Know the materials, conceptualization and design
Before I start modeling, I'll show you the materials and tools you'll need and teach you the basics you need to know about polymer clay in order to be able to carry out your projects.
Next, I will talk about the importance of using references to support the creation of your pieces and we will create a mood board for your project. Finally, you will see how to create an outline to guide you in preparing your projects.
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Tools and materials
In this lesson, I’ll introduce you to the materials and different tools you need to model with polymer clay.
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Getting to know polymer clay better
Now I will talk about the most important aspects to take into account when working with polymer clay. I will tell you about their characteristics, the different brands, about their conditioning, mixing, storage and cooking, thus avoiding some frustrations when it comes to getting your hands on the dough.
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Mood board
In this class, I’m going to talk about the importance of using references to conceptualize your future projects and then we’re going to do the mood boards that will help us in the preparation of our three pieces.
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Outline and strategy
Now that we have the mood boards done, let's move on to conceptualizing our projects. In this class, you will put down the ideas you have in mind using the references from the mood boards. Then, with these sketches done, I will teach you how to establish your strategy to later model and assemble your pieces in a simple way.
Tasks
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Time to buy your stuff Practice exercise 2.1
Before you start, you need to buy the necessary material to make your pieces. You won't need to buy many colors at once and some tools can be replaced by objects you already have at home, so you can go shopping little by little.
To help your colleagues, share with us your website links and store addresses where you can buy polymer clay and other tools, so we can create a list of stores from all over the world! Remember to show us the material, the city and the country too.
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Create a mood board for your project
Use Pinterest or another program to create your mood board with inspiring references and images that will help you conceptualize your project.
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Draw a sketch of your project Practice exercise 2.2
Make one or more sketches of the piece you want to create, taking into account what you learned in the course. Once you have a clean sketch, make a drawing to illustrate your strategy for the elaboration of your piece, with the different steps traced with different colored pencils.
U2 Frequently asked questions
Additional Resource Translations - Unit 2
Dear French-speaking and Germanic Hispanic students. As you may have noticed, the Additional Resources available for download are not translated into your languages. In order that this does not impede the progress of your learning, you can find in this topic the texts of the Additional Resources of Unit 2 so that you have...
Keep readingAdditional resources
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List of materials
I leave you here the list of materials that you will need to make your final project. In "Additional resources", you will also find a document with this more detailed list.
Material for modeling
• Polymer clay (minimum colors: magenta, yellow, cyan blue, transparent, white and black)
• Liquid clay
• Work surface (examples: glass plate, smooth tiles, cutting mat, mat for polymer clay etc.)
• Knife or scalpel
• Slicer
• Roll
Modeling tools:
• silicone tip
• needle tip
• ball point [doodling tool]• alternatives: toothpicks, needles, knitting needles, marbles, ballpoint pens (body and tip) etc.
Sandpaper:
• sponge type: graduation between 120 and 300
• paper typeTo paint and protect
• Acrylic paint
• Acrylic varnish for polymer clay
• Acrylic paint brushes (various sizes)
• Cheap synthetic brushes (one for liquid clay and one flat for varnish)
• Waterproof palette for placing paints (examples: tile, glass plate or acrylic glass, painter's palette etc.)
• Glasses with water
• Spray with water (optional)
• System for hanging the pieces (example: table lamp + clips)
• NapkinTo clean and bake
• Baby wipes or hand sanitizer wipes
• Ethanol or isopropanol (> 70%)
• Swabs
• Liquid soap
• Conventional oven or mini oven (with a button to regulate the temperature, up to 150 ºC, resistance above and below)
• Oven thermometer
• Tray or tile (to be placed on the oven grid)
• Aluminum tray (optional)
• Tracing paper (optional)To assemble the collars
• Chains for necklaces
• Closures
• Rings (you will need 2 or 3 for each necklace)
• Ring head pin
• Pliers (2 clamps and 1 cutter)
• Super Glue (ideally a flexible gel version)
• Manual drill (optional) -
Which brands of polymer clay to choose and how to buy?
As I explained to you during the class on polymer clay, there is not exactly a brand that is superior to all others. The choice of brand and range depends a lot on the type of project you want to do and it also depends on personal tastes. There are however brands that are of better quality. The premium brands are: Premo, Fimo, Kato, Shouffle, Cernit and PVClay. These will be a little more expensive than generic or low-quality brands, but after cooking they will produce more flexible and resistant pieces, essential for jewelry.
I leave you here a link to a more complete article about each of the most well-known brands of polymer clay and their characteristics.
When buying your polymer clay blocks, you will also have to keep in mind that even when closed, it hardens over time. Despite not indicating an expiration date, after several years, the polymer clay is completely stiff, crumbles and is unusable. If you buy it at a store, it is very important that you press each block with your fingers. If the dough deforms with pressure, even if it's just a little (in the case of the firmer ranges), it is fine. If the dough is completely stiff, don't buy it.
If you want to buy your polymer clay over the internet, you should check the country of origin. If the blocks come from far away (another continent) and / or if the goods are subjected to a lot of heat during transport, as in the summer, the dough may be damaged.
For example: I noticed that many Americans complain that the Fimo Soft range is very rigid. As this brand is manufactured in Germany, it is likely to have deteriorated during shipping or to have been in stock for a long time. If you are not in Europe, it may be more complicated to find a safe supplier for the Fimo brand, in addition to being more expensive to be imported. In this sense, I recommend that you try other brands premium that are more available in your country.
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Tutorials to create your modeling tools (DIY)
You have at your disposal a topic in the forum dedicated to sharing physical and online stores where you can find the modeling tools that I showed you in the materials class. However, if you don't want to invest in them right away or if you can't find a specific tool, I leave - here are some tutorial links to inspire you in making your own tools at home.
Needle-tipped tool
Video 1
Video 2Fine detail carving tools
VideoFor ball-tipped tools, you can use ink-free ballpoint tips, pin tips, marbles [bolinhas de gude]and apply the same manufacturing method as the previous tutorials.
If you have silicone and corn starch or two-part silicone mold paste (silicone putty) at home, you can also try to make your tools with a silicone tip:
Video 1
Video 2 -
Choosing the right acrylic paint
I think that acrylic paint should be one of the most used paints by polymer clay artists. This is a very versatile paint and depending on its use, it allows to achieve different effects.
To obtain good results, the most important thing will be to choose a brand of relatively good quality, that is, one that is highly pigmented and that has good quality pigments. A paint with little pigment will be less opaque, more translucent and it will then be necessary to apply many more layers to obtain a good color coverage.
There are acrylic paints aimed at artists to be used in canvas paintings. These are the paints I usually use. However, you should avoid paints aimed at children and other, cheaper, white brands that will only bring frustration. I recommend that you look for a brand with a professional grade range or a student grade range that is of good quality, such as the “Acrylic Gallery” range from Winsor and Newton which has an excellent relationship between quality and price. Professional inks are often more pigmented, and also more expensive. They were designed for painting on canvas, not polymer clay , therefore, in certain cases, the extra cost may not compensate for our use. You will need to better analyze the characteristics of the tubs you plan to buy.
To help you in this search, I leave you here two informative articles with reviews of acrylic paints. Even though they were mainly designed for painting on canvas, the listed characteristics of each paint will be a help for your choice depending on the effects you want.
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Alternatives to acrylic paint to give color to your pieces
As I already explained in the materials class, there are many other ways to color your pieces in addition to the acrylic paint that we will use during this course. When the polymer clay is still raw, you can, for example, color your pieces with pastel that you will have previously ground or with powdered mica to make them shine. These small particles will adhere to the raw dough and remain fixed after baking. You can also mix pastel or pigments with liquid clay and use that mixture to paint.
When your piece is already cooked, in addition to acrylic paint, you can also use oil paint. However, you will need to test the compatibility of this paint with polymer clay , since not all types of oil paint will work with polymer clay . Some may even react with the cooked dough and get sticky. These paints were designed to be used on canvas and paper, not on polymer clay . Every time you want to use a new material, you should then do a test to check its feasibility and compatibility with polymer clay .
After much experimentation, each artist ends up developing their own techniques. For example, it is extremely difficult to use watercolors on polymer clay . The watercolor pigments need to seep into the paper fiber and since the polymer clay is waterproof, these pigments end up being washed when applying a varnish. However, there are artists who have managed to develop very specific techniques with watercolors by applying other processes and materials to make it work.
As you can imagine, the possibilities to give color to your pieces are practically endless! If you want to work with polymer clay more seriously, I suggest you try out as many materials and methods as possible, and do your own experiments in order to develop your own technique.
To assist you in this research, I leave you here this link to a very interesting article on different techniques and materials that you may be able to try in the future:
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Choose your varnish
In general, I recommend the use of an acrylic varnish (Acrylic Varnishes) suitable for polymer clay . The polymer clay brands offer their own varnish in their catalog. If the brand of the varnish is not the same as that of polymer clay, there is a small risk (minimal but possible) that the varnish will react with the polymer clay and become a little sticky or else react. with acrylic paint. I advise you to always test the varnish you have chosen on simpler pieces before using it in more complicated projects. It would be a shame to ruin more elaborate work because of the varnish.
For some people, it may be difficult to find acrylic varnish for polymer clay or even be very expensive because it is imported from afar. There are alternatives, like other acrylic varnishes. Some people use polyurethane varnishes (Polyurethane Varnish) - for this, I heard about the brand Varathane (water based) - or even UV curing resins (UV resin). The most important thing is that you test the varnish that you have chosen to make sure that it will be compatible with your polymer clay and your acrylic paint.
Several artists who work with polymer clay have dedicated themselves to testing the different options and brands available to help others in choosing the varnish. I leave you the link of this article that deals with this subject in a very complete way. As these results change depending on the brand of polymer clay , be sure to look for other reviews on the internet if you are interested in a specific alternative.
In the forum, we will be able to discuss in more detail the varnishes and alternatives that they will have found.
Additional resources
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ZIP
List of materials
I leave you in this document the list of materials and tools you will need to carry out your final project.
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ZIP
How to bake polymer clay
In this document, I have compiled all the important information about the cooking of pieces in polymer clay so that you can easily consult in case of doubt.
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ZIP
Tips on how to find your style
Are you an artist concerned with looking for an artistic style? For some, the idea of developing their own style can become a daunting and discouraging process, especially for novice artists. There is no simple and consensual answer to this dilemma. In this document, I have compiled my point of view on the subject and I share with you the path that must be followed to evolve artistically.