Top Ten Tuesday: top ten products to add to mokume gane

I've taken it into my polymer-crazed head to post a weekly feature here called "Top Ten Tuesday". (We'll see how long this lasts. . . (g)) Every Tuesday, I'll focus on a different clay-related topic. Since this is the inaugural list, I thought I'd go easy on myself and choose an easy one. ;o)

Top Ten Products to Add to Mokume Gane (and Why):

10. Nothing
No, seriously. You can get some gorgeous mokume gane effects with nothing but polymer clay. Try mg with your own special mixes of mica clay and translucent, clay, too. This style of mg looks best, imho, when patterned with deeply-etched stamps. Check out some of what Nan Roche has done with this technique, if you're seeking some mg inspiration.

9. Glitter
If you're a sucker for that glitzy glittered look, why not sprinkle a little into your next batch of mg? There are a couple of ways you can apply it. Sprinkle it over a sheet of translucent clay, if you want just a little. (Putting too much will prevent the sheets of clay from adhering properly.) If you want more, use the glitter as an inclusion in some translucent clay, then roll that into a sheet for the mg block. Very fine glitter will work better than larger-scale glitter, and polyester or glass glitters perform best during the curing process. (Metal glitters can distort in the heat, with unattractive results.) You could also try a thin application of glitter paint on translucent clay.

8. Metallic Foil
Mylar-backed metallic foils (as opposed to real metal leaf) can be used with mokume gane. One example of this material is the line produced by Jones Tones. To use metallic foil in mg, just burnish it onto a sheet of translucent clay, pull off the clear backing, and use either as is or after crackling the foil by feeding the sheet through the pasta machine. Metallic foil comes in a variety of colors, patterns, and "effects" (such as oil slick, rainbow, etc.), so there are lots of possibilities with this product. (The downside is that some foils can be difficult to apply to clay.)

7. Lumiere Metallic Paints
Lumiere paints (from Jacquard) come in a gorgeous array of metallic colors that can be mixed to create still more colors. This paint tends to stretch with the clay-- not crackle. There are two ways to approach this property. First, you can embrace it and not worry about crackling. However, if you've got your heart set on crazing, you can dilute Lumiere paint with water-- up to a 1:1 ratio. The addition of the water improves the "cracklability" of the paint. Apply a thin coat of paint to a sheet of translucent clay. Once it's dried, feed this through the pasta machine or roll it with an acrylic rod to create crackle (or not, depending on the look you want).

6. Posh Metallic Inkabilities
Ranger's Posh Metallic Inkabilities come in two sets. Luminous Metallics (the one I own) contains a rainbow of six colorful metallic inks (blue, pink, teal, violet, green, and red), while the Precious Metals set comes with six "metal colors" (silver, copper, charcoal, rich gold, white pearl, and bronze). These inks come in .25 ounce needlepoint applicators and were originally designed for use with stamping, but they work great with polymer clay, too. Gorgeous metallic colors-- and they crackle, too. Just drop a tiny bit onto your sheet of translucent clay, spread it around with a brush, let it dry, and crackle away.

5. Mica Powders
Mica powders, such as Jacquard's Pearl-Ex line, are popular with polymer clay artists, because they have a number of applications. There are a couple of ways to apply them to mokume gane, as well. First, you can put little dabs of them here and there over a sheet of (painted or unpainted) polymer clay. (Be careful not to put too much, as this will prevent the sheets of clay from adhering to one another.) Another way to incorporate these sparkling colors into mokume gane is to mix them with an acrylic base of some sort. Future Floor Finish works well. Just mix a bit of powder into a few drops of Future until you get a nice paint-like consistency. Apply and crackle (or not, as you like).

4. Metallic Acrylic Paints
A number of brands of acrylic paint include metallic and iridescent colors in their lines. By all means, try what you already have, but if you're still building your stock of art supplies, be aware that you don't have to spend a great deal of money on metallic paints. Every brand behaves a bit differently-- and often there are variations within a brand, from color to color-- but often the cheaper "craft paints" work just as well, if not better than, the more expensive artist-grade paint, when it comes to crackling. My personal stock includes some FolkArt Metallics (from Plaid), some Dazzling Metallics (from DecoArt), and a couple of Anita's Metallics. All will work with polymer clay mokume gane. You'll have to experiment to see which crackle best to your liking, but even those that don't crackle as well can still be very pretty in mokume gane (as well as in other polymer clay applications, such as antiquing and dry-brushing).

3. Alcohol Inks
For a dash of transparent color, you needn't look further than alcohol inks. Alcohol inks have a number of uses with polymer clay, and at least a few of them apply to mokume gane. Jacquard's Pinata Colors come in 17 bold colors, while Ranger's Adirondack Alcohol Inks are available in 24 more subtle, earthy tones. Both lines are beautiful and can be used interchangeably. Here are just a few ways to use them with mg (and you can probably come up with more): First, drop a bit on a sheet of translucent clay and use a brush to cover the whole surface. (You can use straight ink for darker color or dilute it with alcohol or extender for a watercolor effect.) You'll be able to see through this layer of color, in the finished pieces. Second, drop the inks onto metal leaf in order to colorize it. Leave the drops as spatters of color or blend them over the whole surface. You'll be able to see through the color to the metallic sparkle of the leaf. Third, apply a drop or two to some polymer clay. When the ink is dry (after 15 - 30 minutes), condition the clay until the color is distributed through it (either evenly or in a marbled pattern, as you wish). Use this clay as a sheet in your mg stack. It will be colored, but still somewhat translucent.

2. Daler-Rowney Pearlescent Liquid Acrylic Inks
Pearlescent Liquid Acrylic Inks (from Daler-Rowney) are a favorite product of many people, including artist Allison Ingham, who uses them to achieve attractive crazing in her polymer clay work. They come in a range of lovely colors, go on smoothly, and crackle beautifully. I've read that the best way to apply them for optimum crackle is to not shake the bottle, but to drag up the thicker "dregs" from the bottom of the bottle and paint with those. Personally, I do shake the bottle and just dip from the top, and I've been happy with the results I've gotten. Try both methods and see which you prefer.

1. Metal Leaf
It's the classic mokume gane addition, and for a very good reason: combined with delicately tinted translucent clay, it creates an absolutely gorgeous effect. Metal leaf adheres easily to polymer clay and crackles easily. The gossamer shimmer of crackled sheets of real metal-- it's the ultimate draw for those of us with inner magpies. Lindley Haunani is credited with pioneering this style of mg. For a slightly different look, apply metal leaft to sheets of untinted translucent clay. Slices from the mg loaf can then be applied to base clay in any color(s) you want. In this ways, you can make mg beads, pens, etc. in a variety of colors, all from one batch.

The Final Word on MG-Related Products:
Whatever you put in your mokume gane, whether you like to "mix it up" and put a little bit of everything in there or your style is more restrained and classic, don't be afraid to try something new. There's no telling what we'll be adding to mokume gane five or ten years from now, and maybe you'll be the one who discovers the next great product!

Latest incarnation of "Crackled Inlay"--

Last Wednesday, I wrote that I was "varnishing" a few pieces done in my latest version of the "Crackled Inlay" technique. I think that a few of them came out very nicely-- so much so that I probably ought to see about putting a photo or two up on the tutorial page, just to show how the alternatives can look. (Honestly, right now I think they look better than any photos I have of the original technique.)

I could probably have done a better job of the photographing, but oh well. For now here are photos of the front and back (or back and front, depending on which side you favor) of my husband's favorite pendant from the batch:

Not absolutely perfect, maybe, but much better than I thought when I first tried cutting the sheet of clay with the metal leaf on it!

One thing I noticed was that some of the colors I used for this project seemed to change during curing. I started with four different shades of tinted translucent clay. (I used alcohol ink-- Adirondack and Pinata brands-- to tint the clay, but colored clay should work, too.) One was yellow, one orange, and the two last were slightly different shades of salmony pink. Now, I wasn't surprised that the pinks turned out to be the same after curing. I'd rather expected that that might happen. What did surprise me was that I could barely tell the difference between the orange and the yellow. The orange looks like a slightly darker gold than the yellow, while the two pinks look orange! It's not really a problem in this case, but it could be annoying under other circumstances.

I'll have to keep an eye on this in the future-- try to notice which ones shift the most and in what "direction", etc. I wonder how much of this is related to the ambering effect that sometimes occurs when you cure translucent clay? I wouldn't have thought that would be an issue in this case, as I used Frost (aka Premo Trans. w/Bleach), which I believe is supposed to reduce yellowing. Anyway-- something to think about for next time.

I still have some of the "metal-leafed" sheets of clay, so I'll probably give this project another try. I'd like to think ahead this time, though, and maybe try something a bit different. I'm not sure what, but I find that if I don't make a conscious effort to try something new, I generally end up falling into the same patterns of size, shape, and decoration style in my beads and pendants. Like anyone, I have my own personal comfort zone, and I naturally gravitate toward it if I'm not taking active measures to reach beyond it.

That said, I have a cold right now, so maybe I can be excused if I cling to what comforts me, these days. ;o)

Apart from the obsessing...

When I haven't been working to set the house to rights-- or obsessing over Etsy, Flickr, et al.-- in the itty-bitty smidge of time I've allotted to the clay this week (so far)-- I've been "Varathaning" a few pieces.

Ok, I lied. I haven't been "Varathaning"-- not because "Varathaning" isn't a word (if you're one of those who abhor the trend of hijacking nouns and forcing them to behave like verbs-- such as "journaling", "scrapbooking", and "efforting"). No, it's because (as I was informed on a pc message board) what I use is Minwax Polycrylic (the water-based kind) and that is not the same thing as Varathane.

So, I guess I've really be "Polycrlic-ing" a few pieces. I have no photos (yet), but that shouldn't stop me from writing about them.

One of them is... was, since it's finished, now... an aqua-teal nautilus-shaped spiral-shell pendant. (Actually, I do have a photo of that one... Let me go upload it...)



Ta-da! Ok, nothing too fancy, I guess, but it's not too bad for a failed project that I just made into something else on a sudden whim.

Another thing I "varnished"-- something I'm thinking of adding to Etsy. It's a bit different from anything else I've put there, because it will be a "custom-made" item. Basically, it's a glow-in-the-dark clay shape with a single letter of the alphabet on it in black. (That way, when it's glowing, the letter will stand out in contrast.) I'm thinking of uploading a pic of the one I've made (an "M") and a pic of the alphabet(s) from which the customer may choose. I don't know if there's much of a market for that sort of thing, but hey, it's only .20 to list it once, and maybe... Personalized stuff is popular with some people (particularly people with kids, I think), and kids like things that glow... and one of the two items I've sold was GITD... So I wanted to add one or two more GITD things, anyway... :o)

Everything else I've been varnishing is from my latest batch of "Crackled Inlay" alternative-method beads/pendants. I took my own advice and tried the method of tinting the translucent clay, adhering the metal leaf to that, and cutting shapes from it. At first, I was disappointed to find that the leaf didn't want to cut evenly. It was the same problem I'd had with the inked sheets of clay. Then Donald suggested that I might have better luck if I turned the clay over so that the leafed side was facing up. I tried it-- and I think it did make a little difference. Anyway, it worked well enough that I made a few beads and pendants, just to see how they'd turn out. I think some of them are pretty. I'm looking forward to photographing them. :o)

As a matter of fact, maybe I'll go see about turning one of them into something I can wear tomorrow... :o)

"Crackled Inlay" experiment #1...

So, a couple of weeks ago I tried out one of the alternative ways I'd brainstormed to do "Crackled Inlay". (The link takes you to the tutorial for the technique.) The results were... well, not quite what I'd expected.

The idea was to paint a thin sheet of translucent clay with alcohol ink, let the ink dry, apply metal leaf to the inked side of the clay, and cut shapes from this sheet to apply (leafed side down) to base beads.

I ran into two problems.

First problem-- The metal leaf didn't adhere as well to the inked clay as it does to uninked clay. (I'd wondered how this would work. Turns out the answer is "not so well"!) Now, there may be better ways to do this than what I tried. Maybe it sticks better if you adhere the metal leaf before the ink is dry. I doubt it-- it sounds kind of messy, actually-- but I suppose it's possible.

Second problem-- Once I got the metal leaf kinda-sorta on the inked clay and tried to cut shapes from the sheet (using a wavy blade, mostly), I saw that the metal leaf didn't cut as cleanly as I'd hoped. Meaning there were tiny bits of metal leaf sticking out from the sides of my shapes. (The leaf was tearing loose from the clay in places, so parts of it had no leaf and other parts had loose bits of leaf sticking out randomly.) Now, this did vary somewhat. I tried three colors of ink, so I had three inked sheets of clay. One sheet seemed to cut more neatly than the others. (Not sure what was going on there...)

I made one focal bead with "inlay" from the best sheet of inked and leafed clay. I think it turned out nicely. At least, it looked good enough that I gave it away as a gift before I had a chance to photograph it. But overall, this twist on the technique just didn't work for me. It was such a pain trying to get the leaf to adhere to the inked clay.

I hated to waste that metal leaf and translucent clay, so I came up with another idea to use my left-overs. I reconditioned each sheet of clay separately, breaking up the metal leaf and working the ink into the clay. Then I fed each sheet through the pasta machine and cut my shapes from them. (And applied the shapes to the base bead, etc., etc., according to the original technique.) This was much easier to cut into shapes! The results were a totally different look, too.

So far, I've only photographed one bead from that set, and I don't have the photo on this computer, so I can't upload it here, but if you're interested, just go to my Flickr page. Or better yet, here's a link to the exact photo. It's not the best photograph (and it seems to look worse on this monitor than on the one I normally use!), but it gives you an idea, at least. (For future reference, I used aluminum leaf, Premo Frost and Black, and two shades of Adirondack Alcohol Inks-- Lettuce and Stream-- for this bead.)

So. I was disappointed with the failure of my initial idea, but the lemons made a pretty decent glass of lemonade. ;o) And I have another idea for how to get the more traditional crackled look from the metal leaf. (It's one I've seen in others' work before. I thought my way might look better, honestly, but it turns out that "my" way doesn't really work, so... (g))

Instead of painting the surface of the translucent clay with ink and applying metal leaf to that, try this: Drop the ink onto the translucent clay (or paint it on, if you really must, but it's not necessary). Let the ink dry thoroughly. Mix the ink into the clay. You can either mix it completely or leave some marbling (streaking). And if you don't have alcohol ink, you can also use a tiny pinch of colored clay... or possibly a little acrylic paint-- just don't over-do it, as you want lightly tinted translucent clay. Roll the clay through the pasta machine (or by hand, into a thin, uniform sheet). Apply the metal leaf. Turn the sheet with the metal leaf down and cut your shapes from the sheet.

Now, I haven't tried this yet. It may turn out that it gives you the same problem with the leaf wanting to tear when you cut your shapes, but I think the problem I had was due to the fact that the leaf never really adhered to the inked clay the way I had hoped it would. If you do have problems with tearing, you might try cutting out your shapes with a very sharp craft knife (rather than duller shape cutters and such).

I'm looking forward to trying this new twist on the technique and seeing how it works... :o)