Raven In Flight

One of the benefits of taking online classes is building an arsenal of techniques that can be drawn on to produce the design that is in the mind’s eye.   After practicing making transfers to polymer in Heather Campbell’s class, a design idea popped into my head that could incorporate some of my own photographs into my polymer jewelry. 

Looking through my photographs (I have hundreds..really) and deciding which images to use took a little time!  I made digital copies and turned them into black and white photographs, reduced them to contact sheet size and printed them using the toner printer.   Then I rolled out the creamy blend of white and Sahara Fimo polymer clay to #3, placed it on a tile and put a thin coating of clay softener over the clay.  The cut out images were placed upside down on the clay.  As you can see from the photo to the finished piece, the image is reversed.  If there is writing that is very important! 

Learning to burnish the images with my fingers and a blade tool was more difficult and more important that I expected.  Once the images were burnished, I waited between 15 and 30 minutes.  I admit it! I peeked by lifting an edge to see if the ink had transferred to the clay.  Some had and some not.  I burnished again.  Lifted again and burnished again until most of the ink was on the clay.  It seemed that the more detailed the image the less clear it transferred.  Out of 4 images, 2 came out good. 

Before baking

The raven in flight was my pick to make into a pendant.  Because the ink stays wet until the piece is baked, it is important to carefully lift it.  I layered it on black, stacked that on a sheet of ivory with silver foil (left from another project) and stacked that on another layer of black.  Thin strips of the foiled ivory were placed around the image.  After baking, the finished look has a vintage quality to it.  I like it!  What do you think?

Finished!