Basic Techniques: Color, Mix colors, condition, press sheet, blend, The "Dreaded" Chevron Flip

8-19-11: A review of the 11 colors I used to mix all the colors I need. It used to be an even dozen but I can’t find raw sienna in my clay stash. Anyway, with 11 colors you can mix everything you could possibly need for mini food, sculpting figures, making faux gem stones, you name it you can mix it.

But how to you keep track of those mixes? You make “Color Cards”. I will show you my color cards and there is a link below to the web section that reviews it in text and digital pictures.

http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/ColorCards/MainGroup.htm

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CITY-o-Clay/ Join me and the other ClayMates for good fellowship while you get a grip on your clay.

8-21-11-Condition-The-Clay

Before you start working with polymer clay you must warm it up and then condition it. I speak only for Premo because that’s the brand of polymer clay that I use.

8-21-11-Quick Mix with a Food Processor

Showing how to mix colors with a food processer, doing the "taffy pull", how to press a sheet, all in less than 5 minutes. You too can prep your clay this fast.

8-21-11-Easy-Breezy-Blend

Giving Judith Skinner credit for the Skinner Blend I take it in a different direction, rolling, twisting, and pressing only a half dozen (or so) times for the Easy Breezy Blend.

8-21-11-Chevron-Flip

The "Dreaded" Chevron Flip is what Razma calls this technique.

First I make a "sandwich of green surrounding pearl and press a long ribbon.

Then I take the jelly roll blend from the Easy Breezy Blend Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFfHj-8yXLs  

and reduce it to lengthen the cane, flatten it with a rolling pin so it's a "fat ribbon".

The "sandwich" sheet is laid over it and trimmed.

Then the fat ribbon is sliced into sections and stacked.

The stacked sections are cut on a diagonal and one side is flipped to make the chevron.

The sandwich ribbon is used for a center vein and a surround sheet.

All is reduced for the first slice by the end of the video.

9-4-11-Wet-Sanding

Some folks may not have seen wet sanding before. One tip: Put liquid dish soap in the water to keep from having the polymer clay adhere to the wet/dry sand paper. Review: how to staple different grit sheets together to make wet sanding easier.

Three parts: The 3 cane chop beads. Rectangle/Square beads. Round beads. Are wet sanded slightly differently because of their shapes.

9-5-11-Vat-o-Finish

Before we can take the beads off of the skewers we need to give them a finish. Rather than give a liquid finish to each bead individually I keep the beads on the skewers and dunk them in a vat of finish. So the beads are formed, cured, wet sanded, and given a finish, all on the same skewer. The finish I use is a low cost industrial acrylic floor finish that I get by the gallon at a big box store.

The benefit to keeping your beads on the skewers throughout the entire process is to protect your mental health. When I have beads that I have to deal with individually, like the snake beads, I can just pull my hair. When a dozen or more beads are on one skewer where they are formed, cured, wet sanded, and finished I can also store them easily and they don’t get mixed up with other beads. When I’m ready to string the beads I can take them off of the skewer.

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