Faux Dichroic Polymer Clay Tutorial

Hello dear friends!

I was looking at the nail art foils that I have in my studio and while admiring their beautiful colors and effects I thought of trying new ideas to get a faux glass effect for my clay pieces.

So I prepared a small square piece of black clay that I properly baked and then I used SuperGlue to glue a beautiful nail art foil with a holographic effect. Gloves are highly recommended when using Super Glue. As careful as I try to be, I always end up with Super Glue on my fingers and I don’t like how it feels… So I learned that it’s better to use gloves….

Then I passed the scrap black clay through a thin setting of my pasta machine and I used it to coat the piece. I used an embossing folder with a beautiful pattern to impress a texture on the piece. You can use a stamp or a texture mat, of course.

I finished by cutting out parts of the textured areas and I used the lines in this impressed design as guidelines to do the cutting. And the beautiful holographic nail art foil would show through the cut out areas. Then I put the piece in the oven, for a second baking.

Initially I wanted to apply UV resin only in the cut out crevasses, but then I applied resin all over the top of my trial piece and it turned out better than expected. And it surely enhanced the dichroic effect.

I also added a small rhinestone bead to add more interest to the piece. I thought that the center of the bead was too dark and not so interesting and by adding the rhinestone bead I felt this was the tiny detail that makes the bead stand out ever more.

Then you’ll just have to put your UV resin coated pieces under an UV lamp for 5 minutes and that’s it. Your beautiful faux dichroic pieces are ready to be turned into earrings, pendants, cabochons, you name it.

I finished my piece by gluing soutache cord on the margins. This is totally optional. When comparing the two pieces, the trial piece and the one with soutache cord attached, I can say that I like them both and that you can certainly skip the soutache gluing part.

As always I hope that you’ll like this idea, that you’ll use it in your work with clay and all in all that you are inspired to create more using polymer clay!

I’ll finish my post telling you that I’m catching up with the Polymer Clay Adventure classes. I watched Jan Montarsi’s class and I was blown away. He shared so many interesting techniques and three bail ideas for making amazing stringing systems for clay pieces and he gave so many useful pieces of advice…. Wow…. Really, really an amazing artist and such a sharing and caring person…

I love the Polymer Clay Adventure so much because it helps me get back on track with my clay. Life will throw you off track very often and you need ways to go back to what you love, to what makes you come alive… Luckily for me I have PCA to sparkle my inspiration and get me going in no time…

I hope that you’ve already joined us in this amazing clay Adventure. If you’re not already an insider and you love polymer clay, I strongly encourage you to join us in an amazing year-long learning experience that will keep you on track with your clay goals in 2020.

Happy claying!

Mihaela

*I am a Teacher and an affiliate in the Polymer Clay Adventure 2020

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