Kay
Garner makes and sells jewelry at Collage, a studio and gallery in the
Central Texas Marketplace. She will demonstrate some of the things
that can be done with polymer clay. In particular, she will us
how to make a design in clay and stretch it into a long tube, reducing
the size of the design. The tube can then be sliced into thin
discs, each having a small version of the original
design. This is very
similar to hard candy that used to be popular around Christmastime many
years ago. An example is at the upper right. Another
technique is shown at the lower right.
Join us at the Waco Charter
School, 615 N. 25th Street, at 1:30 for refreshments and conversation.
The meeting begins at 2, and the demo starts soon thereafter.
And bring friends. Remember that first time visitors are free, and
new members can join for $2/month for the rest of the year. At
this point, that's $10 for a regular membership. Also, bring
recent work to share at the break.
June 3 - Kay Garner and Sharon Gillespie -
Polymer Clay
Kay
and Sharon Opened up a new medium to us. Polymer clay can be
used to look like semi-precious stones, turquoise, glass and many
others. It can imitate many different art forms. It is a relatively
inexpensive art form, requiring only a few tools. The most expensive
tool, and the most convenient, is a quality pasta making machine.
Get a good one, but
don't
use it to actually make pasta after using it with clay. The pasta
machine helps to condition your clay and to remove any air bubbles.
It is much more
difficult to do this by manually kneading and hand rolling your
clay. You will also need a clay cutting knife, and a felt-tip
marking pen comes in handy. To clean your pasta machine, use
alcohol instead of water.
There
are basically two types of clay: Kato is firmer and Primo is more
durable. Kato Clay has a 17 color spectrum but you can blend
your colors. Primo has 30 some colors.
Before using your clay, you need to remove all the air and flatten
it out. It usually takes about 20 passes in a pasta
machine to get the clay conditioned. Kato clay will sometimes
try to crumble on you when you put it through. When putting
your clay through the machine always put the folded end in first.
The more you put your clay through the better it will hold together.
Feed your clay through in the same direction each time. To keep clay
moist you can store it in cling wrap and in the refrigerator until
you are ready to use it,
Judith
Skinner created the process of Skinner Blend. In this process
you put two different colors together, one on top of the other, to
blend the colors. Do not line up your clay when you do this
process. (See top left.) This way you will have true
color on each end and the middle will be
blended. Fold your clay and run it through your machine around
25 times. The number of times you run it through depends on
the colors you are using and the effect you want to create.
Rolling different colors of clay together creates what is called a
"Skinner's Bulls-eye" Cane. (top right) There are
several different types of canes such as a Brain Cane, Rose Cane,
Star Cane (lower left), Basket Weave (lower right), etc.
Polymer
clay must to heated to complete the finished product. You can do
this in your oven at home but you must be very careful not to burn
the clay. When overheated the fumes of the clay are toxic. You will
also need to clean your oven after baking clay in it.
Don't
throw away your scraps after trimming your work. They can always be
used in some way. You should let your clay rest between processes.
Either rest it over night or put it in your refrigerator for half an
hour. You keep compressing your clay to decrease its size down to
where you want it. You can also buy different stamps to add designs
to your work.
Many
thanks to Kay and Sharon for a fascinating presentation.
Thanks also to those providing refreshments and those who brought
art for show and tell, samples of which appear below.
Show and Tell
Violet Piper
Larry Garza
Rose Jacobson
(family photo)
Nancy Cagle also brought art, but unfortunately we didn't get photos
of it.
