Alcohol Inks on Polymer Clay

Playing with alcohol inks on polymer clay

I have recently expanded on my shop products and added a new line of ring dishes & trinket bowls to compliment my jewellery collection at Lottie of London.

This gave me the chance to dig out the alcohol inks and play around.

Now it had been a long time since I've played with inks and felt like I needed a little testing and refreshing of my techniques before I went gung ho and started making the ring dishes.

Here are some examples of of my test slices playing with colours and different applications, as you can see I had some fun!

Playing with alcohol inks on polymer clay

Playing with alcohol inks on polymer clay

Playing with alcohol inks on polymer clay

Playing with alcohol inks on polymer clay

Well my technique hasn't left me, I'm delighted with these results and they will make for some beautiful ring dishes.

Alcohol Marker Pens on Polymer Clay

I purchased some alcohol marker pens by Spectrum Noir last year for trying out on polymer clay.

My theory is that as alcohol inks are usable on polymer clay surely it would be possible to also be able to use the pens with a more controlled colouring effect on clay too. I have only had a chance to have a quick test of the pens but here are some examples of my first mini try out.

I made some small tiles of white clay both raw and cooked to test the pens here are my results.

Testing Alcohol inks on polymer clay

The above picture is done on raw clay with just the pens.

Below I used the pens as seen in the first photo and then decided to mix it up with some mixing fluid which I thought made it a little on the mucky side.

Testing Alcohol pens on Polymer Clay

Here I played around with some stamped clay.

Testing Alcohol Pens on Polymer Clay

The best result I believe is with cooked clay mainly due to the fact that on raw clay some of the clay does stick to the pens which I believe will ultimately shorten the life of the pens and given their price this wouldn't be a good thing.

The effects are not as great as I hoped but I do plan to test these out some more to see if I can get some different effects.

Until next time!


Lottie Of London Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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

What to do with Alcohol Inked polymer clay scraps

Using Up Scraps of Inked Polymer Clay

Following my recent post on  Polymer Clay Swirl Beads in which I created a necklace using swirl lentil beads, I have been left with some left over scraps of inked clay.

Incase you have'nt seen my post, I created sheets of clay using metal leafing and alcohol inks which was used to create my beads for my necklace below.

Polymer Clay Necklace with swirled lentil beads

 I was left with with a few random scraps , as you can see, now more often than not my scraps would go into my scrap pile for forming the base of my beads, but with these inked scraps they are still usable, heres what I done with them...

 As you can see the scraps of clay are in many shapes, the larger sheet I tore into strips also.  I used the strip scraps to cover base beads totally and then rolled them out so they blended in.

This is pretty much the same as the watercolour torn paper effect used by  Maggie Maggio.

Here's some more examples of what I made using my scraps ...

 

Some simple round beads with torn strips applied

Some swirled lentil beads

Swirled heart charms created from lentil beads, and two pendants using various scraps of inked clay

So why not have some fun with your scrap clay and see what you can make...

Part of Handmade Monday with Handmade Harbour

Polymer Clay Swirl Beads

 Creating Polymer Clay Swirl Beads

I have a wedding to attend tomorrow and I have been playing with the idea of creating a necklace/pendant to go with a new dress I am keen wear.  Below is a close up shot showing the print and colour my dress.

Print of my party dress with colours on red/orange, black, mauve and hints of white and green

The print of the dress is very bold as you an see and is almost animal like, but rather than replicate the print and colours I have decided to take some of the elements of colour in the dress and create some polymer clay swirl beads.

Polymer clay with gold metal leafing applied

To create my beads I have decided to use alcohol inks for my colour which will be applied over gold metal leafing on two sheets of black clay.



 

Polymer clay applied with metal leafing and alcohol inks

 
Here I have applied alcohol inks over each sheet of clay.

My first sheet has been applied with alcohol inks in  Wild Plum with hints of Stream and Pearl.

The second sheet has been applied with Stream and Buttercream.

My polymer clay sheets are covered with a thin translucent clay sheet

The clay sheets are allowed to dry and once ready I apply a thin sheet of translucent clay over each cover.  I do this as I have often found that it protects the colour and leafing from rubbing off when applied to beads.

Polymer clay lentil swirl beads prior to cooking

Here are my swirled lentil beads prior to cooking, these are two test beads to test two types of application styles for swirling but also to test the colour once cooked. 

Polymer clay lentil swirl beads after cooking

Now the beads have been cooked, some of the translucent still remains and unfortunately the Wild Plum colour has become more pink after cooking,







So after some more experimentation with swirling here are my final swirled lentil beads... as you can see I have included a red and gold bullseye cane into the swirl to give the bead more depth in colour as the wild plum colour was not strong enough. 

My Polymer clay lentil swirled beads, my final design

They now need a good sanding, buffing and polishing before I decide on my final necklace design.

Updated sometime later that evening ....

Here it is my finished necklace and I'm delighted with how its turned out, initially I was worried that the beads would look slightly dull but after a good polishing, buffing and varnishing they are perfect and the Fire Opal Swarovski Crystals I have teamed them with give the necklace that extra sparkle, I can't wait to wear the necklace tomorow.

Polymer Clay Swirled Lentil Necklace

Polymer Clay Swirled Lentil Necklace combined with fire opal swarovski crystals

Polymer Clay Swirled Lentil Bead (largest bead)

Polymer Clay Swirled Lentil Necklace wire wrapped in gold with swarovski crystals

Alcohol Inks and Foils : Part II

Alcohol Inks and Foils Part 2

Just slightly late :)

I have finally got round to taking my final photos of my work on alcohol inks and foils so here we go

My Pebble Pendant Necklace

My Autumn Toned Heart Pin

Molten On Black Lentil Bead Set now available for sale from TheBeadyShop.co.uk

Molten On Black Round Bead Set now available for sale from TheBeadyShop.co.uk

I really pleased with how this technique has worked and can't wait to try more colours !

If you missed part 1 here it is Alcohol Inks and Foils Part 1

Alcohol Inks and Foils Part 1 : Autumn Charm Bracelet

Alcohol Inks and Foils Part 1

Using the Polymer Clay sheet, mentioned yesterday, here is a collection of the beads selected for my Autumn Charm Bracelet, which features the polymer clay punched leaves and some extra added polymer clay oval beads (not seen here as I created them after this photos was taken).

My finished Autumn Charm Bracelet, featuring my handcrafted polymer clay leaves ovals, also included are an assortment of glass pearls, Czech facets, flowers and pillow beads.

I also made a set of earrings from the little Polymer Clay Oval Beads that have been included in the bracelet,

 teamed with some Fire Opal Swarovski Crystals 

More still to come ...

Catch up with Alcohol Inks and Foil Part2 Here