To antique or not to antique... part 3, try another color

Pick a color...any color

Black Ne-opaque

Brown Ne-opaque

True Gold- Lumiere

Red Ne-opaque

White Ne-opaque

Click on the image for a closer view.

Wow, what a difference a color makes!

I used all of the same colors of clay. 

Do not forget the 13th giveaway, with 3 parts.

Part 1 http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/05/13th-giveaway-part-1.html  ends the 19th of may, 2010

Part 2 http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/05/13th-giveaway-part-2.html  ends the 20th of may, 2010

Part 3 http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/05/13th-giveaway-part-3.html  ends the 21st of may, 2010

Nature is the best artist

When I am looking for inspiration for color palettes, I go to my yard.

This is a Special Cactus; it was given to me by my friends, Irene and Lee before they moved to Kansas.

I miss them dearly! It is one of those things that we all do, get close right before someone moves. Or when they get sick…or before they die.
Note to myself, “live and love now, no regrets later”.
Anyhow, they lived near the beach, I don’t. I knew the cactus would like it here, cacti like it hot.
It is coloring up very nicely. Now it is flowering.
It was just as beautiful at their house but a lot lighter.
It reminds me of good times and good friends and it has a great color palette to play with. Don’t you agree?

Piñata ink and translucent clays

You probably already know this, but the Cernit colors, Opaque white, Pearl white, Porcelain White, Biscuit, Nightglow, Granite, Champagne, and Translucent can be tinted or colored with the Piñata inks. So in reality you could buy just a couple of colors of Cernit and have your self a virtual field day if you already have the Piñata inks and some of you might. The inks can be used on paper, leather, glass, tile, silk, cotton, organza, lace, and some plastics. This is a very versatile product and definitely one I carry in my tool box.

The blue in this flower cane is Baja Blue Piñata ink tinted Pearl Cernit. The background is the plain porcelain white. The color you see in it is a color core and then the cane slices are added to it. I like the frosted appearance.

Baja Blue and Senorita Margarita make a great purple. One drop of each color should do it.

It doesn’t take much of the ink at all. They are somewhat translucent themselves and quite intense in color. If you are out of the USA you can not get them from us www.clayfactory.net, you have to find them locally, go to www.Jacquardproducts.com they have a product finder there under each product or you can call or write them.

You want to condition your clay. With Cernit it is important to thoroughly condition the clay. I condition and flatten a piece about 1/8 of a small block with my fingers and then I put a drop of Piñata on the clay and let it dry on the clay.

With Sunbright Yellow and Tangerine will probably need a couple of drops. Now when I say one or two, I mean one or two, the Piñata ink is very strong.

With the Opaque white you will get more pastely colors and with the porcelain white they are almost like frosted glass that is colored. With the translucent they will be more intense in color or the strength of the color. They may also look very light before baking and will darken up some after baking.

Put on a pair gloves and condition the ink color in to the clay.

With the reds and the pinks they will migrate in to other colors of clay when the clay is unbaked.

So make the colors and if you are using the reds and the pinks, make your canes small and bake your work right away.

I like that I can use this to make a ton of different pearl colors too and the nightglow is a blast with the Piñata because it still glows even when using a dark ink like the sapphire blue. YAY!!!

The ink is also fun to use by applying it directly to a bead that you have already formed to color the bead. I used this method in my Inkling beads.

There is a link to that and the Piñata Ink Flowers and leaves here.

Here is the URL,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2008/12/another-project.html

This is another project called Glowing Night Lights here.

and the URL

http://www.jacquardproducts.com/support/projects/proj0005/

Making porcelain Cernit colors opaque

I have talked about keeping the Cernit colors porcelain like and looking more like the color you see right out of the package. Now I am going to tackle the method of making the color more Opaque and looking like the raw color out of the package.

We all have to knead our clay no matter what brand or softness to get the best results, this will redistribute the particles evenly throughout the block of clay. I showed you an example of the non-kneaded Cernit here. Clay will settle like a box of cereal will or like the oil in peanut butter will rise to the top when sitting on the shelf. Mixing in additional colors during this process is really no different than kneading your clay up as straight out of the package and not adding color. This color formulation works out to be 1 block (2.2 ounces) of color to 1/8 or 1/16 block of the Opaque white Cernit (029) to make it more opaque and keep it closer to the package color even after the darkening of the baking process. Depending on how much I want it to be opaque, I find that the 1/8 block of Opaque white (029) is the best for millefiori or caning purposes. Even more opaque white than this can be added (maybe 1/6th of a block of Opaque white), it is up to you and it gives another shade of the same color to work with. I keep these formulations pretty basic so that I can easily duplicate the color again if I need it. This is where you would want to make a test chip and write it down in your color journal. To me it is of value to document my progress and process so I can see how far I have come and what I have learned.

With the changes in Polymer Clays by removing the Phthalates, we are going to be dealing with a different animal whether we want to or not, and instead of mourning the loss of what used to be, I am working on dealing with what is, moving on, and how to make it work for me. I am grateful for the chance to be excited again. I am also grateful for the changes that I see in my work and the pieces I love to create.

Cloisonne type beads

OK, this is what I was leading up to.

You take an 1/8 block of 7 colors of Cernit, violet, blue, light green, yellow, orange, red, and turquoise and you mix it, 1 part to 1 part, with 010 white (porcelain). Mix the clay completely till it is one color. Take a 3/4" ball of each of the colors and roll into a coil that is 3 1/2" by 1/4" in diameter.

Place a small amount of Aztec Gold Pearl-ex powder on to a paper plate and spread out the powder a little to take out the clumps and get a thin coating on the paper plate. Start with one coil and roll the coil into the thin layer of powder until it is completely covered on the outside of the coil. Spread out some more of the powder if you need to. Rub the powder in and the excess off of each coil. Now do this to all of the other colors. I place all of my powder covered coils on to a piece of typing paper.

With a clay blade cut each of the powder covered coils in half and flatten one of the halves in to a teardrop shape.

Here are all of the coils after I have covered them with Aztec Gold Pearl-ex powder. Now wash your hands really well or change gloves if you wear them. Get yourself an old towel to wipe your hands off with later too.

Now mix 1/2 block caramel Cernit with 1/2 block of yellow Cernit till it is one color. Flatten it out with your fingers and roll this out in your pasta machine on the thickest setting, fold the sheet in half to double the thickness, and cut out circles with a round 1/2" cutter. Roll the 1/2" ones into balls and set them aside. Using the 2nd cutter (middle one) from a Makin's Clay 3 piece round cutter set, cut out some of those, roll those in to balls and then roll them in to teardrops. Flatten the teardrops until they are about 1/4" thick.

Now take the little coils and slice off 1/16" to 1/8" thick slices of the colored powder covered coils with a clay blade. Put the slices on the ochre colored balls and teardrops to form images or patterns. Press the slices gently into place on the balls and teardrops. Wipe your hands every so often to take off the excess powder. I do not like to over lap the slices, but sometimes it might work out that way. But mostly it is one level of slices on the beads.

Here is a tray of beads ready to go into the oven.

You just never know, I might even make something out of these.

Yellow Ochre

Ochre or Ocher (pronounced /'əʊ.kə(r)/, from the Greek ὠχρός, yellow) is a color, usually described as golden-yellow or light yellow brown.

This is the definition from wikipedia

This is the mixture in Cernit.

This and the last post are also leading up to something.

Notice the "not conditioned" Caramel.

This was broken off the block flattened a little and run through the pasta machine on the thickest setting.

Because Cernit has a porcelain effect you can view what happens in all Polymer clay when it is not conditioned. ALL polymer clay should be conditioned, no matter how soft it is.

Cernit is very strong and this piece is very durable and it might even be featured in some way through someone's work, but you can not do this with all clays.

Conditioning gives you the best results possible for your clay of choice.

Mixing with 010 or what I call the porcelain white Cernit

When you want to have the color of Cernit (the new formulation) more intense, brighter, and a little lighter after baking (they will darken quite a bit, nature of the clay and it's porcelain effect) and more like the package color that you see. I like to mix it with the 010 white. This is kind of confusing but awesome once I get adjusted to their way of thinking. The Cernit company’s clays are meant to look like porcelain clay and they have a porcelain look to them. It is very close to using a translucent clay. The more I work with this feature instead of fighting it, the better my work looks in it (imho). I will sometimes take a color, say yellow and mix it with a small amount of opaque white 029 and then leave some not mixed with anything and then mix some of the yellow one to one with the porcelain white 010, now I have 3 variations of the same color and when baked they all work together (after all, they are the same color, wonderful for those of you that think you don't know how or are afraid to mix colors), but I have a variation of the same color for a more dramatic effect, as in the flames of the goblet above. Here is another view of the yellows. I have used more than one yellow color and its variations in the flowers though.

Here is an example of a rainbow of colors mixed one to one with the porcelain white 010 or what they just call white.
It is a little hard to distinguish from this photo but you can see the darkening that takes place when you remember that I mixed them in equal parts with what they call white.
This also means that if you want to have the regular colors be opaque you will have to mix all of the colors with a little of the opaque white 029 or with this clay the lines between the colors in the image cane (even though straight and perfect) will appear to be wispy and unclear. The light plays all the way through the clay like frosted glass in this instance.
Or another way to make fabulous canes, because this new formulation of Cernit canes wonderfully well and slices oh so well, is to outline all of the colors with an opaque color or a very dark color, in this way you are isolating the colors or components of the cane which to me will stop the wispy lines, those crooked lines are made by me not the clay. I do this anyway when I cane so it seems very natural to me. The outside packing of this cane is the porcelain white 010 and Biscuit mixed together.

Stamped Mokume Gane- part5 YAY!

Condition and roll out in your pasta machine on the 2nd thickest setting a color of clay that goes with your Mokume Gane Stack. I have used a sheet that is 2" x 2", this is a great size for the sample. You can make bigger sheets if you wish, but I find that starting with a little and starting small is sometimes so smart, patience grasshopper!

I have used turquoise again, 1. because I LOVE this color and 2. because it was handy and already mixed.

I have slivered off sections of the stack I made and placed them on the sheet of turquoise.

I have added more slices until my sheet of turquoise is covered with one layer. I try not to over-lap the slices.You can then press these gently on to the sheet of turquoise.

<---- can you spot where I cut the lines with the back of the blade? Oh by the way be very very very careful when you do that.Back of the blade to me means, opposite side of the sharp side.

Turn the setting on your pasta machine back to the thickest setting and roll your sheet with slivers through on the thickest setting.

Turn the sheet of clay 1/4 turn and turn the pasta machine setting down to the 2nd thickest setting and roll the sheet through again. This will flatten all of the slivers on the sheet, you can add more if you wish to fill in holes or you can keep turn the sheet and the setting down each time you roll it through to get thin sheets of design to cover things with.

If the images on the clay stack start too random, destroy the stack again and start slivering off more slices.

This picture is to remind you what the colors and the stack looked like after all of these sections.

I have to go rest now...maybe someday I will post something I made out of this.

Stamped Mokume Gane- part4

Here you can see me using a paper clip as a texture tool!

I am using a heart charm as tool! And if you are real quick you will be able to spot the blooper.

Here is the imprint of an awesome rubber stamp that I have. Don't even ask. The company that made this one doesn't exsist any more. There are tons of other companies that make wonderful spiral stamps though.

Now sliver off slices of the top of the stack with your clay blade. I say sliver because it is easier than trying to take the whole slice.

On to the final part, I am sitting here at this point wondering if it is all worth it...

Stamped Mokume Gane-part3

Cut what comes out of the pasta machine in half and rotate one of the halves so the cut edges are on the same side and stack on top of the other.

Run those through the pasta machine on the thickest setting.









Cut in half. Rotate and stack again. Do not roll through again.











Cut in half again and stack one half on top of the other to form a block.







Now destroy the stack, pent up aggression? Me? Hell no….
I press my stack to a ceramic tile or my work surface or something that will stick to the clay first so after I am done destroying the surface I can sliver off the slices. Press all kinds of stuff into the top surface. Here I am using a piece of filigree to press in to the top surface of the block stack. The marks you see below the filigree area are cut with the back og the clay blade or a knife to make those marks, you will be able to see what it does in some later pictures.
I am seriously thinking about leaving you all hanging here...next

Stamped Mokume Gane- part 2

Mix a half of block of Cernit opaque white with Cernit pearl, this will be the color that runs throughout the stack that is the same.

Condition and mix the clay till it is mix thoroughly.

Roll out in your pasta machine on the 5th thickest setting (now say that real fast 5 times).

Now depending on how many colors of clay you choose to use you will need a sheet of pearl that is 2” x1” for every color.

I like to keep it to about 6 colors (No reason really, just the way I roll). So for these instructions you will need 6 pearl and white mix sheets and 6 color sheets. You can use the first sheet you cut to measure all of the others.

I am going to use purple, turquoise, light green, neon yellow, orange, and red. Condition each of the colors and roll out on the 5th thickest setting and cut the same size sheets as you did for the pearl/white mixed color.
Continue with the measuring of the colors.

Set down a 2” x1”sheet of pearl and add a purple, pearl, add a turquoise, pearl, light green and so on in a rainbow. Please, I like to demo in a rainbow, pick colors that make your heart sing, if you can not think of anything just use colors like shades of the same blue, browns, blacks and grays, ocean, fire, autumn, Indian sunset (hi Lala!), I think you get the idea. I don't know what Indian Sunset is to you but to me it it, purple, red, Christmas red, orange, lemon and yellow.

Your stack will look like so...

Flatten the stack to about ¼” thick, try to flatten evenly starting on one end and move a little at a time to the other side of the stack.

Roll through your pasta machine on the thickest setting.

next...

Stamped Mokume Gane- part1

I wrote this up in 2003 and I thought it might be time to publish it again with the clay I use now, Cernit, the link will take you to my husband's store the Clay Factory.
I will probably have to post this in sections until I figure this whole blogger thing out.

Mokume Gane is a technique that comes from Japanese sword making. It is a method of stacking different colored metals together, stretching and pounding and distorting them to make wood grain or water like images in the cross sections. A lot of Polymer clay people have adopted this technique to make very beautiful patterns in the clay; covering beads, glass, and incorporating the slices into their work. I think that Lindly Haunani made us all aware many years ago of the beauty that could be achieved with this dynamic and easy technique.
It is easy and the random beauty of each slice is something to behold. There are lots of methods of achieving this look but I find this is an easy (Oops!!!!! Did I say that again?), and quick way to make the patterns. I use a common color through out the stack like pearl, gold, translucent, white, black, or silver and a pallet of colors, i.e. the rainbow ones, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. You can also add sheets of clay that have metal leaf added to them or have been painted with different paints, thin washes of Lumiere maybe, or brushed with pearl-ex powders and then coated with a very thin coat of pearl-ex varnish and allowed to dry can be added to the stack too. It is fun to play with and a very easy (oops there it is again) technique to start with, and you will have dynamic results to encourage you to move forward through this addiction. LOL!
For the Mokume you will need:
1-2 ounce block of Pearl, silver, white, black or gold and enough of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple to make the sheets below, probably less than a ¼ block of each color.
I am using Cernit phthalate free clay for this project but other clays will work just as well. Use what floats your boat, OK? I will use what floats mine.
Clay Dedicated Pasta machine
Clay blade
Rubber stamps- These need to be deep, bold, and defined stamps, better to use out line image stamps than shaded image stamps. Howard has something called Stamp Scraps that are perfect for this at the Clay Factory the link will take you there.
Needle tool, paper clip, filigree finding, and screw
Punch cutters by Kemper (these come in sizes from 3/16” to ¾” and several different designs, they are very tiny cookie type cutters with plungers to get the clay out.)
The settings on my pasta machine run this way, #1 being the thickest and #9 being the thinnest.

Flesh/Terra Cotta mixes

1 part of Terra Cotta Cernit to 1, 2, 3, 4,and 5 parts of Flesh Cernit and the results in the center.

Cernit color mixes

This is a Cernit color mix of Brown and Opaque white, the original colors are on the left.

The mixes are shown with parts of Opaque white to one part of Brown, the results are on the right next to the number of parts of Opaque white.

One thing I need to tell you is that if you want to milk a color of Cernit down or if you want to make a color opaque you use Opaque White not regular white, which should really be called porcelain white, but it is not, so we deal.

This is done with caramel and Opaque white. Original colors on the left and amount of parts of opaque white with 1 part of caramel, results shown at the right.

At the bottom of the page is the mix of yellow, caramel, and Opaque white to make champagne or ecru-like colors.

The one on the very bottom of the page is the best ecru. It is 1 part yellow, 3 parts caramel, and 15 parts of opaque white. Notice how I wrote white on the page, pretend I wrote opaque white. ;-)

Here are some more mixes of champagne or ecru like colors.

The top one is 1 part caramel, 2 parts champagne, and 2 parts opaque white.

The bottom one is 1 part of brown, one part of yellow, 15 parts of opaque white.

This a ivory stack made from Cernit colors, now this I am very happy with, must be something to do with the translucency of all the colors.

It is in a stack of the same size sheets of these colors.

1 sheet of the best ecru color rolled out on the thickest setting, bottom of stack.

1 sheet of champagne rolled out on the thickest setting

1 sheet of opaque white rolled out on the thickest setting

1 sheet of translucent rolled out on the thickest setting, top of stack.

Flatten stack with fingers until 1/4" thick and roll through pasta machine on the thickest setting.

Cut in half and lay one half on top of the other and roll through the machine on the thickest setting again. You can stop here or do this step again.

Cut strip into sections and stack all in one block.

Cut again in half and stack one half on top of the other. Compact together with out reducing and slice off piece from the striated face for wood or ivory.

Canna continued...

Here is what came from the canna posting. I used the colors I found in the photogragh and applied them to what I wanted to create.

And so it is.