Faux Plique-A-Jour [Polymer Clay Video Tutorial]

Hello dear friends!

Well, I haven’t finished yet the journey into exploring the faux enamel possibilities and for this tutorial I am attacking the Plique -a -Jour enameling technique. This is a fascinating technique and it revolves around transparency and translucence. This I why I thought that this beautiful technique would be a great inspiration for our work with polymer clay.

This technique is great to make use of your old or inexpensive shiny eyeshadows. I love working with eyeshadows for certain projects because you’ll have a wider palette of colors (that you can apply as such or mix them to get new shades) and so your coloring possibilities expand.

The rhinestones are totally optional, yet I use them a lot in my work with polymer clay for the extra plus of sparkle!

A short description of the process:

I used two old Oyumaru molds (that I wasn’t using anymore) and I put them into hot water. I waited for the molding compound to soften and then I used it to create a mold of a butterfly stamp. These molding techniques work well with larger and smaller stamps alike. Just try it!

I used the translucent clay, a Fimo Art nouveau texture plate and two cutters (a larger and a smaller one) to create a base for my earring.

I used the mold, gilding foil and translucent polymer clay and the craft knife to create a polymer clay golden butterfly.

I assembled the pieces into an earring (I made a pair, of course) and I baked them at the temperature recommended by the polymer clay manufacturer for 30 minutes (I am working with Cernit, if you are using a different brand of clay, you should bake it for longer, maybe 45 minutes).

I made  gel-like mixtures using different colors and Triple Thick Glossy Varnish and I used them to color the baked pieces.

After waiting for the glaze to dry, I assembled the pieces into earrings (of course you could make pendants, brooches, etc.)

Here’s the extensive list of what I used in this tutorial:

– Cernit translucent polymer clay

– Fimo Art nouveau texture plate

– Two cutters (one large and a smaller one)

– Oyumaru

–  a stamp

– Gold gilding foil

– Fimo gold mica powder

– Triple thick glossy glaze

– Eye shadows or mica powders

– A needle tool

– Paintbrushes

– Jump rings

– Earring findings

– Transparent varnish

– Kato liquid clay

–  Rhinestones

I hope you’ll like the result of this faux technique and I hope that you’ll take this inspiration and these techniques and implement them in your work with polymer clay!

My best to you!

Mihaela

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