Its been a busy few weeks but today is a ‘free day.’ Once I’d done my Team LimbBo admin I decided to have a play! I’m working with some online Instagram friends to put together another free ebook – using scraps in Polymer Clay. I have a large storage box full of scrap clay – I basically throw everything in there for Tommy, LJ and Evi to use, so I decided I’d got nothing to lose by trying Gelli printing and Cyanotype printing to see if anything would work. I have blogged about both of these if you need more details

I did use ‘fresh white’ clay for the Cyanotype as the background really only works for me on white. This wasn’t a huge success. The cyanotype liquid didn’t soak into the clay like it does on paper; it basically just pooled on top of the clay. However, since I’d got everything ready I decided to just try it. Although it looked good whilst it was developing – My greenhouse is invaluable for this! – When I took the leaves off the clay the solution had stayed in pools. I managed to get a couple of impressions, and the clay did have a blue marble effect in places. I’ve cut out a few pieces just to see what happens when they are cured.

Gelli printing is incredibly relaxing and you never really know what effect you are going to get. I just played around with colours, stencils and stamps. It can be quite messy. I’m sure it’s not meant to be but I do tend to get paint everywhere so an apron is a good idea. I like the effect on some of the pieces. I don’t think they will work on their own I need to think about how to combine them with other pieces of clay. I’m just going to cut a couple out to see what they bake like. Don’t you love rainy bank holidays when you have time to create and play Jane x