This week I wanted to try a technique that I saw in my new polymer clay magazine. It involves laying polymer clay with gold or silver foil. You then texture the piece and fill the textured areas with liquid polymer clay tinted with alcohol ink. The liquid clay bakes transparent and the translucent ink over the foil gives the impression of faux enamel.
I rolled out some translucent polymer clay and dusted it with a little cornstarch..I find the cornstarch helps to keep the polymer clay from sticking to the texture plate..especially in this horrible heat when the clay can be like taffy sometimes.
I cut out and textured the heart.....
and realized that I was completely out of foil. I decided to try using Peal-Ex powder instead. When baked, it is shiny and gold-colored, which I hoped would be good enough. I baked the piece to set the Pearl-ex.
And then filled the recesses with liquid polymer clay and Adirondack brand alcohol ink.
I was very, very disappointed with how it came out. It didn't look like it was supposed to at all. First the orange and pink colors both baked down to a melon-ish color. And the pearl-ex didn't seem to be shiny enough to provide the gloss to pull off the faux-enamel look. Or perhaps my texture was not wide enough to get deep well for the ink. I plan to try some more experiments with this technique once I can get to Micheal's and get some foil.
Finished piece...at least my daughter Sara loves my discards!
I've had trouble with Pearl-Ex too- I've tried incorporating the pigment into my inks for woodcuts. Doesn't seem to work for me at all. :o/
ReplyDeleteJen
I really like Pearl-ex for highlights and accents on polymer clay, plus it works great for tinting resin...but this was a new application. I'm going to play around with it a bit..hopefully I can eventually get the results I'm after. We'll see :-)
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