I was going to call this a new 'toy', but actually, it is equipment (although it is a lot of fun!)It is a polymer clay screen printing kit and with it, fabulous surface patterns can be applied to polymer clay, using acrylic paint.
The kit has four sheets of patterns, paint and squeegee and instructions and I found it really easy to use, once you gauge how much paint is needed. I made some round pendants as there are two sheets of round patterns, but there are also two sheets of full sheet patterns as well. The sheet is placed onto the rolled out clay, then a squirt of paint is applied just above the top of the pattern and is squeegeed down across the pattern. It has to be left to dry before baking and the sheets need to be put into warm water as soon as the pattern has been printed as they can't be rubbed to clean them in case the pattern came off. The sheet needs to be left to dry before using again, so time is needed.
Here are some of my pendants, nearly ready to wear. The patterns came out clearly and look lovely against the skinner blend blue background.
This flower pattern looks a bit japanese-inspired to me.
Even the tiny dots in this design can be seen.
This back was a happy accident. I like to make the backs of the pendants interesting, but I hadn't realised that I had made a landscape, or perhaps seascape, with this one.
To use some of the scrap clay I had, I also created some kaleidoscope canes and made a few more pendants. It's always fascinating to create new patterns. I think I'll be experimenting much more with the silk screen and the kaleidoscope canes.
