Controlled Marbling Experiments with Chalk and Alcohol Inks and Copper Leaf

I mentioned in my last post that I have been experimenting with Colorbox Chalk Inks and Copper Leaf.  I tried them with my Controlled Marbling Technique, and for the most part, was very pleased.  

This was a very messy project.  Chalk Inks don't dry quickly on polymer clay.  I am not the world's most patient person, so I messed up a few times, but finally logic prevailed and I left them to dry overnight, although they didn't dry completely, even then.  I imagine it was an interaction between the chemicals in the clay and the chalk inks.  Hmm, I do tend to blame chemical interaction for my unhappy accidents, don't I? There was a lot of trial and error, and I hate to admit how much clay went in the trash.  

All of these were created using the inks and leaf with Kato and Fimo Translucent clays and Premo Sculpey Gray Granite.  I conditioned some Gray Granite and some Translucent, divided each in half.  I combined one of the half sheets of Gray Granite with one of the half sheets of Translucent and burnished it with copper leaf.         

Are you still with me?  At this point, I had 3 sheets of clay:  One Gray Granite, one Translucent, and one copper leaf burnished sheet.  I did this for each color batch.  I decided to use blues and reds in one batch; and greens and yellows in the other group.  As you can see from the photos, the color batch with the yellows and greens was more successful than the blue batch.  BIG learning curve with the blue batch, which was the first one I tried.  Most of it is now lining the trash can.  

I then divided the sheets again, so I ended up with 6 sheets of clay:  Two quarter sheets of Gray Granite, two quarter sheets of Translucent, and two large quarter sheets of burnished copper leaf clay. 

One quarter sheet of copper leaf clay was treated with Chalk Inks and one with alcohol inks, and I repeated this step on one of the translucent quarter sheets.  I thoroughly blended the other quarter sheet of translucent with one color of alcohol ink (violet blue in one batch, tangerine/red in the other.)  I didn't add any treatment to the surface of the quarter sheets of Gray Granite.  

After I left the Chalk Inks to dry overnight, a lesson learned after wasting almost all of the first batch of the blue group, I did my thing with the Controlled Marbling technique, then cut and shaped and baked. 

One of the things I love best about using translucent clay this way is the that you never know what you are going to get until you have sanded and buffed the baked pieces.  It's kind of like mining for gemstones.    You never know what you've got until they are cut and polished.  

Anyway, even with the steep learning curve with the Chalk Inks and the drying issue, I was pleased with the results, and I've got more ideas in mind.  I'm not sure Chalk Inks were meant to be used with Polymer Clay, but I had fun testing them.