By: ornamento
Art, Polymer Clay, Polymer clay disasters, Polymer Clay tutorials, , , , ,

Mixing Premo with Bacon Bits?

I know that everything is supposed to go better with bacon and somewhere, somebody has already baked Premo with bacon.  But not I, she said.

This post is about failure.  Not only my failure to hear correctly when someone recommended mixing Premo with Bake and Bend (not bacon bits) so it would be more flexible, but also about the failure of my experiment to make an easy-off-easy-on flexible bangle out of polymer.

I know, I know, there are dozens of ways to do it and I have in fact make a few bangles myself quite successfully.  Still, when a new possibiliy for ruining clay comes my way, I jump at it. <Ahem>  Shall we begin?

 

 

Ex1
I began by extruding 10 inch hollow polymer tubes and baking them for an hour.

 

Ex3
Then I rolled out a sheet of clay on the pasta machine on #3 and textured it to hide the inevitable dings.
Ex4
I placed the clay textured side down on a tile, arranged the tubes and filled in the middle with a sheet of clay rolled on the thickest setting.
Ex5
I folded the ends of the clay over the tubes.
Ex6
And coaxed them into place.
Ex7
I used my tissue blade to move the clay as dinglessly as possible.
Ex8
I was able to smooth everything pretty well. I used Genesis Medium to make sure everything was adhered. After baking for another hour, I tossed the strip into some ice water to cool.
Ex9
The ends trimmed off to show the hollow tubes.
Ex10
I threaded memory wire through both tubes. The clay was super flexible and it was not difficult to curl it to accommodate the wire.
Ex11
But I had wire ends to contend with and the bracelet was a bit too short to accommodate any kind of closure. So I decided to cover the ends with fresh polymer and rebake the bracelet
Ex12
Aside from the wacko colors, I managed to shape some clay around the wire ends. The ends were embedded in the clay and I used the Genesis Medium to attach everything.

 

I put the bracelet into bake and it was then that my troubles began.  The mess you see below is what came out of the oven.

 

Ex13
Oddly enough, the clay on the inside of the bracelet is unaffected and  the clay is so flexible I can bend the bracelet back on itself without the inside clay cracking.  So what went wrong?

Looks like it’s  back to the drawing board!  Suggestions welcome.