Now this piece was a challenge.
The technique is easy enough: inscribe design into clay, bake, back-fill, and polish. But I don’t have the power tools that most polymer clay artists have who do polish. (You see I typically do sculptural work, so I don’t have to polish.) So I polished this puppy by hand.
But when you are doing it by hand, with nail files and nail buffers, it takes an incredibly long amount of time. This is why I tend to work while watching movies.
I strung the final piece with glass beads and raw green garnet and chain.
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Filled in with the gold clay and cured.
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After about 2 movies (3 to 4 hours) of wet sanding–You want to work wet, so that you aren’t breathing in polymer dust, or getting the dust everywhere
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After another 2 hours of sanding. I worked wet, this is what it looked like before the polishing process began
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That sheen took 3 more movies. I buffed using multi-phase nail burnishers. The last hour was spent buffing it against my jeans. With power tools it is possible to get a high glass-like shine.
