Glazing results...

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NOTE:  Each time you see the word, "Fimo" in this post, imagine a big line through it crossing it out and the word, "Kato," following it.  Kato, Kato, Kato.  See above post for details. Carry on...

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Last night I glazed most of the air dry pottery beads.  Here are the results...

 I've got them in four sets.  The top ones in the above photo have different applications of a combo of white and black acrylic paint, and black mosaic grout in a base of Fimo liquid polymer clay.  The middle two strands have white and pastel acrylic paint in the Fimo base, with some post firing applications of grout and paint.  The bottom strand is blue and black in the Fimo.

 It was extremely labor intensive.  The detailing on each bead--there were a couple that I probably spent over an hour on EACH, altogether.  Maybe that's normal for certain types of beadmaking?  My experience is with polymer clay and I have never, ever spent even close to that amount of time on a single bead.  Some require multiple processings, like the faceted beads, but it's very straightforward and there is no going back to get this little spot, then again, and again....

 With the glazing protocol I've got going with these, it's like that.  Every single minuscule microscopic spot has to be well covered with the Fimo.  It sounds straightforward, but you'd be surprised.  I know I was.  The liquid likes to run, so you have to be careful it's very evenly applied, and that it doesn't touch anything in the oven.  I made special little wire holders to bake these on.  The body is pretty easy to completely cover--it's right around the bead holes that there seems to be some issues with the glaze staying put.  I suppose it seeps down the hole a little, or it could be that just the action of removing the beads from the wire baking things does something.  So most of these have been double baked.  Once the glaze is set, it's really solid.

 An amazing surprise: Crackling!  I couldn't believe it.  It appeared like magic when I smoothed my finger over the almost-cooled beads.  It seems the pressure from my finger is all it took--no paint, grout, or any colorant to emphasize the crackles.  I suppose the paint underneath and the Fimo glaze just cool in a different enough way that it results like that.  Nicely, it happened on the very first bead that came out of the oven, that yellow flower, so I was able to try to get all of them to crackle.  Only worked on a four of them.  No idea how to purposefully manage it.  Maybe with more practice.

Closer view of the crackles.

I think I'll probably be using these vs. selling them.  I'm thinking mainly about pricing.  I want to get techniques down so it's not I'm not spending so much time on them.  By then they'll be 'better' all around as well.

I used the toy pottery wheel tonight in a test run too!  It works fabulously and it brought back all kinds of long repressed body memories about pottery wheels.  It's never been one of those intuitive things for me that I was instantly good at.  I remember now that one of the main problems is centering that damn clay on the disc.  The spinner.  The plate.  The wheel deal.  The tray.  What's it called?  Anyway, that's huge.  Then, it's trying to keep the walls of the clay the same thickness.  I remember that was my main problem.  I'd have these really pretty and unusual pieces, but they'd be pretty ridiculous in a practical sense.  A goblet doesn't need a solid, 500 pound base.  

Hopefully soon I'll have some teeny thrown bowls and things to show!