how to draw on polymer clay

Just remember, before you say "I can't draw", that no one put a book in front of you and said "if you've got talent, you'll read." You had to learn how to read and you need to learn how to draw.

I will explain here how I use colored pencils to draw on the polymer clay bead. I spent a few years in art school (Pacific Northwest College of Art) and took some classes from some exceptional artists. This and much practice has made me comfortable drawing almost anything, but especially faces. I strongly urge anyone interested in art to take lessons. Often a good book or video will help too.

1. PREP: I prepare the base bead by sanding the drawing surface with 320 wet/dry sandpaper. Finer grits of sandpaper are available at auto parts stores. I get the surface is as smooth as the sandpaper can get it. I have found that if I make it too smooth however (using finer grit sandpaper) its much harder to draw on.

2. DRAW: The pencils I use are either Prismacolor, found at any craft or art store, or Oil Pencils you can find in the woodworking dept of a craft store. The bead is a very small canvas, so my pencils need to be very sharp. A blending pencil works great for blending colors on the bead. I have found that 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper can make an excellent blender and eraser. Regular erasers don't work super well. Sometimes to get very sharp lines, I use an exacto knife to erase tiny areas.

3. SEAL: The next step is to make the drawing permanent. Hopefully, someone will wear the bead and I don't want the drawing to rub off. For this I use Translucent Liquid Sculpey, TLS and diluent. In a small container, I mix about 5 pea size blobs of TLS with 4-5 drops of diluent. With a small, soft brush, I apply the TLS thinly and evenly to the drawing side of the bead. This is baked at 265 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Not letting it get too hot or cook too long is very important to keeping the clarity and color. After the bead has cooled, I brush on another layer and bake. After two layers, I like to lightly sand the bead with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper. In addition, I sometimes go over parts of the drawing to make the overall effect more dramatic.

After just one layer of TLS the drawing is sealed, but for these kind of beads I like to sand and buff them to a high gloss. For this you need 4-6 layers of TLS total.

Important note: Purples, pinks and to some degree reds, fade when exposed to heat and light. They often turn into a neon pink. I let the drawing sit in bright light or close to heat source for a while before curing, so I can see what the resulting color is and adjust accordingly.

4. FINISH: I must admit, I find this part the most tedious. I would love a sanding slave. I sand the whole bead, front and back, with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, making sure to do this wet as I don't want to inhale clay dust and it just works better. A few times I've sanded too vigorously and sanded off some of the drawing. (Not easy to fix.) When the surface is as smooth as it can be with this grit, I sand with 800 grit sandpaper. At this point I could just buff the bead for a satin finish and be done. Or, more likely, because I'm so compulsive, I finish further with polyurethane. I do this by putting the bead on florists wire in order to dip it into the polyurethane and let it dry. I stick the wire in some junk clay to hold it safely in place. After a minute or so, I wipe the drips with a soft brush so I don't get a big polyurethane bulge. I usually do at least two layers with a light sanding with 800 grit in between.

VOILA! I'm done! When storing the bead, I'm careful not to let anything hard press against it as a dent can form. If the surface dulls, I buff it up with a soft cloth.

Please don't hesitate to email me if you need further assistance or if you wish to share pictures of your work with me.