Fried Brain Series 1

[bananajeep]

My first attempt at using polymer clay for pen blanks. These are both from the same batch of clay, my "Fried Brain" series. Both with a CA finish. I thought they turned out pretty cool (photo needs some work). What do you guys think?





Mike

 

[jtate]

Cool! Is this Fimo clay? I just baked up a batch of 'blanks; from fimo, thinking that I would drill them and see if they could be turned. Brilliant minds must think alikle, huh?

How was the stuff to turn?

 

[bananajeep]

Originally posted by jtate
<br />Cool! Is this Fimo clay? I just baked up a batch of 'blanks; from fimo, thinking that I would drill them and see if they could be turned. Brilliant minds must think alikle, huh?

How was the stuff to turn?

This was Sculpey III, I think it is basically the same as Fimo. I covered the brass tubes with the clay then baked them, so no need to drill them, just trim and go. I used a spindle gouge and skew. They turned nicely. finished them off with CA.

Mike

 

[pmichris]

I like the look, I think I could find several buyers in my area. Where did you get the clay from?

 

[bananajeep]

Originally posted by pmichris
<br />I like the look, I think I could find several buyers in my area. Where did you get the clay from?

I got the clay from Michael's. I did some research online to figure out some cool designs. The pieces were made from a "cane". The design did not turn out as intended, but the result was good none the less.

 

[johncrane]

G'Day Mike your pen looks fantastic my first try at clay pens was not good l used the wrong clay when l tryed to bake it.IT all whent wrong l just smoked out the house and l was not very liked after that one. l have the Sculpey clay now but have not tryed it yet'could you tell me how long did you bake it and what temp you used thanks yours has turned out great well done.[]

 

[TBone]

Reminds me of the 60's []

 

[splinter99]

I see a Gratefull Dead pen in the works..Ive got to try that

 

[gerryr]

Very interesting. It does look pretty psychedelic.

 

[cozee]

Sweet! My list of things to get at hobby Lobby just grew by one!

 

[NavyDiver]

Yeah, but can you turn one out of a lava lamp?[]

 

[wudnhed]

Very Cool! My first attempt at PC was not good but you gave me some ideas. Thanks []

 

[Dario]

Are you using a regular oven to bake these or a kiln? How long and at what temp?

Very nice and gives us more posibilities. Good idea!!!

 

[Randy_]

I think you are going to turn off a lot of customers with that name.

 

[wood-of-1kind]

Originally posted by Randy_
<br />I think you are going to turn off a lot of customers with that name.

Grooovey, man. <s>Pass</s> er, I mean do another. They're a 'turn'on.

-Peter-

 

[Charles]

Ditto what John and Dario said. Please let us know the temp and time and about wether it was a klin or a reg. oven. BTW Great Looking Pen. Kinda' Shagadelic Man.

 

[Radman]

Smokin'!

 

[TBone]

Originally posted by Radman
<br />Smokin'!

Yeah, but what? [][]

Pen looks really good, but it does remind me of the posters from that era, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, etc.

 

[bananajeep]

I googled polymer clay. I found the following site useful. (http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/masterindex.html). Under the topic of Canework you will find techniques and designs. basically you make a long roll "cane" which contains your design and you cut slices from it and press them onto to the brass tubes (no glue or prep) and press them togetther to fill the gaps. pop the blanks in the regular oven on a piece of foil for 15 minute (per 1/4 inch or 6mm thickness) at 275 F (130 C). I put mine in for about 17 minutes. When the come out of the oven they are still a little soft. Let hem cool and they are ready to trim and turn. I wet sand with mm up to 12000 and finish with CA. I did not take picture while making these. Next batch I'll take picture along the way. Let me know if you have any more questions. I made two pens start (open pkg of clay) to finsh (showing off to my wife)in one evening.

Mike

 

[pete00]

Mike

i like it!!
in fact its neat-o-peachy-keen[][]

, thanks for posting

pete

 

[chigdon]

Groovy

 

[chitswood]

Hahaha, that looks crazy, thoug I don't think fried brain bast describes it.

 

[JimGo]

REALLY cool design, and neat looking pen. There's an article in one of the polymer clay magazines from late last year or early this year about a guy who has specially-made slimline kits for use with polymer clay. If I recall correctly, his components do not press fit; they are simply glued into place. This is to help prevent introducing any stress onto the PC during assembly. Others here have spoken about using PC for pen bodies, and I think they mentioned that it is fairly brittle. I thought about trying CA to help "stabilize" the PC, and will be curious to hear how this pen holds up. Please keep us updated!