How to make miniature cakes and sweets with polymer clay. Learn how to make fun faux miniature food out of polymer clay with one of our new hosts Keira Chapman from the UK. Watch Keira demonstrate the techniques to make cake and candy earrings out of polymer clay.
Watch right here, or get your videocast from a feedcatcher by clicking on the sidebar link that says “Get podcast and videocast here.”
Dye inks are fun to use- they bleed into the clay and change the color, they can be mixed into new colors, and they are translucent which makes them really fun to use with translucent clay. Enjoy the video, and be sure to listen to last week’s podcast for more information.
Thanks for listening! We have put together a great full length tutorial video on using dye inks. Here is a link to purchase our full length project tutorial video showing how to use dye inks and translucent clay to make two votive candle holders- two whole projects in one full length video, and lessons on simple caning too! A great value!
A great big thanks to these three, who met us for the first time at CHA and allowed us to interview them, on camera, for global distribution!!! That’s huge guys. And absolutely no stagefright. It is so great to put faces with the names you know. We’ve seen and spoken together in forums at Polymer Clay Central, Kira and Lynne Ann have swapped dragon pendants, but none of us had ever met. Thanks again- and please visit their sites if you get a chance-
Lynne Ann
Cat
Tommie- well I can’t find a website for him but here’s a great article he wrote-
And, check out our new friend Linda Peterson as well. We got to watch her demo a few techniques at CHA, and she appears in the Amaco video too.
Here is the necklace that Lynne is wearing in the interview, it was the polymer clay first place winner for “Bead Dreams” at the Bead & Button show this year.
Here is some of Cat’s work:
Enjoy the video, and thanks again for interviewing with us!
Surprise! Your video is one day early. We hope you enjoy it, and we can’t wait to report back to you from CHA! It’s been an exciting week as we get ready and hope that we don’t forget to bring anything with us!
Last week, we talked about pigment inks and now you get to see them in action, being stamped, rubbed, painted, and mushed onto and into polymer clay. We used Tsukineko Brilliance Dewdrops, which are small but thick and juicy stamp pads. They have a pointy edge so you can really get them where you want them to go, and a broad end for bigger areas.
We have created a full length video tutorial that you can follow along with to make a lightswitch plate cover for your home. This technique can be adapted to create so many other things- like journal covers, covered tins and boxes, and anything else you want to cover with clay.
Click here to subscribe and watch.
We would like to take a moment to gently remind you to give us a review wherever you pick up your video and podcasts- itunes, meefedia, youtube, google videos- they all have a review system in place and it would really help if our audience members started telling others how they feel about the show. And, if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, sign up now and you’ll get our August 1st mailing! Thank you and we’ll talk next week!
In this third edition of Polymer Clay TV, Ilysa and Kira demonstrate how to add some flair and flash to your polymer clay artwork using powdered pigments. We show you how to put it on top of a raised area of clay to highlight it; how to use it as a mold release to keep your clay from sticking to a stamp, texture sheet or mold; how to make your own pigments from chalk, pastel, or makeup; and other types of powdered pigments available at the store. We demonstrate the Pink-Gold powdered pigment available in our shop, beautiful on black clay or colored clay. And finally, we show you how to use pigments as an inclusion- this means putting it inside the clay to change the actual color of the clay from the inside out.
We know, we know. The sound in this video is a tad off- it’s the only one in our first series where we had a little mishap with our microphones! Chalk it up to our learning curve- we get a little better every time. Just wait till you see #4!
After watching and playing with your clay and powdered pigments, why not stop in at our forum or flickr group to show us what you made, or discuss your learning process, or ask questions if we weren’t clear to you? We look forward to hearing from our viewers! Don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter. You could be a winner, like Cynthia T. who won our monthly prize for June and got a free kit!
You can click right here to play on your computer, or download to your ipod on itunes, or use the link on the sidebar to get our show in other podcast and vidcast directories.
Have you ever wondered how polymer clay artists get such wonderful visual textures on their clay pieces? This episode will show the basics- how to choose a texture tool with a nicely impressed image or design, and how to get your clay into and out of the texture tool easily.
First of all, you need a rubber stamp, texture sheet, rolling pin, or some other tool with a texture on it- and that texture should be “deeply impressed.” What that means is if it isn’t deep enough, it won’t leave a good mark in the clay. Here are some pictures of the stamps we used.
Before and while using your texture tools, you need to decide if a release is needed. If your clay is too mushy and sticky, or if it’s hot and humid, or if your stamp or tool is really deep and your clay gets stuck in it when you practice, you will probably need a release. This is just something that will get between your clay and your tool and keep the clay from sticking inside the tool. Water is a great release with polymer clay because the clay is not water soluble. Cornstarch is another good one- but only in certain circumstances. Cornstarch will stick to your clay and get onto it- but after baking, it dissolves in water. So it’s a good choice if you are going to decorate your clay after baking it. Not a good choice, say, if you want to decorate your clay with powdered pigments or inks prior to baking, because the cornstarch will stick to the clay and get in the way of the other things you might want to put on the clay. If you have some pigment powders you can try using that as a release. Just dust the clay and stamp with powdered pigments and stamp away. You can also try using pigment inks- I stamp all over the texture sheet and press my clay onto it. The ink gets into the crevices of the stamp and the wetness keeps the clay from sticking. Experiment and see which release works best for you!
The full project video is available at www.polymerclayclassroom.com
And here is the Companion Kit, with all the materials and supplies you need to follow right along with the video. Our kits make excellent gifts, too.