by Kyle, age 6

Taking a little treasure from nature and spicing it up with polymer clay?  What a fun idea!

Click here to head over to the Block Party Press blog to get the tutorial!

[tags]acorn caps, polymer clay tutorial, block party press[/tags]

Memory Brooches by Linda C. Moseley

We’ve had several letters and comments, requesting an easy way to do image transfers.  Well, we opened up the mailbag, and found a glowing recommendation to share with our readers!  Here’s the letter:

My friends and fellow PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists Guild Of Etsy) members, Ilysa Bierer and Kira Slye sell it at their website at www.polymerclayproductions.com and it is the easiest way to transfer images to polymer clay ever!

The paper is for use with laser printers only.  You print your image from a laser printer, burnish it to the raw, conditioned clay and then soak in water for a couple of minutes.  The paper dissolves, leaving the image in all its glorious color on the clay.   Or, you can burnish and bake the paper right on the clay and then run it under water.  The paper still dissolves, leaving your image intact.

Here are a few examples of what I’ve done with the MTP.   Ilysa and Kira will send you a sample to try if you contact them.   I buy it by the 20 page pack about once a month.  I will never go back to agonizing over messy, goopy liquid clay, decal type, or filmy residues again!

via Ornamento

There’s a new post  about the new “Pardo Jewellry Clay” up at Martha Aleo’s blog, Ornamento.  Be sure to check it out if you’re looking into trying out a new clay!
[tags]pardo clay, new polymer clay[/tags]

Tonja of Tonja’s Treasures was lucky enough to get to try out this new brand of polymer clay from the German company Viva Decor.  She posted about her experience with the clay, and included several pictures of her work with it here at the Polymer Clay Central Message Boards.

I am sure we all turn into a bit of a monster at Christmas time right?

I came across this scary delightful amazing character on flickr but you can check out the website

Mealy Monster Land for more information, inspiration and her shop.

Ginger Bread Earrings

If your just starting out working with polymer clay, you might be better off with one of the cheaper ones like the Amaco brands. You never now if you’ll like claying or not.

Then again, you may have to end up buying a better one because the Amaco types tend to get their gears warped. When you get as far as buying an Atlas, you’re hooked, LOL! But, if you’re REALLY into it like some of us, you have to have the Marcato Atlas. They roll smooth without ripples, my Atlas doesn’t seem to get as “dirty” as the cheaper brand. But let me warn you, the Atlas’ brand will do the same if you put clay that is too firm or shoving too much into it isn’t going to help either. Make sure you soften the Kato clay some before putting it in the rollers.

Oh, make sure you are taking a hammer, acrylic roller, let me think, maybe a sledgehammer would be best for Kato brand clay, it tends to be a little on the firm side. Then use all that built up tension and swing like hell. Pretend it’s your husbands head after you just found out he forgot to mail an important letter!!!!!

Happy claying!

http://www.thimble.ca/?p=121 

http://www.squidoo.com/inkjetimagetransfer#module3026266

http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/imagepaper.html

 http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/image.html

I’ve also heard of using the Golden mediums, but I haven’t dabbled that far along yet. I’ve been too busy trying to figure out how the all in one thingy printer works.

Oh, I can’t let you go without giving you an image to transfer … The butterfly images are graciously  provided by CassisCreations  of Etsy. I just love her images! You may need to click the butterflys once or twice before they are an acceptable size. They’ll get a bit bigger.

 OH! Don’t forget about the give-a-way I posted about back on 10/21/08. We will be giving away the newest issue of PolymerCafe this month and every other issue after that. This issue looks a lot better than the last few they’ve put out.  So, go vote at PCC then email me at polymerclay@craftgossip.com with your name and which entry you think will win. I will be holding out on picking a winner until the end of this month. 

I do plan on figuring out what works for me and the right transfer method needs to get here sooner or later. I prefer sooner, in the mean time, I will keep you informed

Have a great weekend

~~Wendy ~~

ps, if you want more links to tutorials or have been looking for one in particular , let me know. I may have a source

Getting back to voting, While I can’t sit here and tell you word for word what’s in this issue of Polymer clay. I will tell you that the tutorials are great. I hope I get to keep it long enough to do the ones I want to try, or well ….. until I have to mail it to the winner sometime this week To be entered to win,all you have to do is go to PCC and vote for your favorite entry  then email me with who you think will win in the PCC drawing

                Don’t forget   Email me at polymerclay@craftgossip.com  if you think you know who will win

Hi ladies (and gents?) !

I was cruising around some old haunts on the web, and one of them was the Poly Clay Play website. When I found this gem of a site I was first beginning to explore clay. I love her site just as much today. Trish Hodgens is the owner of the Poly Clay Play site, which offers tools and unique supplies to help keep the polymer fun going with monthly sales. She also has monthly clubs for both, adults and children. There are free samples of a few of her her club projects on the site. Oh, and there are monthly challenges, this month was the Spooky Tabletop decor. It was a hard choice to pick from the entries . Last month the theme was “bugs”. That looked like a fun one also. She offers monthly kits for her members of the club to use with the challenges. Then, there’s the Yahoo group where you can keep up with the going’s on over there and to vote in the challenges.

The thing that I loved on the Poly Clay Play site; Trish has a new way of doing color-mixing recipes and it also cures the problem you may have of storing them. She calls her system ” Rainbow of Color System” “ The Poly Clay Play Color Recipes & Storage System”

Here is a small description from the website about her new color-mixing product- 

“The Poly Clay Play” website is a superb site for polymer clay beginners to start. The monthly kits have all the instruction you need and Trish doesn’t mind answering any of you questions. She has well stocked supplies of all kind of goodies, I spotted a texture sheet that’s gonna be mine! So, beginner or pro, at least check out her supplies!

A comprehensive kit with everything you need except clay.

Color chips at your fingertips. Easy to See – Easy to Recreate !

Poly Clay Play’s ~ Rainbow of Color System Everything you need to create and save your recipes!
Binder	Recipe Card Pages hold up to 180 Recipes
Printed Recipe Cards for your New Polymer Clay Recipes	Pre-Printed Recipe Card with lots of colors to try
Inventory Sheets	Shopping Lists
Polymer Clay Color Charts	Web Access to New Color Recipes
Step-by-Step Easy to Understand Instructions for making your own or following the included recipes.

Color chips at your fingertips. Easy to See – Easy to Recreate!

 Let me know if anyone has one or gets one, so you let me know how easy it is.

[tags]Polymer Clay – General, color recipes, Poly Clay Play, monthly kits, challenges, website review[/tags]

So that’s why I’ve ordered a Lortone tumbler. It’s the smallest one they make, but that’s all I need for no more than what I do. Besides, I’ve put it off as long as I could. I just didn’t want to fork out that much money on something to do the job when there wasn’t anything stopping me from doing it. Well, something finally stopped me, paaain.

I have been on the hunt for a Lortone (rock) tumbler for a few days now. I’ve scoured the web for the cheapest price I could find. I’ve been up and down the aisles of Ebay a hundred  times these past few days. I didn’t really want to buy from there, some of the sellers try to make major bucks on the shipping charges and that burns my buns. I compared many sellers from there and not to mention all the rockhound stores on the web that carry the tumblers also. Just when I thought I had my choice weeded out, I’d find something else I needed more info on, sizes, models, warranty’s, shipping charges, do I really need this, yes I really need this, no you don’t……..You get the idea, right?

Alright, I’ll get to the point already. I finally made my decision this afternoon and ordered a Lortone 3A single barrel tumbler. It includes a molded 3 lb. rubber barrel with quick-seal closure and a continuous-duty fan cooled motor. (Fan-cooled, that’s good right ?)  The barrel is: 4 1/8″ deep and 3 7/8″ in diameter, the capacity is 2 3/4 cups. Brand new, instruction book and warranty card are included . ( Okay, that sounds like a winner to me.) I plan on having plenty of beads for it to sand for me when it gets here next week.

The seller sent me a small how-to email that I’m going to re-read this weekend. Along with the letter and all of the great info that one of our dear mad scientists of polymer clay, Desiree McCrory, has spent countless hours to develop through trial and error, I will become a mad scientist of sorts myself next week. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you out in the cold. I’ll post about it here, you’ll just have to come back to see me if you want to know how I did.

Until then, if you have any pointers for a tumbler newbie, please leave them here in the comments for me I have a Lisa Pavelka DVD that I’ve planned on giving away to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave me a tip on sanding polymer clay by posting a comment.  I’ll have my grandson to randomly pick one commenter on September 10th that I’ll send the DVD to.

[tags]polymer clay, sanding, Lortone tumbler, tumble sanding polymer clay, jewelery[/tags]

I haven’t tried the Magic-Glos yet, although I do have a sample I received at the CHA show I attended a few weeks ago. I plan on trying it as soon as the weather and I are on the same schedule. However, I have ordered some of her products before, like the foils, tins, texture stamps, and blank jewelry settings. The quality of the products I received was par for the course with the prices, which were very affordable for even the most frugal among us clayers, myself included.

I have ordered from this website only twice, and while most of the products are of average quality, I found the level of service lacking in some areas. Both times I’ve ordered, I had at least one item to be missing upon arrival, although they do send a sampling of extra products along with your missing item when it’s shipped. The shipping time also varies greatly and it has been my experience that it depends upon Ms. Pavelka’s show schedule, and it may be more than a couple of days before your order is processed or you are able to get in contact with someone about about your order.

All in all, while I do enjoy using the items I’ve bought and I like the the other items that are available on the site, I think I may try finding them somewhere else next time.

[tags]polymer clay, Covered in Clay, reviews[/tags]

I just recently started exploring using molds to make beads and have to say, it’s quite addicting!

These are urchin beads that I’ve made using Scupley’s Super Elasticlay MoldMaker.  It’s super easy to use and captures really great details.  You just condition the clay for a moment, press your object into it and bake.  After it’s cooled, brush corn starch into the mold and then your polymer clay.  It’s that easy!

[tags]polymer clay, moldmaking, arts & crafts[/tags]

Studio by Sculpey

It’s received some mixed reviews. Depending on what projects you are working on or what brand of clay you use, it may or may not work for you.  I would say Studio is ideal for stamping, decorative crafts and using with molds, just as the projects on their website suggest.

With that said, I love this new clay.  While it won’t take the place of my precious Premo, I have been having fun experimenting with the stash that I purchased.  (I ordered every color after I tried out a few samples.)

*Color: Love the colors, the sophisticated color palette reduces the color mixing time.  Although I still found myself adjust the colors to fit me.  If you like deep saturated colors, you may want to adjust Studio using a different brand of clay.

*Texture:  Studio has a soft, suede like feel both before and after it’s baked.  It’s lightweight marshmallow feel is fun to play with and conditioning is a breeze.  The clay doesn’t hold it’s shape for beads as well as Premo and I found myself mixing 1/2 Premo & Studio to get a firmer clay for the base beads.

*Caning: Yep, you can cane with it.  I cane with the softer blocks of Premo, a firmer clay is probably better for beginners.  You may want to condition and mix your colors and then let them set overnight.  I like the clay better on day two.  Make sure you use a sharp blade!

*Finishing: I’m a matte finish girl, so I’m happy with a quick sanding to get rid of any fingerprints.  The beads feel almost like fabric or paper, love it!

I’m looking forward to getting to know this new product better during over the next few months.  Here are some of my first experiences with Studio.

My first few blocks of clay were demin, pomegranate, whipped cream and after midnight.  I mixed up a soft color palette in blues and purples.

The demin shades were used in my Aloha Blue beads. 

Studio used with my seashell cane.

Stepping out of my comfort zone with a brighter palette and bold, graphic canes. 

What do you think of Studio?  I’d love to hear from you and see your projects.

[tags]polymer clay, studio by sculpey, crafts[/tags]

I used my Michael’s 50% Off coupon the other day to buy a Makin’s Professional Ultimate Clay Machine which I’ve had my eye on for some time. I’ve heard mostly good remarks from other artists about the machine and because I’ve had good dealings with the company previously regarding one of their clay extruders I decided that it was worth the investment.

The Makin’s clay machine’s tech sheet can be found here.
First of all, I love the size! It has 7 in. long rollers whereas my old machine has 5 3/4 in. long ones. This means I can get a much wider sheet of clay than I was getting The rollers on the Makin’s machine are non-stick and I am blown away at how well they work. Even sticky clay doesn’t stick to the rollers. The 9 different settings for thickness are great. I rolled out a sheet on the 3rd thickest setting and it was thinner than anything I had ever rolled out of my old pasta machine. It even ran through without tearing like it would have with my old machine. I was amazed! The Makin’s clay machine is well built, cranks smoothly and easily, is definitely non-stick and runs a smooth sheet of clay. My first tests were with well conditioned Premo and after seeing how well it did with that I thought I’d give the machine a real test,  I was in need of some hot pink clay which I happened to have in some Kato clay. For you non-clayers, Kato clay is a much harder clay to condition than Premo and the hot pink that I have is crumbly until it’s conditioned real well.  It would stick all over the rollers on the old machine I used, making a real mess. I was hoping that the Makin’s machine would do better with it. I sliced off about 2 oz. of the hot pink Kato clay and conditioned it with my large acrylic rod on my marble slab. Once I had the clay warmed up and moving a bit I rolled it on my slab so it was slightly thicker than the thickest setting on the machine and ran it through with no problems. After a few passes through the clay machine I had a nice sheet of hot pink clay. I was impressed at how well it handled the pre-conditioned Kato clay and no sticky mess to clean.

The Makin’s Ultimate Clay Machine came with some bonus texture sheets, push molds and cutters. I’m going to give the machine a real workout in the next few months with all the spring projects that are spinning around in my head.  We’ll see how the machine holds up, but I’ve got to tell you, after using it for 3 days I’m really impressed with it’s performance. It beats my old machine hands down I do believe that I’ve got to get the Ultimate Clay Machine Motor to go with it

Happy claying!

This post was republished with permission from the author.  Visit Stormy’s blog to read the original post and etsy shop to see more of her work.

[tags]polymer clay, pasta machine, product reviews, crafts[/tags]