Zen Chickens and Polymer Clay Comparisons. . .

A few weeks ago I was running low on Cernit, my go to Poly clay brand, (go to for no other reason than I tried it out and thought it was perfectly Ok so I stayed with it), but there was none to be had from my usual suppliers for some odd reason.

So, undeterred, I bought some Fimo pro instead, as it's well thought of etc and a bit cheaper than Cernit I think. I would check that last statement but can't be bothered. . .

Whatever. . . I thought I would just give you my thoughts on Fimo Pro vs Cernit if you are interested. Well, you are going to get them even if you're not interested. .

Cernit is a very tough and flexible clay, it has a fair amount of give to it and can be used to make quite thin things without becoming too fragile to work with. Fimo Pro is also tough, but has a different feel. It's less flexible, stiffer without actually being brittle.
I would be wary of going too thin with it though perhaps.

The two types of bead I have been making recently have been my 'Turned Look' spikes and 'spindles', and my image transfer tile beads. I am finding that I have to be a bit more careful when using Fimo for my turned beads than I do when using Cernit, due to its less forgiving nature.
I think I will use Cernit for those type of beads going forward.

I found that Fimo Pro was nice to use for image transfer work on flat, tile beads due to it's relative stiffness and tendency to let me produce slightly more refined edges when shaping them. Cernit's more 'chewey' quality made it feel a bit less exact somehow.
A subjective view for sure and not really discernible to the eye I don't think, but that's how it felt when working with it. I will use Fimo Pro for my image trans work in future. Truth to materials and all that ;-)

They both take an image well enough, Fimo perhaps needing a more gentle touch to avoid the image coming away when transferring using the water and rubbing method.
The issue of the image getting sticky while transferring is slightly less of an issue with Fimo than Cernit, (though a mixture of Cernit Trans and regular Cernit takes an image well. The image seems to stick to it better. I must try some Fimo trans sometime).
Fimo produces finer dust when sanded I think, it seems 'dryer' than Cernit. I wear a facemask when sanding whichever brand I am using.

Dunno if this has been of any use to anyone, it's all subjective stuff and your mileage may vary of course. I was surprised that I noticed differences in brands of poly clay, I must have developed an unconscious Cernit bias in technique over the years ;-)

I like both brands and now I have located some more Cernit, I can use them to their particular strengths. I did try some Fimo Soft, but that was pretty horrible, on a par with Sculpey Original in my opinion, only more brittle and 'dusty'. OK for bead cores but not anything that needs to be robust I don't think.

Oh yeah, Zen Chickens. . . No not a new band I discovered or a name for people afraid of particular meditation philosophies, let me elucidate. .

Our 4 chickens have the run of the garden and the orchard and are very tame. They like to gather around our feet if we are sitting on the terrace to eat, like we do in summer quite often. My wife has a habit of giving them her almost empty cereal bowl to finish off. They love this and all tuck in. . .
I noticed that there is one particularly resonant ceramic bowl with a pleasing note to it. When four chickens are pecking at it at random intervals it sounds like one of those 'singing bowls' you can get in those new age shops, as an aid to meditation, only not as soothing ;-)
Anyway, I think I should record it or film it sometime and put it online as a meditation aid ;-) So there you have it, Zen Chickens.

see you next time, Jon x

A Transparent Mistake, Expanding Cats and an imminent DIY Tsunami. . .

Red brown semi trans rounded tube beads, or possibly 'bugle' beads(?)

Well, I was in a hurry so I didn't notice that I had bought 50% transparent Cernit Clay instead of the usual opaque stuff, until I opened the new pack and began using it. But After a bit of a double take and some initial confusion (until I spotted the little 50% badge on the packet), I decided to run with it. I made some simple beads and explored the way surface treatments seem to have more depth to them on trans clay. I used alcohol inks in layers, and other stuff. . . They came out nicely and look quite stone like, not that I was aiming for that particularly. I sold some as well, which always encourages the creativity. . .

Green stone like beads with 'includes'. .

For some I used a kind of a variation of my crackle effect idea. I was going to say that I made the clay a bit dirty by rolling it a few times and letting a little dust and tiny bits of desk detritus stick to it, but what I mean is I used 'includes', yes, that was what I did, cough. . . . Just slightly, so that it looked a little bit veiny and speckled.

I ordered some opaque Cernit straight away of course but as trans was what I had it made me explore  a bit more, which is always a good thing.

Groovy blue ones

I didn't get much done as time is a bit lacking this week as I am planning the details of how to redo our bathroom. I like to think it all through before jumping in, going nuts with a club hammer and ripping stuff out willy nilly. . . (there is a plasterboard side to the shower that has to go.) But I will try to get into the workshop and have a play in between diy splurges when I can ;-)
Oh yeah, and a joiner is fitting new bannisters on our stairs this week too. Gonna look so posh ;-) So it's all go round here. . .

I like the semi trans effect here

Alongside the other beads I made some turned effect earring bead pairs using the semi-trans clay. They came out quite nice too, imho. I shall make some more I think, although I am trying not to repeat myself too much.

And here, they sort of glow . .

I'm going to make more of these simple spikes too, seeing as how they sold, and I like the simplicity of them. 

unapologetically simple spikes

Simple beads are challenging in an strange way. There is quite a bit of resistance to putting forward something that has very little evidence of 'work' in it. Silly I know, but it does take a level of confidence to be satisfied with the simple and not complicate it for complication's sake, or for what you might imagine other people might think etc etc. I'm actually pretty ok with keeping it simple as a principle, but I get the annoying doubts from time to time ;-) Anyway, hitting people over the head with 'skill' for its own sake is amateur stuff ;-) You know, like those guitarists that play 48,000 notes a second when 3 will do. . . Skill is a means to an end and not an end in itself, which sounds like an excuse but really isn't. And worrying about what you think other people might think doesn't lead anywhere useful. imho.

As for the Expanding Cat thing. They are six months old now and have changed so much. This is Hereward as he is now, and as he was the day he arrived in our house. He's a big handsome boy now ;-) The two girls are all almost grown now too, but not as big as himself here.

Hereward 'Hairy Boy' now and then, wasn't he a cuticle?

I read something on several sites on the inter webs about how big cats are likely to grow. It said they grow up to 20 times their size. . . Yeah right! If a kitten is 3 inches when born it would be 60 inches fully grown. That's five feet! Hmmm. . . Not convinced that is altogether true. I hope not or I will need a much bigger cat flap. . . . .

Amazing how misinformation happily shared on the net isn't it?

An Amazing, Scientific Comparison Test, honest. . .

Well, I had a thought the other day. A dangerous concept I know,
"You don't want to go messing around having thoughts" I said to myself, "You never know where it might lead. No good will come of it, mark me words. ."

Yeah, well, I needn't have worried, nothing much came of it.

The thought in question came upon me when I happened to notice that I had four different brands of white polymer clay lurking in my clay storage box. This same thought led me to suppose that I could do one of those super efficient, scientific, comparison type things you see online. I could compare how well different brands of PC cope with the image transfer process, and I could intelligently but casually point out the differences etc, thus adding to the sum knowledge of mankind, and keeping the polymer clay community informed and and forearmed against the vagueries of image transferring onto whichever was the clay of their choice. . .

Well. . it didn't really turn out like that.

OK, this is what I did. I rolled out a suitable sheet of four different clays,
Kato white, Fimo Pro white, Sculpey original white, and Cernit opaque white.

Then I did my usual - like everybody else does - water and rubbing technique, image transfer thing on each of them, using similar images from the same sheet of lazer printed paper.
Below is how they turned out. The image quality was pretty much identical. One 'interesting' point was that the surface of the Fimo pro, where the image wasn't, started to turn a bit grainy, a sort of floury texture as it was eroded by rubbing. The image bit was fine. Also Fimo white is 'whiter' than the others, just a bit.
The image on the Kato white felt slightly rougher somehow, as if bits of it were very slightly raised. None of these things had any bearing on the image quality at all. Even the much maligned Sculpey original performed well.

So then I baked them for about 20 or so mins at 135 degrees C. Below is how they turned out. Again, nothing frightening or unusual as far as I could see. The Sculpey orig seems to have moved slightly towards the redder end of the spectrum, but only very slightly. They all look marginally darker, but that is mainly due to the photo.

I cut the squares out, as I figured I might try to use them at least, as they didn't do anything exciting in my supposed experiment. I cut them out with scissors, which was novel, as I usually cut them out with a craft knife before baking.

Once cut out, I painted the backs and sides with 'Ginger' alcohol ink and treated the whole thing with Renaissance Wax and buffed them up a bit. 

Then I decided that they were too 'bendy', meaning they hadn't been baked enough, so thinking 'What the hell." I chucked them back in the Halogen oven for another 20 mins. 

Maybe a bit long, as they all bent up a bit as the image side seemingly shrank a touch. They were all suitably stiff and hard though. The odd one out was the Sculpey Original, it went a pinky purple! I 'think' it was the renaissance wax melting and dissolving the ink or toner and diffusing it across the surface. Very odd. (Ren wax and toner don't get on.) Might be something to play with in future and see what cool effects could be got. . . hmmmm. .

The Kato came out the hardest and stiffest, with the Fimo and Cernit being a bit bendy but v tough. The Sculpey was pretty strong, but would probably snap if you really bent it hard. But then, why would you do that?

So, my expert conclusion about which brand of Poly clay to use for image transfer is? . .

That it doesn't really matter. Sculpey Original would need to be a touch thicker or have a thin backing sheet made of one of the tougher brands to be useful in more demanding applications, but it is perfectly ok, as long as long as you don't rebake for too long after using ren wax on it. An unlikely circumstance, unless you are me. . .

Oh well. . . . Mankind's knowledge will just have to wait for another day for my input OK?

Jon x