Experiments

It has been a very long time since I did a Blog Post.  I tend to just use Facebook these days for all my work.  However there are times, like this, when nothing but a blog post will do!

I decided to have a play today.  I have had some Fimo Liquid Gel kicking around in my supplies drawer for ages and have never used it.  It was one of those things that I saw in my favourite Polymer Clay Shop, Clayaround, and somehow it just ended up in my basket!  I am sure the same thing has happened to you!

Whilst flicking through FB yesterday I stumbled upon a free tutorial, by a Russian Lady, and it looked like a lot of fun.  A little bit of playing with Google Translate and I thought I had the gist of it.

Unfortunately there was one vital ingredient that I do not possess.  Resin.  I have always wanted to have a go with Resin, but the mixing, and the waiting for it to set, I know, would be my downfall - I never was the most patient of people, so I have never bought any.

Not to be deterred, I decided to try it anyway and would just give the beads a couple of coats of glaze instead.....!

Unfortunately this really was not a good idea.  It turns out that the Gel is very flexible when baked, which I am sure is brilliant for some applications, but for beads that will obviously have a fair bit of wear and tear - it was just not strong enough.

These are the first leaves I made.  I sort of followed the tutorial, but really just used it as a guideline.  The colours are gorgeous, but I wanted a clearer finish, so I sanded with about 6 different grits of sandpaper, but it seemed to make things worse.  The instructions on the Gel bottle said that you can wet sand, however I used my Micro Mesh - so maybe this is where I went wrong!

Autumnal Leaves

I then decided to add the glaze to see if that worked.  It really did clarify the translucence, however I then thought that it would be a good idea to add a second coat of glaze.  Did I mention that patience was not a strong point of mine?  Ah...yes..well, it seems as though the first coat may not have been completely dry.......!  So the finish became streaked with brush strokes.  Not my finest hour!

Not a good finish!

Lovely colours - but very streaky finish!

However, all is not lost I thought!  At least I know that if I am patient, a second coat of glaze will look great!  Before I spent another 4 hours making some more beads however, I had to try the ultimate test and see if I could mark the coatings in any way.  As you can see, my thumbnail indentation is very clear!  Oh well.  It was obviously not to be, at least not without a lovely finish of resin!

My Thumbnail Indent!

So lots of lessons learnt and lots of experimentation, which is always a good thing.  It has been ages since I just played for the sake of playing and I think it is something I should do more often.

I now have something else new in the oven, we shall see if this experiment turns out any better!!