Clay Pens

So a few posts back I showed how to make some canes and now it is time to put them to use.  One of the easiest things is to make pens. I like to use the basic Bic pens.(that don't have any grips on them.  Start by taking out the ink so you just have the shell.  Then you will cut your can into nice thin slices and start to press them onto the pen gently.

Cover the entire pen! I like to start at the end and work towards the pen tip.

You might have to trim the extra off at the end.

Once it it all covered I like to gently roll it back and forth to make it smooth.  The canes will distort a little bit.  I recommend (if using sculpty or premo) to bake at 250 for 15 minutes.  It is better to go a little cooler so your pen doesn't melt!  Once it is done and cooled, you can sand it a little bit to make it a tad smoother.  I like to use wet/dry sand paper at the highest I can find (usually that is 600).  Once sanded, I use a glaze and cover the entire pen.  It makes it nice and shiny and I think it helps from cracking over time.  Then just put the ink back in and your done!.

I made the leaf pen a long time ago and have been able to change out the ink and use it over and over again.  This can be a good project for young kids to do.  A simpler option for them would be to have them cover the pen in one color clay and then have them wrap a long "snake" around the pen and then roll it smooth.

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

My mini fruit pizza wannabes

Simple Clay Canes

So now that you know how to make that nice clay blend, it is time to get some canes going.

If you just take the blend and roll it up, you will get a cane that looks like this and it is cool, but we can make it cooler!

What you want to do is take a solid color and make it the same size as your blend or just a little longer.

I like to put the blend on top of the solid and then roll it up.

It is going to look like this.  It is called a jelly roll cane.  Then you are going to reduce it.

The end might start to look a little deformed and that is ok.

When you cut the end off it should look like these and now they are ready for a project!

Skinner Blend

I've recently gotten back into my clay and I thought I would put up how to make a skinner blend (mostly because my hubby wanted to know how I did it).

So first take your two colors of clay (roll them into flat sheets or go through your pasta machine) and make them into triangles and joing them like this.

Once again blogger has decided to rotate my picture on me...gerrrr. Once it is through the pasta machine fold it one time.  The blue edge went up to the long white edge.

This is what it looks like once it has gone through a 2-3 times.  Make sure you keep folding it in the right direction.

Now it has gone through a dozen or so times

just keep folding and putting it through till you get the blend you want.

Now you are ready to create your project!