Gen. Info
MAKING textures
..Misc.
tools for texturing
.....making your own
tools
..Cylindrical texture tools + rolling
(using tools or sheets)
Texture
SHEETS
..Purchased
.....types (plastic, rubber, heavy paper,
wood) & sources
..Making your own texture
sheets/molds (from clays,foil,carving, etc,etc.)
......other
materials to make sheets from (silicone,latex,foam,paint,etc)
..Releases
USING texture sheets and textured surface
Antiquing
& highlighting textured surfaces
...Flattening
antiqued-highlighted textured surfaces
More
info.& ideas... leaves, prints, drawing, stamping, salt/sugar, etc
Misc.
for all textures
Websites
TEXTURING
(for backgrounds, esp.)
Gen. Info
Texturing can be created on raw clay by impressing-stamping it with single tools (especially repeatedly with items such as pins, screwdriver tips, etc.), or purchased textured items (such as sandpaper or plastic/rubber texture sheets) or texture sheets made by the clayer--using raw clay which is then baked, or using other impressionable materials.
These
sheets (or other shapes) of texture can be used to directly "stamp"
into raw clay to create a decorative textured are.
Or the purchased or made
texture sheets can be used to make a reverse
texture sheet by impressing it into raw clay, baking,
then using that baked clay sheet on a fresh raw sheet or other area for actual
use (...in this case, they're more like a texture "mold"
because the high and low portions are reversed from directly stamping).
You can make your own texture sheets from other materials
besides clay, as well:
....for example, from 2-pt. silicone putties,
liquid latex, light-sensitive polymer plates, foam sheets... even dried paint
or glue on cardstock, string or other materials glued to wood, etc..
Purchased texture sheets may be plastic or the rubber ones used for "rubbings" or for rubberstamps, but they may also be things you find around the house such as crumpled sandpaper, aluminum foil, netting, corrugated cardboard, etc.
SOME USES:
texturing
can be used as backgrounds, to hide fingerprints or other
imperfections, to add visual interest.
.....texturing (even
very light texturing) can also hide imperfections in expanses of
solid color. Irene NC
....I
textured (my connected slices) with a piece of sheer chiffon... gives the
little quilt a "fabric" look and camouflages fingerprints, too.
:-) Elizabeth
....this can be done with texture sheets or with
tools .....here and there or all over
"Texture"
can also be created by adding things on top of clay of course, rather than
impressing it...see Onlay,
and Clay Guns, etc. for some ex's
(...if
the onlays are made with liquids as in "drizzled beads" made with liquid
clays or made with liquid lace, see Liquid
Clays)
MAKING textures
"Tools"
for texturing
Some examples might be the bark of a tree, sandpaper,
wire or plastic mesh, various kinds of fabric or wallpaper,
textured bathroom glass or texture sheets from art supply stores,
velcro, etc. These are often used as backgrounds, or to add interest
to pieces.
...However, all kinds of things from the house and garage can be
used to make textures (or in reverse, for molds); I guess it’s more a “texture”
when a single impression is used repeatedly?
...*polymerclayexpress'
lesson on texturing clay with lace and making small
frames, metallic wax used for highlighting after baking
http://www.polymerclayexpress.com/jan2002.html
Some samples of household textures might be the shapes of
Philips screws or screwdriver heads, wadded aluminum foil,
comb marks, bolt sides (great stripes), metal clothing
studs, lace, beaded handbag, tiny cedar branches, etc.
...toothpicks
can be used for dots or diagonally for a short, tapered line
canteloupe skin is a great texture....roll out a sheet of soft clay, powder the canteloupe, and press....remove, and bake flat. Sarajane
a Coronet paper towel has a nice pattern for my chili pepper .. nice and lumpy and bumpy. Dave
I pressed a slab of raw clay about 1/4" thick and 2"x4" across a basketball, baked, then used it to make white hobnail design dishes. Worked really well. CC
upon close examination of my child's sandal I noticed the neat texture of the sole of the shoe . . . on the bottom and on the insole . . .I pressed some clay into the textures and wow! So now I have some very unusual shaped texture plates for my clay!! Kathy
I found some asian green beans in the international produce section. . .big dark green, and very very bumpy. Patricia in HouTX
. .
. . . Here is a list of many of the things that were used to make impressions
in the clay for the "texture swap" I participated in (there
were 25 participants, each making 3 textures . . . that's right, I got 75 textures!!!):
--screwdriver tips (star-like impressions) --pen tips or caps --crumpled aluminum foil --piece of wide lace (roll over for impression), --thin, long strip made with small & lg. teeth of comb --diagonal, wormy, raised pattern (plastic texture sheet--art store) --drywall screen (3-M, med.), or any size --sandpaper --plastic canvas (# 7) --med.curved parallel lines --lines of small, thin, depressions --interesting & fancy buttons (from several people) --small parallel lines (grip area on plastic clothespin) --rough rock (a cylinder stamp) --rough bark (faux wood?) --open-weave, wire-edged ribbon --tiny cedar branches --irregular lines of bumps --end of skewer; scales? (with samples) --insect tunnels from a dead branch --fine, knobby fabric weave? (for borders on pins) --grid of lg & sm discs --broken taillight --metal studs (stars, rounded, circles--for holding stones?) --basketweave leather tool --raised fat spirals --backpack strap --vent cover impression --rows of logenze shapes (guitar amplifier) --3-diff.-edged cake decorator triangle, --miniature corn (random, all-over),--fine, radiating lines on a hemisphere (like impression of mushroom gills)
(--AND a bee-yooo-ti-ful color photocopy of "Forest Floor"--a multi-textured and multi-colored piece from Jody Bishel, Madam SwapMeister. That's all --jealous yet?? Diane B. :-)
Some
of the textures I received (from the new texture swap) were from:
old printmaking
blocks, some ball chain, vinyl strapping, a rock,
toys, various plastic mesh bags, textured wallpaper, etc....Irene
NC
A plastic fork is good for scoring or making evenly spaced squiggly lines. I use a straw for punching out small circles and different size jar lids for cutting circles. katbyte1
Velcro for texturing.
. . You use the side with the "teeth" (the part that grips the fuzzy
side). Place it face down on the clay and press. I pressed firmly for a more pronounced
texture. . . I did trim the edges of the velcro so I could butt one strip down
next to the other.
...zippers, on edge, make some really cool spirals
or other lines
I just found a really cool texture.
It's a nutshell left over from last fall, a butternut,I think. It had has
high ridges and furrows. I pressed the clay into it and then gently pulled
and stretched the edges to flatten it out. Looks great in positive or negative.
I
know that lots of folks like to have big sheets of texture to work with but it
never worked for me..I can't seem to splice the edges right. What I do is use
a lot of smaller stamps to collage together a textured area.
This is much easier for larger pieces. Jody B.
...Irene's collage
of textured slabs (monochrome though) http://www.good-night-irene.com/ClockLayered01.html
tracing
wheels for sewing. . . a little toothed wheel on a handle used to transfer
a pattern with sewers' tracing/transfer paper to fabric beneath it. This tool
can be used to make rows of impressions (curved or straight) which resemble quilting
stitches, or simply "dotted lines."
. . . architect's
tracing wheel??
.....personally I like the tip of the kemper
ceramic cleaning tool...beveled on both sides of an arrow shaped point...I
can follow the hem line of dress much more neatly and get into smaller crevices..
although I sometimes use an ultra tiny screwdriver too....Cella
...It's
a woodworking tool for tracing patterns onto wood surfaces! I got a set
of 3 different sizes at a Woodcrafters store in Richmond. I think they have
a website too? The smallest one is almost too small to use on the clay in fact.
If I recall correctly, the set only cost me $13.00. Joanie
...(see Tools
for using these tracing wheels and other items for transferring
patterns with chalk/powder,
pencil, etc.)
I've told enough people about this to know that some don't know what a "knurled tool" is. It's any kind of cylindrical tool with that diamond-shaped pattern impressed into it, usually into the handle; say a wrench handle, for instance. I use a leather punch handle...(When your pin is just ready to bake, roll the edge of the tool up against the edge of the pin. It puts a little bevel on the edge with an interesting cross-hatch pattern to boot. It even squares it up a bit.) Mike B.
One of the texture type tools I've been planning to do is to take my textured buttons and create a double-ended tool with the positive image on one end and the negative on the other (each end being mushroom shaped –the whole thing being hourglass shaped). Helen
Couldn't get along without a Finger Presser from Clover - it's a small plastic tool stitchers (quilters particularily) use to press a seam flat. I use it for all sorts of things from smoothing the edges of clay to indenting to making impressions. Nancy
(see also using salt, sugar, etc., to create a texture sheet below in More Info & Ideas)
Making Your Own Tools...for texturing
One
of my favorite tools is a texture finger cup. You can make them yourself
by molding a ball of scrap clay over your finger or as I do over the end of a
rounded dowel. My favorite finger cup was made by scoring thin lines raiating
out from the center of the cup. Depending how it is pressed into the clay, it
can look like pine needles, fireworks, grass or even coral (on a large scale).
Jody Bishel
....Some of the ones I made cameout pretty cool, but I
especially love my new signature finger cups. I also made some "lines",
"spirals", "geometrical forms", "flowers…PoRRo
Cecelia
Determan wrote about a texturing tool for making curly beads or curly
fur, in her HOTP book Merry Christmas Faces; she wraps a 1 1/2" length
of (20-gauge) wire around a bamboo skewer or pencil tip to form a 1/8" wide
circle, and bends both tails back to insert into a handle of clay. This
leaves a flat circle standing up to impress into clay. These could be made
any size though. Stamp this a number of times on
the beard, hair or fur. (DB-add
photo)
...you can use the circle
side of a safety pin for indenting on clay. -Laurie
...Plankspanker’s
wrinkly skins for creatures...his texture plates are made from guitar
cases, amiplifiers, book covers, a toy lizard, a dryer and other cases/holders,
with "Mountains in Minutes," a latex rubber mold compound found in hobby
stores
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/6883/photos.html
(see more tools which could be used for texturing in Sculpting/Body. . . look in the sub-categories Hair, Fur, and Scales/dragonskin, etc.)
Cylindrical
texturing tools + Rolling to make texture
.....(tools
or texture sheets)....
rollers
see more ideas and links for these in Stamping > Stamp Rollers
You
can purchase texture rollers in kitchen or baking
supply places, or even with some kids' toys.
Or you can make
your own, in a number of ways.
The textures
can be made on a flat sheet (of clay or other material), which is later
wrapped around a dowel, or a log of baked clay, etc.
... or they can
be created while on the roller itself (on a base sheet pre-baked on the
roller, or just on the roller if PVC pipe, etc.)
The
texture itself can be created by adding onlays (clay or other things),
impressing with stamps or textures or tools, or carving after the
clay is baked.
Any
thin, flexible texture sheet (see
possibilities above) can be turned into rolling molds... for example:
...I
adhere a baked flexible clay (texture sheet) to
PVC pipe with PVC cement
......I leave a small 1/8th gap
(between the almost-butted ends) which I fill with raw flex (clay), then I manually
texture that gap area to complete the design... then bake. Katherine
Dewey
OTHER MATERIALS
....Another
thing that would work well is to use part of a rubber sheet of stamps/textures
you have made by Ready Stamps (see Stamping)...
up to 9x7'. Just wrap the proper length of it around your brayer.
..or use
individual rubber stamps removed from their mountings or freestanding
..might
be able to use a 2-part
silicone molding material as a "texture sheet"
......by covering
a dowel or log of clay with a thin layer, then impressing it with texture... let
cure 15-20 minutes, then use as roller (stiff enough for
texturing raw clay?... could work well for ink/paint and paper though)
.....or
making as a freestanding texture sheet first, then cutting and applying to clay
log or dowel
....silicone caulk, or permanent white glue, or
drizzled thick liquid clay, or liquid clay "decals"
with dimensional embedded items, etc., might work same way?
.... even
a sheet of rough sandpaper or textured wallpaper, etc., could be
wrapped around (good idea to leave gap at butted ends then filling with clay and
texturing by hand to avoid any "breaks" in the pattern , as Katherine
suggests above
You can also apply a
sheet of raw flexible clay to PVC pipe using Diluent-softener
(or liquid clay?), then create (your texture) directly on the roller, but I like
working on a flat sheet better. Katherine Dewey
"handles"
for rollers:
..One of the texture swap participants made an awesome
brayer-type thing:
....she covered a PVC pipe (about 1/2" diameter)
with clay...then (impressed) the texture, and baked.
....she
then placed a length of dowel inside the pvc pipe to use
as the roller. It works great! Jan
...that was me... I cut up some pvc pipe,
then sanded and cleaned the outside (with alcohol?)
.....I then
coated the pipe with liquid clay, letting it sit for several hours
.....then
I wiped off the excess liquid clay (so the clay wouldn't slide around) and wrapped
the pipe with a base sheet of scrap clay
.....(I left an area of pipe
uncovered on each end to hold onto)
.....then I rolled the clay-covered
pipe slowly and firmly over my texture
.....I
suspended the pipe on a rod to bake. Bonnie
..could also use a clay
log with a hole through it... make hole just a bit wider in
diameter than roller "handle" you want to insert so will move freely
but evenly
....could also use thread spools (with thicker clay)... wood
spools, or some plastic ones may be okay
..all kinds of rods could be
used as handles:
....metal rods or knitting needles, wood dowels or skewers,
large or small pencils or markers, etc
......may want the handle, or what it's
rotating inside of, to have more grab or less grab for best performance
(experiment)
adding
machine tape rolls have plastic cores already have a small-ish hole
running down their centers (surrounded by honeycomb of plastic)
....these may
be okay at polymer baking temps and times
....could sand, and/or apply
a coat of permanent white glue then let dry, for a bit of "tooth"
...
then directly glue onto the plastic little shapes of craft foam
or thin sponge, or squiggles of stiff string, etc
... let dry
....could
use on raw clay
....or could
instead roll onto paint or ink then use on paper to create gift
wrap paper or stationery, etc)
(if the plastic doesn't slump too much at 265-275
F for 15 min, could put an alum.foil covered dowel or something inside the hole
to keep it perfectly round if necessary?)
silastones'
microbeads texture tool... various sizes of microbeads glued to
a round dowel
... can use for regular texturing or as a texture roller
http://bp2.blogger.com/_a0vkge_xYko/RZMs5HBZHgI/AAAAAAAAADw/IclSSwPrzZU/s1600-h/dotsbeads+002.jpg
Can
also carve into baked clay (on roller or before)
with U or V carving tools with lines, etc. to create patterns (see Carving)
Celie’s
handle for rolling texture
made from roll-printed fine silver
http://www.celiefago.com/gallery_earlywork.htm#
possible
drawbacks to texture rollers:
--it's a little difficult to make the
impressions all an even depth as you roll across the
clay (resistance)
....you can always try setting up rails on two sides
of the clay to roll the ends of your roller across if they are bare or the roller
has handles ...good idea!
....or perhaps just dusting the clay with cornstarch
before rolling over would help
--some patterns on purchased texture
rollers tend to be fairly large for working with most polymer items
Fiskars sells some patterned
brayers for ink pads (mesh, "streamers," spreckle, holly leaves,
stars, snowflakes, etc):
http://crafts.fiskars.com/projects/product.html?cat=brayers
...
I had seen some at Joanns, etc.
(see more ideas and links for these rolling texture sheets in Stamping > Stamp Rollers)
beads ... texture sheets to roll over
baked
textured clay sheets can be rolled over with raw clay beads
(if tube beads, use large-diameter skewer)
http://www.mhpcg.org/clayDays/claydays04/july2004/jul023Lg.jpg
http://www.mhpcg.org/clayDays/claydays04/july2004/jul2004.html
(beads made this way)
misc.
sunni's
highly textured beads from Grant Diffendaffer class
http://sunnisan.com/crafts/01/unsandedtxtrbds001b.jpg
You
can get replacement metal bike spokes at bike shops for less than a dollar.
....They are great for rolling polymer beads over a texture --they
don't bend or crack like wooden skewers. Sarajane
TEXTURE.
"SHEETS"
( also called "rubbing plates" or "texture plates" )
(for
a collage of many textures on one sheet, see below
in "Misc.")
(for making your
own texture sheets, see below)
(for
Texture Sheet mokume gane, see Mokume Gane
> Texture Sheet Gane)
(for Texture Sheet mica shift,
see Mica
> Ghost Image)
Purchased texture sheets
Purchased "texture sheets" are
sheets of plastic, rubber (rubberstamp), silicone, heavy
paper, etc., with different overall textures molded into them. The plastic
ones usually come 6 or more in a package; some packages are available at art supply
stores but there seem to be many more online.
The sheets may come in several
sizes, but can be cut in half or other proportions or even shapes
if you want.
They will
go right thru the pasta machine with the clay..
...or
you can use them to texture smaller sheets or bits of clay which
will be used as component parts for other things (onlay,etc.)
...or
texture larger sheets, then cut shapes from that sheet
(for
the plastic texture sheets) ....make sure you check on
the size of
the sheet you're actually getting...
before you assume a better deal. Some places sell them in half or quarter sheets.
If you can get the full 8 1/2 x 11 sheet for just a little more, it's a
way better deal. You'll have to cut them down to fit in the pasta
machine... but they do wear out (if you use them a lot) & you'll have replacements
if you get the full sheet (or you can share with a friend) . Joanie
....I
get mine from The Clay Factory. Marie introduced them to us a little over
a month ago and we have all gone nuts using them. They are a lightweight plastic
and the impressions don't look all that deep. But I put them through the
pasta machine with the clay and it's remarkable how much they show up. Dotty
(you really get twice the number of patterns that you think because) you can use the back of your sheet for the negative (not with rubber).
(If you don't have a pasta machine, or if your texture plate is too large for the pasta machine and you don't want to cut it down)... you can achieve the same effect by placing your clay on paper (deli tissue wrap is cheap), place the plate on your clay and use a roller to apply pressure to the back of your texture plate. Press firmly. Patty B.
types (& sources)
plastic
---Clay
Factory of Escondido (single Shade
Tex --by Scratch Art-- rubbing plates sheets, any 6 sheets, or whole
set of 24--size?)
http://www.clayfactory.net/images/texture/texture.html
---PolymerClayExpress (pre-selected sets of six, 8 1/2x11--all Shade
Tex?); they also carry texture cubes (stamps)
http://polymerclayexpress.com/tools3.html
(click on photo)
---Shade Tex's website
(whole sheets, set of 6: regular textures, nature, architectural, textile/fabric,
etc.?)
http://www.polymerclayshoppe.com/shadetex.htm
---Scratch Art's fish, owl, peacock, clown and fish, elephant, parrots,lake
scene
http://www.scratchart.com/more.html
---Many rubbing plates available at Grandma T's (Roylco ?)
http://www.grandmats.com/rplates.htm#optical
(click on each for more detail)
fabric,
fossil, texture, optical illusions, Christian/inspirational, fancy, North American
animals, human & animal skeletons, tracks of animals
---Rubbing plates
at Nasco http://www.enasco.com ...then click
on:
Arts&Crafts>Drawing&Drafting>DecorativeCrafts>RubbingPlates:
skeleton (animal & human), bugs,fossils, fancythings/snowflake/etc,
textures (Fancy Things plates)
Arts&Crafts>Drawing&Drafting>RubbingPlates:
design,architecture,nature,textile,optical illusion/geometric
(Shade Tex plates)
Arts&Crafts>Drawing&Drafting>RubbingPlates:
famous paintings
http://www.grandmats.com/royrubbingplates.htm
(same subjects --diff. drawings on some? ... but also mazes, cursive
and regular alphabets, animal skins, American and Canadian money,
farm scenes, U.S. geography,
Scratch Art's website of
rubbing plates, including Nature Two, and a Cultural Pattern sheet
with African, Asian, Celtic, Egyptian, Latin American, Islamic patterns
http://www.scratchart.com/sui/scratch/smcat.cgi/scratchart2/Shade-Tex_Rubbing_Plates
..Roylco (animal prints, dinosaurs, bugs).
http://www.realcooltoys.com/fosandantrac.html
. . what is Acvico manufacturer?
Another source for all the plastic
texture sheets is: http://www.saxarts.com
Patty
There are also 2 new sets of the sheets
out that are more image laden than the original geometric sheets. Syndee
Michaels has some neat texture sheets called Makin's meant for air dry clays which works great with polymer (their air dry clay is called Makin's Clay, they also make molds, small cutters...their products tend to be in lime green packaging. http://www.provocraft.com/products/index.php?s=info&l=Makin's.molds .Jean S.
I picked up some of the Gallery Glass molds which are thin
clear plastic sheets sort of like the texture sheets that we have been using (but
"beveled" on the edges). There are not a lot of the molds, but some
that are very interesting and I can see lots of possibilities. They are a little
thicker than the texture sheets we have been using...and come on a sheet which
is too thick on the outside edges to put in
your pasta machine...so you have to cut off the edges and cut (out?)
the designs out to use them. . . . I ran clay through the pasta machine on about
a medium setting with the plastic mold. To be sure I did not crush the
mold, I put it through without turning the crank ...It is about the thickness
of a dime at the thickest part so you can get it really thin--probably thinner
if not using a pasta motor and taking your time. . . .You can flip it over
and press into any of the symmetrical designs and get relief lines on both sides,
so I thought this would make great fairie wings! I think they will be very durable.
. . .I did some mica shift and they are superb! Probably because the lines
are so defined in these molds.. . .http://www.heartofclay.com/eb/gg.jpg
(this shows my molded wing of translucent clay with powders after using one of
these texture sheet molds: http://www.heartofclay.com/eb/gg4.jpg
) Jeanne R.
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/DisplayCraftCategory?cgnbr=CRAFTS-17&pageNumber=2
rubber
or heavy paper (texture sheets)
purchase, or have them made
most
unmounted of rubberstamp sheets are thin and
flexible enough to roll through the largest setting on your pasta machine
with a sheet of clay. ...many of the companies that advertise in rubber stamp
magazines offer "unmounted" at about a quarter the cost of wood-mounted stamps.
... "background" stamps have a single pattern stretching about 4
by 5 inches (the size of a greeting card)
... the patterned "mats"
sold in rubberstamp stores for use with heat-set foam tools come in a patchwork
of many small designs in different coordinated styles (the individual designs
are only about an inch wide)
...and of course you can have your own designs
made into a 7" x 9" set of positive (unmounted rubber) and
negative (hard plastic...one side usable) sheets by Ready Stamps;
be sure to tell them you want it extra deep, to use with polymer clay.
Dotty in CA
Helen Breil's tiny-texture texture sheets (handmade ...made
from??)
http://shadesofclay.com/Articles/Information/HelenBreilDesignsTextureP.html
rubber
texture sheets: Lisa Pavelka is offering 4x6" very detailed and extra
deep texture sheets, sold by set or individually (1st set = Victorian Lace,
Tumbling Leaves, Swinging Swirls, Directions... more sets to follow)
... they
can be baked with the clay in place. Angela
http://www.heartinhandstudio.com/stamps.htm
(see
also Stamping > Basic Techniques, for creating an upraised clay pattern
on a flat sheet of contrasting clay, using a deep stamp sheet (or
smaller stamp?)
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_clay_other/article/0,1789,HGTV_3239_2932966,00.html
Blockhead has and at least one texture sheet with backgrounds and border patterns on it (one background pattern is old-fashioned handwriting)... their rubber is deeply etched though they also show less deep ones from other vendors (marked) http://www.blockheadstamps.com/sheets.html
textured
heavy papers and misc materials ...4x6" pieces,
by Cre8it! ......Texture
Pack http://www.dotcalmvillage.net/cre8it/polyglaze.html
(bottom of the page). . .package of 20 ($12) . . .deeply
cut; texture patterns different
from the textures above (lessons to
come?)
... I have used my paper texture sheets quite a bit without any
kind of protective treatment, and they are none the worse for wear. The
main enemy of the sheets would be moisture, but the
clay is dry enough that it doesn't affect the paper. I've been very happy with
mine, and they cost a lot less than the rubber ones. Lisa
wood, etc.
I love wooden printing blocks for mokume gane techniques for
that reason. They are usually much more deeply cut, and often because they
usually are cheapo things imported from India, they have some really cool
ethnic paterns and designs. don't know if you have any of those around in the
US at all. I can't see why you wouldn't though. Emma x
Making
Your Own texture sheets
(aka sheet "molds")
.......see also above in "Tools" for many other ideas on how to create textures ...........
You can make your
own texture sheets in various ways,
and from various materials ... these are then pressed
to clay, or run through the pasta machine with clay..
...these
can be sheet-like, already textured materials (like sandpaper,
or many other things) found around the house, etc... or bits from these could
be used in other ways
...or single "tools" can be
impressed repeatedly into a raw clay sheet (then sheet baked before using)
...or
clay sheets you've created (then sheet baked before using)
(...or cut
a shape from a sheet you've created with a texture or a stamp, bake, then use
as a stamp
.....or press a small amount of clay onto the
texture, then use that as a stamp or as a clay item itself)
Ways
to make texture sheets from clay
postives...relief bits:
..
add non-clay things (netting, string, nail heads, anything) on wood
or clay or anything
...add clay squiggles/shapes to the surface of the
raw or baked clay (...if baked, use Diluent or liquid clay to help bond)
negatives...depressions:
...make
impressions into the raw clay sheet with stamps, tools, drawing (see below
in Misc.for more on drawing)
...carve bits away from it after
baking
(or combine one or more of these techniques)
Irene
Dean's (fatbak) many tiles with textures
http://www.good-night-irene.com/index.html
(click on Mirrors and Clocks
and
Wall Pieces, under Older Work)
*Cheryl's
many textures, with powders mostly (website
gone)
*kellie's frame with examples of textures???
Violette's textures on blade holder (one with carving on a texture)
(website gone)
....much of the info on the Stamping page applies to making textures as well....
bumpy
texture sheets (or rollers) for texture-sheet mokume gane
or for ghost image mica
...a variety of different shapes could
be created for the resulting "cells"
...for round cells, texture
sheets could be created with baked balls of clay pressed onto a clay sheet
(then baked)
...the balls could even be positioned evenly on the clay
by placing a removable grid of some kind on top of the sheet first (like
hardware cloth, plastic mesh, light fixture plastic grid covers, or even stretched
threads) ... then each ball might be dipped in a pool of liquid clay, and centered
in its own little square of the grid material (or just eyeball it) ... round balls
make nice deep impressions for texture sheets too compared to a lot of the plastic
texture sheets
... other shapes could also be rolled and baked for the
texture sheet cell shapes...like teardrops, short rods,
squiggles, etc.
....or clay gun extrusions could be baked
and thickly sliced, then put onto the raw clay sheets --flat slices wouldn't
have those nice rounded areas on the bottom that look good for mokume though.
Diane B.
When I got Dottie's Snake Skin Tutorial from
her a couple of years back, I used the plastic honeycomb texture sheet
from Shadetex . Valerie
...I recently discovered
the bottoms of children's running shoes.... one of those claying
maniac moments :-) Adria
...while shopping at a local dollar store, I came
across this neon pink plastic dog chew toy tube with all kinds of different
shaped bumpies on it. Desiree
carved
and/or impressed clay sheet plates (for printing on paper...
or other clay, etc)
..I
made my own texture sheets with regular polymer clay to run through the pasta
machine after finding that this worked really well! Meredith
..... (lesson)
.....I usually make mine using a #4 thickness sheet... and bake it (or
bake it first, then I carve it)
......to create the texture
on raw clay, I lay an unbaked #4 sheet of clay on top and run them together through
the pasta machine at #1 (don't forget mold release!) Irene NC
..Christine Aaron: She makes flat sheets of clay and textures them
to make a printing plates (like etching plates or an engraving plates):
After baking them she carves lines into them (hence
the word "intaglio") (and sometimes if she doesn't like what she has,
she patches and rebakes them)
....Later, to make a print on paper,
she rolls and daubs ink onto them, then lays dampened paper
on them and rubs it down to get a print.
(but she wants an etching-type
press, which has a flat bed that rolls between two rollers kind of like laundry
going through the rollers in an old hand-cranked tub-type clothes washer ... lay
a plate on the press bed (lay a sheet of paper on the plate), and
then cover it with thick felt blankets and roll them through...the blankets
push the paper into the grooves in the plate to get all the ink)
...I
make a "relief sculpture plate" on clay (sheet?) - you can carve
before and/or after the clay is cured (I do most of it before).
...after creating the plate, you cure (bake).... the plates are then inked
and/or painted using etching inks, which are oils. ....a
sheet of paper is put on the plates and they are put through an etching
press together. The press pushes the paper into the crevices
of the plate so it picks up and prints the ink on the paper. Viola.
Barbara
...could
use something else heavy and flat to press them together hard enough, or maybe
press areas separately with something smaller?
(see also Carving
... and Transfers > Photosensitive
> Polymer Plates
... is rubberstamp sheeting stiff enough to use as plate
too or use ripped transfer sheets? --Transfers
> Copier > Etched)
You
can successfully draw designs or textures with this technique
to get finished results, without overly sharp edges.
1. Use
a non-crinkly clear plastic wrap...the thicker the plastic, the coarser
the textures will be.
2. Place plastic between (clay) and tool. Note:
If you are adding bumps put 'em on beforehand.
3. Keep plastic stationary
and lift it off between each tool stroke.
4. After roughing in designs
with thicker plastic, transfer down to thinner plastic for crisper
detail, if you want....if you go back for a final tuneup, the only movement
you want is one of direct pressing into the clay for these finest details.
Sincerely, The Dane
a fun thing
is to make your own "colograph plates" with bits and pieces
of (non-clay) textured stuff glued together into a freestanding
flat sheet using several coats of acrylic matte medium (or anything
gluey?) ...let dry
... dust very lightly with talc.. open the rollers of the
pasta machine to compensate for the thickness, and let it roll!
A
surface-texture technique that really gives a nice just-dug-out-of-the-fossil-bed
look:
gently pressing crumpled aluminum foil into the surface
of un-fired clay, removing the foil, firing the poly-clay, giving the fired product
a liberal "patina" of burnt umber, wet-sanding, and polishing
with a dry muslin buffer. Wow!
...For an even deeper impression the crumpled
aluminum foil can be run through a pasta machine with a sheet of clay .Back
off one setting before sending through, for example: roll a flat sheet of clay
through on #4, set the rollers to #3 and roll through a sheet of crumpled foil
and clay.
Kathy Amt has fashioned some wonderful leather simulations
using this technique.
I have a texture stamp made by bunching turkey bag netting and running it through the pasta machine with the clay. From that I made another stamp so I could backfill the impression with LS. It looks really cool! At one of my workshops, one student went crazy over it. She said it looked like neurologic tissue. She was some sort of medical researcher, I think. Jody B.
I've had some fabulous luck using good quality wallpaper
samples to texture my clay......I'm not sure if it's vinyl or vinyl coated,
or not...I have noticed that some of the thinner ones start leaving lint
on the clay after too many uses ...for some
projects this adds an interesting fabric-like element, but for others, you'll
want to change your paper more often.
...I cut a strip narrow enough to fit
into my pasta machine.... dampen the (vinyl?) paper, apply it to
my clay, and run them thru together.
...This works amazingly well for making
a fabric-like texture for art dolls and such. boo
sandpaper
(40 grit with plastic coating works best)
....plastic
lace (find it in the plastic tablecloth section of the fabric store)
....any and all fabrics without a lot of nap like tuile, gauze,
polyester chiffon ......
The idea I came up with was to run a sheet
of clay through the PM along with that corrugated liner that comes with
light bulbs. Makes a nice texture and there is no need to sand. Vee
...I use the corrugated cardboard from the lightbulb boxes for mica shift.....
I cut out all kinds of geometric designs, glue them on a postcard
and run them through the pm. Works great (and when they get dirty or bent up,
just throw them away). Linda
I've had good luck with leaves:
...you can roll several through the pasta machine on a sheet of clay to
make an overall texture
... or you can space them farther apart and
then cut them out
...you can then color them with powders or
whatever...
What ELSE can you run through a pasta machine, sandwiched with
the clay, to give a textured result?
...fabric, lace, leaves, crumpled
aluminum foil, string, what else?
I made
some sheets of loopy, abstract lace by drizzling
plain liquid clay onto paper ...then peeling it
off after baking
.... before I peeled it, I made a also mold
of its texture ... really cool in reverse (see more in drizzling
liquid clay in Liquid Clay > Piping)
the aluminum foil of disposable cookie sheets can become texture
sheets by embossing into it with a ball-ended tool (embossing stylus)
... first put the foil on top of a sheet of craft foam to provide a soft
surface underneath... then draw your own textures or images
...to
get a flexible liquid clay texture sheet from this, put a
layer of liquid clay on the whole embossed sheet...bake at 300, 20 min.. cool...
peel off ... this texture sheet won't be affected by the plasticizer in raw clay
either... use in pasta machine with raw clay sheet or separately. Jody Bishel
...a piece of this baked liquid clay texture sheet
can even be cut and "mounted" like a stamp (Goop/E-6000
to adhere to wood or plastic block, etc.)
...or it can be used to create an
enameled or stained glass effect by
putting various tinted liquid clays on the embossed foil, but wiping them off
the topmost areas leaving only in depressions, then baking (...the aluminum foil
will then act as raised "leading" for the cells, and also reflect up
through the liquid clay to create a brighter effect)
.......liquid
clay settles or smoothes somewhat when left to rest a bit too... I've used
this technique on my kaleidoscopes with nice results. Dotty
collage
of textures: I know that
lots of folks like to have big sheets of texture to work with but it never worked
for me either. I can't seem to splice the edges right.
....What I do is use lots of smaller stamps to get one
textured sheet which is a collage of stampings.
....One of my favorite
tools is a texture finger cup. You can make them yourself by molding a
ball of scrap clay over your finger or as I do over the end of a rounded dowel.
...My favorite finger cup was made by scoring thin lines raiating out from the
center of the cup. Depending how it is pressed into the clay, it can look like
pine needles, fireworks, grass or even coral (on a large scale).
......My
other homemade stamps are usually about an inch or an inch and a half.
..... I have some textures as sheets but usually end up making smaller stamps
from those. Jody
...also molds can be mostly filled
so that the molded items or textures can be removed and placed onto collage
sheets to create raised areas
I
call this method Reverse Relief because that's how I use it: to create
bas relief designs.
There are many examples on my website http://elvenwork.com:
the brocade dress on the fairy titled Lysse, the Fairy's lace dress in A Walk
in the Woods, and the mouse and the moon reliefs in the Wedgwood styled egg Mouse
in the Moon. All of these raised relief patterns were made by creating the molds
first, by working in reverse.
Lesson:
--Begin by baking a thin
(#6) sheet of SuperFlex, or use TLS spread equally thin
on a sheet of glass and bake.
--Rub the baked sheet with diluent and apply
a second sheet of flex (I usually use the #5 setting).
--Now, set to
work with a ball stylus and engrave your design. The baked sheet will help your
mold stay together and the uniform thickness of the adhered unbaked sheet will
control the depth of the mold. If you wish to work from a specific pattern (such
as the moon) use any of several transfer techniques to imprint the pattern onto
the raw clay.
--Once these molds are baked, any residue copy toner
or ball point pen ink (a favorite of mine) won't transfer as the molds
are being used because you're using a relief agent and working so quickly.
.....Katherine Dewey's illustrated
handout is called Flexible Sheet Molds (creating texture and
pattern sheets,$3.50) "Katherine teaches how she creates texture molds
out of thin sheets of flexible clay. Firm, yet flexible, these molds are thin
enough to use the pasta machine as a mold press."
http://elvenwork.com/workbook.html
(see
more in Molds/Making Molds for making a stamp
to use in repeating patterns, such as for a brick wall)
(see
Rollers above for using these for making texture rollers)
I work
with Sculpey's SuperFlex (Bake and Bend) polymer clay all
the time. Yes, it's tacky and somewhat greasy, but it's a problem solver. I use
it ...for flexible sheet molds that can be run through the pasta machine
with a sheet of clay. . . Katherine Dewey
......I
use Bake & Bend for thinner molds in sheets which use low-relief
textures and items. I recommend it for my leaf molds. ...It is extremely
durable and flexible . . It can be used for thicker pieces also, such as molding
a button or such, but it will not be as flexible in the thicker pieces as
MoldMaker is. Patti K.
... or use for any nature objects such as twigs,
seedpods, etc.
....lesson:
make a sheet of B& Bend which is just over 1/2 the thickness of
your thickest pasta machine setting (on my atlas, at #4)
..........
fold a med. thick sheet in half and roll through on the widest setting. It should
elongate just a little, about 10 %. If it doesn't elongate at all, your medium
is too thin in proportion to your widest setting. If it grows by a lot, then your
medium setting is too thick. Adjust accordingly.
.......roll the impression
material-- a leaf, wallpaper, fabric, whatever, onto
the sheet of B&B (with appropriate mold release).... Bake
.......then, you
can use your mold with a fresh sheet of clay (any brand) .... use mold release....
Now you have a positive image of a leaf or whatever.
(The rest of my articles
show how to use your leaf in designing pieces with different effects... enamel,
fossil wood look, black pearl-exed, etc.) Patti K.
(...see
more on this clay in Characteristics........
should be baked at 285 )
other materials ...(for making texture sheets)
(two-part)
... silicone mold material can be used to make texture
plates or complicated molds with a great deal of detail
...or make a negative or positive of other texture sheets
...or create new sheets from scratch?
Brush On Alley Goop
...http://www.clayalley.com/brushon.htm
Karen's thinner version of her regular Alley Goop (2-pt. mold material) especially
for making texture sheets
.....apply on item to be molded with inexpensive
brushes or a spatula
.....use a can of compressed air or an
air compressor set at 5 psi to force the Brush On Alley Goop into those really
tight areas (optional?)
.....let cure.....repeat.....
then finish with a layer of regular Alley Goop
......(so
2 layers of Brush On, followed by one layer of regular Alley Goop to strengthen?)
.....this
materials is more durable than latex rubber (see below)
... and lot
faster to use than latex (15 min working time.. a 15 min
gel time..and 1 hr cure time)... multiplied by 3 layers though.
......latex
rubber usually takes one day to cure each layer??
... it's the same cost as the regular AlleyGoop....don't know if she'd
mix and match with regular AG for the discount though.
lesson
on making a 3-D mold with several coats of silicone
rubber over a rock (then later filling with a shell of plaster)
http://www.hirstarts.com/tips7/tips7.html
(one
part) ... liquid latex rubber (the rubber latex stuff model
RR people use, from hobby stores) ... I made a flat latex texture
sheet by painting it on
latex rubber is a water-based,
milky, rubber liquid which is completely waterproof when dry
Those with latex
allergies shouldn't use this material.
...may
not give quite as detailed an impression as
2-pt silicone materials?... still should be fine though
...I think this material
is great & reasonably priced too... remains flexible.
........I
ran it through the pasta machine with the clay....
it didn't stick to the clay at all! ...no release agent
used.
......the main drawback is the time required
to make a texture sheet - you must do at least 3 layers and
dry between... so that takes about
3 days!! ...but when you're doing them for yourself, it's not so
bad. Kathy
.Latex Rubber is one made by the company Woodland
Scenics
Mountains
in Minutes is a latex rubber mold compound found in hobby stores
....Plankspanker’s
wrinkly skins for creatures...his texture plates are made from guitar
cases, amiplifiers, book covers, a toy lizard, a dryer and other cases/holders
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/6883/photos.html
Mold
Builder (by Environmental Tech) can be bought at
Michael's for about $10 (one pint?)
..."can brush on (items) made
of metal, clay, ceramic, plaster, wood, or Plasticene clay to form flat,
"blanket" molds (or one-piece "peel-off" glove molds for
3-D objects).
....one thick layer for blanket molds, or can use several thin
layers?
...."use only dry, warm air for drying and curing
....clean up Mold Builder with cold soapy water
only because warm water which will cause the Mold Builder to set
up immediately
....may want to remove the lid
and allow the accumulated ammonia to dissipate a few minutes prior to using Mold
Builder.
....do not use petroleum-based mold release
agents (Vaseline, mineral oil) because they will react with the latex mold and
destroy it."
.......if needs a release to keep it from sticking
to itself, can use talc (or cornstarch?), but no release needed
for clay
... "can also be used for casting candle wax, plaster,
and casting resins" (though one person says not recommended for plastic
resins or casting waxes???)
lessons on using (for a 3-D object
and flat object) :http://www.artmolds.com/product_details.cfm?product_id=177&page=0&cat_name=Latex%20Rubber
http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=62
....don't
do the coats too thick (only
if using a 3-D object though? ... because each coat must dry thoroughly
before a new coat is added)
....one really
sweet texture sheet was made by Kathy Davis using Mold Builder... (her texture
sheet is so flexible it can be folded in half without breaking or
cracking) ......she made a "dragon skin" texture... from 3 layers
of the Mold Builder. Dianne C.
...
to use for ghost image mica technique, etc, just paint a few coats onto
your stamp. Anna
liquid latex
rubber can also be used for making 3-D "glove" molds. Just brush
several thin coats on object you wish to duplicate. Peel off a ready-to-use
mold. (Mold Builder can be used for casting candle wax, plaster and
casting resin.)
...."making
a 3-D mold with latex
rubber is
time consuming and tedious.
.....the
molds are not very heat-resistant or
solvent resistant, and as such latex is not well suited for casting
waxes or plastics but
can be made to work with these media on a limited
basis" (quickly??) . . .( best used when casting gypsum and portland cements).
http://home.attbi.com/~rsquared1/clinics_rocks.htm
Graphi's
site for molding with latex rubber (as well as silicone-based
rubber and many other molding materials) etc.
http://www.mouldmaking.freeserve.co.uk/indexlinks.html
small
lesson.. but he thinks using latex rubber takes too
long and also creates problems for holding the stuff
upright (for 3-D?)
http://www.hirstarts.com/moldmake/moldmaking.html#spike
fun website for that sort of thing and making latex
rubber masks over an "oil-based clay" model...
http://www.monstermakers.com
http://www.monstermakers.com/howto.html
foams ... temporary
stamps or texture sheets can be made by heating and impressing foam materials
like Magic Stamp. The material can be used repeatedly with reheating (or
used just once for a permanent impression, if desired)
......(see many more
types of foam and details rethis in Stamping
> Other Ways).
acrylic paint + cardstock or other
paper (making the paint dimensional after drying)
.....mirror image texture plate lesson: ..... these are perfect for
making mirror image earrings, etc.
1. bottle of 3D acrylic paint, or
(regular) smooth texture paint
2. cardstock (I used index cards cut
in half)
...pre-crease your card stock so that you'll have
two identical halves.... spread the 3D paint over the entire surface
of the card stock and let it sit for a moment to allow some of the
moisture to evaporate; otherwise you'll get a flatter
texture
....fold card in half so that the painted halves seal together.
...slowly peel up little by little and you'll get peaks and valleys
in a mirror image . . . lay aside to dry thoroughly, and do another one.
... (some options: play with the time you allow to 'dry' before
pressing down... try manipulating the sealed cardstock with your fingers...
try peeling quickly for some funky swirls.) ..Kathy Rue's technique, via
Carolyn
..similar to the faux vinyl technique
which uses -thinned acrylic paint and freezer
paper ...and she covers only half the surface
at first
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_paper_crafts_boxes/article/0,,hgtv_3289_1376364,00.html
........for more details on this, and also on using white tacky
glue colored with a bit of acrylic paint, see Paints
> Acrylic > Misc.
hot glue
could be used to drizzle or draw on cardstock or other backing
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_accessories_jewelry/article/0,,HGTV_3225_3198817,00.html
(this is for a necklace, but if you didn't use the cooking oil spray release they
used --on plexiglas-- the glue would stick to the backing...or the shape could
be used freestanding).... (they also painted their drizzled glue shape with fabric
paints)
single items, string, or other
materials glued to a wood or other backing...
you can glue single items (like artificial fern leaves, screws, doodles or outlines
of string, or just about anything) to a block or sheet of wood to use as a texturing
sheet
...if the items are not too thick, you can also glue them to something
thinner which could allow them to go through the pasta machine (without
harming it!!), or just use without the pasta machine (sheets of cardstock,
cardboard, plastic, even glass if using cement-type glue,
or acrylic, etc.)
http://gwengibson.com
. . . step-by-step constructions and surface techniques...
"polymer plates"
(solar plates) with a special light-sensitive material on a backing
...make them yourself, or you can even have one company create your polymer plate
from graphics you send in to them --like ReadyStamps does with rubberstamp sheets
...for all on the polymer solar plates, see Transfers
> Photosensitive Materials > Polymer Plates.
. . .You have to remember to use water, Armorall, or
corn starch/talc, on them when you put them through the pasta machine because
otherwise the clay will stick in the tiny recesses and it's darn hard to get it
out. Dotty
... I've found that using just water instead of powder
or Armorall works the best. It doesn't build up on the surface of the plastic
so your plates last a lot longer. The other release mediums tend to build up in
the crevasse over time while the water doesn't. You can use water as long as you
aren't using Fimo or Kato clays
(for them use powder as a release)...they don't much like the water. Polyform
clays however (Premo & Sculpey) work fine with water. Dotty
Dotty showed me a little spray bottle from Michaels that works great to spray a fine mist of water on the Scratch Art textures to act as mold release. It works wonderfully. Syndee
metallic
powders (Fimo or micas --earl-Ex, etc.) can also be used as releases (if
placed on the clay)...these will completely color the surface of the object
or sheet impressed.
...if you rub mica powders on the texture sheet
before running it through your pasta machine, it will not only act as a release
but also apply color into the crevices of the pattern. . . . . Then you
can also highlight the raised surface with an entirely different color
powder. Patty B.
Wait until you see what
you can do with metallic clays with those texture sheets...I used Premo's
gold and silver (lesson).
--Ran the clay through the same way a number
of times to get the mica to lay all in the same direction.
--Then ran
the clay through on the same setting along with a texture sheet - I used one of
the finer textures to see if it would work- using Armor-All for the release agent.
--Then peeled the the texture sheet off and ran the clay through again at
the next smaller setting.
--Then ran it again but on the next smallest setting
from last time.
--You will get a flat surface but, have optical illusion
texture happening because of the displace mica particles. Very subtle, but,
very cool. . .
. . . . If you want it less subtle, run the clay through
with the texture sheet, but instead of the same setting as you ran the clay through
by itself, move down smaller by two settings. This increases the texture pattern
on the clay because the clay stretches over the texture sheet (hold the clay onto
the texture sheet when it first comes out of the pasta machine or it will move
off the sheet and not work). Meredith
(see
more on releases and release techniques in Molds
> Releases)
USING
USES
for texturing:
... to add visual interest, especially in areas
of solid color (possibly also with antiquing or highlighting)
.......
even very light texturing can also hide imperfections and give interest. Irene
NC
....to use as backgrounds
....to hide fingerprints
or other imperfections
....I
textured (my connected cane slices) with a piece of sheer chiffon... gives
the little quilt a "fabric" look and camouflages fingerprints, too.
:-) Elizabeth
As
with molded, stamped or textured pieces (or anything with crevices) can be colored
on just it's higher areas or just in its lower ones. This results
in a a two-tone effect which gives much more definition of the pattern,
more dimensionality, and often more interest-oomph and complexity.
Antiquing refers to coloring in the lower areas,
whereas highlighting refers to coloring the topmost areas,
or both areas could be colored (complete coverage).
...can use paints...
inks... liquid clays tinted with oil paints, alcohol inks or
inclusions... liquid chalks... metallic powders and waxes, etc.
.....
sometimes done on raw clay or baked clay, in various ways.
....(much
more on these subjects is in
Stamping > Basic
Techniques, and also Filling
and also
in Molds > Antiquing ...Paints
> Antiquing & Patinas ...Powders
for using metallic powders, waxes, etc....Carving
> Backfill)
Here are just a few:
acrylic
paints in tubes are often used for antiquing
... a dark
(dirt) color like Burnt Umber is rubbed over the whole piece, left
to sit a bit, then rubbed with a paper towel, etc., to remove just the top areas
of paint. The remainder of the paint will stay in the crevices simulating age
(and be permanent when it's dried completely).
..... Sometimes a white or
light color paint is used instead, particularly on dark clay colors.
......Donna
Kato makes a faux brocade look (" Brokato ") by impressing
raw clay with texture sheets or stampings, then antiquing-backfilling
the impressions with gold acrylic paint by wiping the raw clay pattern
until the highlights are mostly removed
.........or first completely covering
the texture thickly with gold paint and drying, then applying a (different)
color of acrylic paint to top surfaces (tapping on with finger) and
drying... can then also roll over gently to flatten the texture
and to spread out the pattern (hand rolling may be gentler than pasta machining
to avoid actual crackling)
textile paints which are heat set are great for rubbing into the baked clay. They are fully saturated colors, some with shimmer, some opaque, some with glitter. Since they don't dry until heat set, they are much easier to remove with a paper towel than regular acrylic paints.. . . I either place them back in a warm oven (200) for a couple of minutes or heat with a heat gun to set the paint. Then you can sand, polish or add your preferred finish. Patty B.
Jainnie
has done some breathtaking beads by using her own texture plates with black clay....then
giving several allover coats of the pearescent inks....allowing to dry
and then sanding back the top so the black shows through again
with the most stunning colours left in the groove of her own texture stamped
clay.....too cool!
....You could use rub'n'buff or just about anything
I guess. tantaz
...faux ivory might be cool
this way... would it look carved?
metallic
powders are very often used to highlight (or completely cover) textured or
stamped areas
http://www.polyclay.com/buttons.htm
..... http://polyclay.com/impressed.htm
Kathy W's examples of textured black clay highlighted with
various colors of metallic powder
http://www.kathyweinberg.com/eggs.html
(see Powders for much more)
Metallic
powders can also be made into paints for highlighting or painting
.....Pearl-Ex
or Powdered Pearls powders can be used to color liquid clay
...some of them are just beautiful used that way...(you could also use embossing
powders)
....I used purple clay, impressed and baked it. Then I mixed some
red/blue duo (interference) mica powder into the liquid clay and went over
the baked piece completely with it. It turned out beautiful! Much better than
I had thought it would.
......Over the raised areas of the piece it appears
as a metallic purplish-blue, and in the recessed areas it was deep semi-transparent
blue. Dotty
Donna Kato used
various colors of fluid chalk pads to highlight some textured surfaces
(around transfers, etc.)
...this gave a beautiful "carved"
look to the textured sheet
....fluid chalks are semi-transparent
and matte unless gloss finish added ...also come as markers
.......effect
was subtle on lighter colors of clay, but darkened and popped when
gloss finish added
(see more on these in Letters-Inks
> Fluid Chalks)
Flattening antiqued and/or highlighted textured sheets
A
friend of mine had an idea with using (fluid?) chalks (or chalk stamp
pads?) on a stamp to make the clay impression
....you can then rub over
the raised area that's left with yet another color chalk, or with
iridescent (metallic)
powder.
....brayer this with a roller
(or run it through the pasta machine) to flatten .... I'm still playing with this
idea. Geo
(see more on fluid chalks in Letters-Inks
> Fluid Chalks)
Kris's lesson on impressing a clay sheet
with a stamp
... then applying Lumiere paints (heat-cured
metallic-colored acrylics) to the upraised areas, & somewhat
to the lower areas, just here and there (let dry thoroughly)
...
she then flattens with a hand roller (design is somewhat less distinct,
but still present)
...since the textured sheet isn't covered completely
with the paints, the final result has the background color being the clay
color, with areas of metallic pattern wherever the paints were applied
to the texture
http://sculpey.com/Projects/projects_impressedpen.htm
faux brocade
(....color options:)
Donna Kato creates several brocade looks (" Brokato")
in this lesson:
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_clay_jewelry/article/0,,HGTV_3238_3851743,00.html
..In
each case, she begins by texturing a sheet of clay with a
(wood-backed) texture stamp (or could any texture sheet or stamps)
.......then
she uses tube acrylic paints
at various stages... (and often flattens the texture afteward):
1...(2
colors --paint color + clay color) ---steps
10 -13.25... "antique-backfill" the textured sheet by
covering with with gold acrylic paint, then wiping off the
top of the raw textured clay until the paint is mostly removed from the upper
areas (remains in the depressions)... allow to dry (the upper areas of pattern
will be the color of the clay, and the lower areas the color of the paint
chosen --gold, etc.)
2...(2 colors ...paint
color + 2nd paint color)... completely cover the textured sheet thickly
with gold paint, and dry.... then "highlight"
the upper areas only by applying a different color paint
(tapping paint on clay with finger), and drying (steps
1-6)
.........in
Fig. E she uses a leaf stamp (which
makes an impression with only a few thin impressed lines)... then
covers the texture sheet with gold paint and then highlights the upper
surfaces here and there by dabbing on 2 other colors of paint (red
and green)
THEN
FLATTEN any of those textured sheets (which have been colored in various ways)
(step 7)
....roll over the painted textured
sheet gently with a brayer or other roller (can
spray lightly with water as release to keep the roller from sticking if
necessary)
......or pass through a pasta machine twice (in opposite
direction) choosing a narrower setting for the 2nd pass
...
the pattern will spread out a bit too
MORE Info & Ideas... leaves, etc.
To
make a print with your texture using paint (or pigment
ink, etc.)
...place a sheet of paper over the texture, then brayer
or rub over the paper... just like doing a woodblock print.
To stamp
with metallic powders (repeatedly for a "texture"):
...pour a tiny bit of powder out onto a opened-up, folded piece of copy paper.
...press the selected tool (or stamp) into
a piece of scrap clay to pick up a bit of oil
...then press the tool into the metallic powder
...shake off
the excess...... then press into the clay.
......repeat as
many times as desired.
....using the fold in the paper to act as a funnel,
pour the extra back into the jar.
One way of
making animal skins is using plastic texture sheets with a mokume
gane technique:
.... stack two or three thin colors of clay and run them
through the pasta machine with a texture sheet, then shave off the high
points from the top layer
... I use the cobblestone texture sheet for
giraffe skin, and other sheets work well for zebra, tiger and
leopard.
...experiment with putting the right color clay on the top,
and with which side of the palstic sheet to use. Jeanne R.
(for caned
animal skins, see Canes--instr.&
types > Animal Skins)
"filigree" onlays can be created by shaving off the upper
projections from stamped or textured or molded clay
...Sarajane's
lesson on creating gold clay for this, then placing on top of colored clay
(barrettes & eggs)
http://polyclay.com/onlaid.htm
and http://polyclay.com/eggs.htm
(see
lesson in Stamping > Shaved Projections)
...Jeanne
R's lesson on making fabric by laying shavings from mica
clay ghost impressions onto a base sheet, or shavings from two layers
of clay (here she's using tiny squares from running plastic canvas
through the pasta machine with clay)...see more on this technique in Mica
> Ghost Impression
http://www.heartofclay.com/pc/fauxfabrics.htm
...could
use all kinds of shaving shapes too
I
used Premo gold and a mixture of a lot Fimo pearl and a little fimo
blue (for my layers)... Kerstin
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291865009&p=4252825725&idx=19
Sculpey Flex (now called Bake and Bend) clay has a lot of applications and the best of these is the thin, flexible sheet mold (or texture sheets) that uses the pasta machine as a mold press. Katherine Dewey
Cut-out shapes from a textured
sheet (or antiqued-highlighted-covered sheet) with cutters, or a blade,
etc.
Valerie Aharoni's strips of texture sheet
forming an interesting frame around a sheet-of-pattern (on AOL CD tin?)
which was surrounded by a textured base sheet as well ...she used 6 long
thin strips, each 1/2" or so wide...placed 2 of them across the top of the
frame area and two across the bottom (horizontally and a bit separated, reaching
all the way across the tin)... the last two strips were vertical, placed a bit
in from the edge of the tin, and butted against the inner two strips)
http://people.delphiforums.com/olrebbiepie1/tinswap_files/tinswapa.html
several
color sheets cut and fitted together, then impressed as a whole
with a texture sheet
http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/claypen_masks.html
(click on Jackie)
*Anna's
fabulous crazy patch (quilting style) of textures (surface techniques
and cane sheets, on a box, sort of like a collage (website
gone)
purplepapillon's
sheets composed of various shapes fitted together, each stamped-textured
& covered with metallic powder separately
http://www.imagestation.com/2999060/4266957995
+ http://www.imagestation.com/2999060/4266957984
(see more on this technique in Sheets
> Puzzle Pieced)
raw clay surfaces can be drawn into
with lines and curves, etc., with other tools as well
...a ball point
pen, needle tool, non-sharp tapestry needle, ball ended stylus,
etc.
...however, Wayne uses a piece of plastic wrap over (Saran, sandwich
bag, freezer bag, etc.) his raw clay to "draw" lines of hair or other
things onto his sculpts ...lift tool between each stroke... the thinner the plastic,
the finer the details
.......the plastic keeps the lines clean
Another neat idea they suggested in the book "Handmade
Prints" (see above), was to impress granulated sugar into
the unbaked clay for texture, and then dissolve the sugar in warm water
after the clay is baked. Dona
...salt would do the same thing, but
the depressions would be larger (rock salt or kosher salt would be even
more different)...DB
...exploded salt (Silk Salt)
is used by the silk painters ...is really like pretzel salt - it's been puffed
and air in it
http://www.dickblick.com/zz012/33/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=5425
.....you can roll the raw clay in the exploded salt and then soak it
out. ...rub with PX and bake. It makes a really cool texture (of course, you
can bake it in the clay and soak out afterwards, too.) syndee
...also "dishwasher
salt"??
...baking soda ....the other bonus(?) i found with
baking in a pile of baking soda was it seemed to give the clay an interesting
slightly pebbled texture
that I like. Helayne
I learned from Lindly Haunani this summer about first making a color wheel, then choosing colors from it and making many individual 'swatches' of clay to be combined into a finished piece. It was a fantastic, eye-opening experience! Anna
leaves
Fresh leaves or fake leaves can be used to make leaf impressions in clay,
or they can be used as stamps
...or they can be turned into stamps (positive
and negative) and into shallow molds
Impressions or leaves made with
clay can be embellished with metallic powders, and or made from marbled
or Skinner blend sheets, or textured, etc.
To stamp with a leaf
and metallic powder, brush metallic powder on one side of
a leaf (fake or real leaf, or on another thickish item like a piece of cedar branch)...
tamp
.....then press into a sheet of textured or plain clay; remove... bake
Place
the back side of a leaf onto a sheet of clay to get the deepest
impression (a plain sheet, marbled or Skinner blend sheet, or mica covered--whatever
you want)
.......cover the leaf with waxed paper & roll over it well....remove
waxed paper
...leave as is for just making an impression
...or
to make into a clay leaf, cut around it (freehand, or with a template
or stencil, or with a cutter)
You can roll several leaves through
the pasta machine on a sheet of clay to make an overall texture
...... or you can space them farther apart and then cut them out ...you
can then color them with powders or whatever
To make flexible and
thin sheet molds that can be run through the pasta machine
with a sheet of clay, I use Sculpey's SuperFlex (Bake and Bend) clay .
Katherine Dewey
....(can use regular clays as thin sheet molds though,
as long as they're not brittle after baking like Sculpey
and perhaps FimoSoft, and they're
fully baked)
....I use Bake & Bend
for thinner molds in sheets which use low-relief textures and items. I
recommend it for my leaf molds--it is extremely durable and flexible.
....lesson:
make a sheet of B& Bend which is just over 1/2 the thickness of your thickest
pasta machine setting (on my atlas, at #4)
........ (fold a med. thick sheet
in half and roll through on the widest setting --it should elongate just a little,
about 10 %...if it doesn't elongate at all, your medium is too thin in proportion
to your widest setting... if it grows by a lot, then your medium setting is too
thick. Adjust accordingly.)
......roll the impression material-- a
leaf, wallpaper, fabric, whatever, onto the sheet of B&B clay (with appropriate
mold release) .... bake
......you can use your mold with a fresh sheet
of clay (any brand) with mold release...now you have a positive image of a leaf
or whatever
(The rest of my articles show how to use your leaf in designing
pieces with different effects... enamel, fossil wood look, black pearl-exed, etc.)
Patti K.
...Kathy makes molds from leaves by coating a real leaf with
(Art Silver Clay or Precious Metal Clay? paste), then uses them to make a mold
after they are fired in a kiln .....or could cover with something else like
plaster which doesn't need a kiln... or use a few layers of liquid clay??
...can
also make sheet molds from silicone molding materials and other things
(see Molds)
(see
more on making texture sheets above in Making Texture Sheets)
Leigh’s
lesson on real leaf used as stamp to impress clay sheet and
create a leaf
...after the real leaf is pressed onto clay, it's cut around
(slightly larger)... and leaf removed
... clay leaf is then completely covered
with various colored metallic powders
http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/poleigh/leaf.html
Barbara McGuire's lesson on using metallic
powders sporadically on the a clay sheet before putting through
the pasta machine with a texture sheet
....she then cut the sheet into
leaf shapes with a template, and baked them on the curved side of an
upturned glass bow
l... then used wire to make a connector and decorative dangling
spiral... necklace or two freehanging (diff.sized) leaves for earrings http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/crafting/article/0,1789,HGTV_3352_1399580,00.html
Can
cover clay leaf shapes with metallic powders
.....or just highlight
or color the impression only with metallic powders
.....or antique the
impression-depression with paints (see Powders
> Mica Powders > Stamping & Texturing, for more)
Maria's lesson on making a small clay leaf using a larger real
leaf as a stamp
....she pressed an oval ball of (cold porcelain)
clay --could use polymer instead-- onto just the central part of the back
side of a heavily veined tough leaf
... she then cuts small bites
from the sides of the leaf with a straw so they resemble oak leaves, or poinsettia
leaves http://guide.supereva.it/hobby_femminili/interventi/2001/11/77634.shtml
various clay leaves used in jewelry, made from impressing-molding
real leaves
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stokesgalleries/sets/72157603734300483
Mike
B. used leaves as masks to create some beautiful effects
....after
impressing a sheet of clay (usually a Skinner blend) with the back of a
leaf, covering with waxed paper then rolling it onto the clay, he left the
leaf in place while he textured the background area around the
leaf with sandpaper, etc
........then he brushed metallic powder all
over (leaf will resist the powder)
........lastly he carefully removed the
leaf from the piece... and baked the piece
http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/mikeb/LeafLessons.html
(lesson)
http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/mikeb/Leaves.html
(examples)
(for more on this, see Powders
> Mike B's Masked Leaves)
TIPS
...to flatten a freshly
picked leaf (or floppy or thick ?) (for making a mold of a fern or other leaf),
you can carefully lay the frond onto the sticky side of some wide, plastic
packing tape, making sure all the tiny leaflets are lying flat ....then apply
the mould material before the leaf can dry out. Alan Vernall
...fresh leaves
which are no longer fresh and supple can be "reconstituted" with a
soak in water, glycerin, or something else
.....I soaked some dried leaves
in warm water for a couple of hours to "flex" them up a bit, and that worked great...
kept them from crumbling when I rolled them onto the clay, and they were even
tough enough to peel up off the clay without leaving little pieces ....... I also
just got some glycerin and I'm going to try soaking the next batch of mini rose
leaves in glycerin-water and keeping them in the fridge, to see if that works.
Eliz.
....there's some sort of spritz you can buy in the same department
(as preserved leaves) for reviving dried flowers and leaves that have become brittle
...can leaves be kept in the freezer to preseve till wanted?
...can leaves be ironed between waxed paper layers to preserve?
...real preserved leaves can be purchased in craft stores. Eliz.
white clay impressed with leaf stamps then antiqued with green paint over a is absolutely beautiful. syndee
more Websites
sunni's
lesson (on making a base), showing a texture sheet going through
the pasta machine with a sheet of powdered clay, then added to a thicker
sheet, baked and embellished
http://sunnisan.com/crafts/stainglass4.html
Helen Breil's many textured pieces
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=6&uid=447834
syndee's
textured, Pearl Ex-ed bracelets
http://www.pcpolyzine.com/february2001/bracelets.html
*Dotty
McMillan's many uses of metallic powders with textures, stamping,
etc. on the "clothing" of her kaleidoscope women
http://alookingglass.homestead.com/Three_box_lady_2_a.jpg
http://pcpolyzine.com/0301january/0301fantasyart3.html
(click on each for larger view & more)
http://pcpolyzine.com/0301january/0301fantasyart2.html
Jane's
double layer texture shapes, one with powder highlighting
http://www.nwpcg.org/photopages/may2000.shtml
caneguru's
pins made with positive & neg. texture sheets, and also a hand-carved
texture sheet pin (website gone)
Tommie's sort-of
lesson on making a texture sheet for raku using a multiple stabs of
a ball stylus & powders
http://www.polymerclayhaven.com/lessons/raku.htm
(gone)
Patti's
lesson on making a flat mold from a stamp, which can be run through
the pasta machine with clay (she made a holiday gift tag with reversed lettering)
http://www.polymerclayhaven.com/lessons/gifttag.htm
(gone)
Marlene's
shoe fabric created by using a texture sheet over background with rose
(website gone)
Emily's bracelet
of various texture sheet impressions with powders (website
gone)
