I keep these little pieces in a zip lock baggie and when I get enough, they go into a mortar pot. I love mine because the pestle is the same shape as the pot and will totally grind up leftover bits and pieces.
The first few times I did this, I ground the pieces into a fine powder.
But what I found is that you can simply spritz the scraps with water and they will dissolve. You can then turn that into a paste as well.
So it doesn't matter. Grind it into a powder as the photo above, or spritz and mix with water. Eventually, you can work it into a paste. You may want/need to have a really wet paste at first to get this to dissolve, but just continue to work it until it dries out.
You want to roll this into a ball of clay.
The next step is to press this into molds. I use everything! Here is a package of little buttons. I thought the trees were just too cute. Simply dip whatever you want to use as a mold into some baby oil (yes, olive oil, badger balm...it all works the same!)
Press the clay into the molds and leave there.
You can use just about anything to make your own molds I used a tiny brass mold of the eiffel tower here. Guess I'll be adding a tutorial on making molds in a few days as well!
The clay in the mold needs to go on a heat source to dry. I like to use my melting pot. I just cut a piece of teflon to put into the melting pot. Lots of people use candle warmers...I think just about any heat source like that would work. Set the heat to about 250F - 275F and put the lid on and let it warm for at least 10 minutes.
If you don't have a heat source, just let it air dry overnight.
You can now take the dried clay out of the mold and have lovely elements to work with in making more fine silver jewelry!
This is just a fantastic way to reconstitute the leftover pieces of ACS paper type that you have and turn it into clay that you can use to make more elements. The ultimate "green craft"!
3 comments:
On all the ArtClay pages they tell you, you can't reconstitute this stuff...I knew it could be done!
I saw that too. I had so many little bits after cutting a sheet with my cricut! I've had a sheet of teflon holding them on the corner of my bench for weeks! I was going to make far too many silver balls to decorate another project, but I have so much already recyled that way-from my mistakes! This sounds much more fun! Thank you.
Can bits of dried acs from other projects-not paper type-be combined with this or have you tried it as a paste? I almost had sworn off using paper type due to the waste when I saw this. Thank you.
Kay
Kay, I mix all of it together, so yes. Even dust from sanding. :o) Sometimes I can tell there are way too many particles in my reconstituted clay (dirt, etc.) so with that, I usually let it dry and put it in molds and make even more silver items from it. Great way to use up your scrap.
I'm certain ACW would prefer to sell you new product, but I see no reason to waste what we have left over.
Post a Comment