glazed

I am pleased to report...

the air dry clay...

 is pretty much...

a fabulous new discovery.  In my last post, I asked if anyone had every tried it and what would be a good sealant.  After drying for about 5 days, the beads were hard as rocks but I was concerned about their durability as beads because the surface was pretty chalky.  I threw one as hard as I could against my concrete floor and it remained intact and I didn't even see evidence of any chalking-off.  But all it really takes is some fingernail scraping to get it chalking.  Worse, my initial efforts with sealants (acrylic paint, then glossy mod podge) was ridiculous.  It all peeled off in one big skinlike piece.

A couple days ago I tried gold leaf paint and Sculpey gloss finish sealant.  That was okay.  But there was no real ceramic vibe.  By looks alone, it could have easily been a polymer clay bead.  Not that there's anything wrong with that--I love polymer clay beads.  But the whole point in using pottery clay is that it has a whole different look and feel.

So last night I tried some different sealants, with the idea of getting the look of an authentic pottery glaze.  The beads above are the result.  I used a combination of acrylic paint and Fimo liquid polymer clay.  I've used Sculpey liquid transparent clay a lot, but this was my first time using Fimo liquid.  I love the results, especially that whitish one on the right.  It's got a double coat on, and was cured twice.  The glaze is nothing like I would have thought with polymer.  It feels just like a regular glazed ceramic bead and it's heat set on there, so there is absolutely no peeling or flakiness.  The top of the center one is a bit nutty looking because I had to apply a bit more of the Fimo to the bead hole where I missed a spot the first time around.

I cant wait to experiment with the glazing technique--I'm thinking there are going to be all kinds of fun effects with different applications of paint and inclusions.  There seems to be a ton of randomness now because the beads all turned out pretty different even though I used the same set of colors and general technique.  Sometimes the liquid clay started clouding up in a weird looking opaque thing before I even put them in the oven.  So experimenting is on the agenda.  In about 5 days, since it takes so long for them to dry.  It makes me really appreciate the immediacy of polymer.

This bracelet above has one of my ceramic beads--the gray one just below the finger.  Isn't it weird how they all turned out with different colors?  I wonder if it is just going to be a crapshoot like that.

More bottlecap beer-rings.  Can you guess the beer from whence these came?  Couldn't resist the stars.  Sure was difficult peeling the plastic gunk off the underside of these. 

 But I love all the scratches it made--if the stars weren't present, I would have used the backside as the front.  Maybe with some paint or some type of color enhancements right between the patterned edges and central scratch rounds.  That'll be my next bottlecap adventure.  I also made the earwires for these, since the bottlecap holes were kind of a deep catch for commercial ones.  It was such a cinch--I should do that more.  I used to make all the ear wires I used--but I would get stuck on them and end up spending more time than I did on the actual earrings they held.  I guess all the wirework I've done in the interim has made it easier.

Some short chandeliers with steel frames, my polymer beads, trade beads, onyx and teeny wood chips.
Everything will be listed tonight!