Friday, April 29, 2016

MY POLYMER CLAY JOURNEY: MY DIY BEAD BAKING RACK and The AMACO BEAD BAKING RACK with SUGRU

Back for the video that I just made talking some more about my DIY Bead baking rack made from an old cake pan, floral wire and scrap polymer clay. A great idea that baked up a lot of polymer clay beads. I would love to know if anyone out in poly clay land, has done the same thing.
As well this video features a tip on how to poke holes into a clay bead when you can't stand up to look down the centre.
Along with  how I added the Sugru - to my new favourite Amaco bead baking rack (thanks to Cindy Lietz's advice at the Polymer Clay Tutor - click here to see)
Watch Let's Talk About: My DIY Bead Baking Rack and More








Thursday, April 28, 2016

POLYMER CLAY ADVENTURE: AMACO BEAD BAKING RACK and SUGRU...Thanks Cindy Lietz!

If you haven't read this blog or watched any videos on HeArtfully Creating you won't know that Cindy Lietz of the Polymer Clay Tutor YouTube Channel has been a great help to helping me with my Polymer Clay Adventure or Journey, whichever word you prefer. Below is a list of just a few of her many helpful videos here. (Yup just click this.) And lower down are more videos about bead baking racks.
Here is my Amaco rack with SUGRU- Thanks Cindy Leitz!
Baking Polymer Clay beads was one of the first problems I had to solve when I began my polymer clay adventure. Yes, I saw what was out there. In fact, I just posted the Y/T videos by one of my favourite Poly Clay Artist/Tutors, Cindy Lietz, and now see videos below about bead baking racks on the market. Cindy talks about three different brands of bead baking racks. When I started, I was inspired to not spend any more money on polymer clay supplies. Click this link to see!
Really cool product. Thanks for telling us Cindy Leitz!
https://sugru.com/buy?gclid=CPa96vDDtMwCFZCIaQod0eYLng
So I problem solve by working with what I have and made my own.
Here is my Amaco rack with SUGRU- Thanks Cindy Leitz!
Now that I know I love polymer clay, thanks to cindy's advice and reviews  I chose to purchase an AMACO bead rack. And also I took her advice on using SUGRU (click here to see how cool this stuff is) to improve the Amaco rack bead pin slots.
It works beautifully. I will share more on this in the future, but for now I couldn't wait and wanted to post this article as well as some more great Polymer Clay Tutor videos by Cindy Lietz on the subject of baking polymer clay and bead racks.







Click below to watch Cindy Lietz baking with a "lid" on polymer clay projects
Baking Your Polymer Clay



The bead baking racks that you can buy, that I know of are the one you will see here made by AMACO. And then there is one by Sculpey Polyform and a new one made by a company called LUCY CLAY. (I have posted the videos that one of my favourite YouTube Polymer Çlay Artists, Cindy Leitz features in her product review below.
Sugru Hack For Amaco Bead Baking Rack: by Cindy Leiz, Polymer Clay Tutor
Sculpey Bead Baking Rack: Review By Polymer Clay Tutor

Lucy Clay Baker: Lucy Clay Bead Baking Rack Review By Polymer Clay Tutor



Anita's version of the Sugrued-ed Amaco Bead Baking Rack


POLYMER CLAY ADVENTURE: HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BEAD BAKING RACK

The clay nubs that the floral wire "bead pins"
sit in from one side of the cake pan to the other.
Baking Polymer Clay beads was one of the first problems I had to solve when I began my polymer clay adventure. Yes, I saw what was out there. In fact, I will post the Y/T videos by one of my favourite Poly Clay Artist/Tutors, Cindy Lietz, see videos in the next article I will be sharing after this one.  She talks about three different brands of bead baking racks. When I started, I was inspired to not spend any more money on polymer clay supplies. So I try to problem solve by working with what I have on hand.

A cake pan makes a large baking rack.
You can use the bottom to bake more items too,
But one dilemma was how to bake the raw beads without wrecking them.  Because I saw people like the Polymer Clay Tutor talking about bead baking  racks, I got ideas from seeing what they look like. Especially my now favourite, AMACO bead baking rack. Based on seeing them, it helped give me the idea of how to make my own baking rack. So, I do suggest starting out with making your own bead baking rack if you want to.
On Old Cake Pan & Scrap Clay:

If you look at the picture to the right, you  can see the cake pan that I placed nubs or small balls of polymer clay across from each other. Make sure to mould the little balls of clay snugly to the cake pan lip or edge. Most of my baked clay nubs, actually slide side to side now like a rail. It just worked out that way.

Floral Stem Wire For "Bead Pins:"
Then I cut up floral wire from 20 and 18 gauge floral wire, to the right length across the width of the cake pan. One long giant bead pin" I suppose. I do pre-pierce my beads with a needle tool first. Wire is too dull to make a neat hole. Then I  slide my beads on. The picture below that is the floral wire 18 gauge, curled at the end with round nose pliers. Bamboo skewers work too. I would recommend using them for beginners, but know that the clay can stick to the bamboo so twist them a bit before baking.


The curled end helps to hold the strung beaded wire onto the polymer clay blobs or nubs. Now make sure you make a little slot to rest each end of the wire on. If you just push your wire ends into the raw clay nubs that you bake,  it will bake, then harden and trap your wire and you won't get your wire free when your beads are done. You can see that my clay nubs were left with a wide indent. Make sure the indent is deep enough to hold your wire or skewer from rolling off.
The clay nubs that the floral wire "bead pins" sit in
from one side of the cake pan to the other.





I used this bead baking rack/cake pan a zillion times. Okay, A lot of times.  When clay is baked at the right temperature, it can't burn when cooked repeatedly. Bonus, you can string of rows and rows of beads BEFORE baking your bead nubs. Just mould them all on, lay down all your loaded up bead pins/wires and push them down into the clay. Making sure you are NOT leaving them in a way that they will bake right into the wire holders.
Problem solving and working with what you can, saves money!

HeArtfully Creating!

I would love to hear your ideas, comments and questions below :o)

Thursday, April 14, 2016

IN A RUT? - INSPIRED BY FLOWERS: HEARTFULLY CREATING


Just want to re-share this video that I made a while ago hoping to encourage creativity when you feel like you are standing before a blank canvas, paper or knitting needles, you name it - and you don't know where to begin. So click the above Video if you are interested

Monday, April 4, 2016

POLYMER CLAY ADVENTURE: A 3d "Card" For My Dad's Birthday

Yay! I just posted my YouTube video that I meant to do last week. Editing a bazillion photos, and all that goes with producing a decent quality video takes far more time than those who don't make them, know. It is worth all the work, especially if you love creating. So if you haven't ever tried movie or video making and are interested, try it out. It is great to have a visual record of your creations or make tutorials and even vlogging, sharing your supper with the world on video, ha ha. Don't be like me and start out with shorter videos, then you can build up as you become familiar with the movie software your using.

On that note, here is my "Dad's Birthday Figurine" video as well as some more pictures. Imagine how many more photos I could have had if I had taken pics of each and every stage of the creating it process. Including the moment my husband suggested using one of my gray hairs to use as fishing line for the pole. Take a close look and you will see!

This piece has two part epoxy resin for the whole water effect. I love resin. It reminds me of my Grandma Harris (my Dad's mom). I got to watch her make a coffee table using resin and sea shells from her trip to Hawaii. She's been in Heaven now for decades, but, I still remember all her creativity inspiring me as a child. Meant a lot.

Hope you feel a little inspired to create, in two or three dimensional form. Most importantly have fun!

HeArtfully Creating,
Anita
Click to watch the Video Below...


A few extra photos for fun....will come later...