September meeting /Rencontre de Septembre

Here is the information on my  research on how to make faux sea glass in polymer clay.

Ci desous le résultat de mes recherches sur le verre de plage.

Demo faux verre de plage/ faux sea glass

Never having seen faux sea glass, I looked it up on google. I leaned that there are different types of sea glass. Different colours. The main thing was the transparency so I started playing with the translucent clay from the makes I had :

Fimo ( old version) sculpey , premo :regular and frost.

Since premo had their new trans colours I used that also.

I used perlex, pigments, embossing powders, inks : pinata and adirondack.

I tried also with wax , with inka gold paints.

The results were not bad but not transparent. I wonder is the light used when doing the photos can change the effects

 I found 2 people who were working on that concept Tina Holden  who showed what she could do with it  http://www.beadcomber.blogspot.ca/2012/02/faux-glass-et-cetera.html

and a german lady who did try like me with the translucent,namely pardo but I don'tthave that clay available  here,  then she started to use  the fimo  liquid clay with great results.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex123/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilex123/6246365944/in/photostream

 I did too but never got her effect.

Cristalline has a tutorial playing on that translucent effect. It might help you. It's in French

http://www.creations-cristalline.fr/tuto-fimo-fiche/1916-fiche-faux-lampwork.html

Cristalline a fait un tuto sur ce sujet de transparence avec des couleurs de faux verre . Si ça vous intéresse.

I tried sculpey, kato and fimo liquids.

This last one seems sturdier than kato who is very plasticky after curing. Sculpey can get very clear if you use diluent but it stays sticky. Great to make a water effect but not for jewelry.

Nobody seems to have found the recipe stable enough to share so far. At least I have not seen any tutorial to buy anywhere .

My tryouts will be on my blog (http://polyblog.canalblog.com/archives/2012/09/03/24908802.html ) and shown at the meeting. 

 I found that liquid clay is a good base to work with. Mixed with translucent clay it can achieve something more.

Poly paste might be the answer also. It’s very sticky though and hard to give a shape that you can control before or after curing.

Final information to have transparent clay :

It must be very  thin  to be so  transparent  = not like a glass piece that is fairly thick.

It must have just a little  colour added to the trans or liquid clay. (I used a 1/4 pack with a dot of the trans clay or a pinch of embossing powder or a tiny drop of ink, same for dry pastels )

It must be able to keep a shape ( poly paste and liquid are better in a shallow mold)

 Photos with light underneat make the effect more interesting and we see the light shining through.

 Since it is very hard to give a recipe the only thing I can say is less is more. You can add never substract.

Have fun . If you find a perfect recipe and want to share I would be happy to put it up here.