the clay as water evaporates at 100 degree Celsius & clay needs 130+ degree Celsius depending on brands.
 Having a dedicated oven for PC is entirely up to you.I have read about the arguments and counter arguments for  having a dedicated oven for polymer clay. I dont think polymer clay is toxic as long as it does not get burned.
Ensuring that you bake your items in between two disposable aluminium pans helps in temperature control , and in case your object burns , it controls the amount of toxic smoke released into the oven.
I have a stand up oven thermometer  which is placed in the oven. This really helps me with my baking as my oven temperature spikes a lot.

6.Colouring clay : Most brands of acrylic paint can be used with polymer clay without any problem. All brands are different so their properties vary. I commonly use Fevicryl acrylic for painting on clay.While they can be used on unbaked clay , they are more commonly used on baked clay.
You can use old (or new) eyeshadow for a shimmery look.
Soft pastels or pencil colours can also be used for a lighter effect than paint.

7. Sand Paper :  This has to be done after curing .This evens out any uneven areas and brings a clear sheen.. Depending on your requirement you can sand from grit 350 to grit 2000. These are available at hardware stores.
It is recommended to sand under water so that the fine powder form of polymer clay does not get inhaled. Adding a bit of  dish washing liquid eases out the process.

8. Sealant :  I use a water based acrylic varnish from hobby line to seal the effect of eyeshadow / soft pastels  or pencil colors. This is not mandatory for polymer clay which is quite strong , however if you use surface treatments ( eyeshadow / foil etc) please use a sealant.
Do not use Modpodge or transparent nail polish as sealant as they sometimes discolor clay or make them melt.

9.Toothpicks : They are always useful and have multiple uses, such as putting holes in beads & buttons , using it to suspend beads while curing ,making patterns , removing  particularly sticky clay particles etc.These are just some , you will discover plenty more uses.

10. Hand sanitizers : These are great for cleaning clay off your hands & cleaning your workspace as well.

I have been working with clay around a year now , and this post has been updated today (01.07.2015) with what I have learned during this year.I live in India , so I have not mentioned Varathane as a sealant.

The best source for clearing your doubts is without a doubt The blue bottle tree , which is a blog written by Ginger Davis Allman.
Another great source , which is quite bigger and a little bit difficult to navigate is the glass attic.This is the polymer clay encyclopedia.

I hope this was a clear post.I appreciate your comments and feedback, so feel free to write in.
Have a good day! :)

Friday 5 September 2014

The big ONE !

I have been racking my brain to come up with the perfect first article, it seemed kind of impossible.Then I thought, what is it that I look at first,when I visit a blog ? I look at the content.
Accordingly, this first post is going to be about why I started this blog , and what is it that I am going to write about.

Why am I writing this blog?

 I want to get back to writing.
 I love to read. I also used to write fairly well,up until a couple of years ago.Then my life got busy following its own agenda.While it taught me a lot of things, somewhere in between ,I forgot how to write.I tried writing stories, it did not work at all. I tried to write about common place occurrences in my life, but I was always  interrupted by some looming catastrophe (whether real or mostly in my head , I cannot say). Its sad , but I simply lacked the tenacity to stick to writing.
I am writing this blog so that I can get back to writing.I acknowledge that my first few posts (at least!) will have mistakes,( my commas are all over the place already), it may not be very comfortable to read. I am sure it will have a  lot of other issues that I will notice in a while.Hopefully writing is going to be rather like cycling and few rounds around the blog should make me steady again.

What am I going to be writing about ?

Now that is a question ! I would probably write about anything and everything, as long I have experienced it directly.So that includes

1.Cooking : Being a fairly new to this art , I have mishaps on and off. I consider cooking an experiment most of the time. I like to make up new recipes if I can , if not , I go through all the cool stuff  internet gods provide me with. Unfortunately for me, I don't have most of the supplies most of the time. No, I don't plan my menu in advance.Its all instant gratification. As you may expect , this creates a flurry of problems. So I substitute.I read up extensively on possible substitutions , sometimes replacing the substitutions with substitutions of the substitutions ( I shouldn't do that anymore ? OK. I'll try my very best ).It doesn't help that I live in India where a lot of the specific things mentioned are just not available,even if they are, they are most likely prohibitively expensive.On the positive side ,I do live in India,where everything is actually available, just under a different name, and within my budget.

So my cooking posts would most likely include , successful recipes that I have made up , successful substitutions( along with horrible ) substitutions I have tried. Perhaps an occasional real recipe I have followed successfully.

2. D.I.Y Projects : I love D.I.Y ( now onward referred to as diy in this blog ) projects.It is sometimes referred to as, my die projects by my husband and my mother. Frankly though, they are pretty standard diys as I haven't bought the drill and the butane torch yet, I am saving up for them though.It might get dangerous then.

I love to make jewelry. I don't have one particular medium.I get bored quickly, so I do whatever  I am in the mood for. My ambition in life was to design spectacular jewelry.Quite clearly, I am not there yet.I would probably write about working with cold porcelain , trying to learn quilling  and about wire work with copper.I would also have entries about making beads with cold porcelain.I have recently splurged on some polymer clay ( I have been dreaming of polymer clay for years).It has become cheaper in India , however it is still bit too expensive for me.So my experiments there might be limited.

3.Book Reviews : I love to read  and discuss what I read.While I do have a soft spot for science fiction and fantasy, I am genuinely trying to branch out more and that is an experiment for me. Again a warning, as a rule I dislike auto biographies,so I most likely wont be moving in that direction.

Thanks for reading up to here. I am planning on writing regularly,hopefully at least two entries per week.
Since most of these are experiments, I would love to hear your stories too.Comments are always welcome ( even if you disagree) , but please don't use abusive language.

Visit again and have a good day !