Trying Something New - Silk Screening on Polymer Clay

Looks like leather!  I used chalk, guilder's paste and Golden's paint

Silk screening on polymer clay seems to be a big topic of interest lately with lots of Facebook posts and tutorials.  Guess it's time for me to try something new!  Helen Breil has a great tutorial (free) to get us started.  http://www.helenbreil.com/silk-screen-demo.html 
After watching Helen's tutorial as well as others, I decided that a rainy day would be perfect to start experimenting.   I used to do silk screening on fabric in college and this is the same idea.

I took my Kato white polymer scrap clay, conditioned it and put it through the widest setting on my pasta machine.  I put it on a piece of paper to leach (that makes the clay stiffer and not so soft and squishy). 

My stencils are made of paper that I verathaned to keep them waterproof so they would last longer and one small metal stencil.  I've ordered a couple of Helen Breil's stencils but I'm using mine until they come.  I have chalk pastels which I scrape into powder and Guilder's Paste as well as acrylic paint.  It would be easier (and more expensive) to buy pan pastels with the nifty application that is on the demo but scraping works well and I found that Q-tips make good applicators.  

The acrylic paint needs to be thick.  I used a medium thick paint and it seeped under the stencil -  not a nice design!  Under  each photo I've listed the materials used.  I understand not all acrylics work well with polymer but I've not had a problem.  I used what I had on hand.  I even tried a fabric paint.

 Here are the results!
My first attempts  I added a stencil on top of shaded chalk.  Chalk makes it easy to blend colors.  Testing paint on top of chalk - The one on the left shows what happens when the paint is not thick enough.  It seeps under the stencil!  The blue bird on the right is 'Tulip Pearl' fabric paint.  It's puffy and could be fun and it works.  The center pieces show thick paint over chalk.

In the upper right hand corner is an old credit card with 2 colors of paint alternating (gold and brown).  The stencil is on top of clay with chalk.  

I swiped the paint on the card over the stencil.  The brayer is used to make the stencil really stick to the clay.

Stencil has been carefully lifted off the clay.




Golden acrylic paint over clay.  I used scrap clay that had chalk mixed in it for the background.

Charcoal colored clay with gold and copper Guilder's Past.  The Golden's Quinacridone Crimson acrylic paint  was swiped over the stencil.  When cured this looks like leather!  The red is shiny.

The stencil lays over the charcoal colored clay.  I scraped the chalk colors and used a Q-tip to apply the chalk and blend the colors.

Stencil removed!  Reminds me of stained glass.

 This has been fun experience and I'll try more of it.  Now to see if I want to use parts of these creations in jewelry!

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Location: Prescott, AZ, USA

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