Nothing Wasted

Here is another series of kaleidoscope buttons in bolder colors.  These ones are available at Heather's Fabric Shelf along with some other unique designs made special for there shop.

I love making "Natasha" (inside out) beads from the left-over pieces from my kaleidoscope canes.  I collect the left-overs keeping them organized in batches until I have enough to make a bunch of beads.

Here is one of the beads made from the scrap pile above.

This is a container of my scraps that are rolled into logs ready to make more beads.  

Going "green" with my scrap clay - part 3

Similar to making moulds, I also like to make my own texture plates and here are a few that I have made.

For easy identification, I prefer to make my texture plates in different colors.  Polymer Clay Central had a Texture Sheet Swap some time ago and there are a lot of great ideas there.  If you're not sure how to do this, Helen Breil has a great tutorial available.

Similar to texture sheets, you can also use the scrap clay for making reverse textures or moulds from your rubber stamps:

Here are some other ways I like to use my scrap clay:

• Use as a filler for beads
• Use as a backing when making a clay sheet 

• Colors can be mixed into Natasha Beads (This bead was made from left over cane scraps).

• Build some canes . . .

I like to combine my scrap clay into colors that can compliment or work together -- here is an example:

I separated the colors that might make nice skinner blends or for more mixing.  Here I have three piles of greens that I separated.  I liked the combination of the light and dark greens in the two piles on the left and made some fun leaf and jelly roll canes from them.

There are so many ways to use up your scrap clay, there is never any reason to throw any out.  Of course once it is baked, that is a different case but if it didn't turn out quite like you expected -- then cover it up with a veneer and create a new look!

Because I don't like to waste, I have a rule of thumb to spend a little extra time examining my piece closely before firing making sure it is smooth and nicely finished.  If I have any doubts about my pieces not turning out, I prefer to smoosh it and start over again rather than bake and deal with it later.

Making a Mould -- Going "green" with my scrap clay - part 2

My last post I shared how I love to separate all my scrap clay colors to develop new ones.  Even when this is done I still end up with some ugly looking "mud" type colors.  There are all kinds of uses for this  clay, one of which is using it for making impressions or moulds.

I collect unique buttons or findings that I can make a mould from.  Here is a button I had of a Christmas package that I thought would make cute earrings or charms.  To make a mould from it I start by running my scrap clay through the pasta machine at the thickest setting and stacking 2 or 3 layers -- depending on how deep the impression will be.

I spray my clay with a mould release agent -- I have a spray bottle of water that I like to use.  Take your item and firmly press it into the clay as evenly as possible until you get a nice deep impression.  When you take your piece out, inspect your mould to see if it looks good.  If it doesn't, you can smoosh your clay and then start over and try again.

When the mould looks good, the excess clay is trimmed away so it looks neat and tidy.  After baking I  allow my mould to cool and it is then ready to use.

Here is a photo of some of the many moulds I have made over the years:

Going "green" with my scrap clay

One of the things I love about working with polymer clay is there is very little wastage of materials.  I'm a pretty frugal person and want to do my part to save the environment so I hate throwing unnecessary things away and try to recycle and reuse any time I can.  Every polymer clay artist ends up with scrap clay and the neat thing is that it never gets thrown out!  It can always be reused in some way and so I thought I would start a series of ideas on what I do with it.  If anyone has other tips to add or links to share, we'd love it if you leave a comment.

While I'm claying, I generally throw my scraps in a container.  I like this pencil case as the plastic doesn't react with the clay and it has a lid to help keep any dust or lint out.  I don't worry too much about mixing it yet but try to keep the colors separate.

My clay pile was overflowing the other day -- in fact I ended up with 2 boxes full so decided it was time to do something with it.  You can just grab any clay and mix them and end up with all sorts of "mud" colors (browns, etc.) but I like to see what new colors I can end up with.

I first like to sort my clay by colors -- greens, pinks/reds, blues, browns/golds, silver/black, yellows, oranges.  If I don't have enough of a certain color for a pile then I will either set it aside and save it for later or add it to a pile I think will mix in well and not create a mud.

When I have a pile that is too much to mix I will then separate that pile further.  Here I had a lot of pinks so I divided it into light and dark.

I then decided it was still too much, so I divided the pinks into 3 piles and here I now have 3 shades of pink -- one dark and 2 lighter mixes.

I kept mixing my other clay piles the same way and here are all the clay sheets in a variety of colors I ended up with.

Now to store my clay for later use ...   You can wrap them in plastic wrap if you wish.  I like to separate my sheets with pieces of parchment paper to keep them from sticking together and stack them in a basket that I have handy on my table.

Tomorrow I will share more with you on what I can do with all this clay.