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kikums — Charms 101-Polymer Clay Tutorial Part 1
Published: 2012-06-11 16:08:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 10128; Favourites: 143; Downloads: 332
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Description
Ready to make your own charm, butdon't know where to begin??
This tutorial can help!
When I first started making charms I had no idea
what I was doing. I bought things I thought were
needed but ended up not using them at all and I did not
know how to use the material properly. I burned my charms
sooooo many times lol
I am not an expert but based on my own experience I
made a 3 part mini-Charms 101 tutorials (to be specific oven-baked clay charms) to offer some information to those who are new to clay charms or for those who are thinking of starting.
Again, these tutorials are made from my own experience throughout these years therefore some techniques might be different from others.
If you would like to know more about the composition of clay, or just more info, I found some really helpful sites that were also helpful
when I first began making charms.
[link] [link] [link]
[link]
This is part 1 tutorial here is the link to:
Part 2 [link]
Part 3 [link]
Hope it helps! Feel free to ask questions and
have fun making your own charms!!
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Comments: 16
Hi!
This tutorial (and part 2 and 3) has been featured in a journal by our group . You can find this journal here . If you would like me to remove your tutorial from this journal feel free to let me know and I will! Have a nice day!
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Do you bake the charm in the oven WITH the pin inside or do you take it out? i'm making one right now!
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Hello! sorry for not getting to answer sooner, but yes you should bake the charm in the oven WITH the pins inside. After the clay is baked it hardens and makes its impossible to insert pins in them. It still happens to me, I forget to put the pins in the clay and only realize it once they are fully baked lol These charms can be used as little figurines or perfect for Decoden.
Hopefully your charms turned out well!
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Hm never heard of conditioning the clay after baking with a water bath. I may try that on my next piece to see if it works :3
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Awesome! I don't use it all the time but it definitely helps cool the clay quick lol
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I've actually never had trouble with the clay itself being too hot to handle. The eyepin on the other hand... ><
I'm thinking that the quick bath would temper the eyepin as well. Similar to forging.
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Nice Tutorial!
But there is a question I have, maybe you might help me a little. ^^"
I always wash my hands very carefully, especially when I am going to work with light colors.
But everytime my clay looks like the 'dirty sample' you showed there.
Are there any special tricks for cleaning your work space and such? I have really no idea what I am doing wrong. D:
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Hello! Thank you
I know what you mean! it happens to me often as well. I'm very picky when it comes to the little dirty specs on clay and I do a number of tricks to try and keep the clay clean lol
Some tricks that I have found helpful is to wash my hands very well and let them air dry instead of drying them with a towel or paper towels. While they are drying I rub my hands together, it seems silly lol but most of the time that works for me. I also clean my working area, I usually clean it with a paper towel with just a little bit of rubbing alcohol. When I work with white especially, I grab a little piece of clay and play with it before handling the rest. This little piece will hopefully catch any specs if there are any left.
Sometimes no matter how careful you are the specs of dust will just magically appear on the clay. There are a few tricks I learned to clean up the clay. If the clay is not baked you can try to remove the specs of dust by cleaning the surface very carefully with a bit of water or rubbing alcohol. Make sure not too use too much of either because it will cause your clay to turn to mush or it will start falling apart.
If the clay is already baked I clean with a a little bit of rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip, I do this for any color clay.
If the clay is white I clean it using a cotton swab or Q-tip with nail polish remover. I only do this if the clay is white, otherwise it will cause discoloration on any other color clay.
I'm not an expert, these are just some of the tricks I use. When using chemicals always be careful and read the directions carefully. I don't know the science behind it but I found that rubbing alcohol helps a lot with cleaning! here's a site with more tricks when cleaning with it [link]
Sorry for the long answer 
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No no! There is no need to apologize!
I am very grateful you took your time to show me your tricks! :3 Also thank you for the link!
I thought of that thing with the alcohol, too, but wasn't sure if you could really use it on the clay.
I'm glad I asked you for help. I am going to use all of these tricks next time. Thank you again!
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