Wire is tough, and polymer clay is gentle, but, they work collectively fantastically. Wire can strengthen, beautify, and add aptitude to your clay creations. Listed below are the fundamentals, I’ll go away it to you to discover the limitless inventive choices.
There are a number of ways in which you should utilize wire with polymer clay, however they fall into three major classes. The primary is structural, we use wire as an armature or a type to help polymer clay. You possibly can bulk out the wire with crumpled aluminum foil, then cowl with floral tape. This offers a pleasant base for including polymer clay.
Polymer will get gentle within the oven and solely hardens after cooling. So, thinner areas like arms, legs and tails should be supported. In these photographs, you may see the levels of a wire armature I created to help my dragon sculpture.
One other means that wire is mixed with polymer clay is usually utilized in making jewellery. That is to create hanging loops. For those who merely stick a straight eye pin into a bit of polymer clay, then bake it, you may anticipate that it’ll pull proper out of the clay after baking.
As a substitute, what you might want to do is embed a loop, and even only a messy squiggle, of wire into the clay. Then, when the clay hardens across the wire, it is not going to pull out.
After all, you might want to add no less than a small piece of clay over the wire so it’s embedded. A textured backing over the entire piece seems even nicer.
Lastly, you should utilize wire in a purely ornamental method on polymer clay. You possibly can create spirals, coils, loops, or no matter you want with wire, they are often partially embedded or pressed into the floor of the clay. If the wire isn’t embedded, it might come out after baking, however then you may glue it in place for those who like.
A stronger means to make use of wire as ornament on clay items is to have clay gildings that embed the wire onto the clay, such because the flowers on this necklace pendant.
Integrating wire with polymer clay opens up a world of inventive potentialities. Whether or not you’re including structural help to sculptures, crafting intricate jewellery items, or embellishing with ornamental accents, mastering these fundamental strategies will improve your clay creations. So, decide up your instruments, and get claying!
I hope you discovered these concepts useful. Please share your finest ideas and tips for working with wire and polymer clay.
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