Polymer Clay Silk Screening Red Rose Project

Polymer Clay Silk Screening Red Rose Project

Silk Screening the Front

• To start, you need a sheet each of pearl white and black polymer clay, run through on the thickest setting of your pasta machine. I'm using Premo, but any brand will do.
• Use a ruler to trim two narrow strips of different widths from your black clay.
• Use a ruler to make a straight cut through your pearl white.
• Place one of your black strips against the straight edge of the white and replace the second piece of white.
• Repeat for the second black strip.
• You should now have a pearl white sheet with two black strips going through it.
• Lay a sheet of paper or plastic over your sheet and use a bone tool or your roller to burnish it flat and eliminate seams. Don't roll.
• Trim up the edges of your sheet to the size that you want to use for your design before the polymer clay silk screening.
• Lay your silk screen down on top of your sheet of clay. Make sure you have it the right way up and gently burnish it onto the polymer clay so that it sticks. (I'll be using Nouveau Roses from CreateAlong.com. If you are using one of their silk screens you want to make sure that you use it orange side down.)
• I am using Martha Stewart Holly Berry and Fruit Punch paint and Dazzling Metallics Berry paint. I'm going to be creating a skinner blend effect using them.
• Start with the Holly Berry and lay a stripe across one side of your sheet. Apply a stripe of Fruit Punch down the middle and a stripe of Berry at the other end.
• Use your squeegy and scrape from one end of the sheet to the other, starting with the Holly Berry end.
• Scrape again to remove excess paint.
• Remove the silk screen and rinse immediately under running water and leave to dry.
• Trim up the edges of your silk screened sheet and then allow to dry for about 20 minutes.

Texturing the Back

• For the back of the bead you need a sheet of black polymer clay rolled out on the thickest setting of your pasta machine.
• Place your chosen texture sheet face up on your work surface. (I'm using Congo Line by Helen Breil)
• Spray the stamp with water and lay your sheet of clay over the top. Spray the clay with water too and then press it into the stamp using your fingertips, working from one side of the sheet to the other.
• Texture the top of the black clay using sponge.
• Lift the sheet from the texture stamp and put it aside. Clean away any water from your sheet and your work surface.

Putting the Pendant Together

• Bring over your dried silk screened sheet and cut your pendant out. (I'm using the largest sponge finger dagger from my set on JessamaDesign.)
• Try to cut so that you include all the paint colors as well as the two black stripes.
• Using small circle cutters, cut some holes out from your pendant.
• Lay the piece on the sponge textured side of your black backing.
• Use your cutter to cut around again.
• Trim up the edges using your tissue blade.
• Cut out a strip of your textured black for a bail. Wrap it around a skewer and mark where the clay meets up.
• Trim the clay and then remove the back of the cylinder using a craft knife. (See the video.)
• Place the bail on the back of the pendant.
• Bake in the oven for an hour at the recommended temperature.

Finishing off the Pendant

• Finish off the sides of the pendant using the Jessama Smear Technique.
• Bake for half an hour.
• When cool, sand the edges and the backs using wet/dry sandpaper or polishing papers, working your way through the grits.
• Add a light layer of renaissance wax to the backs and sides and give a good buff with a soft cloth.
• Allow the wax to dry for about ten minutes.
• Apply a thin layer of resin to the front surface. For a step by step walk through on using Ice Resin, please see my Ice Resin Tutorial.
• Allow to cure for about 24 hours.

Stringing the Pendant

• Create a Kumihimo braid using black bug tail. You can see my tutorial on Patreon if you haven't made Kumihimo before.
• Tie off the ends using Nymo thread.
• Trim off the ends and then bulk them up if necessary until the ends of your braid are the right size to fit snugly into your end caps.
• Glue an end cap onto one the end of the braid using e6000 glue.
• Thread the braid through the bail.
• Glue on the other end cap and allow to dry for 24 hours.
• Attach your clasp using jump rings on either end of the braid.

And that's our Red Roses design using polymer clay silk screening.

In the video tutorial I show the polymer clay silk screening process in detail, as well as how to apply the resin and more detail on finishing off the braid, so please do take a look at that.