Hello again! I am back trying to get impressions into leather with random things I have floating around, haha. Please make sure to see the first post in this series where I offer a bunch of warnings. This is not an experiment you should try if you are not completely experienced with using your die cut machine and/or if you are still under warranty!
Today I am using a piece of polymer clay that I had pressed into an impression die and didn’t completely love the way it turned out, so I was willing to sacrifice it 😉 . I wanted to try rolling it through the Sizzix Big Shot on a piece of leather to see what happens.
The polymer piece I chose was pretty thick, so I first decided to just use the platform with no tabs. In the video, I decided the original piece of
polymer was too thick. I found the same design but the polymer piece was a little bit thinner. It still seemed a bit too tight when rolling through the Big Shot, but it did seem to give an impression. This was an example on what NOT to do! It really was too tight! Since this video I have used polymer clay imprinted with designs from a myriad of items and it works fabulously as long as it isn’t too thick. I now try to use polymer that has been rolled out to a thickness of maybe 5 or 6 playing cards thick. It is stiff enough to impress the leather, yet pliable enough to go with the pressure of the die cut machine.
Remember, if you are using your die cut machine like the Sizzix Big Shot, again if it’s too tight to roll don’t even try it!
The last try was a piece of polymer that I made by pressing it into a piece of decorative wire (from Potter Press). This piece of polymer was much, much thinner and as I mentioned earlier a little bit flexible. For this sandwich I used the Sizzix Big Shot Multiuse Platform with the thin tab down and the thicker tab out. I tried it but it was a little too easy to roll through so I added a few shims- four pieces of cardstock.
In that sample piece of polymer, I missed a spot when I was pressing it into the clay and that did transfer to the leather so pay attention to your polymer clay making so you get a good impression on the leather if you are going to try this. I’d probably camouflage the spot by putting a little doodad there or something like that because I did like the way it came out. My experiment ended up with the reverse of the patterned piece of copper and I loved the result!
So embossing with polymer clay definitely has a potential and I will be using this in the future pressing all kinds of things into the clay. The sky’s the limit there!
I also would be remiss, but I am assuming y’all are smart enough to know that you need to cure the polymer clay in your toaster oven, or whatever you usually use, following the clay manufacturer’s directions. 😉
Here are some examples of this technique. Enjoy!
