You start out with conditioned translucent clay and you chop it up into pieces. You will get different effects depending on the size of your pieces and whether or not they are all the same size. A variation would be to not just use translucent clay, or not use translucent at all.
Next you paint the pieces with acrylic paint and allow to dry. I have the pieces laying on a sheet of plastic wrap first to catch the mess and help with the next step. At this stage you can also add in some textural matereials like sand, embossing powder, glitter. Lots of room for variation with this expecially with the embossing powder. You might want to do a trial run with a little bit of the mixture before you do a big batch. You are never quite sure what the embossing powder will look like until it bakes. In the mix above I added just a pinch of black embossing powder.
After the paint has dried, you can use the plastic wrap to bring the pieces together to form the shape you wish to create. Cutting into the clay before it is baked will reveal the effect and sanding it after it is baked will also show off the faux treatment. You bake the clay as you normally would according to the package instructions. Here are the lavender pieces baked up sanded, buffed and one unsanded.
Below are a couple other examples of the technique I have tried. The brown is using mostly opaque and a bit of translucent.
Wow. This looks lovely. So many possibilities. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a better step by step photo tutorial?
ReplyDeleteI second the thanks for sharing. This is going to be fun to try!
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ReplyDeletedo the pieces stick well together? don't they fall out or smth? great result,btw..looks like dragon's vein agate
ReplyDeleteI imagine a coat of clear varnish or lacquer would give it a nice smooth surface and make sure the pieces hold together securely.
DeleteWhen you paint the pieces with acrylic paint, do you have to use translucent paint, or does any color work?
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