Page 1 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 Freehand Back-Filling: Polymer Clay and Resin Tutorial This tutorial is offered for your personal use only. Please do not distribute. Back-filling is a simple and very versatile technique for polymer clay. Basically, here is how it works: first, you have to create relatively deep indentations in raw polymer clay by stamping, carving, scratching, or through some other similar technique. After baking, these indentations are filled back either with raw polymer clay or with liquid polymer clay in a different color (hence the name, back-filling ). The whole piece is then baked for the second time. In this tutorial, I will show you a variation of this technique when a needle is used to create an image on raw clay. Using a needle (rather than a stamp, for example), allows you to create pieces with your own unique designs with very delicate and thin lines. To keep these lines sharp and well-defined, the needle indentations should be rather shallow. This restriction creates a concern about the stability of the finished piece (what if the filling falls out?). To prevent such an embarrassment, I am using resin not only as a shiny finish, but also as a structural element.
Page 2 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 The designs created with the needle can be anything you want. In the step-by-step section of this tutorial, I will show you how to make a pendant decorated with a woman s face. At the end of the tutorial, you will find examples of pendants made in this technique with some other designs. I hope you will enjoy this tutorial and find many ways of using the ideas I share here in your own designs. I also hope that you will understand how much work went into this tutorial and will respect my copyright. If you want to share any part of these instructions with your friends, please refer them to my web site (polymertutorials.com). Please read all instructions before beginning to work on your projects. This way, you will understand the purpose of each step much better than if you would have followed the tutorial one step at a time. Materials Polymer Clay: For this technique, you will need a softer version of polymer clay such as Sculpey or Fimo. Alternatively, other brands can be used if they are softened with liquid polymer clay or clay softener. You should be able to draw a smooth line in your clay about 1 mm deep. If the edges of this line crumble, condition your clay some more or add some softener. You will need polymer clay in two colors with good contrast. For my project, I used maroon and white. Liquid Polymer Clay: Any brand. You will need it to soften your polymer clay and to attach the backing of the pendant. Resin: You will need clear, two-part epoxy resin. This type of resin creates a nice, hard, and translucent finish. There are two main brands of this resin: Envirotex Lite and ICE Resin. Both resins consist of two parts that need to be mixed in equal proportions immediately before use. A lesser known brand is called Brilliant Resin and is produced and distributed by the company Little Windows. I have a very detailed review of this resin on my blog: polymertutorials.blogspot.com/2014/little-windows-brilliant-resin.html In this tutorial, I will give you basic instructions for using these resins on polymer clay. If you want additional information and tips for trouble-shooting, please refer to my separate tutorial, How to Use EnviroTex Lite or ICE Resin with Polymer Clay, which can be found on my website: polymertutorials.com/catalog/polymer-clay-tutorials/envirotex-lite-resin-with-polymer-clay-p-50.html ICE and Brilliant resins are available on-line only. EnviroTex Lite can be found online and also in some craft shops (Michael's or Hobby Lobby, for example). Metal Glue-on Bail: There are many different bails available in various finishes. They can be found both online and in stores. Choose the ones you like the best. Glue: You will need glue suitable for attaching plastic to metal. Very popular among polymer clay artists is glue E6000, which can be purchased in many stores, for example Walmart. Personally, I prefer Crafter's Pick The Ultimate glue, because it hardly has any smell (unlike E6000).
Page 3 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 Tools - A pasta machine; - Some working/baking surface (smooth ceramic tiles, for example); - A piece of parchment paper; - A pencil; - A stainless steel slicer for polymer clay; - A roller (a brayer); - A needle tool or a regular needle; - A template or stencil for your pendant, purchased or made by yourself (optional); - An X-acto knife; - A craft knife or a small metal spatula; - Coarse and medium grit wet/dry sandpaper (grits 100 and 320 or similar); - An oven or a toaster oven with a temperature controller; - A small (about 2 x 2 ) Ziploc bag; - A pair of scissors; - One plastic measuring spoon (at least 1 tsp capacity); - One disposable plastic drinking straw; - One toothpick. Note: the last five items on the list of materials are for working with two-part epoxy resin. Instructions For this technique, you can choose to draw your design freehand directly on the clay, or make a sketch and then transfer it onto polymer clay. In this tutorial, I will show you the second approach. To obtain a sketch, you do not even need to be able to draw simply trace an image from a photograph or a drawing. For example, for the project described in this tutorial, I chose a picture of a woman found in a magazine. Using a piece of parchment paper, I copied the outline of her face and contours of her eyes, nose, and lips. Since the photograph I was working with happened to be a little too big for the pendant I had in mind, I needed to reduce the obtained sketch.
Page 4 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 This can be achieved in many different ways. Here is what I did: I took a picture of my sketch with my phone and saved it on my computer. Then, I inserted that picture into a Word document, reduced it with Microsoft Word tools, and printed the obtained page. After that, I traced the reduced picture on a new piece of parchment paper. You will need to prepare a template or a stencil for the pendant shape. To make one by yourself, place a second piece of parchment paper over your sketch and draw the outline of a pendant. For a symmetrical stencil, fold a piece of parchment paper in half before cutting the pendant shape. To complete the preparations, the obtained image may need to be changed a little bit so that it would look good on a pendant. As you can see, for my project, I added a couple more locks of hair to fill up the space on the pendant. Now you are ready to work with the clay. Condition about half a block of dark polymer clay and roll it out into a sheet on one of the thicker settings of your pasta machine. Place the obtained sheet of clay onto a ceramic tile. Try to draw a line in your clay about 1 mm deep with a needle to check how clean and smooth it is. If you are not satisfied, condition your clay some more or add softener.
Page 5 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 When working with a needle tool, do not hold it vertically, but at a sharp angle to the surface of the clay, with the handle pointing in the direction in which the tool is moving. You may find it helpful to rotate the ceramic tile with the clay sheet on it to make the drawing process easier. Practice drawing a few different shapes before moving to the real project. Place the parchment paper with your design on top of the rolled out polymer clay sheet and retrace the lines of your design with a needle tool. Press very gently you do not want to tear through the paper. Again, hold the needle tool almost horizontally. Since tiny details are more difficult to copy, you may skip them for now and draw them free-hand later (using the bigger details as points of reference). In this case, I traced the outline of the eyes and lips, but not the pupils and not the line between the lips. When you lift the paper, you should be able to just barely see the design transferred onto the clay. Carefully trace the lines in the clay with a needle. Try making each line in one long stroke, rather than a number of small ones. If you see that the edges around your line bulge up a bit, do not worry we will sand it off after the baking process. Just make sure the line itself is smooth for now. Once the design is completed, shape your pendant. To do that, carefully position your stencil on top of the design. Since the parchment paper is somewhat transparent, you will be able to align the edges of the stencil with the image on the clay. Cut the polymer clay sheet around the stencil with an X-acto knife. First Bake: 30 min. Preheat your oven to the temperature recommended by the manufacturer of the clay you are using. Place the polymer clay sheet on the ceramic tile into the oven, positioning it away from any heating elements. Bake the polymer clay sheet for at least 30 minutes and let it cool completely before handling. Do not remove the polymer clay sheet from the ceramic tile.
Page 6 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 Using sandpaper (320 grit or similar), smooth out the front of the pendant. Brush off any dust or particles. Use the same sand paper to smooth out the edges of the pendant as well. Now start filling up the indentations on the front of the pendant. To do that, place a small piece of the softened polymer clay in a contrasting color over the element of design that you want to back-fill and pack it into the indentation with a craft knife or a small metal spatula. Move the knife as if you were spreading some butter on a piece of bread. Scrape off the clay in the areas where you have to much of it and use it to pack the next element of design. Do not try to obtain a smooth surface during this step. In fact, it is better to have a little extra clay over each packed line the extra clay will later be sanded off, but if you do not have enough clay packed into the indentation, it will show in your finished project. To finish the back of the pendant, roll out a sheet of clay on one of the thinner settings of your pasta machine. This sheet of clay should be slightly bigger than the pendant. Scratch the back of the pendant with your X-acto knife, remove any particles, and apply a very thin layer of liquid polymer clay over the whole surface. Apply the raw polymer clay sheet to the back of the baked pendant, pressing the two parts together gently and evenly. Trim the excess raw clay around the edges of the pendant, using the baked part of it as a guide for your X-acto knife.
Page 7 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 Smooth out and bevel the raw edges of the pendant with your fingers. Apply some texture to the back of the pendant (such as coarse sand paper, for example). I am using this step to add my signature to the back of the pendant as well. This is also a good time to impress the glue-on bail to the back of the pendant. When it is time to glue this bail, it will adhere and stay in place much better. Second Baking: 30 min. For the second baking, preheat your oven to the manufacturer-recommended temperature. Position the pendant face down on a piece of paper placed over a ceramic tile. Bake your project for at least 30 minutes. Let it cool completely before handling. Sand the surface of the pendant with 320 grit paper to remove any extra clay used for back-filling. By the end of this step, your design shall be clearly visible and the pendant shall be smooth to the touch. There is no need for intense sanding with progressively-finer sand paper, because the surface will be covered with the resin. Clean the pendant from any particles and make sure it is completely dry before moving on to the the next step. It is time for the resin! Measure each part of the resin with a measuring spoon and transfer it into a small plastic bag. Close the bag and mix the resin thoroughly by massaging the bag. When done, snip off a little piece of one of the plastic bag s corners.
Page 8 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 Place your pendant face up on a leveled surface covered with a clean plastic bag. Put a few drops of resin at a time, spreading them to form a thin layer over the whole area of the pendant. Use a toothpick to drive the resin to the edges of the pendant. Carefully remove all air bubbles trapped in the resin by gently blowing on them through a plastic straw. Since the resin will be drying for a long time, it makes sense to protect it from dust. Carefully place a clean and dry plastic or glass container over your piece while it is drying. You may find one layer of resin sufficient, but I usually prefer to add one or two more layers to obtain a domed effect. To dry (cure) completely, two-part epoxy resin may need up to 72 hours (the lower the temperature, the longer it takes). However, you can wait as little as a few hours before applying the second layer. The same is true for the third layer as well. Let the last layer of resin cure for 48 to 72 hours in order to gain its full strength. Tip: Each time you cover your pendant with resin, put a drop of resin about an inch away from your pendant, right on the plastic bag. This will be your test. Before handling the pendant, you can touch this drop of resin to check how hard it is. This way, you will know when the resin on the pendant is cured completely. Once the resin is dry and you can safely handle your pendant, permanently attach the bail by gluing it to the back of the pendant. Your pendant is done!
Page 9 of 9 Eugena Topina, 2016 Additional Ideas Here a few more examples of jewelry pieces made with the free-hand back-filling technique. As you can see, some of this pendants are finished with hand-made silver frames. To learn how to make them (very easy, and no soldering is involved!), please refer to my tutorial Leaf Imprints and Silver Frames on my website: polymertutorials.com/catalog/polymer-clay-tutorials/pendants-tutorial-leaf-imprints-silver-frames-p-45.html