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"Inclusion Illusion" by Sunni Bergeron This was the name of the October 2000 contest for Polymer Clay Central (PCC). The upper cabochon was my first attempt. The second cabochon was my entry. Proudly bragging, it won Third Place! For the base of both cabochons, I used scrap clay that I covered with a slice of my southwest skinner blend. The colors were purple, turquoise and coral. Then I blended some snippets of peacock feathers into some Translucent Sculpey only to find out the iridescence in the feathers is not displayed at all. The individual feather strands came apart in the inclusion process and ended up looking more like hair. I applied a thin coating of the included Sculpey to the surface of both cabochons and it gave a very interesting look. Next, I laid some particularly bright peacock feather snippets on top of the included clay. Here's where the same procedures end. For the first cabochon, I used the technique of very, very thin slices of translucent clay over something. When you bake these really thin slices, you can sand the finished product and buff it to make it appear transparent and the layers under it will be visible. This didn't work very well. The feathers created little air pockets causing the top layer to plaque (crack and craze). Where I was able to get the clay worked into the feather real good, some of the iridescence did show through. The top layer of translucence was so thin some of the feathers broke through either during baking or sanding. For the second cabochon, I put on the trim and loops and baked the cabochon before placing the feathers. After baking, I sanded and buffed it. Then I applied tiny amounts of undiluted TLS (Transparent Liquid Sculpey) to the surface of the included layer, laid the feathers in the sticky spots and baked again. Next, I applied a thin layer of Premo Pearl White to the back giving it a finished look, carved my name into it and baked for the last time. Finally, I took a scrap of denim and buffed up the spots on the cabochon I could get to without damaging the feathers. |
