Have you ever wondered just how you're supposed to deal with baked polymer clay once it's
put onto a non-porous surface?
I've had lots of questions regarding that and today I'm going to tell you all about
it.
Hi there, Sandy here.
Welcome to another Friday Findings video at KeepsakeCrafts.net.
So some time ago I did a video series showing you how to make this wild flower votive holder
where we sculpted polymer clay leaves and foliage on a glass candle holder.
Also before that I had done a series making Halloween decorations on I think the exact
same size and shape candle holder and I got a lot of questions from many of you asking
about putting the clay on the glass and how to make it stick and all.
So I thought I would explain it to you.
I explained it a little bit in the video, but maybe not in such detail.
So here's a little bit of some clay sculpting that I started to do on a votive holder and
the thing about polymer clay that's nice is that it's sticky.
So here's some raw clay and if I were to maybe make another flower, maybe make something
that's going to be here.
I'm not really doing anything, just showing you that you could make something and it sticks
to the glass because the clay, that's just its nature in its raw state.
It's sticky and that's really convenient for sculpting and creating things.
So now it's stuck on there and it can be peeled up and moved, but what happens after you bake
it?
Here's another one that I made that is baked and you can see that it's baked and it's holding
its shape, but it is peeling up off of the glass and that's just to be expected.
The glass is a non-porous surface and there's no mechanical bond that is wrapping the clay
around the glass.
Unlike for example in this earring where the clay was sculpted and then more clay was actually
pushed through the filigree and attached to this clay.
So when it was baked and all the clay was hard, that's what I mean by a mechanical bond
where the clay is actually wrapped around the filigree holding onto it.
It's not glue or anything holding it.
So yes I could, if I wanted to, actually peel this entire thing right up off the surface
of the glass.
There you go.
A couple of things that you can do when you have a design like this.
One thing you can do is what I did on this original piece where I have this wrapped around
the entirety of the piece and because of the rounded shape, these are holding on.
If I really wanted to, I probably could peel all of these up and take them off.
That might be an interesting thing too, to have all of these free standing.
They would be quite delicate.
Just because of the way they are wrapped around here, they're not going to come off easily.
The only areas of concern would be these long, skinny areas and what you could do with that
is after baking you can apply a little bit of Super Glue and I have done that on most
of these, but you can see how this one comes up.
So some of these are coming up.
I didn't try to glue them all because this isn't a piece I'm going to handle much.
What you need to do when you use the Super Glue, first of all, I love the gel.
Like it says here, gel control and that's very important to me to have some control
and not have Super Glue running all over the place.
So you can do just little tiny dabs, just little bits.
A little less than you think you might need so that it doesn't come oozing out and you
can probably if you have them placed in a particular way you'd want to peel it up in
sections and not the entire thing like I just did, but you could Super Glue that on.
For this one, you would just peel that.
Be gentle with it.
Add just a tiny bit, really just a thin schmear, of the glue because it's not real attractive
to have it oozing underneath and then pop it down.
And do that for as many areas as you think are necessary.
So anything really thin, like a leaf.
I'm sure if I look on the back side, I don't know if you can see, but I did add little
dabs of glue on the back.
So that's how you deal with something like this.
Yes, it will stick enough for you to shape it and bake it on the non-porous surface,
but also yes it will peel off quite easily.
It is not glued on there after baking.
If you're really looking for something that will do that, you might try an epoxy based
clay, like Apoxie Sculpt.
I've done a video on that.
That actually will glue and bond to the surface, but for polymer clay, plan your design in
such a way that you're not going to have too many delicate areas, but that it's all kind
of molded together the way this is around the base and then just plan to add a little
bit of glue to the thin delicate areas.
And just as a bonus tip for you: The way I dust this kind of polymer clay piece, first
of all if I can, I often just bring it over to the sink and put it under running water.
It's not gonna hurt anything on the glass or the polymer, and then let it air dry and
that will get off any dust.
If you don't want to get it wet, you can use just some inexpensive, like a soft 1" brush
and I use that to dust my polymer clay figures and dragons and these floral pieces and it
works just great.
So I hope you found that helpful.
There will be links up here and the cards to some of the videos that I mentioned earlier
and also a link to my blog post where you'll find some of the supplies that I've mentioned
in this video.
So be sure to subscribe if you haven't already.
Take a look at my Patreon page for how you can help support these tutorials and get terrific
rewards for yourself.
Happy creating!
Bye bye.