{"id":743,"date":"2015-02-26T12:42:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T17:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/?p=743"},"modified":"2015-03-18T13:08:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T18:08:50","slug":"translucent-polymer-clay-hollow-bead-experiments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/?p=743","title":{"rendered":"Translucent Polymer Clay Hollow Bead Experiments – Part 1: Core Materials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dried
Dried paper, papier mach\u00e9 clay and paper pulp patched with it (some sanded)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m fascinated with some of the jewelry I’ve seen online that uses translucent polymer clay, especially when it looks like sea glass or glass glass.<\/p>\n

After a lot of poking around for answers to how people like Kathrin Neumaier<\/a>, Barbara Fernald<\/a> \u00a0and other clay artists, like those featured on\u00a0The Blue Bottle Tree<\/a>\u00a0blog create their pieces, I had some idea of what to do, but was still a bit fuzzy about how to create the effects I was after.\u00a0There were hints here and there, but nothing that really gave me the complete picture.<\/p>\n

There were plenty of tutorials available for a price, but I had no way of knowing whether they would tell me what I wanted to know.<\/p>\n

It was time to set up the la-bOr-a-tory (mwah, ha, ha!) and try some experiments.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What I tried (this time around)<\/h3>\n

Of all the techniques I saw, the most appealing seemed to be the ones where you could make a bead core of a clay or dough type substance from ingredients around the house. Later you dissolve the core, leaving behind the hollow bead.<\/p>\n

Since translucence is a key concept here, having a removable core makes the most sense.<\/p>\n

Sounds simple, right?<\/p>\n

One resource, Glass Attic: Polymer Clay Encyclopedia<\/a>, has a page full of possibilities. Since their main categories seem to revolve around cornstarch (or lack of it), that seemed like a good place to start.<\/p>\n

Cornstarch eco packing peanuts<\/h4>\n

I wanted nice smooth, rounded beads, for the most part. If left the\u00a0pellets dry, I’m stuck with their not-so-attractive shape. If I wet them, I get a gluey, unmanageable mess.<\/p>\n

I can see how they’d be easy to remove after baking, since they dissolve quickly, but am not sure how to mold them into the desired shape before baking.<\/p>\n

Cornstarch, baking soda and water<\/h4>\n

This seemed obvious to me later, but at the time all I had were the names and amounts of the ingredients and no mention of\u00a0cooking them. When I mixed everything together, a really<\/em> interesting substance developed. It could be shaped into a ball, but seconds later, if you let it rest in your hand, it would collapse into a puddle. Oops!<\/p>\n

I’ll be revisiting this idea in a later post.<\/p>\n

Cast paper<\/h4>\n

I’ve worked with this quite a bit and had some pre-made pulp,\u00a0so it\u00a0seemed like a workable option. I know that it dries to a tightly packed shape. I did have some concerns about smoothness, but it was worth a try.<\/p>\n

Papier mach\u00e9 clay<\/h4>\n

I also has a batch of this clay <\/a>mixed up. It seemed like it might be the answer to the smoothness issue of the cast paper, because of its finer texture.<\/p>\n

So, variations on a paper theme won. I formed several differently-shaped beads, pierced them through at the ends and left them to dry.<\/p>\n

\"Hollow
Hollow paper and papier mach\u00e9 dissolvable bead cores<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What I didn’t try and why<\/h3>\n

A few candidates were crossed off the list before making it to the tryouts…<\/p>\n

Some possible cores like vegetables, eggshells (even though I have an overabundance from 7 hens) and beeswax (also plentiful) just seemed either wasteful, confusing as to how to put to use\u00a0or messy (in order of appearance).<\/p>\n

Foil seems moldable enough, but not very easy to control or smooth. I also couldn’t envision how to get it out later. It’s probably useful to reduce the weight of larger opaque beads.<\/p>\n

Results<\/h3>\n

Some\u00a0heartache, some hope.<\/p>\n

Paper pulp<\/h4>\n
\"Paper
Paper pulp beads – not too sturdy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As you can see above, it’s pretty lumpy and doesn’t get any smoother as it dries.<\/p>\n

I did try sanding it, which seemed reasonable until there was fine fuzz everywhere.<\/p>\n

Bead cores made from this also broke apart very<\/em> easily.<\/p>\n

Mix of paper pulp\/papier mach\u00e9 clay and papier mach\u00e9 clay only<\/h4>\n

It was difficult to tell these two types of core apart (see the intro photo<\/a> above). They reacted the same way.<\/p>\n

They could be smoothed while forming the bead and sanded easily after, the same as when I make bowls with them.<\/p>\n

I know from working with bowls that they’ll start to fall apart when wet. How long it’ll take is another question. There may be hope yet.<\/p>\n

What’s next?<\/h3>\n

Now it’s time to color some polymer clay to wrap around them, bake then see what it’s like to get\u00a0the cores out.<\/p>\n

I’ll be trying these paper variations and later have another go at the cornstarch and baking soda clay.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m fascinated with some of the jewelry I’ve seen online that uses translucent polymer clay, especially when it looks like sea glass or glass glass. After a lot of poking around for answers to how people like Kathrin Neumaier, Barbara Fernald \u00a0and other clay artists, like those featured on\u00a0The Blue Bottle …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,8,7,4],"tags":[50,51,26,30,16,10,49,47,48,33,41],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-do-it-yourself","category-jewelry","category-polymer-clay","category-tutorials","tag-barbara-fernald","tag-blue-bottle-tree","tag-craft-supplies","tag-diy","tag-handmade","tag-jewelry","tag-kathrin-neumaier","tag-paper-mache-clay","tag-papier-mache-clay","tag-polymer-clay","tag-tutorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chirphopstudio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}