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So I have seen a tutorial for using heat embossing on clay that you bake in the oven, (now lost the tutorial, typical really) and I was wondering if the same could be done with das airdry clay. I wanted to try to make jewellery pendants and also maybe small embellishments with cards.
Also, if it's not against the rules, can anybody give me ULTRA cheap tips on varnishing the clay please? <3
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~*~Diana~*~
Breila - Welsh for Dusky Rose
Pagan, crafter, slightly daft
I can't see why it would not work with air drying clay, would definitely be ok for card embellishments, not sure how strong they would be for jewellery though. Might be a case of try it and see.
As for varnishing, I think that's going to very much depend on what sort of finish you want- matt or glossy. Top of my head, I'd think Mod Podge would probably be the best and cheapest- a little goes a long way, and you have a choice of finishes too. I believe you can water it down too.
Yeah, I've got plenty to play with and recipes for home made clay too (I'm disabled so need to keep things cheap as I can). I will have to experiment, got SO many ideas in my head, and need a distraction from a break up, so time to get to work! ;)
Mod Podge was something I'd been wondering about, for now I'd probably have to try to mix my own, see how that goes, and then order some if I can get people to buy stuff. XD
Thank you so much!
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~*~Diana~*~
Breila - Welsh for Dusky Rose
Pagan, crafter, slightly daft
Clear nail varnish I could definitely do, and maybe experiment with coloured too, though I'll have to buy it first- it's not like I use the stuff on my nails (I bite them too much. *hangs head*
And it was a complicated situation, and my heart is more than a little damaged, but I'm hoping that working on my various crafting ideas will help the healing process. Haven't done card making since it happened, but have commissions and have other things to work on. Fingers crossed
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~*~Diana~*~
Breila - Welsh for Dusky Rose
Pagan, crafter, slightly daft
Sorry about the breakup - hope creating helps your heart heal.
I'm having difficulty picturing what you want to do but if you're stamping onto clay pieces and adding embossing powder, make sure your pieces are really dry first. If there's moisture in the clay your powder will just stick all over rather than only on the stamped parts. I'm guessing unmounted stamps and no block would be your best bet if this is what you're planning to try - no matter how hard you try, you'll inevitably have some lumpy bumpiness on an air-dry clay piece which would stop proper contact across a rigid stamp surface and being able to apply pressure in a way that accommodates that would be better.
If you're adding powder to colour all over the surface rather than on a stamped design then of course the stickiness is what you want. You may need to leave it to dry out before applying heat to melt the powder though - air dry clay has a lot more moisture than polymer clay and it may start to bubble and blister if you apply a heat gun while it's still "fresh".
Can you say any more about what you're hoping to do? We might think of other things that could help if we have a clearer start point.
See that's why I was wondering. I know that with oven bake clay you wait until it's baked and THEN do the embossing, but because it's a different hardening technique, I wasn't sure how to go about it.
I basically want to make flat pendants/embellishments (ah, rolling pins! XD), I'm going to experiment with using embossing folders to create indented patterns and images, and I was hoping to also try using stamps and/or masking techniques to create embossed products. I'm having trouble explaining what I mean apparently. :/
__________________
~*~Diana~*~
Breila - Welsh for Dusky Rose
Pagan, crafter, slightly daft
Are you on Pinterest? There are recipes for making your own types of Mod Podge I've seen on there. You may also find some technique guides too for what you want to do, if you search Air Dry Clay/jewellery, etc.
Sorry to hear about the breakup, putting yourself into your crafting has got to be a helpful distraction. xxx
I have made decorative pieces with stamps (years ago) and then sealed Das clay with finger nail polish once dry before and it seemed to work fine. I have also used an all purpose sealer by Delta that I got at a big box craft store that worked really well. The one I chose was all purpose and mentioned on the back it would work on: paper mache, plaster and ceramic bisque among other things. Most air dry clay products have similar components to what I just mentioned so I figured it should work and it did. The Christmas ornaments I made still look good as new years later.
In the long run an actual sealer would probably be cheaper than nail polish because you get such a tiny amount in that nail polish bottle. Clear polish is not cheap now a days either because decorative nail painting is "in". Depending on which type of Modge Podge you use it can get sticky over time or once dry create a milky finish so do your research first to make sure you are getting the right kind. Sorry I don't use it usually so can't help you there, just passing along things I've heard.
Really looking forward to hearing about your experiments and hoping you share pictures of your creations.
oh one more thing... you may need to use a small bit of powder, corn starch or non stick spray on stamps and embossing folders to prevent sticking although I usually found if I worked it a bit with my hands it wasn't as much of a problem.
I basically want to make flat pendants/embellishments (ah, rolling pins! XD), I'm going to experiment with using embossing folders to create indented patterns and images, and I was hoping to also try using stamps and/or masking techniques to create embossed products. I'm having trouble explaining what I mean apparently. :/
OK, now we know you're aiming to work on flat pieces we have a better idea where to start
Embossing folders or stamps should create nice textured designs. Remember that air-dry clay won't take quite such crisp detail as polymer clay so choose designs that don't rely on really fine detail. The beauty of doing this is that if things go wrong you can scrunch up the piece, re-roll and have another go. You can paint your finished piece and then use something like Rub n Buff, Treasure Gold etc to really bring out the pattern. Dry brushing with acrylic paint is another useful technique and would be a good (and economic) alternative if you don't already have a rub-on wax in your stash. Shout up if it's something you've never done and would like to know how.
You could also try tinting your clay (just knead a couple of drops of acrylic paint into it) before you make your impression.
Stacy's tip of a little bit of corn flour on the surface of the piece might save you a lot of trouble with sticking (especially with embossing folders - the smooth plastic is even more inclined to stick than the rubber of a stamp). I'd try dusting the rolled out clay rather than trying to get the powder on the stamp/folder.
Heat embossing should work on the dried pieces just as it would on a substrate like chipboard - just stamp with pigment ink or Versamark, sprinkle on your powder and off you go.
I had another thought: air dry clay tends to warp if you don't flip it over frequently so the air can get to both sides, the same will probably be true when using a heat gun, so zapping the bottom would probably be a good idea: basically to be even/flat it needs the opportunity to dry evenly on all surfaces
OK, so cornflour, I THINK I have some of that in the food drawer, will check in a few (need to make my dinner at the same time thinking about it!, it's 10 to 8 now!)
I'll experiment with some home made hodge-podge for now, money is always tight, so the more homemade I can go the better! ;)
What is dry-brushing, never heard of it, sadly, though tinting the clay with acrylic sounds great, wouldn't have considered that, and would mean I can attempt heat embossing in my gold and silver colours, that would look pretty spectacular I'd imagine. Lots of experimenting to do.
What is dry-brushing, never heard of it, sadly, though tinting the clay with acrylic sounds great...
Dry brushing is fun and easy and a great way to highlight texture! Get a tiny bit of acrylic paint on the end of you brush and paint it off onto a piece of kitchen towel or scrap paper until there doesn't seem to be anything coming off. Now brush over your textured surface - the paint that didn't seem to be there any more will catch on the high spots. You can build up a couple of colours if you want to. The trick is to go lightly and just keep brushing over areas to build it up, if you have too much paint on the brush you'll get "splodges" rather than a highlighting effect. Reload the brush when it really does stop putting down any colour (likely to be longer than you think!), remembering to brush it out really well on scrap before you hit your project with it.
I've attached a couple of pics of things done with dry brushing so you can see how it works. The compass is chipboard with a pattern hammered into it with a leatherworking tip - dry brushing was done with gold acrylic on that over a dark base coat. The snowflake tin is mostly die cuts for the texture, if I remember rightly I dry brushed that one with a couple of shades of blue that were progressively lighter than the base coat. The last one was a plastic bottle with netting and a toilet paper cast for the texture - dry brushing with a light aqua and white paints.
Hope that helps, just ask if there's anything I could have been clearer on!
I just bought some DAS this weekend, didnt know it was so heavy. It shouldnt be a problem though, I want to try it out with some silicon molds that I made and for use on my mixed media canvases. Also, never use nail polish on polymer clay.
For a finish, here we have something called Future floor finish (or it used to be "Future" - I think it's on the bottle somewhere, but generally called Pledge) that comes highly recommended. I generally use varathane or other finishes that are made for polymer clay.
We also have something here called Holloway House Quick Shine Floor Finish that I've used, again on polymer clay, with success.
I just bought some DAS this weekend, didnt know it was so heavy.
It's many years since I used the DAS brand but from what I remember it has a lot of moisture to lose and will get much, much lighter as it dries.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom
For a finish, here we have something called Future floor finish
Future Floor Polish is quite difficult to source here in the UK, Nancy. I got some ages ago but it was a real faff to find it and it was expensive. I suspect other floor finishes have a similar formulation but I don't know enough about the various synthetic "waxes" to know what would be a good substitute.
Future Floor Polish is quite difficult to source here in the UK, Nancy. I got some ages ago but it was a real faff to find it and it was expensive. I suspect other floor finishes have a similar formulation but I don't know enough about the various synthetic "waxes" to know what would be a good substitute.
I was afraid of that, Joanne. I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that any acrylic floor finish would work. I'll see if I can find the source. I'd know next to nothing about PC if it weren't for the internet! Unfortunately, my carefully organized bookmarks all disappeared a couple of weeks ago when my hard drive died. A good reminder to see if I can "tell" Carbonite to include them now!
I started to re-locate some of my bookmarks, and then remembered the OP is interested in air-dry clay. Here's the result for the search of "clear finish for air dry clay:"
I have heated air-dry clay before with my heat gun; it puffs up (but I was going for that effect).
__________________ Linda E
Caution: You are entering an artistic zone. This is not clutter - this is creating. These are not pajamas - it's my work uniform.
Air dry clay and stamping/embossing
And I will remember that about using the heatgun on the bottom as well as the top. 
