Saturday 20 August 2011

Alcohol inks and polymer clay.

I wanted to share one of my favourite techniques with you. It give a fantastic effect that I just cant get enough of just now. What I use here is black polymer clay, alcohol inks and a sheet of silver leaf. I had run out of the gold leaf but I had gold alcohol ink so that did fine. The inks can be quite expensive but they do last a long time. Make sure you store them in a cool place.

I firstly conditioned some black fimo through my pasta machine at the thickest setting and gently placed a piece of silver leaf on it being carefull not to break it. You can use silver leaf too. Then a splogged some gold alcohol ink on the top and took a wee sponge and dabbed it all over the silver leaf until it was covered.


Next I dropped some blue and purple ink on in a random patten letting the colours run into one another.


Next I took a wee sponge and dabbed the colours to merge them a bit more and then I let it dry a bit. The alcohol in the ink eventually evaporates.


I then dropped a third colour of a blue just to give it another dimention. I conditioned another piece of black clay at the thickest setting then I placed the inked clay on top and cut out shapes ready to use to make beads.


I peirced the bead before baking. When cured at the manufactors recomendation, I varnished the top of my beads them made a lovely bracelet from it! I love these colours together so I think I may keep this one.

 
I think when you see how easy this is you can find alsorts of colour combinations. Remember to think of the colour wheel and use colours that will complement one another. Its good to think carefully about this because it saves you from getting a muddy pallet and ruining your clay.


I hope you have enjoyed this blog and have found it usefull. Below are some usefull links on where you can find some materials for this project. Have fun!♥


Please feel free to leave a comment. All the best. Carol♥

8 comments:

  1. Lovely bracelets Carol. Foil and inks is one of my favourite techniques - the way I learned it is to put a very thin layer of translucent clay on top which gives the foil added protection, but the colours stay brighter without it.

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  2. Great bracelets Carol, I like that technique too. I usually layer with trans but that mutes the bright colours.

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  3. I never thought of using translucent. I hear the Pardo clay has the best trans. Ive just varnished over the top. I think it keeps the luminisity better of the silver leaf.

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  4. The best trans I've ever used is Premo and would highly recommend it

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  5. I love the technique. Have you made any with the leaf and not varnished them? Do they just fall apart?

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  6. you can use Inka gold instead of the gold or silver leaf - gives a different and even better effect. You can buy those from www.clayaround.com as well

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  7. Lovely bracelets. Using alcohol inks is on my long to-do lists as you achieve such beautiful results and can imitate dichroic glass. Which varnish do you use? I found Fimo just peels off, while Sculpey smells and can get sticky.I am still looking for that perfect varnish you can get in the UK.

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  8. I just found Inka Gold myself. I bought them at JoAnns yesterday. I will try this technique with them tomorrow. =) They seem to be very nice and I cant wait to get started.

    Love the way you did your bracelets =).

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