I was intrigued by the Zentangle Post at Polymer Clay Notes a few days ago and grabbed a handy pad of paper and a pen and started doodling. I finished 2 of them and had them sitting in a bowl on my desk wondering what to do with them now.
This morning, I had the thought of transfering them to clay. The pen I used smears on coated papers and I thought it might transfer just by burnishing it onto the clay. So I tried that. Let it sit a few minutes and nothing. Thought of the gin transfers I’ve heard of. Grabbed my bottle of rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball and rubbed some over the back of the paper on the clay. Peeled up a corner and oooooooo – it transfered. Removed the paper and set the clay aside to dry.
Ok, now what? It needs color as I just used plain white clay. Grab my Pinata inks since they’re translucent. Dab some on alcohol soaked cotton balls and dab over the clay. Cool, I can still see the transfer. Dab several colors on. Looks good. Ok, cut into shapes for pendants. They’re in the oven now.
I’ll work up a tut with pics next week and post it. The paper I used is just plain paper, like you’d use in a printer. Maybe a little thicker than that. The pen is a Pilot PreciseGrip Extrafine.
In the future I might color the clay first. Use a light hand with the alcohol when rubbing it on the paper – it just needs to be damp, not soaked. Too much makes the ink run. I’ll probably need to cover the surface somehow. This time I’ll probably paint it with a coat of TLS but in the future I’ll put a superthin layer of translucent on it before I cut it into shapes.
