Stick It In, and Thank You!

January 22, 2011

Thank you so much for the feedback on what you want to see on the next DVD. I will be taking everything you have said into account whether you contributed ideas via the poll, by email or by commenting on the post, and as we go through the process of developing the DVD I will keep you in the loop and tell you what is happening, and maybe give you some sneaky peeks of the things that I will feature. You can still keep contributing ideas, the poll is open for 1 month, but by then I hope to be well into the pre-production stages, but as life never goes quite according to plan I am sure I will still have time to manoeuver a bit.

Old watch parts are embedded into warm Friendly Plastic.

In the mean time, and by way of a small thank you, I thought you might like to have a few ideas for things you can push into, or embed into Friendly Plastic. Just remember that the best way of doing inlay is with a dry heat method – heat gun, dry griddle or oven. Heat your FP, and push in your item until it is embedded enough that the plastic comes up the sides, or ooozes through any holes in the object. This should ensure that the embedded motif is held fast, but if, on cooling it pops out, simply use a bit of glue to put it back in again.

I have shown you this one before, the design is created using the negatives from Peel Offs.

When you are embedding lots of things, consider the order in which you do so, because you will be in danger of damaging the embedded object if you need to reheat any of the plastic as you go along. You can avoid this in one of two ways embed natural non heat-sensitive items first, or make up your finished item from patchwork pieces of embedded shapes, each one made separately and then stuck together using the hot water joining method (dip both edges into hot water for a few seconds and then press together.

This little book has been decorated with a patchwork of embedded squares. It includes charms, buttons, beads, sequins, feathers rings, coils of wire, eyeleash yarn and ladder yarn.

If you want to embed large or deep things, then double up your Friendly Plastic or use a thicker wodge of Pellets.

Rolled balls of gold Friendly Plastic have shells pressed deeply into them

Don’t forget to take into consideration the flexibility of your piece, particularly if it is large – the plastic will flex but the embedded items may not, and they might break (glass) or pop out. Mounting your creation onto something like the cover of a notebook will help to overcome that little issue.

The decoration for this notebook is a mixture of man made and natural things and I used some caution to make sure I did not cause heat damage to things I had already embedded. The feathers are only partially embedded so they still move when caught in a draft of air. The goggle eyse will watch you wherever you go because they all seem to point in different directions!

Nearly forgot to mention this: