Using clay

[Chippygeoff]

For some time I have been thinking of using polymer clay to enhance some of the things I make and I wanted to do this in two ways, the first was to fill in certain cut outs and the second was to adorn the base of other items with embellishments, like flowers, hearts and even little animals in some cases. I had my first go yesterday by filling some cut outs in two hearts. I had to bake them in the oven afterwards but it was on a low setting and providing certain precautions are taken no harm will come to the wood.

The heart with the 3 cut outs was quite straight forward but I only had a bit of red clay left over so I mixed this with a white clay and ended up with a strawberry ripple effect on the second heart. I need to work on this concept a bit more as one of the red hearts moves, maybe I did not pack it in enough but I feel I need to coat the inside of the cut outs with something that will allow the clay to stick to the sides better.

I deliberately overfilled the hearts and after it was baked and cooled down I put them on my belt/disc sander and then finished by hand with a fine abrasive. Surpisingly the clay was not affected when I used wax polish on the wood. I was hoping to use the clay on some of my name signs but need to figure out how to stop the clay moving when it has hardened.

By the way. I have finally got my head round on how to post photos so I am sorry Steve about your redundancy.

 

[stevebuk]

looks great Geoff, i dont mind at all about being redundant, glad you sorted the pictures out..

would the clay stick to a glue smeared around the inside of the heart cutout before being put inside as the clay is also shrinking in diameter as well as height after drying, and working its way as a loose fitting, or try cutting it level to the wood when dry instead of using the belt sander which could be rough with it, just a thought..

 

[Claymore]

if it was for things like the heart Geoff how about using a Dremel tool to cut some undercuts inside the scrolled out heart shape so when you press the clay in it keys into the undercuts and hopefully holds the clay solid? it might not work for lettering as there would be too much to undercut but a basic shape should work.
ps they look lovely

 

[Chippygeoff]

Steve. Thanks for the comments. There are quite a few different types of clay to be had and a lot of them shrink when hardening but the clay s I have do not shrink. The problem is that the cut outs are absolutely dead straight so there is no anchor point as such. Mind you, I had to push the heart quite hard before it moved, part of the testing. I would not sell any item unless I was very sure it was okay. I did overfill by quite a bit as well, about 5mm and it was rock hard so I took most of it off with the belt sander and finally ened up sanding it with 450 grit, which left a lovely flush smooth surface level with the wood.

Brian. What a brilliant idea using the dremel. I do have one so will order the appropriate bits today for that very purpose. It is now obvious that doing what you suggested means that there is no way the clay will move. Your idea has saved me a lot of hassle.

 

[bugbear]

if it was for things like the heart Geoff how about using a Dremel tool to cut some undercuts inside the scrolled out heart shape so when you press the clay in it keys into the undercuts and hopefully holds the clay solid? it might not work for lettering as there would be too much to undercut but a basic shape should work.
ps they look lovely

A bearing guided router/dremel bit that could cut a 'V' in the wall, half way down the thickness would seem ideal.

BugBear

 

[PeteG]

Great idea Geoff. Is there anything you can use to give a kind of jewel effect or stone, something like amber?

 

[ChrisR]

Geoff.

Your sample piece looks great. Looking forward to seeing some more projects.

Just a thought, re-the baking, could you utilise a hair dryer, or would this not be hot enough.

My reasoning, a hair dryer would be more economical than heating the oven.

As you know, I use a hair dryer to speed up the drying of acrylic lacquer between coats.

Take care.

Chris R.

 

[finneyb]

The alternative way is to cook clay hearts and then fit them into the wood. Running a small bead of clear silicone to hold them in place.

If you make a stencil for the hearts ie cut many hearts into one sheet of ply, one bake would be sufficient for as many hearts as you needed.

HTH

Brian

 

[Chippygeoff]

Thanks Guys for all your comments. Bugbear. Got one on it's way to me along with engraving bits with 1.6mm tips for the smaller cut outs.

Pete. Already thought of that, got some clay coming that looks like granite in a few colours.

Chris. A hair dryer would not work, the clay needs to bake for half an hour at 130c. I do use a hair dryer on some finishes though when there is a rush on.

Brian. I had thought of your idea and if I were doing this lark purely as a hobby I would adopt that method but in reality it would be a bit fiddly and time consuming, probabley the best way would be to make the hearts and then use it as a template drawing round the outside. It would probably involve a lot of sanding of the clay to get a perfect fit.

I had a big delivery come today, among the many items were several moulds, a pile of different cutters in loads of different shapes and a seperate load consisting of cutters for Christmas decorations, it will be to late for this year as I have so much other stuff on at the moment but I don't mind admitting that I am very excited with the Christmas decs that I have planned for next year. After Christmas we have a 3 month break so I will be getting stuck in and obviously I will share these new ideas with you all. Had a load of clay tools come as well. I have everything I need now apart from a pasta machine for rolling the clay to certain thicknesses, just a matter of finding time to read some reviews on some.