Upcycling DIY home decor, woodworking and Crafts
I made this using a striped jelly roll. Sounds yummy, but eating clay = BAD. Anyway… it is a simple technique that produces a pretty cool effect. I textured the back to hide blemishes and fingerprints that inadvertently occur when handling raw clay. I actually like the look of this piece with it’s natural mica glimmer, so I left as is instead of coating with sealant. So unlike me, but it is ok. When using something like gold leaf or Pearl Ex mica powders, a sealant is necessary to prevent tarnishing and loss of mica. One way around this in the case of mica powders is to use Perfect Pearls by Ranger, which has a built in resin and requires no sealant if baked into the clay 🙂
I made the above pendant using thin slices from the mokume gane technique I detail in this tutorial, using copper leaf sheets, alcohol inks, translucent clay, wavy blade and straight blade (I didn’t use the rubber stamp pictured in this project), acrylic roller, pasta machine, ceramic tile and a toaster oven or conventional oven.
I used copper leaf sheet from Michael’s and patted it down on each rectangle. It will stick to raw clay, so no adhesive is needed. 
Clean up (and save) the excess foil leaf bits.
Carefully slide the blade under each rectangle to flip them over.
Use your alcohol inks and randomly dab them with felt applicator on the now upside of the clay rectangles.
Stack the rectangles, then cut the stack in half.
Stack these two halves.
Thin by hand or with acrylic roller to stretch out the stack, being careful not to tear if doing by hand.
Cut into quarters, then stack again.
Thin stack using roller or by hand.
The foil begins to crackle as the stack is thinned.
Cut stack into quarters again and restack
Distress the stack using any texturizing method you want. I cut through randomly with a wavy blade. You could use a credit card and make a grid, or use a rubber stamp…
squeeze sides to smoosh the distressed stack into a tall cube.
Shave off thin slices and apply to beads, tins, whatever object you want so long as it can be baked at 275 degrees! Raw clay (unbaked) adheres to raw clay, so roll a round ball and apply thin cane slices to make a bead. Roll in hand after applying slices to smooth surface. When applying to already cured clay, or to metal/glass, you will need to use polymer clay glue (I use Lisa Pavelka poly clay glue). There is also a bake-able adhesive by sculpey.
This was my first time using foil, in a mokume gane technique which will magically appear as a tutorial on my blog tomorrow 🙂
I love polymer clay because of how forgiving it is, which lends to mess-ups being transformed into something completely unintended and beautiful. This is in no way what I set out to make today. I dig it just the same. Don’t forget about my giveaway (here)! I promise more clay tutorials. I am going to try to do at least one a week. If there is anything you want to see, I am all ears.
