Experimenting...try, try again!

You know how sometimes you see a technique being demonstrated and think. "Ooh, I need to have a go at that!"?  Well, this happened to me with a faux dichroic glass technique being demonstrated using translucent polymer clay, gilding flakes and alcohol inks.  I had all the equipment needed, so off I went.

 All was going well - the alcohol inks gave lovely colours over the gilding flakes and I started to smooth the pieces on the surface, when the alcohol ink came off on the cling film and I was left with faded and washed out colours.

 This small square piece came out best, with two areas where the colour stayed put.

 I ended up painting this one with metallic acrylic paint to try and put some colour back.  "Oh well", I thought, "I need to leave the alcohol ink to dry for longer next time".  So, for the next attempt, I left the ink on the surface for most of a day and overnight, just to make sure.

 Guess what happened?  Yes, the ink still came off and I was left with washed out looking colours with the blue and green.

 The pink, red and yellow colours stayed on a little better and were stronger pigments.

This was another experiment using the scrap bits and pieces.  I do like the slightly muted and aged-looking colours.
So, my next step is to try again with foil rather than gilding flakes and perhaps also with paint, just to test the effects.  I also need to try using stronger alcohol ink colours.  I would love to be successful with the technique, so I shall keep trying.