Tutorials for Polymer clay techniques, wire wrapping and beaded flowers: 2007

Here is the link to the pics of the beads I tumbled in my National Geographic tumbler. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunsire/sets/72157602127918224/ It's a toy but works fantastic not just for tumbling beads but tumbling copper chain. I tumbled the beads DRY, no water at all, washing them in soapy water between each tumble. I also washed and thoroughly dried the tumbler too between each sanding. I started with a quarter of a sheet of 360 wet and dry, ripped into small pieces. I placed the cup full of beads into the tumbler with the bits of wet and dry and tumbled for 1 & 1/2 hours. After washing the beads and tumbler in hot soapy water I thoroughly dried both and ripped up a quarter of a sheet of 400 grit, tumbled again as before for 1 & 1/2 hours and washed and dried again. I did this for 600, 800, and 1200 grits but for them I let them run for 2 hrs.
I then used my converted bead holder ( I adapted a clamp to save on sore fingers this method is also in my flickr site) and polished them using my home made polisher made from cut out circles of car polishing cloth (looks like felt). No more laborious sanding beads from now on. Just one other thing, I picked up a pendant I had disgarded by accident when first starting the sanding off so I continued putting it in for each sand. It sanded pretty good not as good as the beads but I thought I might mention it.
As to the copper chain maille I used just dry rice and within half an hour the copper was gleaming.

FOPALS (faux opals) the Joyce Dunsire Jones way.

This picture does not do these fopals justice.

This is one of my fopals in my first attempt at an Eni Oaken ring it doesn't show the true depth of colour but then as you will find as you go through this tutorial, i'm no photographer.

This is my method for faux opals, I have seen countless tutes on faux opals but none of them have the real depth of colour of our Australian opals and in all honesty mine don't come close, yet I like them just the same. The ones I'm showing here are my interpretation of the most colourful of the Australian Opals. For these I used Jones Tones Glitter in the super fine range, bought in Spotlight. I tried the tiny round glitters in the fine range but these still give a very fake look to the finished cabachon.
Layers of varnish give depth of colour to these fopals and I have tried two types. The Fimo Gloss Lacquer and Cabots Chrystal Clear Gloss. I prefer the latter even though when I saw the effect Fimo had on the early stages of making a fopal, I thought 'eureka' then I calmed down after playing around with it the surface dried too quick and wrinkled and being oil based the mess wasn't worth it. It really needs to harden off before applying the next layer although I have heard there is a water based one but I had to use what was on hand and Fimo is a bit pricey to waste.

Cabots is my choice of varnish because it is water based and therefore easier to clean off and also you can play about with it just that little bit longer before drying and I did notice in K Mart where I purchased mine that they had an even clearer one so I might give that a try later down the track. Enough waffle here's what you will need. Since posting this tute I have tried Sculpey Glaze and am loving it, it is worked exactly the same as Cabots but take a little longer to dry. the only drawback is that it doesn't harden off as good as Cabots so if you want your fopal to be really hard wearing then Cabots is the thing.

These are the glitters I used but you may find others will work just as well.

A word about glitters, they get into everything you so much as sneeze and you have a veil of them all over the place. It might look pretty but even your clothes take on a different look so make sure you cover any of your clay things that will be used for other claying, because I can guarantee you that one tiny piece will show up in your next project and ruin it.

1. Cabot's Chrystal Clear Gloss Varnish (water based) or Sculpey Glaze. (Gloss)

2. Some wide necked screw up containers to put the varnish in as you need to designate a bottle for the coloured fopals and one for the white. Seal up your can and store it well away from where you will be working with the glitters.

3. Yellow tack for dopping your cabachons. (for those unfamiliar with the word 'dopping' it is a term used for fixing stones ready for cutting and polishing in the lapidary world, only they use sealing wax. This will be explained later.)

4. Cotton buds (el-cheapo from the $2 shop).

5. Tissues for mopping up drips.

6. A cheap soft artist's paint brush size 2, or there abouts. The sort you can buy in Ned's, Cheap as Chips or Reject Shop.

7. Black polymer clay. I used Fimo Soft because that's what I work with but any brand will do it's only going to form the base.

8. Toothpicks, (el-cheapo).

9. Jones Tones Glitter, Superfine.

705 Red-superfine

715 Emerald-superfine

Royal Blue (I haven't got the number for this because I bought 'fine' by mistake.)

722 Gold Lites-superfine

10. To work and bake on, el cheapo greaseproof paper, Woolies own brand.

11. An egg-ring, (the ones used in barbecues to stop your egg running everywhere.) Some cling-wrap, and double sided sticky tape. This is to make up my egg smootherer offer.

1. Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper on your work surface. Cut off another small piece for putting tiny mounds of your glitter on.

2. Roll out a small amount of your black clay in the palm of your hand and make a rough oval shape.

3. Flatten it with your finger to a little thicker than the required

depth of cabachon.

Then with your fingers shape into a nice cabacon.

4. This is the egg smootherer offer, which I use on most of my clay work if it needs a nice rounded off edge. As you can see its an egg-ring and this is how it is made up.

Tape the double sided sticky tape right around the edge of the ring. Lay a piece of cling film flat on your clean work surface, (Glad wrap, whatever you wish to call it, it is the stuff you wrap left overs or sandwiches in.) Bring the film up

and stick it to the sides of the egg ring, all around. Once its roughly in place release and re-stick the film until there are no creases and it fits like a drum. With the film side down, lay it over your rough cabachon and hold it in place so that the edge of the covered ring rests on the work surface, this causes the film to tighten up even more giving a very smooth surface to your clay.

5. For this next step try not to pierce the film with your nails. With the tip of your finger and a gentle swirling motion start smoothing down the edges of your clay until they are rounded off just like a real cabachon and put a little more pressure on the top to bring it down to the correct thickness remembering to keep its rounded off shape. There is a tendency to flatten out the tips of the oval whilst doing this even lapidarians do it, remember that the sides of a cab are the same all the way around and unlike real stones which can be ruined by over doing it, we in the clay world can rectify that particular problem in seconds, so if this happens squish it up a bit and re work to smooth it out. If your film starts to sag at any time, release and re-stick it back in place.

Check it out for shape and thickness. Make up a few more using just the same method but of different sizes, they have to be baked so you might as well do a few at a time that way you may find that each time you do one the next gets better.

Just a quick word on the placement of glitter colours. Don't mix them all together you need to keep the essence of the colour there. By all means overlap colours onto your cab but not to the extent that you can't pick out a colour's placement.

8. Onto a small piece of greaseproof paper pour out a blob of glitter in each of the three main colours. The red, green and blue are your main colours the gold is only used to add some extra oomph to it and it must be used sparingly or it takes over and you loose the opal look.

9. Using a separate cotton bud for each colour pick up one colour and roll it gently onto your unbaked cabachon. Do this in about three places before picking up the next colour and do the same with them. When it comes to the gold you can just gently tap some off here and there over the other colours, please, please do not be tempted to add more, you can always do that later but at this stage you want your main colours showing. If you haven't covered all of the cab don't worry the main part comes later and will soon cover any clay showing. The aim is to get it started with colour. Repeat for all the other unbaked cabachons then on a greaseproof lined tray bake for 30 mins.

10. Sorry about the pic but this is what mine looks like before they are baked.

11. After they are baked leave them to cool off and now for the fun part.

Dop them.

For the small cabs I use toothpicks with one sharp end broken off. For the larger cabachons I use a piece of thin dowelling. (Somewhere amongst my Yahoo pictures and way back, I did a quick tute on this for sanding and polishing clay pendants and no-one would believe they would work.)

12. Soften up the yellow tack and form a piece into a little ball . Pic (a) place this on the broken end of the toothpick and mold it to the wood. Put your baked cabachon on top and press it down onto the yellow tack. Pic (b) Use your nails or fingers to mold the tack to the back of the cabachon so that it is completely air tight, pic (c). Do this for the others too because once you start playing with the glitters believe me they will get into everything and tack doesn't stick as well when its impregnated with glitter. The fopals in the pictures are really small and you don't need as much tack as in the pics, only a little is needed but I wanted you to see clearly, how they are attached.

b. c.

13. Dip your paint brush or finger into the designated container of varnish and smear a bit over the surface of dopped cabachon not too much just enough to give it a tacky surface.

Look I'm going to refer to the cabachon as a cab from now on save on typing.

14.

On this damp surface and using your brush, add some more of the three main colours again overlapping but not covering the next colour. You don't have to clean your brush or fingertips as you add these colours because on the varnish wet brush or finger you'll find that the last colour you dip it in predominates.

At this stage you should be able to see if you need some more gold but you don't have to worry you can always add some later if indeed it does need it. It definitely needs that extra oomph but it can be over done and just turn out to be a bit of clay with lots of pretty glitter on it instead of an opal effect.

15. Here's the messy part to make sure you're surface is fairly even, tap the glitter down into the varnish, which should only be tacky by now and if more colour is needed use your sticky finger to add more. Don't dwell on this step too long or it will dry up.

16. Next take your cab and dip it in the Cabots just enough to cover to the bottom of the edge of the cab.

tap it gently on the edge of the container while you swirl it around to keep the varnish on the move. Work quickly this is quick drying stuff and if you linger too long it will stop dripping off and form wavelets, which will ruin your cab.

17. Stand it upright in a block of polystyrene making sure it is level at the top. The varnish will now flow evenly to the sides and this is where you can use tissues to genly wipe away the drips formed underneath the cab. Then leave it to dry.

18.

This is what it will look like all dull and uninteresting but just you wait until it dries off. Sculpey is crystal clear straight away so you will see the fopal to greater effect.

19.

This pic doesn't do them justice. At this stage you have to decide if you want to add more colour. If not just repeat dunking into the cabots and leaving to dry until you have at least four layers of clear varnish. This gives it the depth of a real opal. Leave for a few days to make sure that the varnish is completely dry and remove yellow tack by using your finger nail to separate it from the varnish build up, once this is done you can then ease the tack away from the back. Carefully sand back the build up of varnish and either re varnish or use super glue to stick it to a prepared background.

I will take a picture of the ones done with Sculpey Glaze and insert it later when they are finished then let you decide which one you prefer.

The only thing I don't like about Sculpey Glaze is that it dries very similar to the Liquid Sculpey a bit rubbery and is a little harder to sand on the back once it is finished but that's no big deal if you are mounting it onto a baked background.

You may be able to make out the white fopal I'm working on and if I get a reasonable result I will put that tute in as well because I am working in a slightly different way with this one. Hope you understood and hopefully enjoy trying this one let me know and hugs to you all, Joyce.