Have you seen Linda Peterson’s video on using Friendly Plastic in moulds? If you haven’t, go and check it out now on the Friendly Plastic Blog. The reason for pointing you in that direction is because it ties in very nicely with my latest FPUKtv video on how to make the moulds using a two part silicone putty called Easy Mold. As the name suggests, it is really easy to use, and it is quick to make some exciting moulds from your precious bits and bobs.
Easy Mold comes from the same stable as Envirotex Lite and it is simple to mix the two differently coloured putties together, press the ball of smooth putty around an object or push an object in to the putty. You leave it for anywhere between 5 minutes to 20 minutes depending on the amount of putty you use, and then gently remove the object from the putty (or the other way around in some cases) and hey presto, you have an incredibly detailed reusable mould.
Whilst there are loads of lovely moulds out there to buy (cake decorating / sugarcraft moulds, and the fabulous range from Krafty Lady), sometimes you want to do your own thing. I have found it excellent for making multiple copies of objects that are precious to me that I don’t want to use in a project, or that I only have one of when I need 10. Markets, car boot sales, and charity shops are great places to find interesting things to mould; so is your jewellery box.
The moulds are flexible so they are really easy to release from, and you don’t have to stick with using Friendly Plastic, why not try polymer clay, paper clay, Hearty, or any of the other modelling compounds out there.
Like Linda, I prefer to use hot water to soften my FP for moulding, it makes it much easier to handle (not sticky or too hot). You can use up all your scraps in a mould as well, and then simply paint the surface afterwards using acrylic paints. My personal preference depends on what I am trying to achieve: If I want total control over detailed colouring then I go for Friendly Plastic Pellets, but if I want a background colour with a metallic look that can still be altered, then the FP sticks are the way to go.
The other nice thing about the putty is that it seems to have a long shelf life as long as you keep the lids tightly closed, so you are ready to make a mould whenever the inspiration takes you.
I have finally got around to finishing up some pieces of jewellery in time to get them off to Linda for CHA, but I thought you might like to see them before they arrive at the show. I apologise in advance for the poor quality of the photos, but it has been so gloomy recently that the natural day light was not enough to illuminate the pieces properly and I ran out of time to get out my lights and do it all properly. Consequently what you see is my “record” shots that I keep so I know what I have been up to.
This is a necklace that I began in November by making the fabric beads.
The flower end caps are made of FP as are the tubeads and the round pink beads. The others are assorted bought beads.
This one is not going to CHA, it will stay at home with me! I used Linda’s Shimmer and Shine technique to create the design, but I added a few layers of resin adding decoration with each layer. The bezel is hammered and punched copper shim (I obviously had some aggression to work out on this one!)
The main components for this necklace and earring set you have seen in an earlier post. I used some curled wire embellishments with the addition of Friendly Plastic beads worked directly on to the curled wires. These curly wires compliment the curvy shapes of the inlay. For those who have not read my earlier post, the inlay is the waste bits of some Peel Offs.
They are coated in Envirotex Lite with added colouring in between the layers.
Earrings to match. The backs of the earrings are simply coloured using my foiling technique.
To be honest, I can’t remember if I sent this one or another I made that is a bit similar, but the thing to notice is the tubead which is made from recycled bits of FP coated in some strandy sort of glitter.
This is one that you might have seen in an earlier post, but I included it in the CHA package because it showed some different techniques.
I have inlaid natural shells into FP, pushing them in deeply so the plastic oozes up and around them.
This bead (part of the shell necklace above) demonstrates that I do occasionally succumb to the feathering technique, although I hardly ever use a comb because I like the random nature of my feathering. However if you like the quick and easy and very regular pattern that the combs make, then they are a ideal tool.
It has taken me almost a week to write this post and consequently I have forgotten the other things in the parcel that went to CHA! So I shall stop here and try to be better at posting next week. I have lots to tell you about, just not enough time to sit at the computer and write it all down.
I think I have a severe case of Brain Ache, it must be because I spent most of the weekend trying to tidy up and clear up in the studio, and I still feel that it will take me to the end of the week to complete! The reason why I am owning up to a feeble mind is because I forgot to add a class to the list in my previous post.
I will be teaching at Stitched Up and Fleeced (Sue Lancaster’s workshop) in Sheffield on Saturday 6th February. 10am – 4pm the cost is £40 payable and bookable directly with Sue please. We will be doing a Bend It Shape It Day tailored to the needs of the students who want to come. It is a day of experimentation and familiarisation in which you will learn how to Oooze, create Lacework, make impressions, join Friendly Plastic pieces, and make simple beads among other things. The aim of the day is to give you a good grounding in how Friendly Plastic works, help you become familiar with various different ways of working with this amazing material, and inspire you to take it in your own direction to compliment your own particular areas of interest.
You can see from this image that everyone goes home with a whole heap of samples that they can turn into all sorts of things – motifs for cards, unique pieces of jewellery, embellishments for textiles or simply mount them up in a notebook with your had written notes on how you did what you did. This latter option is of course, only for swots!
In between all the eating, drinking and making merry I did do something vaguely useful over the Christmas break – I have updated my web site with the class dates for 2010. To save you the effort of checking it out, I am detailing them below just in case you might be interested in any of them. They are not exhaustive, and I am open to ideas and suggestions.
Create buttons and motifs to adorn your textile and sewing projects as well as for jewellery and paper craft applications. We will explore dragging and marbling, cutting and hole making, and you will learn how to seal your work. Buttons are hand washable.
Learn how to use 2 part silicone putty to make moulds. We will then fill them with Friendly Plastic and make our own motifs or embellishments for textiles, scrap booking, paper crafts or jewellery. We will be using inks, paints and Friendly Plastic Pellets to achieve the effects want.
Spend a day Ooozing and extruding with Friendly Plastic and assorted things with holes in, and you will be “aahhing and ooing” at the effects you discover. Whether you are a paper crafter or a textile person or love jewellery, this is a very versatile technique that creates incredible textures and effects that will have you rushing home to try it out some more!
Multimedia approach to Friendly Plastic – how to stick lots of different things in your FP projects so that they won’t come out again without the aid of glue! If you want to you can make a fun note book cover with all the pieces you experiment with. Embed mirrors, beads, buttons, wire, yarn, feathers, sequins, motifs and whatever takes your fancy. Then piece it all together to make a panel for the front of a book or the top of a box.
All things beady (using Friendly Plastic of course) - round ones, cylinders, wonky shapes, drops, focal beads, wrapped beads, bent beads (Tubeads), recycled beads, mixed media beads, moulded beads…. and the list goes on. We will cover as many things as you want to, and it will be up to you if you want to make enough beads for a project or, to try out as many different bead techniques as you can fit in the day.
All the classes are suitable for beginners as well as those with some experience.
This is the current list of workshops that are open to everyone to book on to, as opposed to the ones I am doing for guilds and clubs. Please book directly with the venue. If you have any queries about what we will be doing in the class then email me at enquiries@rarebird.ltd.uk
I will also be at Stitches Trade show at the NEC in February demonstrating for All About Crafts / Pottery Crafts, and some of my textile work will be on display at three venues this year, the first of which is Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC in March. I will blog about that closer to the time.
If you are in Anaheim USA at the end of this month and are going to CHA then visit Amaco at their “booth” as the Americans call it (a “stand” to us Brits) and you will find Linda Peterson and Jana Ewy demonstrating FP for the company. You will also find some of my jewellery on display if I get it to Linda in time!
Well I didn’t fib; in my post of the 26th November I showed some of the effects I had achieved using Linda Peterson’s Glisten and Shine technique, and a quick (and fuzzy) example of a tubular bead that I had made. I mentioned that I hoped to be able to show you more of these beads and now I can. I call them “Tubeads”, and I can also tell you that I have little packs for sale of the equipment I use to make the beads, but I am getting ahead of myself; here are some of the pendants and things I have made so far (and there are loads still in the pipeline – no pun intended).
A small selection of the beads I have been making. Some of these are simple unadulterated Friendly Plastic in the colours it comes in, but most of them have been recoloured in some way. I have used transfer foils, metal flake, Pigment Powders, Glisten And Shine (Linda’s technique), embossing powders, and glitter as well as pens and alcohol inks. You can see two different sizes of bead with correspondingly different hole sizes, and there are some beads that gently curve (or could be straight if you wanted to make them so), some that curve sharply, some that make circles and some that form curlicues. All possible because of the cord that you make the beads around (more later).
For those that know me, I am useless at straight lines, give me curves any day!
I was a little slow bending this one, and it wrinkled a little, but I liked it anyway.
I like a little bit of glitter now and then
The top Tubead was scrap FP recoloured using cream transfer foil from the Earthtones Pack which I added extra colour to using a variety of methods including scratching, refoiling, and metal flakes.
A simple piece of Royal Blue FP with wire wrapping and some rubber donut beads.
This one is a mixture of plain Teal FP and some of my Glisten and Shine coloured FP. If you look closely I had not perfected my seams, but now I have the equipment I can do them sooo much better than that.
Tubeads combined with fabric beads gives a lovely contrast in mat and gently shinty finishes. Fancy headpins finish the look
A closer look at the earrings.
And the secret to these fun Tubeads is silicone cords which stretch. FP is wrapped around the cord, shaped and cooled, then the cord is stretched and this action releases it from the bead which can be pulled off with ease. Clever eh? Now I can’t claim this basic technique as my own because Jana Ewy showed it to us all at The Starving Artists Playground in Colorado at Jen Lowe’s place. Jana was using tubing, and I had never seen such stuff before in the UK. On returning home I searched and searched, tried out a number of different materials and eventually settled on silicone cord which is stronger (lasts longer) and I could get different diameters more easily. It is non stick, good and stretchy, robust, and tolerant of heat.
The second part of the process is in getting the rolling right, and my solution to this was to use some fine silicone sheet (not the thick stuff you occasionally find in cook shops, nor the teflon sheet either). It is beautifully silky smooth and rolls a perfect tubular bead.
The other great thing about the silicone is that it will withstand heat from either the heat gun or hot water so if the FP is not soft enough then it is really simple to reheat it by whichever method you choose.
For the kit and full instructions including how to achieve a really good seam, visit my web site http://www.rarebird.ltd.uk/Kits_Packs.html at only £3.50 it is a bargain! (you can tell I am excited can’t you!)
A very quick post today. I know lots of people are interested in trying Friendly Plastic Pellets, but they are anxious about plunging in and spending a whole heap of money on something they are unsure about. So how would you like to try out Friendly Plastic Pellets for just £2.50? For a limited time I am offering 1oz sample packs sent free of P&P for just £2.50. This is a brilliant deal, and it is not even on the web site. You need to be a blog reader to get the deal!
Email me if you would like some: enquiries@rarebird.ltd.uk (NB the P&P free bit applies to the UK only I am afraid. I am happy to send some to you wherever you are in the world outside the UK, but I will have to charge something for P&P, the exact amount depends on where you live and what the Post Office charges me)
A typical 7″ stick of Friendly Plastic weighs just over 1/4 oz and costs around £1.70. You get 4 times the weight of plastic for £2.50 – not bad at all.
These images have all appeared before on this blog, but I thought you might like to be reminded of what FP Pellets can do.
Softening and melting the Pellets can be done with hot water, a dry griddle or a heat gun (if you use the latter then make sure they are on a metal tray or something that stops them rolling all over the place with the blast of hot air.
The mould for this oriental piece was made using silicone moulding putty.
You could push it in to bezels (Amate jewellery bezels are great for this), or you could push it in to moulds (see below)
Not only is it wonderful for decorative purposes, but it is also useful for practical things as it can make quick (and recyclable) tools and handles for things (see Jen Lowe’s video)
I hope I have whetted your appetite. If you like the pellets then I can offer them to you in 40z packets and can also get 28oz jars as well. If you go for the 28oz jars at £40, then I know you are hooked!
Well you did not have to wait long: Following my last post showing you the two pendants made using an idea developed by Linda Peterson, where I said that you would have to wait for Linda to reveal exactly how we achieved the patterns; well, she has done a little video short on Friendly Plastic TV so go and check it out right now! She calls the technique Glisten and Shine.
I have been itching to show you this stuff since October, but I really did not want to jump Linda’s gun, it was her original idea, and I just played with it to develop the texture and a few other things besides. Linda’s video demonstration gives me the excuse to show you some of the effects I have achieved using variations on her clever idea.
The basic idea is that you apply a fairly light coating of Genesis paints using your finger, blending colours as you go. Then yo utake a stamp (foam, rubber, clear) and stamp into the paint to remove some colour and reveal the FP underneath. Details can be added using a wooden cocktail stick or something similar. If it does not work out like you want, then simply wipe the paint away and start again. Nothing is permanent until you heat set it. When the plastic is warm you can add texture – I do this using both ends of my embossing tool.
The image above is of a piece of Rainbow Friendly Plastic underneath the Genesis paints, and I used both ends of my embossing tool to give variety to the texture. I love the contrast between the matt paint and the almost iridescent FP underneath
Foam stamps lift off the most paint.
Silver Spectra is the underlying colour here
I adore the way the colours worked out in this one. I have not textured it yet.
A red rubber lettering stamp did the trick here. The underlying FP colour was Burnt Orange
I added alcohol inks to this one as I really liked the way the surface puckered up and became all wrinkly (except for the colour, it looks a bit like the back of my hands without hand cream!). This was heat set using the heat gun.
I have since added some extra gold to this stick of FP. I used a mixture of stamps on this one, and I love it so much I don’t want to do anything with it just yet, except leave it on the side to look at.
This potential pendant was made from the brown strip (3rd image down), but with added colour in between the layers of Envirotex Lite. Choose carefully what you want to cover with Envirotex as it does not always enhance the design, but this one is successful. You may not think so from the image, but it does look good in real life!
Genesis paints are synthetic oil paints and are not in the least bit smelly when you heat them. In the past I have tired using real oil paints and Markal Sticks, but heating those up gives off horrible smells and I have no idea whether they are toxic or not. However Genesis paints are designed to be completely safe when heated, as that is the only way to make them dry out.
If you take the plunge and buy a few pots, do not have heart failure at the price, the paints last for ever, and a tiny bit goes a very long way indeed. You may want to share your purchase with a friend and decant some into another pot. Because they require heat to set, you should be able to keep them fresh for years and years.
You do not have to use the griddle to heat set them, but it does give a very nice finish. Why not try the oven on it’s lowest setting instead. The heat gun will also set the paints, but it tends to wrinkle the surface (see wrinkly image above). Also take care to heat it for long enough with the heat gun, it is tempting to stop too soon.
What are you still reading this blog for? why are you not rushing out to buy some Genesis paints and try it out for yourself?! Honestly, the pictures cannot really do the effects justice, they really are gorgeous.
As a finale, here is a slightly out of focus image of a bead I made using some FP I had coloured in this way. I hope to have more on this method of bead making in the not too distant future.
Morning Everyone. I know that when you read this it may not be morning for you, but for me, as I write this it is 5.30am. Don’t ask me why, I just woke up with the brain buzzing so I got up and made a cup of tea, put the dog on the chair beside me for company and thought I might add a post to the blog. If I pause as I do this, it is either to slurp some tea or cuddle the dog!
I meant to post about these two pieces of jewellery when I came back from Jen’s Starving Artists Playground in Colorado in October, but I completely forgot to do so. But here for your edification are two pendants made using a clever technique that Linda Peterson and I have been working on using Genesis heat set paints. The basic idea was Linda’s, but I have expanded on it and taken it in my own direction, but you will have to wait until she is happy to divulge all the ins and outs of exactly how to create patterns using Genesis, but I promise you, it will be worth the wait.
The first is in a Paisley pattern with added extras. I used Floral Garden Pink Friendly Plastic as my base, and have coloured it with Genesis heat set paints which have then been stamped into. I added layers of Envirotex with a bit of extra colouring between the layers. Below gives you a close up of the pattern. The whole piece is about 3 X 5 cm
The next image is a close up of a similar sized pendant, but this time I started with a Mauve (Those good folk at Amaco are colour blind because it is pink, Mauve is on the way to purple, not a soft pink!) piece of Friendly Plastic, and added layers of colour, stamping and dotting between the layers of Envirotex.
Both pieces are mounted on my attempts at Linda Peterson’s pewter bezels which I made when at Jen’s in Colorado. Linda has done a great little video on making these bezels which you can check out on either her blog or the Friendly Plastic blog.
I finished both mounts with a quick spray of clear varnish as I know from experience that the pewter sheet can leave black marks on your skin if you don’t.
One of the questions that I have been asked over and over, is can you use Clear Stamps with Friendly Plastic; well the answer is yes. When I was in America I bought myself some as I did not previously possess any, with the aim of trying this out and not relying on hearsay. The black scrolls on the pendant are stamped with clear stamps, and the Paisley pattern on the top pendant is also a clear Stamp. The trick is to keep them well oiled or lubricated and they work a treat. To lubricate them I use either ink (if I want an inked design), or oil (cooking oil or baby oil is fine), or silicone. I had heard that some people found that FP ruined their clear stamps, but I have had no trouble whatsoever using my now growing collection of lovely designs. I particularly like the clear stamps (mounted on acrylic blocks) because it is so easy to see where you are placing your design/ texture.
Although I used Envirotex Lite on these two pendants (actually I think Linda kindly gave them their first coat when we were in Colorado), you could just as easily use Magic Glos and it would be a whole heap quicker as it dries using a UV lamp in 5 minutes rather than waiting 12 hours between coats.
This is the starter pack for Envirotex Lite that I stock. 4 fl oz goes a VERY LONG WAY, so only mix up just a small bit at a time, and it is really easy to mix as you do this in equal parts, so the only measuring you need to do is mark a line on your mixing pot! I include two free mixing pots to get you going.
Magic Glos is extremely simple to use as you apply it straight from the bottle, no mixing etc. However you do need some UV light to make it cure, and if you live in not so sunny climes then the UV in sunlight is not going to do the trick for you and you will need a UV lamp. These are very easy to find under “Nail Lamps” on EBay – mine cost £5.
Having had the opportunity to experiment with the Envirotex and Magic Glos and seen what the Envirotex Queen of Friendly Plastic Jana Ewy can do with it, I can see the benefits of a lovely thick layer of gloss coating on the right pieces of Friendly Plastic. But in my book it is still not the be all and end all, as by nature I am more of a matt kind of girl, or at least low gloss. Many of my techniques such as Lacework and certain (but not all) types of Oooze don’t lend themselves to a gloss coating of Envirotex or Magic Glos, but in the right place, there is simply nothing like it.
I am sure that my mind works on the “cup full” principle – you can fill it up to the brim, but if you pour any more in, then the cup overflows and you lose some of the contents. Over the last couple of weeks I have been trying to get back into the swing of using my video editing software, and remembering some tricks about what to do when filming to make things easier in the edit stage. Unfortunately I think I have overloaded my cup with so many new ideas to try out in Friendly Plastic and textiles that all the previous knowledge I had about making video shorts using our little camcorder and the editing software seems to have flowed over the rim of my chipped mug of a mind and dribbled down into a puddle at my feet!
Finally I am able to say that I have 3 new video shorts for you to check out. Admittedly two of them were originally part of the same single video, but it proved too long so I chopped it in half. I could not face filming it all again, as being in front of the camera is not my favourite location; give me a class full of students any day of the week.
So for your amusement, delight, information, criticism and general merriment I now present 2 video shorts about heating methods for Friendly Plastic, and one on the foiling technique.
I am producing these under the banner of FPUK tv, because Linda Peterson already does a brilliant job with Friendly Plastic TVin the US, and I wanted a British take on things. If I can manage to retain the knowledge gained over the last two weeks about editing, then I plan to make a series of video shorts on different techniques, some will be little projects, others just the technique. However, if you want something more in depth then you need my DVDs. Incidentally both of them are on special offer with kits at the moments, so check out the web site. I have a Christmas Special on them both.
Thinking of new things, I now have Envirotex Lite as well as Magic Glosin stock so now is your chance to try out some of the fabulous glossy coated effects that you can achieve with these products.
Both of these pieces have been made using a number of layers of either Envirotex Lite or Magic Glos, with additions of ink etc in between each layer.
Something else I am very excited about is some new transfer foilsI have managed to acquire. I have called them Foiling Fantasyand they are in the most wonderful colours and patterns. The foils come as 20cm strips in varying widths (between 2 and 4cm wide), and are perfect for colouring the reverse of your Friendly Plastic. If you don’t know how to do this, then watch the FPUK tv video short above.
This selection of 9 20cm strips is called Amber Aura, and includes 2 transparent foils . That sounds a bit odd, but they are basically foils that are only partially coloured so that the background is visible through them. The bottom left Gold Crackle is a clear foil with little bits of gold on it and when applied to the back of a black stick of FP looks like this. Try it on white or some Friendly Plastic Pellets that you have coloured with alcohol inks for a different look. The other transparent one is the lacy white one second from the right at the bottom.
I have called this oneBlue Movesand again there are two transparent foils - The silver chain top left is on black and the pink and blue dots and circles bottom right is on white FP. This pack includes two holographic foils, blue and silver. The foil in the centre is much wider than the others and is a wonderful crunkly swirl of blues and silver.
This pack of 9 foils is called Storm and contains not only some transparent foils (centre, and 2nd from the right top row), but also Gold Cobra (2nd from left bottom). Some of you might remember this colour as being part of the Friendly Plastic range a few years ago, and I for one was most miffed when it was discontinued. Brown seems to be a colour that FP lacks and this pack offers 2 very rich brown colour ways, plus a lovely coppery floral brown (2nd from the right bottom row).
I have already had some fun with the foils, but as they have only just arrived I am itching to try them all out.
This will be a pendant when I finish it off. I have used my Patchwork or Piecework technique to make this undulating piece, and introduced two of the foils from the new Foiling Fantasy packs. This is the top side and below is the reverse.
As you can see, the pendant has colour on both sides, and is also complimentary, but different in design. That is the nature of the technique, and it is always exciting to see how the reverse will turn out.
OK, I think I have made up for not posting for a couple of weeks by giving you loads to check out this time!
Just a short post today. What do you think this lot is (and please don’t say a load of old junk!). To help you, I will tell you that the drums of rope are about 3cm tall (just over an inch in old money).
I haven’t got time to keep you in suspense today so I will explain: I am working on my next project for a textile exhibition with Nolitex, and these objects will form part of the work. They are not rusty old bits of metal but artfully disguised bits of Friendly Plastic (not the rope of course). I say “artfully” but that is a conceit as in reality they were the results of my experiments with some patination and rusting fluids which I purchased when I was in America. I do believe you can get the same stuff over here in the UK, the range is called Sophisticated Finishes by Triangle Crafts.
I used Friendly Plastic Pellets for some of the pieces, and lots of scraps that I recycled for others; the results were the same once I had coloured them and rusted them. The rope drums are made over pipe lagging using some very rope-like cord (patination fluid treated as well).
I thought some of you out there might be interested in seeing something a little different on the FP front, it might just set you off on some train of thought you might like to share with the rest of us. And you know of course, that if you do put a post on your blog about it, then Linda will capture it and tell the world via the Friendly Plastic Blog, so you will be instantly catapulted into Friendly Plastic Fame!!!
