Published by Ginger Davis Allman

Transcription

1

2 Copyright 2016 Ginger Davis Allman. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to Published by Ginger Davis Allman Issue: 1.0, October 1, 2016

3 Table of Contents Introduction...4 Materials...5 Space Rocks...5 Rock Matrix...5 Tools...5 Rock Shaping...5 Making Space Rocks...6 Mixing Colors...6 Black Translucent...6 White Granite...6 Chopping Colors...7 Rock Matrix Recipes...7 Rock Matrix A...7 Rock Matrix B...7 Rock Matrix C...7 Mixing the Rock Matrix...8 Shaping Space Rocks...9 Smooth Rocks...9 Pumice Stone Texture...9 Coarse Salt Texture...10 Making Beads...10 Bake and Create...10 Planetary Earrings...12 Materials...12 Supplies...12 Tools...12 Making Planetary Earrings...13 End Notes More Tutorials...17

4 Introduction This tutorial shows you how to make Space Rocks with three different rock recipes and three different shaping methods. These Space Rocks can be used for jewelry, of course, and would be a perfect addition to fairy houses, dioramas, and zen gardens both in space and here on Earth. As a bonus, I ll show you how to make fun Planetary Earrings with some of your Space Rock matrix. Space Rocks are made even more fun if you use glow-in-the-dark polymer clay to give an other-worldly, cosmic glow! 4

5 Materials Space Rocks You can use any brand of clay to make Space Rocks. I ve chosen Premo, but any brand will work. Most brands of clay have interesting pearl or metallic colors that lend themselves well to this process. Feel free to experiment with new colors and see what you can create with them. Rock Matrix Premo Black Premo White Premo Graphite Pearl Premo Gray Granite Premo Translucent Glow-in-the-dark clay, see note Tools Cutting work surface such as a large tile Long, stiff blade Rock Shaping Coarse salt small bag, ziploc sandwich bags are ideal pumice stone (yes, for removing calluses) scrap clay bead pins (optional) Note: Sculpey III, Fimo, and Cernit all have glow-in-the-dark clays. You can use any of these for the rock matrix, but you ll need the extra strength of Fimo or Cernit to make the Planetary Earrings. You can also make your own glow-in-the-dark clay by mixing glow powders with your choice of translucent clay. Read more in my article on DIY GITD Polymer Clay on my website. 5

6 Making Space Rocks There are three steps to making Space Rocks. First, choose a rock matrix recipe. Next, you chop the clay to get the right fragmentation of the colors. And finally, you shape the clay to create convincing rock shapes. Just as there are many types of rocks in the cosmos, there are many ways that you can make polymer clay Space Rocks. I ve included three suggested rock matrix recipes and three shaping methods. You don t have to follow them to the letter, of course, and you will likely find new combinations of colors and shapes that you like, too. Now let s make some rocks! Mixing Colors Mostly we ll use the basic colors, straight from the packages. But we do want to create a couple of custom mixtures. Black Translucent Mix an 8:1 ratio of Premo Translucent to Premo Black. An easy way to do this is to use 1/4 block Translucent with 1/16 block Black. White Granite Mix a 16:1 ratio of Premo Gray Granite to Premo White. To do this, mix 1/4 block of Premo Gray Granite with a pea sized ball of white. Don t have Gray Granite? You can substitute for it by mixing a dark color of embossing powder with translucent polymer clay until it looks granitey. (That s a technical term. Granitey.) Translucent Black Gray Granite White 6

7 Making Space Rocks Chopping Colors For each color that you re going to use, create a stockpile of chopped clay. To chop the clay, hold a long blade at either end and chop up and down. Vary your blade position so that you re cutting from all angles. Chop until you get a fine dice, or pieces that are approximately rice sized. Take care to keep your fingers out of the way, please! Rock Matrix Recipes Rock Matrix A If the clay you re using is very sticky, you won t get a nice dice. It will look like mushy blue cheese instead. Try letting the clay rest, cooling it in the fridge, or you could even try leaching the clay if you ve got some really fresh clay on your hands. (To leach, just layer sheets of clay between sheets of plain copy paper for an hour or so. The paper will absorb the excess oils, giving you a firmer clay to work with. ) Once you ve chopped up your colors, we re ready to start making some rocks. Leave each color in a separate pile. Graphite Pearl Translucent Black Mix White Granite Mix Rock Matrix B Translucent Black Mix Graphite Pearl Glow-in-the-dark clay Rock Matrix C Graphite Pearl Translucent Black Mix Gray Granite 7

8 Making Space Rocks Mixing the Rock Matrix To create a rock matrix, just choose your matrix recipe and put a small spoonful of each chopped color into a small bag. I like to use ziploc sandwich bags. (They re super handy for all kinds of clay things.) Just put the chopped clay into the bag and shake. Press the clay lump into a roundish shape. Although it s tempting to do so, try not to roll the ball of clay because it causes the colors to blend and swirl. (Unless you want swirled rock, of course!) If the colored lumps are too big, you can reduce them by chopping the ball of clay, then recombining and pressing into a ball again. This will give you a finer grain of rock matrix. Repeat if you want the grain to be even finer. Next, squeeze the clay into a ball, right through the bag. This allows you to combine the colors without making a mess. Remove the clump of clay from the bag. Save the bag for the next color mixture. When you re happy with the size of the grain cut the lump into rock sized pieces. The size, of course, will depend on what size rocks you need. Next it s time to shape the Space Rocks. 8

9 Making Space Rocks Shaping Space Rocks Smooth Rocks This is the simplest way to shape rocks. Just press the clay into a roundish or oval shape. Remember, rolling between your hands will cause the colors to blend and swirl. Pressing into shape allows the colors to remain separate. You can also use the inverse of the texture on the pumice stone to create holes on the surface of the clay. Just make some texture pads with scrap polymer clay. Wet the pumice stone first, then press some conditioned scrap clay into the stone. Go ahead and press hard to get the texture. Peel the clay from the stone and bake. Pumice Stone Texture Using an ordinary pumice stone, you can press great texture into the clay. The holes of the pumice will create bumps on the clay rocks, giving an organic texture. If you make two texture pads, you can press the ball of clay between them thus avoiding fingerprints and flattened texture from your fingertips. 9

10 Making Space Rocks Coarse Salt Texture Make a little pile of coarse salt, then press the clay ball into the salt. Roll it around, pressing the salt into the clay with your fingers. Margarita salt, coarse sea salt, and rock salt all work well. Try different types of salt for varied effects. The deeper you press and the bigger the crystals, the deeper the texture. Making Beads If you ll be using any of your Space Rocks for making beads, it is far easier to make the holes before baking. While you can use any thin tool, such as a needle tool, to make these holes, I find this gives a lot of distortion. I much prefer using the thin, stiff, pointed wires of Amaco Bead Pins. You insert them before baking and remove afterward. They create very little distortion and you can always enlarge the hole with a hand drill after baking if you need it to be bigger. After baking, just soak the salt-encrusted clay in a glass of water for an hour or so. The salt will dissolve leaving a hole where each salt crystal was. You might need to take a toothbrush to any stubborn pieces of salt, but it should all come out quite easily. Bake and Create After shaping your Space Rocks, bake them according to the clay package directions, making sure to bake longer for large rocks. Now you re all ready to use your Space Rocks in jewelry, space fairy houses (come on, that s cool), and all kinds of other polymer creations. And who says these have to be space rocks? Zen gardens need rocks. And every dragon needs a rock to stand on, too. Have fun! 10

11 Making Space Rocks These Space rocks are made using three differen t shaping methods, with three types of rock matrix recipes. This view of the Space Rocks shows the colors from the Glow-in-the-Dark clay used in rock matrix recipe B. Space Rocks work great to add characher to your spacethemed creations. This adorable scene is by Kater s Acres. These Planetary Earrings were made with a tilted axis, making them quite eye-catching to wear. The rings of these Planetary Earrings can be made with Glow-in-the-Dark clay, making them tons of fun. 11

12 Planetary Earrings I couldn t resist sharing these little Planetary Earrings with you. Using the rock matrix you just made, you will create earrings with a dangling planet, complete with a planetary ring. Even better, the ring glows in the dark! This is an easy project and the earrings are fun to wear. Materials Supplies Rock Matrix (see above) Glow-in-the-dark clay 2 head pins 2 earwires Gel super glue Tools bead pins sharp blade jewelry pliers and cutters circle cutter pointed tool to make a hole 12

13 Making Planetary Earrings Using Rock Matrix Recipe B, make 1 two small, round balls. Go ahead and swirl these, as the blended colors will look like swirly planetary gases. Pierce each one with a bead hole, making sure to keep the ball as round as possible. Bake according to the directions on the clay package. Planetary Earrings Take a moment to hold your plantetary ball against a circle cutter and 2 make note of what size cutter would make an appropriate sized planetary ring. Condition and roll a sheet of glowin-the-dark clay as thin as you can 3 reasonably get it, about the thickness of a playing card. Remember to use a stronger clay for this step, such as Fimo, Cernit, or Premo. Cut two circles of clay. Save the rest for another use. 13

14 Planetary Earrings Use a pointed tool to make a hole 4 in the exact center of each circle of glow-in-the-dark clay. Bake, but cover with foil to keep the clay from darkening from the oven s heating element. 5 While still warm, remove the bead pins from the balls and use the sharp blade to cut them at the equator (center). Take care to cut right through the middle so the top and the bottom halves are as identical as possible. Optionally, you could cut the planet at an angle, giving you a tilted planet. 6 Put one half of the ball onto a head pin. This will be the bottom half of the planet. 14

15 Planetary Earrings 7 Apply gel super glue to the flat part of the ball. Try to avoid the head pin. Thread the glow-in-the-dark circle 8 onto the head pin wire. Press the circle onto the bottom bead half. Hold for 30 seconds or so while the glue sets. 9 Apply glue to the top of the glow-inthe-dark circle, taking care to keep the glue within the dark area. 15

16 Planetary Earrings 10 Thread the top half of the planet onto the head pin. 11 Press top and bottom half tightly together to ensure there are no gaps. Hold for about 30 seconds while glue sets. Repeat steps 6-11 to make the second earring. 12 wear! Form a loop at the top of each head pin and attach an earwire. Your new Planetary Earrings are ready to 16

17 End Notes Stay Connected Come visit my website at The Blue Bottle Tree. It s packed full of polymer clay information, reviews, helpful tips, and tutorials. The best way to keep in touch is to subscribe to my free s. You ll get new article announcements, there s a monthly newsletter, and I will share cool offers from time to time. I d love to have you join the conversations on Facebook. If Pinterest is more your thing, I do have an account there with lots of cool pins. But beware...you can get sucked right into Pinterest! Hope to see you around! More Tutorials I would love for you to have a look at my polymer clay tutorials and ebooks. I write clear, organized, and professional tutorials. You can find them on my website, The Blue Bottle Tree, in the Tutorials Shop. 17