This week, we will show you how to take boring and ugly scraps of clay and turn them into beautiful objects by covering them with slices of canes. In Polymer Clay Classroom, available on the 7th, we show you how to make the cane pictured and create a fan pull. Enjoy!
This week, we had some news- Amaco and Staedler are joining forces to bring you the Spring Bottle of Hope awards at CHA in California, and we will again be covering the show. We will also be going to Synergy soon, and then the Clay Fandango retreat in Orlando. Studio Clay by Sculpey is going to be $2.99 a bar for 2.8 ounces. A pretty good deal (unless you're used to getting your clay at Michael's on sale, unfortunately Michael's isn't carrying it- yet.) We discuss the Jan/Feb Belle Armoire Magaz...
This week, Ilysa went-it alone for our video. I am studying for the Florida teacher's exams, and felt a little stressed about meeting for a weekend to film our next episodes before the test which is in early January. We hope you enjoy the show, and later next month we'll be filming the next series. Ornaments are fun- you can cover glass, or just use clay. Use all the techniques you have learned so far- texture them with texture plates or stamps, run pigment powders and inks on them for sparkle a...
This week, we talk about making ornaments for the holidays or just to hang on your walls, we review Donna Kato's book "My Favorite Things in Polymer Clay," and we have a discussion regarding the new Studio by Sculpey clay- because Kira talked to her Regional Trainer, Jane Zhou, about it. Enjoy! Come back next week for the video demo on ornament making.
Enjoy this week's footage from the show we went to. Next year, if you're in Orlando, make sure you email us first so we can get together!
This week we bring you an interview with Tamara Marble, who created the company Design Canes. She makes very cute small canes, in shapes (no filler around the shape). For example, a fish cane would have the outline of a fish, a bunny will have a bunny outline, etc. She then bakes the canes and cuts them into 1 inch pieces that are sold on her site, www.designcanes.com , and at various retailers. We saw some at the Orlando show being sold by a company called Sparkle n’ Sprinkle (we talked about h...
In this episode of Polymer Clay TV we attended the Bead & Art Glass Fest in Orlando, FL and we want to share an interview we did with Poly-Tools, Sue & Gale Lee. Sue also does a demonstration on how to work with Poly-Tools bead rollers that you won’t want to miss. You can check out their products at the Poly-Tools website . Sue & Gale were a delight to talk to and were so willing to share. Sue also shares with us how they got started making bead rollers. Sue & Gale have also give...
Judy is the current President of the National Polymer Clay Guild- npcg.org. She is very interesting and a great talker, so we hope you enjoy listening to what she had to say about her art, being the big-cheese, and the Synergy conference (where we will get to meet her!) We also discussed her book and dvd, which she was kind enough to donate to us to watch and read, and she also sent a signed copy of each- which we will be giving away to two lucky newsletter subscribers, so make sure you sign up....
Enjoy this week's video on using inclusions! Don't forget to listen to the podcast next week, when we share our interview with Judy Belcher.
This week, we are talking about inclusions- that means putting something that is not clay, into the clay to change it. You can use lots of things- including baked bits of clay. Spices such as oregano and parsley create great faux stone effects. Make sure if you use anything organic (once alive, such as plant parts) that they are completely dried out before including them in clay. Otherwise the water content could bubble or cause "mooning," especially in translucent, which is the best color of cl...
Halloween is just around the corner and you can make your own mask this year, we show you how to get started. Hope you have lots of fun creating some masks with polymer clay!
This week, in preparation for the American holiday of Halloween on the 31st, we decided to explore the making of masks from clay. Remember to make them light and thin if you want to wear them! You can use all clay, or embellishments like scrapbooking brads or metal parts, glitter, metal leaf, Jones Tones foils, crystals and stones, anything you want! Here's a tip- buy a simple plastic mask to use as a template, that way your eye holes will be in the right spot. Enjoy, and come back next week for...
A great video showing you how to use a mold made from polymer clay. You can mold almost anything, using either scrap clay, or products made especially for moldmaking like Superelasticlay or silicone rubber. For a clay mold you will probably need a mold release- this gets between your clay and your mold and helps the clay to “pop‿ out of the mold, instead of getting stuck in it. You can try cornstarch, powdered pigments, water, or a silicone spray. Enjoy the video- later this week we will release...
This week we want to encourage you to work with molds. Molds are fun, you can take them of almost anything. You can use polymer clay to make a mold, or silicone rubber, or SuperElasticlay (a sculpey product). I mix superelasticlay with premo, about half and half, to get a flexible mold, and Ilysa prefers a hard mold so she just uses clay. You must bake your polymer clay molds before using them! Be sure to return next week for our video demo. We invite you to listen to our discussion with Lisa Cl...
For ipod subscribers- sorry it took so long to load this one up! A great quick video on how to use composition leaf with your polymer clay.
Hi Everyone! We're back in action- we filmed 12 episodes of Polymer Clay TV and Polymer Clay Classroom last weekend and had a blast. We're doing the videos in a new format and we hope you love them. We will be showing basic gold leaf techniques next week, so don't miss that. LISTEN to to podcast right here! [display_podcast] We reviewed a book called Clay Techniques with a Pasta Machine, by Maureen Carlson (who we interviewed in the Synergy podcast- be sure to listen to that one.) This book is p...
This week, Ilysa shows some of her work and discusses her experience with art and craft shows. Enjoy the video. We plan to film our next series of instructional videos this weekend, hopefully the fates will allow it! We have great plans in store for a slightly new format that we know you're going to love and the best part is, we took our audience's advice. We love your feedback, so please keep it coming!
This week we review Polymer Clay Treasures from Heart in Hand, Lisa Pavelka's demo video. Visit our site, polymerclayproductions.com , for full shownotes and links.
Learn how to use polymer clay with rubber stamps to create popular jewelry items. Visit polymerclayproduction.com for full show notes.
Today we give you interviews with Seth Lee Saverik, Sarah Shriver, Maggie Maggio, and Maureen Carlson. They have each told us a little about themselves, and something about the conference, which is happening next February in Baltimore, Maryland on the East Coast of the US. It promises to be an exciting event, so be sure to check out the class catalog at the NPCG's website. Enjoy. This is a long podcast- an hour and 3 minutes. It may take a few minutes to download....
Watch today's video and see us demonstrate the use of liquid dye inks with polymer clays such as fimo, premo, sculpey, kato, and cernit. Dye inks change the color of clay, are a little messy to work with, can be mixed into new colors, and are not the right inks to use with stamps. The color will bleed. But that quality makes them fun to use! Listen to last week's podcast for more information about dye inks.
While at Summer CHA 2007, Ilysa and Kira met three of the polymer clay artists that we "knew" from other places- the forums at Polymer Clay Central, various places where clay, canes, and beads are sold, and Kira and Lynne Ann did a swap a while ago. It is nice to finally put faces to names. Lynne Ann and Tommie were winners in the Bottle of Hope awards, too. Enjoy, we did. Thanks, you guys! You Rock.
For your viewing pleasure, here is part 2 of Amaco's Bottle of Hope awards, which we filmed at the Summer CHA show in Chicago. Lisa Pavelka is the MC, and in this part of the ceremony she will announce the winners.
Here's part 1 of Amaco's bottle of hope ceremony.
If you get this on an RSS feed, you will have to visit our site to watch this week's video- Join us as we discuss our experience at the CHA show (Craft & Hobbies Association) in Chicago last weekend. It was great fun. We met a few polymer clay artists as well as representatives of the three polymer clay suppliers- Amaco, Polyform, and Makins. We did video interviews with Lynne, Tommie, and Cat which will air next Friday, and filmed Amaco’s Bottle of Hope awards. You can watch part 1 today, a...
Surprise! Your video is one day early. We hope you enjoy it, and we can't wait to report back to you from CHA! It's been an exciting week as we get ready and hope that we don't forget to bring anything with us! Last week, we talked about pigment inks and now you get to see them in action, being stamped, rubbed, painted, and mushed onto and into polymer clay. We used Tsukineko Brilliance Dewdrops, which are small but thick and juicy stamp pads. They have a pointy edge so you can really get them w...
There are two general types of inks that you can use, referred to as Pigment inks, which we talk about today, and Alcohal or Dye inks, which we saved for our next podcast in two weeks. The main difference between the two is that pigment inks stay where you put them, and dye inks "bleed" and tend to dye whatever clay is around them a new color. Pigment inks are created with ground pigments, much like the pigment powder we discussed last week, and a wetting agent or "binder." The simplest binder i...
In this third edition of Polymer Clay TV, Ilysa and Kira demonstrate how to add some flair and flash to your polymer clay artwork using powdered pigments. We show you how to put it on top of a raised area of clay to highlight it; how to use it as a mold release to keep your clay from sticking to a stamp, texture sheet or mold; how to make your own pigments from chalk, pastel, or makeup; and other types of powdered pigments available at the store. We demonstrate the Pink-Gold powdered pigment ava...
So, you've seen powdered pigments at the craft stores, packaged under names like Perfect Pearls and Pearl-ex, and even online manufacturers of beads and scrapbooking supplies have gotten into the idea of selling pigments. What are they and how do you use them? That�s what we are talking about today, and will be showing next week in our videocast. You must come back next Friday to watch the show, because that�s how you will really understand what we are talking about. Pigments have ...
You can click right here to play on your computer, or download to your ipod on itunes, or use the link on the sidebar to get our show in other podcast and vidcast directories. Online Videos by Veoh.com Have you ever wondered how polymer clay artists get such wonderful visual textures on their clay pieces? This episode will show the basics- how to choose a texture tool with a nicely impressed image or design, and how to get your clay into and out of the texture tool easily. First of all, you need...
