Four years ago, I attended a workshop with Celie Fago in which we created exquisite bangles using polymer clay accented with metal clay charms. In the class we used tear-away texture sheets that Celie had made from polymer clay. I admired the delicate imprints they left on the metal clay and I also liked the fact that we could make our own orignal designs rather than relying on purchased rubber stamps. To make these, you draw a design or type text in black and white, then use a toner-based copy machine such as the Canon PC-170 (an almost ancient relic in this age of high-tech!) to make a copy using 32 pound gloss copy paper (don’t use gloss photo paper!). The next step requires the use of polymer clay – a piece of clay rolled to about 4cm in thickness, then trimmed to a size of about 70cm x 100cm. For this I used Studio Sculpey clay (which is, unfortunately, being discontinued by the maker, Polyform Company). The copy sheet is then rubbed vigorously onto a sheet of polymer clay for several minutes, warmed under a 100 watt lamp, and left to rest for seven minutes. The process is repeated a second time, then the paper is peeled away from the polymer clay and, if successful, polymer clay has transferred onto the copy paper and a very fine etching on the sheet of polymer clay has occurred. The paper and polymer sheet are then baked at 275 degrees for thirty minutes. I tried this technique post workshop without much success and abandoned the process. However, I recently read that someone had used a craft sealing iron rather than a lamp to heat the clay and had great success with the technique. I decided to give it another try, substituting my clothes iron with the setting on the lowest temperature. Voila! This tear-away technique actually worked! The above photo shows the end result – the delicately etched polymer clay sheet, the paper/clay tear-away sheet, and several pairs of unfired bronze metal clay imprinted earrings.
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One-Of-A-Kind Art Jewelry and Wearable Art
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