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.

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.

Gold/Silver Mixes

This is the second page and third pages of the gold and silver mixes.

The one lone sample is the gold and the silver mixed together 1 part to 1 part.







And something to think about, please...

"Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine."
THE BUDDHA

Happy Sunday and welcome to everyone who has visited this page, I am forever richer because of you all! Thank you!

Gold/Silver Mixes

Here are the first of the gold and silver mixes and the results of those combo's.
I really like the gold/turquoise mix. But the Lemon/silver is pretty cool too!
The color is listed on the right, the first column of colors is the result of a 1 part to 1 part (1:1) mix of gold and the color listed.
The second column of chips is a 1 part to (1:1) part of silver Cernit to color.
I use a 1/2" round cutter to cut out a color rolled out on the thickest setting in the pasta machine. And then I cut out a round disk of gold or silver and mix the color and the gold or silver disk together to get the result, which I then roll out on the thickest setting and bake and then glue in to my journal to document the result of the color mix.
I use this journal to keep my color mixes and the recipes. This give me a general idea of where the color goes and how it looks after I bake it.
The part or 1/2" round disk can then be converted to other size parts, i.e, 1 disk= 1/4 block, or 1 disk= 1 full block, 2 ounces, or 1 disk= 1 large pound block. You will get the same results from all the sizes as parts listed.
You also bake these on a cardboard that has the color written on it and then the gold and silver colors at the top. My baking cardboard looks similar to the journal page.
I am always surprised with what I get from gold and silver.

Flesh/Caramel mixes

1 part of Caramel Cernit mixed with 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 parts of flesh Cernit.

The results being in the center.

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.