Technique Glossary

This glossary contains a brief description of popular techniques used with polymer clay, as well as related links of instruction and projects featuring that technique.

• • » Bead/Button Work
  • » Jewelry
  • » Millefiore (canework)
  • » Mokume Gane
  • » Scrapbooking Embellishment
  • » Skinner blends

Bead/Button Work

(from sculpey.com)

Beadwork is a beautiful way to show off your polymer clay expertise!  Beads and buttons can be formed by simply marbling and rolling clay together to form balls or rolling from layers to make "rolled paper" beads. As well as rolling, clay can be wrapped around existing wooden beads for uniform shape. Millefiore or Skinner blends can be used also to create one of a kind beads.  Don't forget to use a skewer or large needle to pierce before baking, great home inventions have been made to bake beads on skewers for even shaping

http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/cyclopedia/makingbeads_irish.html http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_basicCane.htm http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_clay_other/article/0,,HGTV_3239_1369898,00.html http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/PDF/PF BEADING.pdf http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_FioratoPendant.htm

Jewelry

(from sculpey.com)

Polymer clay jewelry is an infinite array of creativity and innovation.  Clay can be used to form beads, stones, and glass-like or transfer art for your jewelry collection. Jewelry findings can be attached to the clay using wire or liquid clay.  Jewelry can be hung on wire, fishing line, or with larger holes, leather or satin. Try Sculpey Ultralight to keep your pendants and beads light to wear!

http://www.pcpolyzine.com/february2001/bracelets.html http://www.jaedworks.com/clayspot/polyclay-faq/jewelry.html http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_impressedpen.htm http://jewelrymaking.about.com/cs/wire/a/083003.htm http://jewelrymaking.about.com/library/weekly/aa022202.htm http://jewelrymaking.about.com/library/blbdtip.htm http://jewelrymaking.about.com/od/gettingstarted/a/122404.htm

Millefiore (canework)

(from sculpey.com)

Millefiori has its origins in Italian glasswork. It is the process of creating clay rods, or canes, which contain multicolored patterns which are seen at the ends.  This technique is often referred to as caning and can produce an array of designs, ranging from simple blends to intricate faces and flowers. This technique takes some practice but produces unique results well worth the effort.  Caning can be used with almost anything in clay art. There are numerous books and web resources available showing this technique and project ideas.

http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/PDF/SculpeyCaning.pdf http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_cane_faces.htm http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_MountedMillefioreFlowers.htm http://www.katopolyclay.com/projects/jellyroll/jellyroll.pdf http://www.glassattic.com/polymer/Canes--general.htm http://www.pcpolyzine.com/april2001/keyring.html

Mokume Gane

(from thepolyparrot.com)

Mokume game is the technique of shaving layered pieces of clay.  It originates from 17th century Japanese metalworking, when it was used specifically to make Samauri swords.  It is done by stacking layers of clay and often leafing foil and then shaving to create rings and graining.

http://www.pcpolyzine.com/0202feb/spaghetti.html http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_AltoidTin.htm http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_MokumeganeTech.htm http://www.pcpolyzine.com/august2001/inks.html http://www.lindlyhaunani.com/tips/mokume.html

Scrapbooking Embellishment

(from sculpey.com)

Baked Premo! Sculpey has been tested and proven to be both acid and lignin free, creating an opportunity to expand your clay and scrapbooking creativity!  Use clay with push molds, stencils, texture sheets and more to create pages that really "stand out"! Clay is a great way to personalize pages and add eye-catching embellishments.  Filigree corners or texture frames can be used to bring out color in pictures and stamping or transferring allows you to set your wording in clay.

http://www.sculpey.com/projects_scrapbooking.htm http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/PDF/SCRAPBOOK%20PROJECT.pdf http://www.scrapjazz.com/topics/Techniques/Embellishments/972.php http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_clay_other/article/0,1789,HGTV_3239_3992366,00.html http://www.pcpolyzine.com/2005july/scrapping.html http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_scrapbooking/article/0,2025,DIY_13776_2277583,00.html http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/shows_scb/episode/0,2046,DIY_14332_40644,00.html http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_ClayWithWords.htm

Skinner blends

(from sculpey.com)

The Skinner Blend is a technique invented by Judith Skinner that involves geometrically layering colors of clay and feeding them through a pasta machine to create beautiful blends that can be used in caning, beadwork and more! Check out these links for clear, step by step instructions on making the Skinner blends.

http://thepolyparrot.com/blends.html http://www.katopolyclay.com/projects/skinnerblend/skinnerblend.pdf http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_autumnleaves.htm http://www.sculpey.com/sculpey401b.htm#rainbow http://www.sculpey.com/Projects/projects_vase.htm