Barbara's Tips for October

Hello everyone, and welcome back.  Well, Halloween is almost upon us, and before you know it, the hustle and bustle of the holidays will be in full swing.  However, this will be my last post as a design team member for Creative Paperclay®.  My term is up and, boy, did it go fast.  I have really enjoyed my short time here, and I hope I have been able to inspire you to play with clay along the way.  The new design team is going to be awesome, so be sure to come back and see what great ideas and projects they have in store for you.

That being said, I have a few last tips to share with you before I go.  

When rolling out the Paperclay® between two layers of wax paper, I discovered that you need to roll the clay in two directions from the middle, first one way, then the other. This will prevent the clay from becoming thick in the middle of the piece.

The second thing I discovered was that part of the reason it was forming this thick part in the middle is because the clay was sticking to the wax paper, which was not allowing the clay to move freely between the two wax layers.  So, in addition to working in two directions, I would also occasionally lift the wax paper and free it from the clay to allow the clay to spread out evenly again.

The wax paper is still quite helpful because my roller is not sticking to the clay as I work, and the Paperclay® removes from the sheet quite easily.  The wax paper does cause some wrinkles in the clay, but this is easily remedied by a wet finger rubbed over it, or texture added from a stamp or texture plate.  I always keep a large spray bottle filled with water nearby so that I can mist my Paperclay® as needed.

The next thing I discovered is, this technique will also work in your clay-dedicated pasta machine, if you have one.  Just free the clay from the wax paper, and insert the whole thing through the opening in the rollers, and give it a go.  Do this each time before decreasing the thickness, and you shouldn't have any problem.

Did you know that if your clay is sticking to your molds, you can mist water onto the mold to form a release?  It allows the clay to be removed from the mold without ruining the clay.  I was using these push molds and the clay would not come off of the mold, even after pushing it through the cutter.  So, I know that water, when misted on clay molds, will release  polymer clay, so why not try this technique and see if it works for Paperclay®.  Much to my amazement, it DID!  I was once again a happy camper.

As you can see in the photo below, the clay remained on the craft sheet, not the mold cutter itself, even though I had to press into it to get the embossing.  

I hope you find these tips helpful.  The more I work with Paperclay®, the more discoveries I make about the product.  It truly is easy to work with and quite versatile.  I hope you will continue to visit the Creative Paperclay online store and blog for the new team's  upcoming creations.  It should be fun and inspiring.  

As for me, you can always find me at Black Hole Art Studio.  Please stop by every now and then and say hello.  I am about to embark on another exciting journey, and I would love for you to follow along.  More details about that to follow.  Thanks so much for stopping by today, and as always, have a wonderful week, and keep on claying!!!

Barbara