Sunday, June 19, 2011

Road Trip

There is nothing better than a good polymer clay retreat (IMHO). We have been to Connecticut, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia.....any excuse for a road trip! Our next biggie is the International Polymer Clay Association's Biennial Retreat outside of Chicago. It is being held in conjunction with the Metal Clay conference, so we can partake in both with one ride! We're going to play polymer but will be bringing some of our favorite products. Of course, we'll have filigree and brass stampings,but we'll also have gilders paste and Nunn Design bezels (Ellen is doing a demo on our gilders gane technique, showcasing both the gilders paste and bezels. We'll be bringing PYM II, some select Eurotools (like the metal punch pliers), brass keys, silicone mold material, Genesis heat set glue, and other goodies as space and time allow.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

PYM II Fixative


Flower Pendant by Carissa Nichol
PYM II is a product that is being adapted for use with polymer clay. It started its life as a product to coat bullets to give its inventor an edge when target shooting, by making the bullets glide through the barrel with less drag. He discovered that it worked great as a fixative for inkjet photo prints, making them more permanent and impervious to water. We (and others, like Valerie Aharoni) have been experimenting with PYM and polymer. We have an abhorrence of varnish and other coatings on polymer.....we would rather sand and buff to get a beautiful shiny finish. However, there is often a need to seal gold leaf, silk screened paint, alcohol inks and perfect pearl powders. Our good friend and ace heart maker, Ron LeHocky, has discovered the nice semi-matte finish left by PYM II. While at a retreat in Ohio, we introduced Carissa Nichols to the finger pump spray to use on her wonderful flower pendants. She needed a way to seal mica powders to the surfaces of her ultralight polymer creations. I think she is hooked! We also showed Lynda Gilcher that it would help keep her white ultralight flowers white, and it would seal the ink on her colored versions. She is using it on her wonderful new floral pieces quite successfully.We have chosen to sell the finger pump, non-aerosol version, although it is available in an aerosol can. Either one needs to be used outside....it stinks(Donna, our friend from PYM II likens it to the smell in natural gas - the odor keeps you from being tempted to use it inside)....but it works like a champ. We have tried using it on Japanese papers to combine with brass filigree for interesting beads, with good success.

Lynda Gilcher's White Necklace

Earrings by Lynda Gilcher


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Nunn Design Bezels

We are always looking for high quality, unique products that we like to use and are a good value. Not long ago we decided to carry a subset of products from Nunn Design (www.nunndesign.com). They make a nice line of American made jewelry findings cast in pewter and plated with .925 silver, 24 kt. gold or copper. We have found that they work quite nicely with polymer clay (although I think they were designed with resin and mixed media art in mind.) They are a good substitute for soldering your own bezels, if you are in a hurry. Ellen has been using them with her mokume gane and gilders gane pendants. We carry a variety of shapes and sizes in pendants and bracelets, adjustable rings, toggles and bars, keepsake bottle pendants, lockets and all the latest offerings from Nunn.