A place to encourage the creativity of artistic minds of all ages. Offering Ideas, Inspiration and Instruction and sharing the work of others who inspire me!
Our one of my many glazing disasters! Thanks late today
I have answers And want to share them with all who will listen!
If you follow this blog at all, Then you may remember my struggles regarding Glazing my polymer clay pieces. Even when I would take the advice of the online Lessons from fellow Artists, My pieces would still end up sticky And unusable. Or sometimes I could sand off all the Icky glaze And use Renaissance wax. But generally, Not too many happy glazing moments In the studio. Even trying to get advice didn't seem to render any solutions. Until today when I was watching one of Patricia Roberts -Thompson's Great polymer clay tutorials. Yay! I Am not Alone!
As I was watching her very informative video about making a cuff bracelet, She shared The best tip about using any type of polyurethane/Minwax/ Polymer clay safe Glazes...In the video of her bracelet tutorial, which I suggest watching All the way through, At the 3:40s mark, She explained Importance of mixing Glazes no matter what kind it is! She even explained why People like me have had so many troubles With stickiness and I assume peeling. Turns out I am not alone, Trisha have the same thing happen. However she learned far quicker than I. Listen to her explain the importance Of stirring. Remember gently of course or you will get bubbles. Don't get me started on bubbles and glazes, argh! Just happy to be able to share this. After all, It's why HeArtfully creating his here, Not just to Inspire creativity, Bike to share the valuable lessons from so many great artists Out In Internet Land. Now Watch!
Please check out Her Video and hear what she has to say about a very important topic. Trust me it is very important, I have ruined more beads than I care to Remember. Don't forget to subscribe to Her channel if you want to learn more valuable Polymer Clay information.
Thank you so much Patricia Roberts -Thompson! You have no idea What a relief your information provided. Thank you for all your hard work and sharing your great videos. It is great that you provide so many tips and tricks to help those who are always learning like myself.
Hope this information was helpful.
💗HeArtfully Creating,
Anita
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Howdy guys! I've noticed that Wednesdays are often referred to as works in progress days. Well, I've noticed that in the polymer clay world anyway. It is where people share pieces that they are working on but are not done yet. So this is my first works in progress Post, I think so anyway. Maybe more like works I thought were completed, but then started to take photographs for my online Etsy shop, but noticed, thanks to direct sunlight and macro photography.... the Tiny little bubbles and flaws in the polyurethane gloss! This time, I thought I was so careful. And some of the pieces have yellow spots. Again, does anyone out there have any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? Too much at one? Should it be a really thin layer after layer? All that then means, the pieces I thought were complete and ready to prepare for sale, are not. Argh!
Back to my works in progress. Been working on textured, polymer clay "dangles," created using my own texture plates/rollers/sheets (Here is article 1, 2 and 3 on making your own texture/image sheets and rollers) , whatever you want to call them. The first piece has, thanks to the inspiration of Christi Friesen's polymer clay art work, where she talks about incorporating inclusions, which is anything not made from polymer clay. I incorporated items like micro beads and a small faceted Glass bead. The surface was then treated with Mica Powder, acrylic paint, and finished with that frustrating water based polyurethane. I thought it looked great at first, but then as you take the photos under direct sunlight, then you see all those darn bubbles...teeny ones!
Here are a pile of some more photos of some of the pieces that I turned into earrings. I think they look pretty great, as long as I don't zoom in with a macro lens! Maybe I am being too picky. Oh
As we create, we are always learning, right? Right! We learn from watching others create as well as from actually working with whatever your favourite art making material is. Or if you are me, you are wanting to learn and try out a variety of creating methods. For me these past couple of years, it has been all about learning the best ways to work with polymer clay. It was love at first sight. Working with polymer clay means I can use colour in a three dimensional way. For the first half century of my life, my favourite art making materials were two dimensional, acrylic paint, coloured pencils and such.
Acrylic Painting On Stretched canvas by Anita Berglund
Treating The Surface Of Polymer Clay
One of the many lessons I have learned from the many great online polymer clay artists was that the best product to use if you want to glaze your baked clay is, water based polyurethane. So I bought a huge can and spent two days straight glazing my recent pieces.
Because I have also learned that it is far better to create my polymer clay pieces as smooth as possible. Unless you want texture. If the surface is smooth, it can be left or barely sanded, waxed and buffed or glazed and look great. However, it turned out that because my pieces were too smooth, the polyurethane on many pieces peeled. I like to test all pieces after my multiple failed attempts at using other glazes such as triple thick. Some end up sticky and gross. In fact, that has been number one pet peeve. Polyurethane, perfect, no sticky icky surface. It was when I tried to see how durable the shiny surface was with my finger nail, that I discovered the glaze cold peel like good sunburn does. Okay, I use to like peeling sunburnt asking (my own of course!). Needless to say, I was very disappointed.
Here are some pictures to document what happened....
This wasn't all that I glazed, but you get the idea... Wanting to know what I did wrong, I researched some more and discovered that polyurethane can peel because of natural oils the is on our hands, so you can use rubbing alcohol to wipe the surface clean of oils. As well lightly landing with a high grit sandpaper first helps it adhere. For me, it just became too frustrating because I didn't research as much as I should have. To Glaze Or Not To Glaze, That Is The Question!
As you may already know, you do not actually have to put a finish on polymer clay. The clay is far more durable than any finish. A coating of your choice (I a sticking with polyurethane used properly) is helpful if you have glitter or some such thing that you feel may rub off. Mica powder like Pearl Ex actually is fine if rubbed on in one layer onto unbaked clay. If you want to cover it before with a thin layer of liquid clay or after baking with a glaze, that is an option we have.
Surface Before The Polyurethane
Personally, after spending more hours sanding OFF all that peelable glazing, I concluded that sanding, waxing with Renaissance Gallery quality wax and buffing or just leaving it as is, will be my choice for surfaces of clay. UNLESS, the poly clay piece is a figurine or something that won't be worn or used like beads and cabochons.
See The peeling? Bummer!
See The peeling? Bummer!
Working On Sanding and Then Waxing And Buffing or Polishing
Working On Sanding and Then Waxing And Buffing or Polishing
Working On Sanding and Then Waxing And Buffing or Polishing
Working On Sanding and Then Waxing And Buffing or Polishing
Sanding Tips:
Because Polymer clay is so fine and can enter through air passages, it is best to sand using wet/dry sandpaper in a pan of water or because I physically can't do that, I have a tub of water next to my work space. Then I dip my sandpaper and piece in the water, lay them down on a towel and begin sanding. If the surface has roughness then starting with a number 600 should work to get the hard parts off. I have to keep dipping in the water because the polymer powder builds and clogs my paper fast.
If your pieces are as smooth as mine started out, 800 to 1000 works and I even have a 2000 grit paper to finish off with if I want.
Without waxing, I personally wouldn't be able to polish my pieces hard enough. I know of other artists who don't wax. They sand and then use a cotton denim or jean fabric to buff out the clay and it gets super shiny. My hands are not strong enough to do that, so I put a thin layer of Renaissance wax and let it dry for ten minutes and then polish with a soft cloth. I love the finish. So if I can achieve a nice buttery finish with my weak hands, anyone can! Imagine what you can do with healthy muscled hands!!
Hope You Learn Something Inspirational Today!
See You Soon!
HeArtfully Creating,
Anita
My flowers are okay with a thin layer of polyurethane. I love this piece.
Here are some great videos about finishes from some of my favourite polymer clay artists: Cindy Leitz- Polymer Clay Tutor: Renaissance Wax
Minx Polyurethane - Oil Based
Should I Seal Polymer Clay?
Liquid Polymer
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