More Pardo Experiments

I am almost out of the Pardo Art Clay that I purchased at Hobby Lobby so I placed an order with Poly Clay Play and am now anxiously awaiting it's arrival. Unfortunately her supplier is out of white so the white I ordered is on back order..... hard to do much without white but I will do my best.  

As you can see the translucent that I tinted with the Pardo Green Metal Paint is no long translucent but it is a pretty pearly green. I put it though the pasta machine to the thinnest setting (#9). I wanted to see how stamping with ink would work on the clay. The larger one I stamped before curing and the smaller one with the bird I stamped after curing and then put back in the oven for 10 minutes to heat set the ink.  The one I stamped prior to curing shows up the best.  

Click on the photos for a closer look. 

And I did have success making swirlies with the art clay.... although I did have to swirl twice as long as with Kato or Fimo Classic.  

I made a couple more canes. My flowers are always a little goofy looking but as you can see the art clay holds up well to reduction.  I like the funky cane I made in black and white. 

And here are a couple pendants I made with the canes. I was going to remove the eyelet before I sanded but couldn't get it to pop out so I sanded over it.  On the first one I used silver PearlEx on the top and lower edges and sealed with a thin layer of Kato liquid clay.  I wanted to see how the Art Clay would hold up to the heat gun and it did pretty well. It did start to bubble a bit on the blue striped area on the left side so I stopped as soon as I saw the bubbles forming and was able to sand them off.  I sanded and buffed both pieces and I got a better shine on the one where I used the heat gun.

Hope you found the information helpful. Please feel free to ask questions. If you have been working with art clay I would love to see what you've done with it. 

Pardo Art Clay Necklace

I made this necklace to test the strength of Pardo Art Clay. I cut very thin slices from the previous Pardo cane and rolled two corners to the center to form the beads. I used a pin vise to make small holes in the other two corners for the O rings.  To make the pendant I cut a thicker slice from the cane, ran it through the pasta machine to the #9 setting and then rolled it into a cone.  

Click on the photos for a closer look. 

I used faceted crystal beads, copper bead caps and brown wire to make complimentary links to go with the curled cane beads. 

Close up of the curled beads.  

The pendant is filled with a crystal bead and brown wire with a lacy bell shaped bead cap on the top.

View of the back of the beads. 

The clay held up really well, no tearing or breaking. 

I have more pieces almost finished, just have to do a little sanding and buffing. I will show you tomorrow.  

More Pardo Art Clay

Here is another cane with Pardo Professional Art Clay. This time I tinted some translucent with alcohol ink (the yellow portion of the cane) and used it for the background. This is the cane before reduction. 

Click on the photos for a closer look

This is the cane after reduction, as you can see, very little distortion. It is very easy to reduce and I didn't have to let it rest before reducing like I do the other brands.  The other two are mini canes from scraps.  

 The canes slice neatly and the slices hold their shape. I do quarter turns after each slice to keep them as square as possible. The background is gold leaf over green clay. My photographic skills are limited so I wasn't able to show the depth the translucent creates but I think you get the idea.

I sanded and buffed the pendant tile. I tried to pop the eyelets out before sanding but they wouldn't come out  so I sanded over them,  they look pretty good sanded. 

I haven't sanded and buffed the beads yet. I used thinner slices of cane on the beads so the gold leaf shows up better. 

I also tried tinting Pardo translucent with Viva Precious Metal paint.  I  condition the clay, divided a sheet of #1 thickness into 6 small pieces and then painted with the Viva paints. The first is pearl, 2nd is coral, 3rd is crimson, the 4th is emerald, the 5th is  gold and the last one is a mix of green and blue with a little gold that was left on the brush.  I let them sit until the paint was dry, about an hour.  By the way you can clean the brushes with soap and water. I think cleaning instructions should be on every kind of paint,  ink, or dye but of course it isn't..... one of my pet peeves. 

Here is how they look mixed in. As you can see I also added a piece that I'd made earlier with blue.  Once the gold was mixed it it turned a yucky gray.

I rolled out the colors to the #9 setting on the pasta machine and placed them over clay with different designs. As you can see in this photo the paint takes away most of the translucent effect. The pearl didn't mix in very well. I added glitter to the gold and the green.  Needless to say I didn't get the effect I was going for so I'll have to come up with a different use for the rest of the tinted clay.

When all else fails... make swirlies.  I'll try that tomorrow. 

Thanks for stopping by, if you have any questions or comments I'd love hearing from you. 

Pardo Clay Again

I didn't get tp play with clay as much yesterday as I had planned. Heather came over and we cleaned out the closet where I was storing my fabric... I have lots of fabric. One of my past interests was pillow making, I made lots of pillow so I have lots of fabric, and ribbon and all kinds of trim.  I wanted it moved to cabinet in the basement where it would be more accessible. But first we had to move all the books out of the cabinet where I wanted to put the fabric. Fortunately there was an empty bookcase in the storage room, those books went to auction ... just so you'll know, book don't bring much at auction... but at least there are no longer cluttering the basement.  Anyway, now all my fabric is neatly arranged in the cabinet.

Since we were on a roll we also moved all the vintage linens that were stacked on the day bed in one of the little back rooms. Lots of doilies, embroidered  pillowcases, aprons and  tablecloths. Those went to the basement too but most will be sent to auction.... you do get good prices for vintage linens... and some will be listed on Etsy.

Corny was quite pleased with the cleaned off daybed and promptly settled down for a nap.  It was  bright in there so she covered her eyes.  I know just how she felt, by the time we finished I was worn to a frazzle and needed a nap too.

Okay, back to the clay.  I did finish a few examples.  The bracelet tiles are made from cane scraps. The swirlie tile and bead are from magenta Pardo and for the blue I tinted Pardo translucent with blue metal paint and then added glitter.  I had a hard time getting the Pardo clay to swirl, not sure if it is the clay or me, I was tired and may have given up to soon. I'll try again and let you know.  The tube bead is from scraps and thin sheets of Pardo translucent covered in glitter.... did I mention I like glitter?  The nuggets are Pardo translucent tinted with Ranger alcohol ink. The color is butterscotch and I added a few veins of chocolate with chocolate brown Fimo Classic. The large nugget has been sanded and buffed, the little ones are not sanded or buffed.

Click on the photo for a closer look.

Tomorrow my daughters (I have two daughters, Heather and as Moe calls her not-Heather, her real name is Pathena, we call her Patty)  and I, and any men folks who want to tag along, are going to the  Wire and Art Festival at Carlyle Lake.  I have been anxiously awaiting the festival because the artist I buy Southwestern Native American gourd art from is going to be there. I forgot to show you the pieces I bought from her at the Art on The Square Festival last month. Here are some of the pieces. On many of her pieces she decorates the inside as well as the outside and she finishes them beautifully.  I love her work and am excited to acquire more. 

Don't you love the spider? In Native American lore mother spider taught the women how to weave.

This is the outside of the bowls

This is one of my favorites, the lid is precision cut along the lines of the lizards that surround the bowl.

The inside of the lizard bowl is painted a pretty aqua blue.  

 I told her husband they should open a shop on Etsy, he'd never heard of Etsy but said he would look into it.

More Pardo Clay Projects

I went back to Hobby Lobby and purchased one of every color they had plus two whites and two translucent.  And as you can see, I purchased some of the paints too. 

Click on the photos for a closer look.

 I made these canes. The clay conditioned with ease and reduced wonderfully. So far I'm loving it.  Very little distortion and the canes are easy to slice.

 I used my extruder for this one, the one on the right is from left over clay.  The clay is expensive so I don't want to waste a single bit.

This was an experiment.  I rolled a sheet of translucent out to the #9 setting on my pasta machine. I laid it on a ceramic tile and painted some squiggles on the raw clay with the metal paints.  I cut the excess clay from around the images (again because of the cost I didn't want to waste clay) and popped it in the oven.

 The cured pieces are very strong and flexible. I tried bending it every which way and it didn't break.

Next I am going to try it with the colored clay and see what happens. If the thin sheets are strong enough I would like to use them with wire.  I have a plan in my head, now we will see if it works.

Experimenting with Translucent Pardo Art Clay

A couple weeks ago when I was at Hobby LobbyI picked up a couple packages of Pardo Translucent Art Clay. I also purchased bronze, gold and silver metallic Pardo Jewellery Clay.  It's fairly expensive so I thought I would give these a try before I invested in a wider variety of colors.... though I was tempted to buy one of everything.  

 I started with the translucent.  It was easy to condition, I conditioned it the same as I do other brands, ran it through the pasta machine on the # 1 setting 20 times.  I divided it into 5 pieces and tinted with Ranger alcohol inks.  I let it sit until the ink dried and then used the pasta machine to blend in the colors.  I made a muted skinner blend with the blue, lavender and green with clear between the colors and a second skinner blend with the amber and red. 

Click on the photos for a closer look.

I then covered a sheet of Kato Pearl with silver leaf, ran it through the pasta machine on the 2 and 3 settings to get a crackled effect.  I ran a sheet of the tricolor translucent to the #8 setting and placed it over the Kato Pearl.  Next I cut thin slices of my Jackie flower canes and placed them on top of the translucent.  I smoothed the cane slices by placing a piece of parchment paper over the surface and burnished with the back of a spoon. I then cut a shape I liked and popped it in the oven for curing.  I dropped it into an ice bath right out of the oven...and I immediately saw the translucent begin to clear.  After sanding and buffing I used Pigma Micron pens to draw the curlicues. I found it difficult to draw on a slick surface with a permanent pen... it's obvious I need to practice, hopefully  I will do better next time.  I added micro glass balls in tiny drops of Kato liquid clay and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes to set the liquid clay and the ink.  The frame is black Kato clay painted with PearlEx silver.

 For the next one I used the 2nd Skinner blend, again running it through the pasta machine to the #8 setting. The background is crackled gold leaf over red and I used more of Jackie's red flower cane to decorate the top. I'm not through with this one. I may add more to the top or bead around it.  I love the way the flowers seem to be floating across the surface.

I was very pleased with the Pardo translucent. No problems at all, it was easy to condition, the inks mixed well and it went through the pasta machine to the thinnest setting without any wrinkling or sticking to the rollers. It sands and buffs to a high shine and it is clearer than the other brands of translucent.

Now I am off to try the metallics.

More Canes and Things

I made a few more simple canes and then used them to make a couple pendants.  And of course a mirror image from scraps. I have tons of mirror image tiles, I bet you do to, right? 

Click on the photos for a closer look.

I love these!! I purchased red, blue and purple flower canes from my friend Jackie and used the red ones on these red striped tiles.  Jackie makes beautiful canes... I love her flowers and her kaleidoscope canes are amazing. Do yourself a favor and check out her Etsy shop, The Pleasant Pheasant

Her prices are reasonable and you can't ask for better customer service.