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Making Polymer Clay Tear-Away Textures

Four years ago, I attended a workshop with Celie Fago  in which we created exquisite bangles using polymer clay accented with metal clay charms.  In the class we used tear-away texture sheets that Celie had made from polymer clay.  I admired the delicate imprints they left on the metal clay and I also liked the fact that we could make our own orignal designs rather than relying on purchased rubber stamps.  To make these, you draw a design or type text in black and white, then use a toner-based copy machine such as the Canon PC-170 (an almost ancient relic in this age of high-tech!) to make a copy using 32 pound gloss copy paper (don't use gloss photo paper!).  The next step requires the use of polymer clay - a piece of clay rolled to about 4cm in thickness, then trimmed to a size of about 70cm x 100cm.  For this I used Studio Sculpey clay (which is, unfortunately, being discontinued by the maker, Polyform Company).  The copy sheet is then rubbed vigorously onto a sheet of polymer clay for several minutes, warmed under a 100 watt lamp, and left to rest for seven minutes.  The process is repeated a second time, then the paper is peeled away from the polymer clay and, if successful, polymer clay has transferred onto the copy paper and a very fine etching on the sheet of polymer clay has occurred.  The paper and polymer sheet are then baked at 275 degrees for thirty minutes.  I tried this technique post workshop without much success and abandoned the process.  However, I recently read that someone had used a craft sealing iron rather than a lamp to heat the clay and had great success with the technique.  I decided to give it another try, substituting my clothes iron with the setting on the lowest temperature.  Voila!  This tear-away technique actually worked!   The above photo shows the end result - the delicately etched polymer clay sheet, the paper/clay tear-away sheet, and several pairs of  unfired bronze metal clay imprinted earrings.

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