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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.

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/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.