Seems like we all have our little autumn traditions. Lisa Clarke makes her First Day of Fall Pumpkin Bread. I've mentioned my candy corn tradition here before. But another sure sign it's fall is when I start searching the trees for leaves that are still in good enough condition to make leaf impressions in polymer clay.

See, leaf impressions were one of the first projects that got me hooked on polymer clay. I love the tiny detail lines you can get by pressing a real leaf into polymer clay. But the urge to make these leaves doesn't come until fall for me... just about the time good leaves are getting difficult to find. And there's only a certain number of times you can pick leaves off the neighbor's tree before they start looking at you funny.

So I was really excited when I won the Studio by Sculpey Shape Makers Leaf Set IV at the IPCA Retreat. I wondered if this would give me an easy way to make polymer clay leaves even after leaf season was over.

The set comes with 5 (not 4, as the package says) metal leaf-shaped cookie cutters: Small Oak, Large Oak, Small Ginkgo, Large Ginkgo, and Heart. There are also 5 matching texture sheets, which the package claims will help you "create realistic leaf veins quickly and easily."

I beg to differ. There's nothing realistic about the leaf veins these texture sheets create, at least for the oak and heart-shaped leaves. I was really disappointed to find that the texture sheets are very bare-bones. The impressions are deep, with no finer detail lines to make it look more realistic. This level of texturing could be done quickly and easily with a needle tool and look just as realistic.

The only saving grace of this set is the ginkgo leaves. The ginkgo texture plates have finer detail, and the resulting leaf can be curled to create something that's not only realistic-looking, but also very pretty and graceful. However, ginkgo trees aren't exactly native around here... so creating fall ginkgo leaves just doesn't satisfy.

One of the nice things about the design for the oak and ginkgo leaves is that it's not symmetrical. I think this gives the leaves a more realistic look. However, this means the design for the cookie cutter and the design for the texture sheet need to line up. And they don't seem to. The shape of the texture plate and the shape of the leaf only lined up for me if I cut with the sharp edge of the cookie cutter UP. (I hope someone will correct me if I'm missing something obvious here.)

Another gripe? The texture plates are hard plastic, not the nice flexible sheets they used to create the much-nicer Studio by Sculpey Texture Makers. It could just be that I need more practice, but I kept pressing these hard texture plates in too far and cutting through the clay.

Overall, I was disappointed in this product. It wasn't enjoyable to use, and the results weren't realistic. I felt like this product didn't match up to the high quality of the other Studio by Sculpey products I've used.

If you like ginkgo leaves, you may want to grab this set. It's also a nice product if you want to quickly make a LOT of leaves — say for a wreath — or if you're interested in the cookie cutters to carve your own leaf veins into. Otherwise, I'd recommend finding a nice rubber stamp to use for texture. Or make friends with your neighbors. Once you explain why you're picking leaves off their trees, they may just become polymer clay converts too!

Summary

• Product: Studio by Sculpey Shape Makers Leaf Set IV
• Price: $7.59 plus shipping
• Pros:
  • Ginkgo leaves are very nice.

• Cons:
  • Texture sheets are too hard and tend to cut through the clay.
  • Oak and heart leaf texture sheets are very bare-bones and lack the detail necessary to look realistic.
  • Oak and ginkgo texture sheets and cookie cutters appear to have been made backwards, as the indentations don't line up correctly.
• Who It's Good For:
  • Anyone who really likes ginkgo leaves.
  • Someone who just wants a nice set of the leaf cutters and doesn't care about achieving a realistic texture.

Posted in: Polymer Clay , Reviews , Supplies & Tools | Comments (5)

Just a reminder for you folks in the Central Oklahoma area... I would love for you to come to my Polymer Clay Clocks class next Sunday, September 27, 2009. The class is part of Deluxe Craft Weekend, where you can come and craft all weekend, take classes, and have all your meals catered. Sign up for the whole weekend — or just the specific classes you're interested in — here.

Here are the details:

Keeping Time with Polymer Clay: Use polymer clay and a recycled CD to make a beautiful clock, perfect for gift giving or to decorate your own wall. We'll discuss basic tools and techniques with a focus on texture and surface effects. No previous polymer clay experience is necessary. All necessary supplies and materials will be provided, but feel free to bring along any polymer clay tools you already have.

• Date: 6-9 p.m., Sunday, September 27th, 2009
• Cost: $30
• Sign up here.

You can see more sample clocks here.

Posted in: Currently Working On...

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. As the treasurer for my local polymer clay guild, I am responsible for ordering the books we select for our library. I am not, however, the librarian... so theoretically I'm supposed to order the books and have them shipped to the librarian. And that's usually what happens.

But occasionally, I'll have the books take a little detour. If it's a book I'm eager to get my hands on, I'll have it shipped to my house for a quick review, then I'll deliver it to the librarian.

That's what I intended to do with Polymer Clay Color Inspirations by Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio. Little did I know...

When the book arrived, I eagerly jumped in, starting with the foreword by Cynthia Tinapple. "You may think you'll never 'get' color the way Lindly and Maggie do," it starts, "but don't let the weight and complexity of this book fool you."

It was at that moment that I first took a look at the weight and complexity of the book. I began to realize what I was in for. This was not a book I could read through in a couple of days, cherry-pick a few exercises to do, and write a quick review. This was a textbook that would require in-depth study and intensive lab work. And it was a book I'd probably want to keep for reference. The next day I ordered my own copy and started my first long read through the book.

The Book

The book is 144 pages long — and while that may not sound considerably longer than your average project book, I'll warn you that many of these pages are pretty text-dense. Even the font seemed extra-small, like they needed to squeeze in extra content.

It starts with a color and clay basics section. The level of information they included in their "basics" section immediately gave me confidence in the expertise of these authors. For example, they compare clay to cheese or wine — products that continue to age after they leave the factory, and point out that there's therefore an optimal time to use the clay. This is something the Polyform chemist alluded to at this summer's IPCA retreat, but that I'd never seen written before. The intro also included an original method for referencing pasta machine settings, a cool pie-chart labeling system, and several Skinner blend variations.

But the "How Confident Are You in Working with Color?" quiz midway through the basics chapter almost changed my early opinion about the book. The reader is asked to rate various questions on a scale of 0 to 5. The questions included these that I found a little bothersome:

• I have taken a college-level course on designing with color.
• I have read more than one book on color designed for artists.
• I am never disappointed with my color choices.

To be fair, the 10 questions also included seveal with a more intuitive bias. But still, why would a confidence quiz need to ask a question about formal arts education or how many books you've read? Confidence (and intuitive color skills) can come without any training at all, judging from untrained artists I know who confidently do amazing things with color. And is it really fair to ask a "never" question on a scale of 0 to 5? Is there anyone who's never disappointed with their color choices? Since the instructions told me to take the quiz once before and once after I did the exercises, I'm guessing the point is make me aware of my own shortcomings, so I can tell when I've improved on them. But instead, I ended up feeling a little insulted by the questions, like the authors were trying to justify the book's existence using some unrealistic standards.

And that unsure feeling stuck with me through the first chapter and half of the next. The first 30 pages read like a textbook. There were several times I struggled to keep my eyes open (granted, I do have a teething 7-month-old, so that might not be all the book's fault). I wondered if I'd make it through the whole book. I wondered when and if the book would be worth my while.

But just as I started to second-guess my decision to buy the book, things got better. Starting on page 31 (and continuing through the rest of the book), there starts to be a nice rhythm. They start breaking up the text with exercises and projects, giving you a few pages of reading and then lessons to apply your new knowledge. Once I got into this part of the book, I found it much more interesting.

The Projects

I've used the word textbook to describe it, but perhaps it's more like a workbook. There are lots of hands-on exercises in the book to ensure you're applying the lessons. The book includes:

• 11 exercises: hands-on lessons in color
• 2 studio tools: exercises that create reference materials for your studio
• 10 projects: projects that allow you to apply knowledge while creating jewelry or other polymer clay pieces

The exercises and projects are not illustrated with big step-by-step photos, like you might find in a beginner's project book. It's more like three steps per photo in a lot of cases. And while the instructions were overall well-written, there were a few spots where I was confused and wished there were more photos.

Which brings me to one of my favorite things about the book... the website. Maggie Maggio has started a weekly "Saturday School" program on her blog, where she's guiding readers through one exercise or project per week. I think it's fantastic that the authors are around to answer questions readers run into as they do the exercises — makes it simple to get clarification for any confusing parts of the book. It's also a great way to make this could-be-overwhelming book more manageable. The Saturday School concept allows the reader to take the book in bite-sized pieces, reading the background and doing one exercise per week. That pace means it'll take about 6 months to get through all of the book's exercises and projects, which seems like a long time for those of use impatient to learn and start applying the book's lessons. But just about anybody can commit to squeezing one exercise per week into their busy schedules. I think the Saturday School is a brilliant idea, and I love that they're doing it.

But back to the book. Each chapter's exercises and projects build on the previous chapter's, growing more and more complex as the book progresses. I like that they show both of the author's samples of each project, allowing you to see how an individual's color palette preference can change the feel of a piece.

Each chapter also has an artist spotlight. Some of these artists I couldn't relate to at all, while others really spoke to me. Same goes for the artist gallery pieces sprinkled throughout the book. For example, I loved this quote that accompanied Melanie West's pod beads:

"I approach color the way I approach most of my life. I start with intuition and inspiration, and fine-tune with training and experience."

I have mixed feelings about the exercises themselves. On the one hand, I love organizing things, experimenting with all the possibilities, and cataloging the results. In a lot of ways, these exercises with their color formulas and pie charts are right up my alley. But I'm trying to keep my studio cleared of unnecessary stuff, and this book seems to create a lot of stuff: multiple color collages, pivot tiles, tasting tiles, etc. And I won't even start on how much time will be involved in creating these things.

But I feel I'm only going to get the real value of the book by doing those exercises.That's really the key to this book. Browsing through it and trying a couple of projects won't give you the full benefit. You have to spend time with it. The book expects deep, textbook-like reading and lots of hands-on exercise time. It's a class — a really good value for a class — but a class nonetheless.

And so, this book really isn't for everyone. You have to want to study this. Maybe you're totally happy with the straight-from-the-package colors that are available (and there are some gorgeous ones!). If you're satisfied with your current level of color understanding, if you don't want to delve in further and study color theory, then by all means skip this book. Let me say this, though. This book is already becoming (and, I think, will continue to become) part of the polymer clay lexicon. Blogs and forums will reference it directly and indirectly for years. If you don't read it, you may start to feel left out.

My Results

I've only tried the first couple of exercises (I'm going at their website's "Saturday School" pace). Here's a picture of my results from the first exercise, the package color testing:

I'm very eager to try the color collage exercise, as that's really the basis for pinpointing and understanding my own color preferences. Later in the book, the pattern samples (which they refer to as "brainstorming with clay") sound like a lot of fun. And various of the jewelry projects — like the Ruffle Spiral Flower Brooch and the Pinched-Petal Necklace — caught my eye in a "I-can't-believe-I'll-be-making-something-that-nice" kind of way.

Having just done the first two, I honestly can't say that I've learned a lot through the exercises. I did, however, find lots of value in my first read-through — with "aha!" moments about using fluorescent colors, about the definition and purpose of mud colors, about achieving color balance, and more.

Summary

• Title: Polymer Clay Color Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes by Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio
• Price: $15 plus shipping
• Pros:
  • Extremely thorough book that discusses color theory and provides hands-on exercises to help discover your personal palette
  • Great value, since it's comparable to taking an in-depth color course
  • Has appendix with worksheets and charts, which they generously encourage you to photocopy and laminate for reference

• Cons:
  • There's a lot of content here, making it potentially overwhelming. I recommend checking out their website, where they guide you through the book's exercises at a manageable pace.

• Who It's Good For:
  • Anyone, even non-polyclay artists, serious about improving their artwork through better use of color.

Posted in: Reviews

I'll be honest with you. I've had a packet of Peridot-colored Pardo Jewellery Clay sitting on my desk ever since the IPCA Retreat in July, just waiting for me to dig in and try it. Actually it sat on my desk a few weeks, then got demoted to my desk drawer, then to my storage cabinet. I usually enjoy trying out new clays, so even I was surprised when my guild members asked me about it, and I remembered I hadn't even opened the package.

My reluctance to review it here stemmed from two things. First, the cost. The Pardo clay is significantly more expensive than the brands we've already got. Second, I felt that the manufacturer was doing a really poor job with their distribution of the clay. They initially listed a contact person at one U.S. company, but I never got a response despite sending multiple emails. The primary U.S. supplier seemed to be having a hard time getting shipments in to fill her orders. So I didn't feel like it was important to review a product that was overly expensive and difficult for the average clayer to get their hands on.

BUT when I saw that my local Hobby Lobby was now offering it alongside their other polymer clays, I figured I ought to give it a try.

Pardo Clay Overview

In case you haven't heard of it yet, Pardo clay is made by Viva Decor, a company in Germany. They have 70 colors, including many metallics and colors with glitter inclusions. Since it's a jewelry clay, most of their color names are based on precious metals and gemstones. A unique feature about the clay is that it includes beeswax as one of its ingredients. The clay is sold in 2 sizes: a 2.7 oz. jar and a 1.2 oz. mini-pack.

Cost

My Hobby Lobby has the 2.7 oz. jar for $4.99 and the 1.2 oz. Mini-Pack for $2.99. (If you don't have Hobby Lobby in your part of the country, you can order the jars from Poly Clay Play for $4.95 plus shipping.) Since Hobby Lobby prices Premo at $2.47 for 2 oz, this means Pardo costs almost twice as much as regular-price Premo clay. (And cheap as I am, I wait for clay sales so I don't have to pay regular price for Premo!) The cost factor by itself puts Pardo out of the running to be my preferred clay brand.

Colors

The range of colors is one of the things they really stress in their advertising, and I have to say I was impressed with what I saw, specifically the metallic colors. I bought a package of Tiger's Eye, and it looked almost like it had several colors of Pearl Ex powders mixed evenly throughout. It gave the clay a real depth and seemed much prettier than Premo's metallic colors. If Tiger's Eye is representative of their other metallics, I can definitely see the appeal.

Keep in mind, though, that the local stores are carrying a very limited supply of colors, at least right now. Here's what my Hobby Lobby had available:

• 1.2 oz Mini-Packs (14 Colors):
  • Ivory
  • Nacre / Mother of Pearl
  • Topaz
  • Orange Calcite
  • Thulit (dark pink)
  • Ruby
  • Amazonite (green)
  • Lapislazuli / Blue Sapphire
  • Tiger's Eye
  • Agate with Gold Glitter
  • Turquoise with Gold Glitter
  • Olivine with Gold Glitter
  • Lavender Jade with Silver Glitter
  • Coral with Gold Glitter
• 2.7 oz Jars (4 Colors)
  • Silver
  • Gold
  • Onyz (black)
  • Bronze

Unless local stores start carrying more colors, that means most of the color range is only available online, which adds shipping costs to an already-expensive product.

Packaging

I've seen various opinions about the packaging. The jars and mini-packs are a hard plastic instead of the flimsy wrap we're used to seeing. On one hand, that offers some protection from dust and hair once you've opened a package. On the other hand, that makes multiple packages a little bulkier to store. Some folks are concerned about the plastic taking up landfill space. Granted, the plastic packages are recyclable if your city has a recycling program. Some folks even like the jars for storing other things once the clay is gone (their craft areas obviously have more space left than mine). My thoughts? If I were using this clay as my main brand, the storage would become an issue. But besides that, it doesn't matter much to me one way or the other.

While we're talking about packaging, the other thing I've heard people comment on is that it comes in small balls instead of blocks. Some people seem to like that it's easier to measure small portions that way. Some people prefer slicing what they need off a block. Really makes no difference to me.

Conditioning

The Pardo clay is easy to condition straight out of the package. The fact that they package it in small balls may help slightly with that, since it's easy to grab a manageable amount.

Workability & Stickiness

This is a very soft clay — I found it much softer straight out of the package than Premo, and maybe even softer than Sculpey III. This was actually my main problem with the clay (besides the price). It distorted easily when I tried cutting with a clay knife. When I tried extruding snakes, they stuck together. And it attracted fingerprints: one would probably need to work with gloves, smooth it down before baking, and/or sand after baking to avoid a fingerprint-covered piece. It just seemed really sticky to me.

On the other hand, it was a clean sticky, if there can be such a thing. When I washed my hands with soap and water after using it, my hands felt completely clean. There was no residue like I sometimes feel with other clay brands.

A note on the softness: I'm not much of a caner, so I didn't try that. I've read reviews saying it was too soft for caning, and I've read reviews saying people caned with it successfully. From what I've heard, Pardo's manufacturer has teamed up with Lisa Pavelka, and they're considering adding a firmer clay to their line, one more suitable for caning.

Molds & Textures

I tried the Pardo clay in a few of my Amazing Mold Putty molds. While it took detail well, it tended to stick in even the nonstick silicone molds. The clay is not firm enough to pop out like some other clay brands would. Refrigerating a few minutes to firm it up would do the trick.

Spritzing it with water before I used a texture sheet led to good results: the texture sheet didn't stick and the clay got a good impression.

Transfers

I tried a laser toner image transfer and it worked great. The transfer was nice and dark.

Cured Clay

The cured Pardo clay seems very strong. I did the bend test on a deeply-textured sample, bending it nearly in half multiple times at a weak point. I finally got a hairline crack, but it still didn't break.

For more on the strength of Pardo clay, watch Lisa Pavelka's demo at CHA (the Pardo demo starts approximately halfway through the clip). To quote one of my parent's old favorites, "You can tie it in a knot. You can tie it in a bow."

Surface Treatments

I tried a variety of surface treatments and didn't notice any problems with any of them. The clay responded as expected to Future floor finish, antiquing with acrylic paints, and using alcohol inks.

Summary

Overall, I think it's a pretty good clay. The metallic colors are gorgeous and have a real depth. It bakes up to a strong clay with a nice finish. Some people will really enjoy using it, and I can see the appeal.

I personally don't like the soft sticky feel it has straight out of the package. Of course, that could be modified by leaching and/or refrigerating it, but I don't really see the point. The clay is almost twice the price of my preferred brand and offers no big benefit. If they were able to bring down the price, I might reconsider. As it is, I might splurge on a packet of one of the metallics now and then for a special project. But for me, the price tag means it's out of consideration for my everyday clay.

Additional Reviews & More Info

• Pardo Polymer Clay Review: About.com's Miniatures Guide Lesley Shepherd reviews Pardo clay as it relates to miniaturists.
• A New Polymer Clay: Martha of Ornamento shares her guild's experience with Pardo based on a CHA sample from Robin Milne.
• Pardo Jewellery Clay From Germany: Tonja's Polyclay Corner has a good review with several examples of work she made from Pardo clay.
• New clay in the Neighbourhood: Naama Zamir reviews Pardo clay, including its usability for caning, sculpting, and texture.
• Testing the New Pardo Jewellery Clay: Garie Sim subjects Pardo to his always-thorough flexibility, tension and translucency tests.
• Pardo Polymer Clay Comments: Poly Clay Play customers share their comments about Pardo clay.
• Pardo Jewellery Clay Colors [PDF]
• Poly Clay Play Pardo store

Posted in: Polymer Clay , Reviews | Comments (18)