Polymer Clay Charms
So I researched more about polymer clay, and took a look at a few tutorials and looked at charms and figurines that other people had made, and I found out that where I live they do sell polymer clay, mostly the fimo and sculpey brand, but I had some trouble trying to find out where these things are sold in a shop, and not just online, since I'm terrible at waiting for things to arrive, and there were warnings that if I do order the clay online, due to the Australian heat in summer, or on any sunny day, the clay may just bake in the post vans during delivery as when you bake it in the oven, 110C is enough, and by the time it gets to me it may already be completely baked and hard and unusable.
Keeping that in mind I set off to find shops that would sell this clay, and found three that do. There was Jackson Art Supplies in the city that sold fimo, but only in little 56g packages in various colours, for about $6 each. So I bought one in white colour, and an acrylic paint set, some varnish, hobby knife set, paint palette and some paint brushes.
The hobby knife set is pretty useful, and the best paintbrush to use, is actually the flat one.
The gloss is quite thick, but it can be thinned out with some sort of paint stripper.
I got the big tubes of paint at a later time, the Atelier brand is pretty pricey, so I was pretty happy to buy Monte Marte brand at this other shop, they were very cheap, so I tend to use a mix of both, the Atelier for the colour as it is, and the Monte Marte to mix different colours:
I managed to make 13 little charms, roughly the size of my thumb. I had some problems getting the paint to paint on smoothly, and the varnish I used? Most terrible thing ever, it just refused to dry properly, no matter what I did - blow drying it with my hair dryer, putting the charms in a well ventilated space, putting it near a window - nothing worked! It just dried and then it felt all sticky and stuck to my fingers and to other things and you could smell the varnish - blech. The varnish I used was just a normal one you paint over acrylic paint, but obviously it wasn't working.
Websites suggested using the varnish that is designed for polymer clay, like Studio by Sculpey Gloss Glaze, only problem was - that shop didn't sell any of it. So I went of hunting for shops that did and came across two more shops, there was Riot Art N Craft in the Carousel Shopping Centre, and they sold sculpey clay in little 56g packages, again in different colours for about $5, and little paint pots for mixing which I got since mixing different colours in little batches and washing away whatever remained after painting was a huge waste. And these useful things were air tight so I could keep whatever paint I mixed, and make sure I get the colour right when I need to mix more at another time.
But then I tried Spotlight, and they sold Super Sculpey in about half kilogram packages, score! They sold that for about $29, and it only came in a flesh toned colour, but I didn't care, since I had paint. They also sold the coloured little 56g packages, for about $4 to $5 and I bought a few, thinking I'll use the coloured clay for special projects or for things that are hard to paint, But I was pretty pleased to get the huge block one, since then I could get a good many more charms out of it. And they also had Studio by Sculpey Gloss Glaze! They only come in little 59mL bottles, so I got one to try out. I also got some clay modelling tools, and eye pins, split rings and jump rings to attach to the charm so that it can hang from a cord.
Soo much clay!
Some super sculpey, and a figurine of Toothless that I made, pre-baked. In the background you can see some of the coloured Sculpey clay, and the big block of Super Sculpey wrapped in cling wrap and some of the clay modelling tools.
Assorted metal findings, from left to right, eyepins, large flatback gems, split rings and jump rings
So anyway I made quite alot of charms, although I have to order the mobile phone cord thingies online, it's hard to find a shop here that sells them, but I was able to buy quite alot off from ebay for a pretty good price.
EDIT: Actually I missed seeing them in Spotlight, since they do sell them, but they only came in packs of 10, and were black, and so much more expensive than the ones online, and even if I included the price of shipping to it too!
And then after I had baked the charms and painted them, I tried out the gloss - and success!! This varnish was really really good, it dries in a matter of minutes, leaves a nice glossy sheen on the charm, and it dried DRY and smooth, not tacky like the other one! So even though it costs about $10 a bottle, it was awesome! And I promptly went off to buy a bunch of it, and an air tight glass jar to pour it in - I find it easier to dip the charm into the varnish instead of painting it on, and the bottles' opening is too small for larger charms.
So I repainted the charms that were ruined by the other varnish and revarnished them, and it was all fixed! I've made quite alot and painted about half of the amount I've made, I'm still waiting for the cords to arrive to complete it, and thinking of maybe buying some tiny gems to stick onto the charms to make them all sparkly, since who doesn't like sparkly things? I went on trusty old ebay, about bought these flat back gemstones that are about 1.5 to 2mm in diameter, usually used for decorating nails, but they were perfect to stick on my charms. I also got a few large ones from Spotlight. I also bought some fimo canes from ebay, basically these things are - according to wikipedia:
"caning or cane-working, also known as millefiori, draws from a traditional glass technique where a two dimensional design is constructed in three dimensions, with the various colored elements of the design extending all the way through the form from the front surface to the back surface. Once the initial form is completed, the form, known as a "cane," can be sliced (with the blade held parallel to the front surface) to produce a number of nearly identical copies of the design. Additionally, the form can be extended by squeezing or rolling the sides so that the form becomes longer from front to back, while becoming narrower in the other two dimensions. When the resulting form is sliced, the original design will be preserved, but shrunk to a smaller size. This technique also allows a larger number of slices to be extracted from the same amount of clay."
Anyway I bought a set of 100 small canes usually used for nail art with an additional blade to cut them, and I can't wait for them to arrive, the wait kills me sometimes. Perhaps if these charms are cute enough I would be able to sell them at Wai-con too - no-one there sells things like this, so I may be the only one if I decide to go. I'm thinking of asking a friend of mine to join me in becoming a trader, since having fanart and artwork would be a good idea, it's usually the staple for traders there to sell fanart, and if she joins me it would draw people to our stall and get them to buy my stuff too. I'll have to see if she is interested ^_^
But anyway, some pictures of a few charms I have completed:
Some lollipops, something that is meant to be a chibi Ryuk from DeathNote, panda, octopus, rabbit, round onigiri, Toothless, dragons, seahorses, checkered short-bread biscuits, choc-chip biscuits, triangular onigiri, flower, pig, bird, dogs, apples, strawberries.
The ones on the left are naruto kamaboko, they're basically fish cakes that are used as a topping for ramen, there are differently designed ones but the naruto ones are pretty well known. The other charms are fortune cookies!
Some more choc-chip cookies and checkered shortbread in different sizes. I decided to keep on with the theme of eyes and blushing marks that I used with the hats, again, mouths are too tricky to paint and get right.
More kamaboko, turtles, cubed watermelon (they sell these in Japan! I wish I could get one and eat it!), some mushrooms from mario - although I think I painted the white spots wrong - some ladybugs and starfish. I will have to post more up once I finish more, I got some foxes, oranges, lemon wedges, cats and many other things to finish. I think they're pretty cute and I'm pleased with how well most of them had turned out, another good thing about the varnish? It seems to smooth out the paint work, and fill in the paint brush lines so it all looks as if the paint is all smooth and one uniform coat, very pleasing.
^_^
Keeping that in mind I set off to find shops that would sell this clay, and found three that do. There was Jackson Art Supplies in the city that sold fimo, but only in little 56g packages in various colours, for about $6 each. So I bought one in white colour, and an acrylic paint set, some varnish, hobby knife set, paint palette and some paint brushes.
The hobby knife set is pretty useful, and the best paintbrush to use, is actually the flat one.
The gloss is quite thick, but it can be thinned out with some sort of paint stripper.
I got the big tubes of paint at a later time, the Atelier brand is pretty pricey, so I was pretty happy to buy Monte Marte brand at this other shop, they were very cheap, so I tend to use a mix of both, the Atelier for the colour as it is, and the Monte Marte to mix different colours:
I managed to make 13 little charms, roughly the size of my thumb. I had some problems getting the paint to paint on smoothly, and the varnish I used? Most terrible thing ever, it just refused to dry properly, no matter what I did - blow drying it with my hair dryer, putting the charms in a well ventilated space, putting it near a window - nothing worked! It just dried and then it felt all sticky and stuck to my fingers and to other things and you could smell the varnish - blech. The varnish I used was just a normal one you paint over acrylic paint, but obviously it wasn't working.
Websites suggested using the varnish that is designed for polymer clay, like Studio by Sculpey Gloss Glaze, only problem was - that shop didn't sell any of it. So I went of hunting for shops that did and came across two more shops, there was Riot Art N Craft in the Carousel Shopping Centre, and they sold sculpey clay in little 56g packages, again in different colours for about $5, and little paint pots for mixing which I got since mixing different colours in little batches and washing away whatever remained after painting was a huge waste. And these useful things were air tight so I could keep whatever paint I mixed, and make sure I get the colour right when I need to mix more at another time.
But then I tried Spotlight, and they sold Super Sculpey in about half kilogram packages, score! They sold that for about $29, and it only came in a flesh toned colour, but I didn't care, since I had paint. They also sold the coloured little 56g packages, for about $4 to $5 and I bought a few, thinking I'll use the coloured clay for special projects or for things that are hard to paint, But I was pretty pleased to get the huge block one, since then I could get a good many more charms out of it. And they also had Studio by Sculpey Gloss Glaze! They only come in little 59mL bottles, so I got one to try out. I also got some clay modelling tools, and eye pins, split rings and jump rings to attach to the charm so that it can hang from a cord.
Soo much clay!
Some super sculpey, and a figurine of Toothless that I made, pre-baked. In the background you can see some of the coloured Sculpey clay, and the big block of Super Sculpey wrapped in cling wrap and some of the clay modelling tools.
Assorted metal findings, from left to right, eyepins, large flatback gems, split rings and jump rings
So anyway I made quite alot of charms, although I have to order the mobile phone cord thingies online, it's hard to find a shop here that sells them, but I was able to buy quite alot off from ebay for a pretty good price.
EDIT: Actually I missed seeing them in Spotlight, since they do sell them, but they only came in packs of 10, and were black, and so much more expensive than the ones online, and even if I included the price of shipping to it too!
And then after I had baked the charms and painted them, I tried out the gloss - and success!! This varnish was really really good, it dries in a matter of minutes, leaves a nice glossy sheen on the charm, and it dried DRY and smooth, not tacky like the other one! So even though it costs about $10 a bottle, it was awesome! And I promptly went off to buy a bunch of it, and an air tight glass jar to pour it in - I find it easier to dip the charm into the varnish instead of painting it on, and the bottles' opening is too small for larger charms.
So I repainted the charms that were ruined by the other varnish and revarnished them, and it was all fixed! I've made quite alot and painted about half of the amount I've made, I'm still waiting for the cords to arrive to complete it, and thinking of maybe buying some tiny gems to stick onto the charms to make them all sparkly, since who doesn't like sparkly things? I went on trusty old ebay, about bought these flat back gemstones that are about 1.5 to 2mm in diameter, usually used for decorating nails, but they were perfect to stick on my charms. I also got a few large ones from Spotlight. I also bought some fimo canes from ebay, basically these things are - according to wikipedia:
"caning or cane-working, also known as millefiori, draws from a traditional glass technique where a two dimensional design is constructed in three dimensions, with the various colored elements of the design extending all the way through the form from the front surface to the back surface. Once the initial form is completed, the form, known as a "cane," can be sliced (with the blade held parallel to the front surface) to produce a number of nearly identical copies of the design. Additionally, the form can be extended by squeezing or rolling the sides so that the form becomes longer from front to back, while becoming narrower in the other two dimensions. When the resulting form is sliced, the original design will be preserved, but shrunk to a smaller size. This technique also allows a larger number of slices to be extracted from the same amount of clay."
Anyway I bought a set of 100 small canes usually used for nail art with an additional blade to cut them, and I can't wait for them to arrive, the wait kills me sometimes. Perhaps if these charms are cute enough I would be able to sell them at Wai-con too - no-one there sells things like this, so I may be the only one if I decide to go. I'm thinking of asking a friend of mine to join me in becoming a trader, since having fanart and artwork would be a good idea, it's usually the staple for traders there to sell fanart, and if she joins me it would draw people to our stall and get them to buy my stuff too. I'll have to see if she is interested ^_^
But anyway, some pictures of a few charms I have completed:
Some lollipops, something that is meant to be a chibi Ryuk from DeathNote, panda, octopus, rabbit, round onigiri, Toothless, dragons, seahorses, checkered short-bread biscuits, choc-chip biscuits, triangular onigiri, flower, pig, bird, dogs, apples, strawberries.
The ones on the left are naruto kamaboko, they're basically fish cakes that are used as a topping for ramen, there are differently designed ones but the naruto ones are pretty well known. The other charms are fortune cookies!
Some more choc-chip cookies and checkered shortbread in different sizes. I decided to keep on with the theme of eyes and blushing marks that I used with the hats, again, mouths are too tricky to paint and get right.
More kamaboko, turtles, cubed watermelon (they sell these in Japan! I wish I could get one and eat it!), some mushrooms from mario - although I think I painted the white spots wrong - some ladybugs and starfish. I will have to post more up once I finish more, I got some foxes, oranges, lemon wedges, cats and many other things to finish. I think they're pretty cute and I'm pleased with how well most of them had turned out, another good thing about the varnish? It seems to smooth out the paint work, and fill in the paint brush lines so it all looks as if the paint is all smooth and one uniform coat, very pleasing.
^_^