Polymer Clay tutorials

Polymer Clay Videos on YouTube

By: ornamento.blog April 21, 2022April 20, 2022

Art, Polymer Clay tutorials, Polymer clay video, YouTube, YouTube Videosalgorithm, Art, Donna Kato polymer clay, Polymer Clay Tutorial, YouTube polymer clay tutorialLeave a Comment

I have gotten back into polymer clay after a couple of years on hiatus. I’m always looking for new polymer clay ideas and YouTube is loaded with polymer clay tutorials. So every night, after my husband has gone to bed, I pour myself a glass of wine and Boris and I plop in front of the TV and troll YouTube for new videos.

The problem with YouTube is the algorithms it uses can actually limit the videos is recommends to you because of the way the algorithms work. I am not going to pretend that I know how to beat the algorithms. What I have found, however, is that if you subscribe to any channel with videos that interest you, you will get a wider variety of new recommended videos in your feed. Subscribe to the channels for those videos and you will get an ven wider array of recommendations. And on and on.

I have finally started to get new (to me) polymer videos from Europe and Asia which, while not always in English are easy to follow, and sometimes subtitled. Lots of interesting stuff. Here’s some stuff I’ve found.

Donna Kato has a new channel and is adding new videos to it steadily. Much of the material is basic but she presents it in the inimitable Kato way and you always learn something new. The video below is part of a series on how to make hollow carved beads.

Sona Grigoryan from Spain

Ludmila Bakulina, Ukraine by way of Thailand

From Sandartes, hollow translucent beads. I always wanted to know how to color translucent clay without making it opaque. Now I know.

Watch a few videos and get your creative juices flowing.

Some New Polymer Clay Products to Try

By: ornamento.blog April 6, 2022April 7, 2022

Art, Clayathon, Donna Kato, Kato Polyclay, Polymer Clay, Polymer Clay tutorialsKato Blackout Clay review, Mixing Kato and Premo clay, New Polymer clay products, Polymer Clay TutorialLeave a Comment

People are always asking me what’s the best polymer clay to try, where can I get ideas for polymer clay projects, where can I buy polymer clay, and what are the best polymer clay tutorials?

The best polymer clay for you depends on what you’re using it for. Everyone knows that Sculpey III is soft and not very durable when cured. But it comes in a rainbow of colors. It’s best suited for children’s projects.

Cernit is becoming more popular in the United States and for a good reason. The array of colors are stunning, and it is sturdy and beautiful when cured properly.

Kato Polyclay is known for its strength and ability to hold its shape making it ideal for caning. I’ve used Kato clay in the past with great success. It can be a little challenging to condition, but the results are worth it.

I generally use Premo Sculpey which is durable, flexible, and very strong when properly cured. I blend my own colors, although they do have a large number of colors for people who don’t care to mix their own.

You end up with scrap when you work with polymer. There’s really no such thing as “waste clay” because everything can be used. But sometimes I forget to separate my colors (here’s a video showing how that’s done) and I end up with a lot of mud.

So I was thrilled when Donna Kato announced a new product, Kato Blackout Clay, at Clayathon. (Here’s the video.) Blackout clay turns any color of polymer clay to black. I’m always using black. I was excited!

But was there a problem? Like I said, I use mostly Premo which cures at 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Kato clay cures at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. How would the blended clay hold up if I mixed them together? My friend Patty came over the other week and mixed up a bunch of clay and we tested. Here are the results.

We mixed Kato Blackout clay with Premo. The Kato was 12.5% by size. (I trust Patty on this. She can recite Avogadro’s Law from memory. And it’s been a long time since high school.) She cut out 1 1/2 ” circles of thicknesses ranging from #1 on my Atlas pasta machine (about 1/8″) to #9 (thinnest setting). We baked them on a tile at 275 F for an hour, let them cool, and then I tried to destroy them. I could not.

As you can see, I was able to bend each circle almost in half. I don’t have a picture of the thinnest disc, but believe me, it didn’t break. I don’t recommend you do this with all of your clay, but I wanted to see how well the Premo and Kato Blackout clay worked together. The answer is, “just fine.”

I also tried a little of the Kato Liquid Gold clay. I smeared some on some previously-cured Premo clay and liked the effect.

You can buy Kato Blackout Clay and Kato Liquid Gold here.

Sights of Summer 2019

By: ornamento.blog August 15, 2019August 15, 2019

Art, Polymer Clay tutorialsPolymer Clay tutorialsLeave a Comment

DWe’re getting to the end of the Summer. In the olden days (before I got married) I would camp with friends at the Philadelphia Folk Festival I usually volunteered so I could get in for free and always ended up on a work detail that involved patrolling the campgrounds all night.

Beadfest Philadelphia is a good way to mark the end of Summer these days. I have never taken a class there, but this year I am taking one with Susan Lenart Kazmer. I took a class with her some time ago and it was a wonderful experience. It will be interesting to see what I can do given that I have been having major hand problems and am scheduled for surgery. But I didn’t want to cancel the class. Worse come to worse, I’ll watch.

Here are some late late summer pictures from my recent wanderings in Seaview at the Jersey Shore.

Seaview20193151401 — Boardwalk food is about all that’s bad for you. That’s what makes it so good.

Seaview20190518581 — No shore amusement park is complete without a Ferris Wheel

Seaview4312608

Seaview20193143242 — View from the cable car

And last but not least a great polymer video from Fiona Abel-Smith that not only covers construction of kaleidoscope canes, but does it using six different clays. Check it out.

My New Polymer Clay Heroes

By: ornamento.blog May 9, 2019May 8, 2019

Art, Le Mutt, Polymer Clay tutorials, TravelAna Belchi, Fiona Abel Smith, Le Mutt, Nepalese Cuisine, Polymer Clay tutorials, Portugal, Travel1 Comment

I’ve always known that I was a late bloomer. I’d heard of Ana Belchi but never knew about her videos and free downloads until I subscribed to Studio Mojo.

I haven’t watched all Ana’s videos yet, but I’m working on it. I was delighted to learn that she also offers some free templates on her web site for the projects she demonstrates in the videos.

Fiona Abel-Smith also has an incredible video where she demonstrates how to construct a 6-sided polymer box and how to cover it with a geometric cane pattern that she explains in great detail. She has a number of other fascinating looking videos that are on my must watch list.

On another note, I recently came back from a trip to Spain and Portugal and my head is swimming with all the beautiful tiles I saw in both countries. I’ll post more on that later.

You never know when a stuffed animal will make you a new friend. Our traveling companion Le Mutt broke the ice when my husband and I dove into a Nepalese Restaurant near our Lisbon hotel seeking respite from the many fish and potato meals we had in Portugal (where the people are lovely but the food not so much. This is a contentious subject.) If you are ever in Lisbon, drop by Himchuli

This is not the first time Le Mutt has made friends in a foreign land.

Mixing Premo with Bacon Bits?

By: ornamento.blog June 23, 2016June 24, 2016

Art, Polymer Clay, Polymer clay disasters, Polymer Clay tutorialsArt, Bacon, bacon bits, creativity, Polymer Clay Failures, Polymer Clay tutorials6 Comments

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.

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.

What I Made at Clayathon

By: ornamento.blog February 20, 2014February 20, 2014

beads, Clayathon, Polymer Clay Retreats, Polymer Clay tutorialsArt, jewelry, Polymer Clay, Tutorial3 Comments

I decided to try making hollow beads using marbles as cores. The technique goes like this: You cover a marble ( mine were 25mm and 32 mm) with clay, poke a little hole so air can escape and bake for 20- 30 minutes. You slice the clay open and slip out the marble. I learned a neat tip from Olivia Surratt. Don’t cut all the way around the marble; think clamshell. If you leave a bit of clay attached you will be able to line up the halves perfectly. Then I glue the bead back together with cyanoacrylic glue. You can also use Genesis Medium and pop it back in the oven for a bit to set it.

Marbles covered with white clay before baking

Finished bead. I got the texture from rolling the bead in salt before baking.

Beads covered with zig zag canes before going in the oven. After they come out. I sand and buff.

Some of the finished beads strung with bicones and spacers

You must admit she looks stunning with or without the beads!

For more Clayathon pictures, press HERE

Happy Happy!

By: ornamento.blog June 27, 2013June 26, 2013

Art, art, creativity, crafts, inspiration, inspiration, Personal History, Polymer Cafe, Polymer Clay, Polymer Clay tutorialsinspiration, Polymer Cafe, Polymer Clay, Tutorial5 Comments

Happy Bracelets combine beads with flexible tubes of polymer clay. You can flex and bend the bracelets and the clay doesn’t crack (Ok, OK, it probably will crack if you go at it with a jackhammer or drive over it with a monster truck. What I mean is that the clay in the bracelet won’t crack with normal wear.)

I made my very first Happy Bracelet at Clayathon and was so excited to discover another side to the so-called flexibility of polymer clay that I wrote a blog post about it. People were curious about how I made them, and I promised to write a tutorial.

And now I am happy to announce that a complete Happy Bracelet tutorial

13BraceletwithDangle

Is in the August 2013 issue of Polymer Cafe

Thank you Anne Huizenga and Polymer Cafe!

And last but not least, the winner of bead giveaway number three
(drum roll please . . . .)

is ZanC!

What I learned at Clay Carnival Las Vegas 2011

By: ornamento.blog December 8, 2011December 8, 2011

Art, Las Vegas, Polymer Clay, Polymer Clay conferences, Polymer Clay Retreats, Polymer Clay tutorialsArt, Clay Carnival Las Vegas, Polymer Clay2 Comments

I learned that Las Vegas is stranger than I remembered

I learned that normal people will pay a lot of money to get married standing in a fake gondola floating in a man-made canal.

I learned that grown men with beer bellies become Roman Gladiator impersonators if they stand in the chilly night air clad only in underpants (briefs-not boxers), the appropriate helmet and sandals.

I learned that I do not have to go to Hawaii to see a volcanic eruption, and that I can even drive past the volcano while it is going off.

I learned that in Las Vegas, there is an impromptu Elvis Impersonator convention every day of the week.

I learned a lot about polymer clay from a great bunch of teachers. I met wonderful people from all over the world. I had a marvelous time. OK, OK, maybe I didn’t do shots with some Japanese guys I met in a restaurant like someone I know. But I did have fun.

And I learned some new polymer clay techniques including how to built a sturdy hollow form (Beach Bangles); how to make a pendant that is also an elegant closure (Sorbet Pendant); and a cool way to combine baked and raw clay (Desert Brooches). No disrespect to Elvis, but this is the real reason I went to Las Vegas. At any rate, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The pictures below show what I made in the classes. Some projects turned out better than others, but I learned a lot in Las Vegas-including that it must be hard work standing on the Strip at night in your underwear. No, I really hadn’t known that!

Judy Belcher Spring-y Bracelets

Leslie Blackford Le Carnival Box

Kim Cavender Wood Gone Wild

Natalia Garcia de Leaniz Funky Desert Brooches

Donna Kato Squash Blossom Pendant

Daniel Torres Mancera Beach Bangle

Sylvie Peraud Colorful Pendant

Bettina Welker Sorbet Pendant

For descriptions of the Clay Carnival Las Vegas 2011 classes, go to the Clay Carnival Blog.

Tutorials for some of the classes are available on-line at CraftEdu.com

Next Week: A short video on Clay Carnival.

Clayathon Wrap Up with Pictures

Clayathon is a place to relax, mix with great people, see the work other people’s work in progress and watch demos of polymer and non-polymer techniques. I saw demos on caning, faux dichroic glass, soldering solver bezels, metal fold forming, and I gave a demo on drilling glass and making ring clasps with copper washers. Lisa Clarke of Polka Dot Creations was there with the latest books and videos and Wilma Yost was there with the latest products from Polymer Clay Express including their Shape Frames that Wilma showed everyone how to use. We had a cane swap and worked on a group cane too. To sum it up, we had a blast.

Here are some pictures.

Clayathon 2011

By: ornamento.blog January 14, 2011January 8, 2011

Art, Community Art Groups, Crafting Traditions, Hand Made, inspiration, Kato Polyclay, Olivia Surratt, Personal Growth, Personal History, Philadelphia Polymer Clay Guild, Polymer Clay, Polymer Clay Guilds, Polymer Clay Retreats, Polymer Clay tutorials3 Comments

Clayathon is organized by the wonderful and talented Arlene Groch and her talented team of South Jersey Poly Addicts, (which is not the same thing as having a dual diagnosis, although Arlene does confess to having an “out of control” polymer clay addiction.) There is something so poetically just about a woman who gave up her law practice for polymer clay and invited friends to come and use her conference room, not for depositions and settlement conferences, but as a polymer clay studio.

If my Meniere’s disease, which has been acting up this week, does not have me Jackson Pollocking the carpet, I will be there along with the rest of my friends. Actually, Clayathon is a great stress reliever so I’ll have my doctor write a prescription.

Here are some pictures from past Clayathons.