Stamping Ink on Polymer Clay

Stamping Ink on Polymer Clay

There are a lot of tutorials for stamping on polymer clay on the web all using various techniques and inclusions, for this post I'm going to be covering a simply tutorial by Sculpey for the Asian Bead Bracelet, this tutorial is for a simple technique of stamping ink onto polymer clay beads.

I have tried stamping ink on polymer clay previously though unsuccessfully I might add.  This could have been due to the fact I was using an ink pad I had simply picked up in a local craft shop, as it would never dry and my work would always end up smudged. I later discovered that for clay it is better to use a solvent type ink as they are permanent on porous surfaces such as clay and they dry quite quickly.

Staz on ink pad and musical note themed stamp

The ink I am using for this project is Staz On, not the easiet to get hold of here in the UK, as it seemed to be sold out everywhere.  I am also using a new musical stamp (rather than an asian stamp) for this tutoiral as I have some future plans for this theme.

The clay is prepared and the beads bases are covered in white ready for my project and stamp application.

 Once the beads are prepped and ready, I stamp the musical stamp onto the beads by following the project instuctuions of inking the stamp and placing the bead onto the stamp as you can see the transference of the inked stamp was not totally successful for me using this method, some beads have become blurred and yet some faded.







As I was'nt have'nt much success with this method I decided to to ink the area of the stamp I wanted to use and carefully press it onto my beads, which produced a much better result in the stamping.

As mentioned above I have some ideas for this stamp so I stamped a sheet of clay also, here the top stamped area was pressed lightly with my fingers, the second stamp area was pressed using a slightly heavier object.

I honestly thought this would be an easy project, but trying to the get a decent print from the stamp can be quite tricky, which personally I found frustrating as I hate to waste clay.  It definitely takes some careful application of your stamp to the clay to get decent and usable results.  I also wonder now if maybe the music stamp was maybe slightly too busy for working with clay, but I'm really pleased with the Staz On ink pad as it dried very quickly.

The beads are now being cooked and the finished results will be added soon.

Updated (a little later)

Here is my finished bracelet from my project, I think a little more practice is needed with the stamped application and maybe some different shaped beads for a future project would work well.

Polymer Clay Bracelet Stamped Inks on Clay

And what happened with my clay sheet

Polymer Clay Charms with stamped Ink on Clay

Well for a future project I created these little round stamped musical charms and a pendant with the remaining sheet.

Part of Handmade Monday with Handmade Harbour

Resources

• The tutorial used for this project was Asian Bead Bracelet by Sculpey

Perfect Pearls & Polymer Clay Part 1

Well originally this was supposed to be about my New Mica Powders which I ordered.  I had a de-ja-vu moment aka micro powders and didn't have a clue where to start.

So I decided to blog my experiments and hunt down some tutorials to try them out, but instead I found a tutorial using some perfect pearls and as I have had some sitting around for a year unused I decided to start there.

So here goes I don't have the best colour assortment as you can see but my main aim is to learn new techniques for using them. and applying them to my jewellery.



My perfect pearls

Starting with the basics I mixed some into clay and applied some to the outside of the bead on both black and white clay.



Perfect pearls mixed into the clay 

 Here the prefect pearls has been mixed into the clay. The left bead has not been mixed well creating a marbled effect which is something I must test on some larger beads for better viewing. The right bead has been well mixed into the white clay changing the colour, not really an effect that i see worth doing.




Perfect pearls applied to the outside of the clay

 Here I have brushed the perfect pearls onto the outside of the bead, using both white and black clay to see how the colour is different, creating a copper/bronze effect.

Next I took some scrap clay and stamped three tiles.  First I applied the perfect pearls again by using a brush and colouring the sections of the stamped clay, can't really say I'm all too keen on this method though with better suited colours a nicer blend could probably be achieved.

On the second tile I stamped the scrap with perfect medium lightly over the tile and applied just the green to the stamped area and then vigorously brushed off any remaining powder from the tile.  The stamped area is very faint, a bit foggy where some powder has stuck to the clay and I like what is ultimately trying to be achieved but I think more tests are need with this method, being to try white and black clay but also a pre-cooked tile of clay as I wonder if the powder would come away so much easier.

Lastly I added the perfect pearls to some water and created a paint which was applied to the stamped area.  Of the three this is my favourite the colours are a beautiful metallic, definitely one for my to do list.









Finally I searched for some tutorials for perfect pearls and decided to have a go at this one here on the Polyform Website Dry Erase Tile Board.  Now as jewellery is more my thing and I like to find ways in which techniques can be used to make jewellery, I obviously didn't make the tile, instead I made a sheet of clay using the methods from the tutorial and here are my finished pieces.

I tore the sheets of my clay and applied them to a black background, I am really pleased with the results and I hope to make some lovely pendants from these, The backs have just been applied so now they just need sanding and buffing. 

Catch Up

• So what happened to my Pendants 
• Part 2 of Perfect Pearls