Polymer Clay

Wood Tray with Folding Legs

/ Sarah Collins / 2 Comments

Have you ever gone into a store and saw something and thought, “I could finish that item! If I did, my sister would love it”? That is exactly what happened to me earlier this year when I was strolling through Hobby Lobby.

Wood Tray with Folding Left finished by Sarah

The first step was to purchase the Wood Tray. If took me several trips to Hobby Lobby before I decided that I would work on this project. Next, I sanded all sides of the tray including the legs. Originally, I was going to stain the tray a traditional color. As I was looking through my collection of stain, I found Worn Navy by Rust-oleum. Perfect! My sister likes greens, blues, and teals. I painted the bottom of the tray with primer and stained the rest of the wood with Worn Navy. After it was dry, I placed a light coat of varnish over the stained area.

My original idea was to create a mosaic on the bottom of the tray with just leaves. I already had some leaves cut and baked which I made from Sculpey Clay, but I decided to add some flowers too. I used Sculpey Polymer Clay to make the flower petals and additional leaves. After everything was prepared and laid out, and even though it had a nice gradient, I decided it was too plain. I drew a tangle on every leaf, petal, and circle using acrylic paint pens. Each petal and leaf were glued to the bottom. Mint Puff Paint was used as the grout. I sprinkled three colors of glitter over the grout before it dried.

I seal all my work with polyacrylic before applying the resin. Sealing the piece helps to reduce the number of bubbles in the resins. My flavor resin to use is made by Art Resin. Their resin calculator is very useful.

I could of stop there and it would have been beautiful, but no I had to paint flowers on the outside edge and vines and leaves on the legs. I used acrylic paint pens. I like color, so the flowers were painted different colors.

After the painting was completed, I put a few more coats of polyurethane on the tray (sanding between each coat). You would think I was done. No! I was concerned that if it was stored, the legs would open at an inopportune time, hitting someone and causing an ouchy. Another trip to Hobby Lobby and I purchase belt buckles and ribbon and put my limited sewing techniques to work and made two straps. Again, they were a bit plain, so I used Puff Paint to paint flowers on the straps.

Flower Chests

/ Sarah Collins / Leave a comment

These chests were a pain to sand and stain. An absolute pain. It took me over two years to complete them and at one point I almost tossed them in the garbage. The boxes were purchased from Hobby Lobby.

The problems: First the tops and sides of the boxes were so fragile they were difficult to sand. Second, I tried to use Minwax Gel Stain on the inside of the box – that went very poorly. On the plus side, this was a test of the Gel Stain before I put it on something much larger. I tossed the Gel Stain to never to be used again.

Three Nesting Boxes

First, I sanded the boxes and applied stain all over, even the areas I intended to paint. Second, I applied the first coat of varnish to the areas I was not going to paint. I apply varnish to seal the wood just in case I accidently got paint on unwanted areas of the boxes. Paint can easily be cleaned off the varnish areas before it dries, otherwise the paint would soak into the wood. Next, I painted the tops, sides, and the inside bottoms of the boxes using chalk paint.

After everything had dried and I was satisfied with the painting, I sanded the box again and applied another coat of varnish. Matte varnish on the painted areas and gloss varnish on the stained areas. Afterwards, I decided to add something extra. I created a mosaic pattern on the inside of the box, which I created from Sculpey Clay. I put a light coat of varnish on the bottom of the box before I poured resin over the pattern.

Since the bottom of the box was already painted. I didn’t see the need to fill the spaces with grout.

I still was not satisfied with color of the boxes. I wanted them to be darker. So, I lightly sanded the boxes with steel wool and applied a coat of Minwax Polyshade. It has stain and polyurethane.

Felt was added to the front and sides of the boxes because I thought if anyone wanted to store anything small in the boxes, it would just fallout through the holes.

Plain on the Outside

/ Sarah Collins / Leave a comment

I purchased this box unfinished from Hobby Lobby. I had no idea how I would use it, but it serve for several years as a stand for my other projects while they dried. It about 24″ long and 5″ wide, so it was great for sitting items on allowing air to flow underneath.

My goal this year is to complete my unfinished projects. While I was staining my desk, this too got stained. Instead of painting the box, I decided to create a mosaic from polymer clay on the inside of the box. I left the outside of the box plain with a high gloss polyurethane coating.

Gradient Flower Vases

/ Sarah Collins / 2 Comments

I can’t believe I am finally posting a couple of my vases. They have been done for over a year; sitting, waiting for their pictures to be taken so I could show them off in my blog. Other items were finished and posted after these vases were made. I thinks they are camera shy and hid everything I went to take pictures.

Some of my favorite flowers are the one that has multiple colors, especially the ones that go from yellow, to orange, to pink. My mother grew roses that were those colors and I thought they were absolutely beautiful.

I covered two glass vases with black Sculpey polymer clay. I blended yellow, red, and hot pink polymer clay and cut out each petal and center circles. I placed each petal on top of the black clay to make the flowers. After the flowers were formed I stamped each petal. I didn’t glue the petals on because it is clay,. Polymer clay items will stick to each other. Afterward, I baked to vases in the 275 degree over for about 10 minutes. When outside temperature was above 70 degrees, sprayed the vases with several coats of Minwax Polycrylic

The vases are not identical, but they are simular.

The roses were also made from Sculpey polymer clay. One day I should capture how I make roses.

More Polymer Clay Roses

/ Sarah Collins / 1 Comment

Below are batches 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of my polymer clay roses with leaves and stems.

Batch 2:

I took some white clay and blended one edge with some pink clay.  The leaves and stems contains three shades of green and gold clay.

IMG_1095IMG_1104IMG_1102 (2)

Batch 3:

The center of the roses were made from the clay left over from Batch 2.   However, there wasn’t enough for three flowers, so I mix a little red with the pink and white for the outer petals.

IMG_1105IMG_1108IMG_1107

Batch 4:

I wanted some flowers that glowed in the dark. I mixed bright pink, yellow, and orange clay with some florescent clay.

IMG_1115img_1117.jpgIMG_1118

Batch 5:

These red roses were also mixed with some florescent clay, but they do not shine as well as the pink roses in Batch 4.

IMG_1130IMG_1122IMG_1123

Batch 6:

I had just finished the yellow sunflower vase and wanted some yellow roses to put in the vase.  But, yellow roses would just be too plain.  The rose color from stem to the petal tips are hot pink, orange, yellow, and lemon yellow.

IMG_1074IMG_1078IMG_1079

Batch 7:

Some more vase inspired flowers.  I used the leftover clay from the vase.  I gently it mixed together to make the roses.

IMG_1089IMG_1082IMG_1084

Vases with Polymer Clay

/ Sarah Collins / 1 Comment

I wanted to see if I could put some polymer clay on a vase, bake it in the oven, and have the clay stick to the vase.  Below is my first vase experiment.  I had a bottle, shape like a light bulb, that was just sitting in a cabinet.

20190824_140114.jpg20190824_140048.jpg

I figured the best way to get it to stick to the vase, was to put a thin layer of polymer clay around the vase and then put the design on it.  Since it was an experiment, I didn’t want to waste a lot of time with the design.  However, it does glow in the dark.

Since it was a success, I did four other vases.

The Sunflower Vase:  I wanted the top and bottom of the vase to look like the petals were coming from the center of a sunflower.

20190824_140629.jpg

20190824_140656.jpg

The Gold Flowery Vase:  From the beginning I wanted a gold lattice work around the vase.  The flower idea come later.   After it was baked, I applied paint to give it an antique look.

20190824_140241.jpg

The Shades of Red Vase:  The original intent was to cover the vase in black, then give it a stain glass appearance.  That idea change when I saw how nice the reds and pinks looked against the black.

20190824_140551.jpg

The Flower Vase:  I extrudes some blue/purple clay that was left over from other projects.  The intent for this vase was to have a delicate flowery pattern.

20190824_140401.jpg

After the vases were baked in the oven and cooled, I applied polyurentane to seal the clay.   Since the clay is not permanently stuck to the vase, I could probably take a sharp Exacto Knife to any vase that turns out poorly to remove the clay.

Polymer Clay Crosses

/ Sarah Collins / 1 Comment

I spent some time creating crosses from polymer clay, which was left over from all of the other polymer clay projects.

First the pretty crosses:

IMG_0925 (2)IMG_0926 (2)IMG_0929 (2)IMG_0930 (2)IMG_0947 (2)

The difficult cross:

Folding clay and braiding clay is a little bit challenging.

IMG_0910

IMG_0944 (2)

Interesting Crosses:

IMG_0934 (2)IMG_0935 (2)IMG_0932 (2)

The weird ones:

IMG_0933 (2)IMG_0937 (2)IMG_0939 (2)

IMG_0942 (2)

Do You See the Butterflies?

IMG_0940 (2)IMG_0908 (2)

Acrylic Pour Coaster

/ Sarah Collins / 2 Comments

I been wanting to create some Acrylic Pour Coasters for a while.  I purchased 4″ wood tiles from Michael’s and they traveled with me in my car for several months before a was able to work on them.

First, I applied white Gesso to both sides of the wood tile.   I mixed the paint in squeeze bottles.  The colors I used were pink, purple, grayish blue, light pink, light purple, green and white.  I love pinks and blues.

I let the tiles cure for about a month while I was out of town again. I cleaned the tiles with a mixture of Dawn and water, which I keep in a spray bottle.  A few weeks later when I got up the courage to apply resin, I poured resin over the coasters.

The tiles did not come out perfect, but it wasn’t a failure either.  The tray to hold the tiles was purchased from Hobby Lobby.  I stained the inside of the box and two sides.  The other two sides I applied Gesso and did a pour on the sides. 

I did not pour the inside of the tray, instead I cut out some white polymer clay and did a pour on top of the clay when I poured the tray sides.  After I cleaned the tray, I glued the clay to the bottom and applied several coats of varnish.

I glued cork to the back of each coaster using wood glue.  Below are the results.