Japanese Quartet With Nikolina Otržan
List of tools and materials for this class: - Clean & Flat Surface - Pasta Machine - Round Kemper Cutters - A Rigid Blade - A Ruler - A Pen - A Needle Tool - Coarse Nail File/ Coarse Sanding Paper (100-200 Grit) - Stiff Brush - A Pair Of Scissors - A Saucer - Aprox. 4 Oz Of White Clay (Solid) - Liquid Polymer Clay - Black Acrylic Paint - Promarkers (Black, Duck Egg & Lilac) - White And Black Oil Paint - Old Business Card - Photocopy Paper - Baby Wipes - Paper Towel - Couple Of Toothpicks - Varnish Of Your Choice (I m Using Glossy Accents & Pym Ii) - Double-Side Sticky Tape - Pair Of Disposable Gloves (Optional)
1 st pattern Condition a pack of clay. Roll out a sheet of some 4x4. Thickness should be the second thickest on your pasta machine. Since I m using Atlas, that s number two. Get your round Kemper cutters out. Surface for this pattern could be anything you normally work on. I ve chosen the 3 rd smallest Kemper cutter here. I ll start from the edge, pressing cutter into the clay, but I ll be careful not to cut it thru. Circles should be positioned one next to each other, without any space between them.
And I ll continue until I have the whole sheet covered. And now I can start making circles across the edges of four neighboring ones. They should also be next to each other, same as the first bunch. And the sheet is finished! I ll use a blade to slowly peel it off from my work surface.
2 nd pattern For this pattern we will need: 1. Kemper cutters number 1, 2, and 4 2. An old business card or a piece of paper of similar strength 3. A pair of scissors 4. An ink pad and 5. A sheet of white clay rolled out thru the second thickest setting, aprox. an oz For this pattern, we need to make a template. So, first we ll get some ink on our cutter, on the largest one we ve chosen and we ll stamp a circle on a business card. And we shall also stamp another two, to make our pattern. After we ve done stamping, we ll wipe the cutter clean with baby wipes.
Then we shall use that very same cutter to cut out some circles from that white sheet we ve prepared. We ll cut out as many circles we can out of that sheet and as we cut them out, we ll turn them upside down to avoid having that cutter mark on its face. So here you can see that I m really trying to use the whole sheet, leaving no room between cutouts.
And now we ll mark all our cutouts with one smaller cutter and then with the smallest one. And now it s the time for our template! Grab a pair of scissors and cut it out. Always pick up your circles with a blade, otherwise you ll distort them.
So, place a template on top of a circle and.use your cutter, the largest one, to cut the excess. Now you ll roll out a thin sheet of clay, the thinnest possible you can handle and you ll be putting your cutout circles on top of it.
Important thing here is to remember that you should pick up and handle your circles using a needle tool like I m doing here And if there s a something to correct or smooth, use the other end of your needle tool or something similar in a way I m doing it here. Once you re finished, trim the edges and again, peel it from the surface and pick it up with your blade.
3 rd pattern For our third pattern we will need: - A sheet of white, rolled thru the second thickest setting - Kemper cutter of your choosing - An ink pad - An old business card - A pair of scissors As you can see, I ve already stamped a circle and two additional ones for my template. Now we ll cut the template out. Like I did it here. And now we ll be cutting the circles out with our cutter, identical as with previous pattern. As you cut them, turn them to the other side.
And once we ve done that, we ll place the template on top of each and cut the excess from the sides. Using a needle tool, we ll carefully place them next to each other, alternating the sides on the top of a thin sheet of clay. Exactly the same as with our previous pattern. Important thing here is to have a flow between pieces.
Again, if there is something to correct/smooth, do it with the end of your needle tool, don t touch it with your fingers. And when you re done, take a sheet of paper and lightly burnish it. And now all I need to do is to size it down.
4 th pattern For our last pattern we shall need: - Approx. an oz of white clay - A cutter of your choice here I prefer a smaller one (the second smallest for example) - A length of an old business card - A ruler and - A pen First you need to measure your cutter and mark it on a business card along its length. Size here is some 8 mm (0.314961 ). Now you can put that ruler away.
Position that marked business card along the length of clay and imprint every other half circle. You have to do it slowly and carefully because you really do need those marks to be as identical as possible. You don t want to have one half circle, then one quarter of a circle. Put your card behind the cutter when you re marking your first circle and keep it there until you finish the whole row, so all of your markings are the same. It s your decision how wide your strips will be. Now do the same at the other end.
Use your blade to carefully lift it up and put aside. Start another strip. After you ve done the second one you can see how you re doing and if you re doing it properly. Those half circles from one strip should touch the edges of half circles from the other one. So keep adding new ones until you have the sheet in size that you need.
Add thin sheets of clay to the lower two tiles and bake all 4, according your clay manufacturer's instruction for 30 minutes. If you're concerned about them turning yellow during baking, you can put small paper tents over them. Once the tiles are baked and cool, we ll take a nail file or some coarse sand paper and we ll carefully sand the surface of those tiles. And now we shall prepare: - Black acrylic paint - A brush (stiff rather than soft) - Paper towel - Baby wipes - Nail file
We ll put some acrylic paint right on the tile and use the brush to push the paint into those crevices. When we are sure we ve applied paint all over properly, we ll use brush to take the excess off and a paper towel to wipe the rest. Once the paint dries, we ll take again that nail file and using circular motions, lightly sand away that black coat.
Like I did it here. And in the end, we ll wipe them clean using baby wipes. Now leave them for some half an hour to dry before you start coloring. As you can see, I ve decided on two Promarkers: blue duck egg color and lilac. And I left some bits white where I ll apply the mix of liquid polymer and oil paint.
To mix those two mediums in/on, you can use whatever is really handy. And you ll need a toothpick! First we ll pour some of that liquid clay And then we ll add a bit of color.
Once I m happy with the mixture, I m starting to apply the color. When I m done with white, I will add a touch of that dolphin grey. We ll apply the grey mix and bake the tiles for 35 minutes.
If you used just Promarkers, you can finish the tile off with PYM II. If you were making just faux enamel, use Glossy accents. If you re mixing them, use both finishes, as explained in the class. Or use your own varnish, but make sure it s compatible with this type of faux enamel. Thank you for taking this class!