Washi Tin Gift Box and Flip Flop Earrings

That's Clever! : Episode HCLVR-142 -- More Projects »
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Project by Kathy Weinberg from Plymouth, Mich.
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Kathy Weinberg loves playing and creating with clay and has turned it into a full-blown habit. She even has a position in her polymer clay guild as its education coordinator. Her skills and happy accidents helped her discover a technique to create the look of Japanese Washi papers. She uses this technique to cover a mint tin, which will then become the gift box for delicate flip-flop earrings also created from polymer clay.

Materials:

2 oz. black Premo! polymer clay
2 oz. white Premo! polymer clay
2 oz. pearl Premo! polymer clay
2 oz. cadmium red Premo! polymer clay
red and yellow floral cane with translucent clay background
small mint candy tin (mini)
translucent liquid clay medium
Perfect Pearl gold metallic powder
rubbing alcohol
paintbrush
Piñata fabric inks
two eye pins
two earring findings
8-10 lb. test monofilament fishing line
red seed beads
Locktite Gel Super Glue
cotton "box filler" for inside gift tin
variety of deckle-edged paper scissors
pasta machine
bone folder
clay cutting blade
brayer
Shade Tex brand texture sheets
parchment paper
spoon
baby powder
needle tool
ball tool
oven
round nose pliers
Kemper cutter, bent to resemble a flip-flop sole

Steps:

Washi Clay Tin

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Figure A
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Figure B
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Figure C
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Figure D
1. Condition white clay and roll it into thin sheets (#4 or #5 on the pasta machine). Cut one sheet of clay to approximately 4" x 4" and set aside. Roll two more sheets of clay approximately 5" x 5" and coat with piñata inks.
  • For one sheet, add drops of mostly blue and purple inks and spread across the clay sheet with a paintbrush.
  • For the other sheet, add drops of red, orange and yellow inks and spread them across the clay sheet with a paintbrush (figure A).
Set aside to dry.

2. When the ink is dry, use deckle edged paper scissors to cut strips of the inked clay (figure B). Lay the strips in a randomly crossed pattern on the 4" x 4" sheet of plain white clay. Roll with brayer to secure and then run through a pasta machine in two directions. Repeat adding strips of inked clay, until you have a pleasing pattern, brayer down and run through the pasta machine in two directions (figure C).

3. Make very thin slices of the red and orange translucent flower cane and apply randomly to the decorated sheet of clay (step 2) (figure D).

Also in this Episode
That's Clever! : Episode HCLVR-142
•Washi Tin Gift Box and Flip Flop Earrings
•Toy Soaps
•Wearable Glass Purse
•Mod Light Switch Plate