Butterfly Chic Boutique Blog

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POLYMER CLAY

by Jill Kollmann

This is perhaps one of the most underestimated materials used by artists today.  Calling it “clay” is almost a misnomer, because it’s one of the most chameleon-like materials you’ll ever see.

Polymer artists work with one of more of several types of polymer clay. The most common uses for polymer clay include sculpture such  fabulous dolls, figurines, home décor items, and jewelry.  Polymer clay doesn’t dry if left out, so it’s easy to stop and re-start a project.  Completed pieces are cured in a regular home oven.  When sanded and glazed, some polymer work will have you convinced that it is glass.  Some mixed media artists use polymer with all sorts of other materials to provide additional color and texture to their pieces.

I am the jewelry-making variety of polymer artist.  I custom-blend colors and manipulate the clay to provide shading, depth, texture, and some cool special effects.  Polymer clay lends itself to being used with all sorts of metal leaf, alcohol inks, acrylic paints, mica powders, resin, colored pencils, stamping inks, and even kitchen herbs, to provide texture, shine, and color. 

I manipulate the clay by rolling, twisting, flattening, texturing with rubber stamps, and cutting,  All of these gyrations cause the clay to move around and reorganize itself.  If several colors or shades of clay are being manipulated together, we can get all sorts of beautiful results.  One of my favorite techniques is millefiori, or caning, in which long tubes of different colored clays are combined into a single tube, or cane, and then sliced into pieces that are all exactly the same.  Another of my favorites is “shadowing”, in which mica-laden clay is impressed with a rubber stamp and then the raised portions are shaved off, leaving a shadow that is absolutely smooth but looks three dimensional.

In the hands of an experienced artist, polymer clay can be made to look like the most gorgeous wood you’ve ever seen, the highest quality turquoise or amber, mother of pearl, opal, cinnabar, agate, quartz – you name it.  And it’s very light-weight, which means we can make a big chunk of something and it won’t weigh a lot – perfect for substantial jewelry pieces. 

Literally every day, polymer artists are finding new ways to use this marvelous material to create works of art that are beautiful, functional, and in some cases wearable.  Many of us are members of various polymer clay guilds including the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE)  - so come check us out!

This is the 1st of our technicalities posts and I’m very excited about them! technicalities will be mostly guests posts from other crafters about their craft. I hope you all enjoy it and learn something new.

By Julia
Yarnbeast.etsy.com
The question I’m most asked at craft fairs is, without a doubt, “Do you knit or crochet?” After I explain that I do both crafts. I enjoy the brief moment when the interested party congratulates me and tells me I’m a Renaissance Woman of all Yarn Domains (no one’s said those exact words to me yet but I figure it’s only a matter of time before that title is bestowed upon me) but I hide an ugly truth: I’m not all that good at crochet.

While I do make the occasional stuffed crochet pumpkin and cupcake, knitting was my first love and always will be. Both crafts are fun and have their technical pros and cons but what interests me are the way the two crafts just give off a different feel. These are my observations of my own abilities with either craft and by no means am I saying crochet can’t be intricate, time-consuming and lovely. Just not in my hook-hesitant hands.

*A knitting project is a long term relationship. A crochet project is a one night stand.

When I learned to crochet after a year of knitting, I could not keep my hands off it. I made doily after doily while my knitting needles sank further into my yarn pile, still clutching the stitches of some long forgotten project. But as the weeks passed, I grew tired of starting a new project every time I went to my yarn stash. The cell phone cozies and flower magnets were fun for a while but I yearned for something long term. I spent the next three months knitting an afghan. I still like to cheat on my knitting with some cotton yarn and a sexy green crochet hook but after two hours or so, I’m ready to go home to my two-needle honey.

*Knitting is scary.

A crochet hook is non-threatening. A long, aluminum knitting needle looks like something Xena the Warrior Princess would pull from her leather skirt-belt and use to stab an inspired-from-Greek-Mythology monster in the eye. A crochet hook just looks like, you know, a hook.

*”Knitter” is easier to say than “Crocheter,”

According to my spell check, “Crocheter” is not a word. I read somewhere there is a proper term for “one who crochets” but, as with all useful information, it has slipped my mind. “Hooker” has become a popular term among crafty people and, while funny to say in front of your friends at the yarn store, still raises eyebrows and prompts a giggly, awkward explanation to the general public.

*Crochet is like the baby sister showing her great aunt Linda her newest dance routine while everyone else takes pictures of her big sister Knit in her prom dress.

People tend to say “cute” when they see crochet and “beautiful” when they see something knit. I think this is a result of it being easy to create round, fun shapes with crochet while knitting lends itself to flat, sometimes elaborate designs.

*Crochet is portable.

The great thing about working on a little crochet project is that it can easily fit into a purse or even a pocket. You can work on a granny square while sitting next to a stranger on a bus. It’s a lot harder to work a sweater on 13” needles in the subway without poking your seat mate in the eye. That danger, and the clanging, show stopping noise of a dropped knitting needle hitting the floor can be more embarrassing than explaining why you just called yourself a hooker.

In the end, it’s great to knit and it’s just as great to crochet. Both crafts can produce lacy, cute, beautiful,, warm, or silly projects and being able to do either will probably impress whoever is eying you from across the crowded coffee shop. Personally, when it’s a rainy Saturday and VH1 is showing a Top Model marathon, I’m more likely to knit than crochet. But in the end, I’m happy to be a knitter who sometimes ignores spell check and declares herself a crocheter as well.