Polymer Clay Canes & Things

While waiting for my order of white Pardo Art Clay to arrive I made a few canes using a variety of colors. I got the colors for this one by adding a little brown to orange,  a touch of black to yellow to get the lime and a touch of brown to yellow for the mustard yellow.  

Click on the photos for a closer look. 

Until now I've found the Art Clay very easy to condition however I ran into a problem with the black clay. I opened a new package of black clay, cut slices a little wider than the #1 setting on the pasta machine.  When I ran it through the PM it was very crumbly and got more crumbly each time I put it though the PM.  I then put it in a plastic sandwich bag and tucked it in my bra to warm it up.  The warming up helped but the rollers on the PM were cold.... my craft room was a little chilly ( I'm being stubborn about turning on the furnace)  and once the clay cooled off it was crumbly again... weird huh? I finally coated it with a little Kato liquid clay, let it sit overnight, and tried again. Much better but still a little crumbly.  When I conditioned the rest of the block of black clay I added a slice of translucent and that made a big difference. Now I'm wondering about the shelf life of this clay or if it may have been partially cured in the mail.  I would love to know if anyone else has had any problems conditioning the Art Clay and if so, how you solved the problem. 

This is a pendant I made with the cane ends.  

For this cane I tinted translucent Art Clay with alcohol inks.  The cane is cool looking but when I baked a couple tiles the colors didn't show up very well, they were way to dark.... I forgot to take a photo of the dark tiles.

I cut a couple thick slices of the cane and ran it though the PM to the #6 setting to make the tiles for the earrings. Since they are thinner and the the pattern is bigger the colors are more pronounced.  For the pendant I backed the cane slices withe crackled silver leaf over black clay. 

This is how the earrings look with light behind them.

I got the colors for the  stripped cane by mixing left over clay from the other canes and then outlining in black.  The colors for the cane on the left are mixes of blue, magenta and violet added to beige.

These pieces are made with the cane ends and left over pieces from the striped cane.

I still had small amounts of the translucent clay that I tinted with the Pardo Metal paints. I made a small cane and used it to make these.  I like the shimmery shine.

I am very happy to announce my white clay has arrived... amazing how hard it is to work without white. 

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. 

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. 

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.