Tinting Granite

Tinting Granite... sounds like a new band name!!

Granite Cernit is wonderful color of clay and it can be tinted to so many different colors. All of the Nature colors are fabulous dahling, but Granite is sublime.

Here is the Basalt and because it is green, it is naturally a favorite of mine.

Cernit is a wonderful clay to make silverware with because of the hard and dense surface after baking. I also used Black Ne-opaque acrylic paint as an "antiquing medium" for the top handle in granite and Brown for the handles in Basalt color.

Rubber stamps courtesy of http://www.rubberstampplantation.com/ Thanks Deb!!!

And for what is so cool about the color Granite...

One clay, oh so many choices!!! There are just 7 here. The possibilities are infinite. This formulation is 1 part Granite and 1/4 part color Cernit of choice. These colors remind me of that wonderful 50's floor tile.

Because of the nature of the Nature colors, they are better for this type of application. For caning, layered stacks, mokume gane, and millefiori techniques you are better off starting with the Opaque white and mixing in embossing powders for that. Anytime you are cutting cross sections of the clay, the fibers and particles in the Nature colors will load up on the blade and sometimes drag across the surface or face of the image. Opaque white Cernit with black, gray, and gold embossing powder will give you a similar look. Some places even have Granite embossing powder with a varied mix of powders sold as the color. You can tint that too!!! OMG!!! I love oven-bake polymer clay!

Do you have some crummy silverware that needs a face lift? Wouldn't this make a wonderful gift? Bought my silverware at Smart and Final.

Lumiere as an antiquing medium

Lumiere acrylic paint makes a wonderful antiquing medium. It is definitely different than using an opaque medium like Ne-Opaque, but beautiful none the less.





Punch the color in to a baked piece with a large stencil brush, I use a ½” or bigger round stencil brush. Using a damp but not soaking old piece of bath towel I wipe and if necessary rub off the excess paint.
This chart shows Lumiere colors on black and white Cernit.

The Clay Factory carries both the Lumiere and Cernit Phthalate-free clay.

I have pictures of other examples of standing shrines on my web page http://www.mariesegal.com/ under the shrine page. All of them are antiqued with Lumiere or Ne-Opaque. Another wonderful thing about these paints is they can be used on a lot of other canvas beside Polymer clay, like fabric, paper, and leather.