Try, Try Again

Okay, so much for not having time to blog.  Actually, I really don't have time right now but I love doing it too much to stop completely.

Anyway, I got a request this week for a stand to go with a pen I had listed on Artfire.  I can easily do stands for any of the pens but for some reason I don't bother most of the time.  Anyway, the customer really loved this pen and wanted to know if I could make a stand to go with it.  Of course I told her I

could and I got started on it. 

Attempt One:  I couldn't find the blue flower cane I used in the pen so I decided to just do without it.  Made up some of the green background, covered a ball of scrap with it and proceeded to add the flowers.  Not a big deal except that I was just getting over a bad cold and just wanted to get it done.  But it only took about an hour so I was okay.  Left it sitting on the craft table to bake it later.  Later arrived and I went in there to get it to pop it into the oven and I discovered that my 2-year-old (who loves to clay) had arrived ahead of me and "improved" on my work.  Holes, cuts and chunks missing. 

Lesson One Learned:  Bake it immediately or risk the "help" of the toddler.

Attempt Two:  Mushed the first one all up into scrap clay and got started on the second one.  Used the leftover green clay from #1 and covered scrap ball #2.  Meanwhile, I had found the blue flower cane so I was able to put all of them in there.  Whew!  Got it made and safely into the oven.  Set the timer and went to lie down for a minute.  Forgot it was there.  It was nicely browned all over.

Lesson Two Learned:  If I'm not going to stay within hearing distance of the timer, tell the kids in the room why it's set.  Dd heard it but said, "I didn't know what it was for so I didn't do anything about it."  She's 12.  She couldn't ask what it was for?

Attempt Three:  Made up some new green and a covered a new scrap ball.  I was now almost out of both the light pink cane and the orange cane.  So, instead of covering the ball all over with flowers, I decided to just make a ring around the edge.  Got it made, safely into the oven, safely out of the oven, and sanded and buffed with no more trouble.  Thank heaven!

Lesson Three Learned:  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.



(lousy photo taken with my phone)

The stand is now finished and, along with the matching pen, is on it's way to its new owner.  Hopefully she will love it and make the whole thing worthwhile.  I love my customers!

This just goes to show that, no matter how "expert" you are at a skill, there's always room for mistakes!

Enjoy!
Korrina

Polymer Clay Tutorial: Striped Pen

This is a really quick and easy way to cover a pen that can be quite striking in the right colors.  It's also a good way to use up any strings you have left laying around from your last filligree project.  You can find out more about covering pens in this blog post and more about extruding polymer clay strings in this one. 

Supplies Needed:

1 Bic Round Stic pen or similar

Several colors of clay strings (about 6-7 feet altogether)

Tools Needed:

Round-nose pliers

Extruder (unless you've already made your strings)

Sharp craft knife (a tissue blade will work but I prefer my X-acto knife for more precision)

Directions: 
Extrude your clay (if you haven't already).  I'm using strings leftover from a filigree project.  You won't need near this much, it's just my leftovers.

Figure out what in what order you want your stripes.  (Keep in mind that the two outside colors will be touching each other as well.)  Lay the ends together on the table and gently press them together.

Keep arranging your strings and pressing them together until you get to the other end.  Don't squish too hard, this is just to make it easier to wind the strings around the pen.

Use your pliers to take the barrel out of the pen.  Leaving a tail about 1-2 inches long (mine should have been longer), start winding your striped ribbon around the pen.  Try to get all of the strings flush with one another.

If one of your colors runs out, you can add another string.  Cut the end of the finished string at an angle.

Cut the end of the new string at an angle as well and put the two together.  This makes it a lot easier to not have a gap.

Keep winding until you get to the end of the pen.  Carefully trim the excess clay from the open end of the pen.  Try to cut in the direction the strings are going.  For instance, I cut the excess of this one in a clockwise direction.

Now go to the other end of the pen and wind the excess clay around the exposed part.  

Like this:

Now unwind a couple of the strings back to just before they came up above the rim of the pen.

Trim the ones that are still wrapped flush with the end of the pen.

Roll the hanging strings into a spiral and press them onto the end of the pen.  (I should have left my end a little longer - had to flatten the spiral a little to get it to cover.)

There you go.  Now, you can bake it as is or...

You can roll it flat a little or a lot.  I rolled mine sort of flat but still with grooves in it to cover up some imperfections I didn't like.

Bake it and use your pliers to put the ink barrel back in the pen and you are finished!

Enjoy!
Korrina

P.S.  If you ever make a project from one of my tutorials and want to share pictures, I'd love to see them!  Post in the comments or on my Facebook or you can email me: kaelmijoy@gmail.com

Polymer Clay Tutorial: How to Cover a Pen with a Translucent Flower Cane

Okay, so I showed you how to cover a pen in my tutorial here.  And I showed you how to make my blue flower cane tutorial  here.  (For more tutorials, click here.)  Today, we're going to put them together.  (I'll get back to the caning next week.)

I decided that if I'm going to show you how to make all of these canes, maybe I'd better show you what to do with them as well.  So here's the first one.

Supplies:
~1 oven-safe pen- I'm using a Bic Round Stic (they're actually transparent black now); there are other brands that will work, I'm just not sure which ones
~1 flower cane with translucent background, about 1 inch in diameter and 1.5 to 2 inches long
~translucent clay
~"mud" clay- scrap clay that's been all mixed together so you get a solid (usually muddy) color
~white acrylic paint

Tools:
~small round-nose pliers
~pasta machine or acrylic roller
~tissue blade
~small paintbrush
~bamboo skewer

Directions:
Now, some of the instructions for this pen are exactly the same as in my previous "covering a pen" tute so I will provide a link to it and gloss over them here.  If you know what you are doing, you may not need the link.  If you don't, you will have a place to refer to for more information.

Step 1: Get the pen ready.
Use the pliers to pull the ink part out of the pen as seen in the first photo here.
Roll a medium-thin (#4 on my Atlas) sheet of "mud" and cover the pen with it, trimming the seam flush.  (Sorry, I accidentally deleted the photo for that step.)  Smooth the clay over the back end of the pen and trim the clay at the opening.  Roll everything smooth. 

Stick the pen on the skewer so you have something to hold on to while you paint.  Use your paintbrush and white acrylic paint to paint the "mud" (yes, raw clay) white.  This will show through the trans clay a little and we don't want a yucky brown background.  Now, you could just paint the pen white but I've found that the paint doesn't like to stick to that kind of plastic very well.  Also, the mud underlayer makes a thicker layer of clay that is easier to roll the cane-slice seams out of later. 

Step 2: Prepare the cane.
You need a fairly short fat cane for this because it will make it easier to add clay to it to make it square.  If you've read the other pen tute, you know that I prefer to make my pens with square canes.  Well, most flower canes are round and you could just squeeze and pinch to make it square but that would distort the flower.  So I came up with another way to do it that I will show you here.  So, stand your cane up on the work surface:

Roll out a thick sheet of translucent clay and give your cane a couple more layers.  Make sure you cut the ends flush so they butt up against each other and don't over lap.  I've used two sheets- you might want more, depending on how much background you want.  Don't worry if you don't get it thick enough, you can always add more later.

Score the top of the cane with two parallel lines on opposite sides of the flower.

Lay your cane on it's side and make a mark from the end of each score (on the top) straight down the sides of the cane as shown.  You will have 4 marks around the sides of the cane.

Using your sharp tissue blade, make a cut straight down, using the lines you made in the top and sides of the cane as a guide.  Go slowly and watch those side lines to make sure you are cutting where you need to. 

Do this on both sides.  Now score the top and sides again, just like before, only on the other two sides of the flower.

Make the cuts as before.  If you find you didn't put a thick enough layer of clay around the cane, you can add a wedge of trans clay to each corner and trim again.  Reduce the cane to about 5/8 inch across.  (Check out this tutorial if you don't know how to reduce.)

Step 3: Cover the pen with cane slices. 
In my other pen tutorial, I said to make the cane about 1/2 inch across.  Here, I said to make it about 5/8 inch.  Anyone know why?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Okay, it's because of the mud layer.  (You already said that didn't you?  Sorry, I couldn't hear you.)  The extra layer makes the pen thicker and so you need a bigger cane slice to go around.  So I probably didn't need to explain that...

Anyway, so start slicing your cane and adding the slices to your pen, butting them up against each other.  You should be able to fit 2 slices around on each row.  If they're too big, squeeze the sides toward one another so they fit, too small, stretch them. 

Now, another (very talented, might I add) polymer clayer and I got into a mini-debate a while back over whether it's more important to have your slices thin or to have them even. She said that thin is better because you don't use as much clay. I said even is better so you have less distortion when you roll it out.  Really, if you can achieve thin, even slices, go for it.  If you are new to claying or have trouble with thin slices, just concentrate on getting them as even as possible.  It really will make for less headache later on. 

Keep adding cane slices...

...until the entire pen is covered except for the tip.  Go here (starting at the 8th photo- the one with the funny-shaped cane slices) and follow the intructions to finish covering the pen and smoothing it.  I've included a few extra photos for those who know what they're doing and/or who just follow the pictures anyway. :)

Bake the pen on a sheet of paper at 265 degrees for 30 minutes.

Here it is, all ready to be sanded and buffed:

Enjoy!
Korrina

Tutorial: How to Add a Charm to a Clay Pen

 This is the third tutorial in a series showing how to make a polymer clay charm pen.  The first shows how to cover a pen in clay and can be found here.  The second covers sanding and buffing/glazing and can be found here.

So this week it's adding the charm to a clay-covered pen.  Let's get started.

Supplies:
1 clay-covered pen, cured, sanded, and buffed or glazed
2-3 charms- clay or otherwise
1 headpin
5 or more jump rings big enough to fit onto the charms

Tools:
Hand drill with a small bit (mine is about 2/32" I think)
Round-nose pliers
Flat-nose jewelry pliers
Wire cutter


Step 1: Putting the loop on the end of the pen.
Drill a hole in the end of the pen with the hand drill.

Drop a headpin into the other end of the pen, head last.  If your hole is too big and the head can go through, bend the end of the pin over so it can't go through the hole.

It will look like this:

 Make a loop with your round nose pliers...

... and trim off the excess with your cutters.

Step 2: Preparing the charms.

Open a jump ring.  Make sure you use a twisting motion rather than just pulling it open, otherwise you will weaken the ring.

Add the charm.  These are just a couple of slices from the same cane I used on the pen.  I just baked them between two layers of glass to make them shiny so I wouldn't have to sand/buff/glaze.

Close that ring and add another one to it.

 

Now add three rings to your other charm.  (Don't want them to hang at the same level.)

Step 3:  Attaching the charms.

Open up the top ring on each charm (if you closed them before) and attach them to the loop on the end of the pen. (Photo only shows one ring on the charm- I added another one later.)

 All done!

Step 4: Finishing
Now use your round-nose pliers to put the ink barrel back in the pen.  DO NOT push on the metal tip of the pen as this could cause it to not work, or worse, leak ink all over.

 Finished pen!

Enjoy!

Korrina

Polymer Clay Hints and Tips: Making a Clay-Covered Pen Shiny

 Okay, so last time I showed you how to cover a pen in polymer clay cane slices- this week it is sanding, buffing and glazing.  Let's start with sanding. 

There are a couple of important keys to sanding polymer clay items.  First, get the clay as smooth as you can before you bake so you don't have to sand as much.  Second, don't skip grades of sandpaper.  I usually start with 220 grit, then move on to 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000.  Sometimes I don't go all the way to 2000, depending on how shiny I want it and whether I will be glazing the piece.  Use wet/dry sandpaper (the black kind) and cut the sheets into quarters for easier handling.  If the piece you cut doesn't have the grit printed on the back, be sure to write it on there- you can't tell what grit it is by looks or touch. :)

I use a dremel minimite drill for sanding my pens.  I just happened to have a bit for the dremel that looks like this:

 I don't know what it is called or what size it is but it's just a shaft with a wood-screw-type end on it that screws into the end of the pen just perfectly:

If you don't have this stuff, or can't figure out where to buy it, you can just hold the pen in your hand and sand longer.

You're also going to need a place to work and a bowl of water.  (I usually have mine lukewarm.  Hot will soften the clay and cold will freeze your hands.)  For a work surface, I usually settle into my easy chair with the TV remote handy, lay a towel on my lap, add one of the glass panels I clay on, and add another towel on top of that, with a third towel under my elbow to catch the water that tends to run down my arm.  (Although that usually only happens when I'm not using the drill.)

Dip the sandpaper in the water:

Hold the drill in one hand and the sandpaper in the other, kind of curved to the shape of the pen.  (I'm a lefty so I won't even try to tell you which hand should hold what- I'll get all confused.)  Don't turn the drill on until you have the pen against the sandpaper.  If you aren't (gently) holding on to the pen, it could wobble all over and stretch the opening of the pen until it doesn't fit on there anymore.  Move the sandpaper back and forth as the pen spins around, holding the sandpaper lightly against the pen.  Every so often, stop and feel the pen with your fingers to find places it needs more sanding.  The first grit will need a lot more sanding than the others.  Use the first grit until you can't find any more dips or bumps with your fingers.  Rinse your sandpaper in the water every so often to keep residue from building up on it and to keep it wet.  Then move on to the other grits for about 30 seconds each.  (A minute or two if you are not using the drill.) 

 After you have gone through all of the grits, buff the pen on a dry part of one of your towels:

You can stop there or you can buff or glaze the pen- read on:

Some people own an electric buffer but I just couldn't afford one so I came up with my own alternative using stuff I already had on hand.  So here's my method:

You need a vise.  This one suctions on to the table.

You also need a buffing wheel.  I made mine out of a white felt and old jeans denim.  I cut a bunch of 5-inch circles from the felt and the denim and then glued them together in a stack about 2 inches thick.  I put a hole in the center (can't remember how, but I'm sure you'll come up with something...) and stuck a piece of threaded metal stuff (had to cut it down to about 6 inches) I found at the hardware store through the hole.  I added a washer and a nut to each side of the fabric and tightened it down good to hold it in place. 

 Now you need an electric drill.  Stick the bar of the buffing wheel into the drill and tighten it down:

 Make sure your vise is securely attached to the table and clamp the drill upside down in the vise:

Don't forget your earplugs- this is gonna be loud.  Safety glasses are probably a good idea too.

 

Now, I don't know if all drills have this button but hubby says most of them do.  When you hold down the trigger on the drill, there should be a switch or button somewhere that you can use to hold the trigger down when you let go.  On mine, it's the little black switch above (below) the trigger.  Now you'll have two hands to hang on to your pen:

Make sure that the bottom of the wheel is turning away from you.  Hold the pen GENTLY against the buffing wheel, making sure that you are holding it near the bottom of the wheel so if it grabs the pen, the pen will go flying away from you and not toward you.  Keep the pen moving constantly so it doesn't get to warm anywhere. 

And there's your shiny pen all ready for its charms!

If you don't want to mess with the buffing (and even some of the sanding) you can glaze your pen instead.  I like the feel of a buffed pen the best but sometimes you don't have time or equipment for sanding and buffing, or you've used metal foils or surface treatments that need to be sealed. 

Here's how I glaze a pen:

You need a way to stand the pen up while it is drying.  I use a piece of foam packing material.  You can use a bamboo skewer or you can use toothpicks inside the pen to stand it up.  I usually use the toothpicks.  Hold two of them together and stick them about halfway into the end of the pen:

Stick a third toothpick in the opening next to the other two.  Hopefully, it will create a tight fit and stick out beyond the other two toothpicks.  If it's too loose, try a fatter toothpick, or push it up level with the others and add a fourth toothpick.

Stick it in your foam thing.  Here you can see my glaze of choice.  Don't use a spray as most of them will react with the clay and keep it sticky forever.  The same goes for any oil-based varnish or fingernail polish.

Wet a makeup sponge and wring it out thoroughly.  Dip the corner of the sponge in the glaze and scrape the excess on the edge of the container:

Apply the glaze to the pen with the sponge, re-dipping as needed:

 Let it dry for a 2-3 minutes and then look for air bubbles.  You can see one here:

Use the corner of the sponge to gently wipe away the air bubble.  You can also try a sharp pin to burst the bubble but I haven't had much luck with that.

Let it dry for at least a couple of hours.  If you want, do another coat or two.

Next time we will add a charm to our clay pen...

Enjoy!

Korrina