Stacy asked what "TLS" was when it was mentioned in a
post on CITY-o-Clay. I thought it was a great question because there are a
number of new members and they might not yet know.
By mixing TLS with solid clay for some color
you can make a quick hair do, "swirl and curl" as it were. Here I am
adding TLS to black clay, mixing it up to a cake frosting consistency
and giving Johanna some hair.
When you sculpt a face and cure it, sometimes it doesn't come out
exactly as you want it to. You can file that cured sculpted face to be
closer to what you want, but then you have the scratch marks the file
makes. Fill in those scratch marks with some "skin" colored clay with
TLS and use it like spakle on a dry wall.
The wonderful thing about polymer clay in liquid form is you can cure
it, then file it, sand it, carve it, add more raw clay to it, and just
do anything you can do to solid polymer clay. But since it is in liquid
form you can get effects that are "drippy". Linda is wanting to do a
technique for beading that is a melted glass form called Lampwork.
"Lampworking is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt
rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the
glass is formed by blowing and shaping with a variety of tools and hand
movements."
In order to do that with polymer clay she needed to get polymer clay in
a "drippy" format and that meant taking TLS and mixing solid clay in it
for color.
A lot of doll makers paint on eyebrows with paint and that makes the
eyebrow flat. It reminds me of when women would shave off their real
eyebrows and pencil in some McDonald's arch in place, looking
perpetually startled.
I'd
rather mix TLS with the solid clay of the hair color and slather on some
eyebrows. After curing the eyebrows have a texture because the clay
doesn't "dry flat" like paint. It cures just as you left it there.
There are other brands of liquid polymer clay. The term "TLS" has been
used for so many years because for a long time Sculpey was the only
manufacturer that made liquid polymer clay.
Now you can even get it in other colors. Denise used black TLS to make
the sunglasses for Neo from the Matrix movie...
I saw that sculpture in real life and it is very impressive. I broke the
10th Commandment with that danged sculpture by Denise, who is one of our
volunteers here ... for the new members who might not know.
Lastly, TLS is good to use in lieu of glue. I say "Screw Glue" I got
TLS. When I was making the giraffe color card I used it to put the
little ribbons down on the cured clay card.
If I didn't that little ribbon wouldn't have stayed put.
TLS lasts forever, I mean I have TLS in nearly empty bottles that have
been around for years and it still flows. I just got to turn it upside
down and wait a bit. It doesn't "dry out". When you are doing TLS hair
styles, you can do the swirl and curl, go to bed and sleep, and then
next day the uncured TLS hair style is where you put it. It also will
not "melt' in the oven and slither down the back of your doll's head.
Some thought it might.
So, that's just some of what you can do with TLS. It's a worthwhile
investment to get an 8oz bottle for your worktable. You never know where
you're going to use it, but if you didn't have it around you'd never get
to find out how to use it.
I'll use this post as a new "review" page. I thought I had a TLS page up
on my website already, but evidently not.
http://www.norajean.com/Food/Samples/BiscuitsGravy.htm
