Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
BECKY: This is using one of the wider channel bracelets. What I did is mixed two different
colors of epoxy clay, a black and a white, and created a simple bangle using just the
end of a pencil. If you have other types of household things that you could use in your
kitchen to make patterns – this is some of the other patterns that I have done over
here. Those are all the different things you can do. It’s a duotone project, so you lay
down the black first and then the white.
KRISTAL: Wow. It looks a lot more complicated than that when you take a look at it.
BECKY: That’s what I love. I like anything that looks complicated, but it’s easy.
KRISTAL: Oh, we do too. Immediate gratification-oriented girls.
BECKY: That’s right.
KRISTAL: That would be us. Great. This is wonderful. How about if you show us how to
do it?
BECKY: I’d love to.
BECKY: Let me show you how to do this simple epoxy clay bangle. It’s using the 1-inch
size bangle, and I just have a simple pencil. I took the eraser off using a pair of needle
nose pliers. I just went ahead and pulled that off. It did take me a little bit of time
to get in there and rout out all of that pink eraser, and you want to do that so it doesn’t
get stuck into your clay. Once I had that all cleaned out, I was ready to start putting
my epoxy clay into my bangle.
How you do that is you’re going to want to read the manufacturer’s instructions.
That’s why I have donned my gloves. And you’re going to mix this fully until it’s
not mottled at all; it’s one consistent color. Once you have it mixed together, what
you’re going to want to do is snake it out into a long coil, about 8 inches. Because
that’s what it’s going to take to wrap all the way around. You’re going to be extending
it and flattening it as you go, so don’t worry if you don’t have exactly 8 inches
and have a ruler right handy.
Once you have it all snaked out, what you’re going to do is start to press it down inside
of the channel. I’m pushing forward with my finger in that kind of action, and pressing
it over to the sides, trying to get it to be nice and even and flat. If you get to the
end and you realize that you didn’t have enough clay to go all the way around, don’t
worry; just mix an extra little batch. Then you just go ahead and press it all the way
through.
I’ve already started on this one, after I had let it harden – which takes about
90 to 120 minutes you have while the clay is still nice and soft – what you’ll want
to do is take your pencil, and sometimes if I’m having a hard time with it getting stuck
inside of the clay – and different kinds of clays have different pigments, and so they
can be stickier than others – I’ve just taken a little bit of baby powder and I will
dip it into there and then use this to come in and out. That’s what I have done here,
is just created shapes, overlapping on some, and just creating an interesting texture.
The next step is I’ve taken some white epoxy clay and in the same way I had the two balls
of the A and the B on the black, I had the two balls of the A and the B on the white.
I’ve already premixed those and snaked them out in the same way we did this. This stage,
I’m going to have a little bit of water right here, and that’s going to help me
make this super moist so that I can easily press this clay down into the different channels.
You’re creating, like in pottery, a little slip, and it just goes right over it and down
into those different crevices. You can see I’m getting my clay down inside of that
little hole. This stage is kind of messy, but don’t worry about it. You just keep
on going through, and it’ll look kind of like what you’re seeing right now. But all
I’m focused on is making sure that I have my clay down into those different various
holes.
I always work with a pile of wet wipes right beside me, because I like to make sure that
I’m getting that clay off of my fingers and off from underneath my fingernails, and
more important, I’m just wiping away the excess so that it doesn’t get onto the metal.
I mostly focus on that at the very end, so that it doesn’t harden on there. Because
once this clay hardens, it is cement hard and it’s super hard to get off. Right now
I’m just scrubbing away that excess that was on top of the black, so that you just
see it in the recessed areas. Making sure that I’ve cleaned away any of the clay that’s
on the surface of the piece.
This is a piece that I had already finished, but you can see how I just kept on pressing
it into the different crevices and creating an interesting look of a duotone. And that’s
the project. How simple is that? Can you imagine a whole armful of those jing-janging? How
fun.