Polymer Clay

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bonsaibill

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I used to use polymer clay to make beads and what not. Has anyone tried to make pens out of them. I have seen some on the web that were molded out of clay. I have experimented with baking the clay on the tubes and then truning them to size. The stuff turns like butter and you can polish it to a nice sheen. It shapes good and the colors are endless.

If anyone has experimented I would like to hear from them.
 
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I think one of the PMG guys was doing it for a while but was not happy with how they held up to use. I also beleive their was a polymer clay tutorial on the Yahoo message board.
 
Thanks for the info. This method is to just roll the clay out and put it on the tube. I am working on actually shaping the oversized blank of clay with a gouge and skew.
 
I had wondered about this woo, and if anyone knows of anywhere that might have such blanks, please share!! There is a lady on ebay who makes polymer clay beads and recently I had seen that she had polymer clay pens. I asked her how she did them and she said someone else did them for her and she didn't really seem to understand when I was asking her about if she had pen blanks of them. I finally figured out that what I think she was doing was taking a bic pen and just wrapping the clay around it somehow. But if you can do that, it would certainly seem like you could do the same around a pen tube to make a pen blank. Maybe it'd have to be one of those like the snakeskin ones that is sold already with the tube inside?
 
Even though Ed's album is quite enjoyable to scroll through (I just went through the whole thing and got very distracted while looking for polymer clay, with other pens that he's made), if you want to jump right to them, start on page 25!
 
http://www.turtlewoodworks.com/pmggallery/pickensjgal1.htm

Jay Pickens was who I was trying to remember. He has some beautiful examples.
 
Hey guys, I wrote an article on polymer clay pen turning for Woodturning Design magazine a while back. I think you can still buy that issue (Summer 2004, page 74) through this link: http://www.woodturningdesign.com/issues/back.shtml

However, after making a couple hundred PC pens, I’ve given up turning the stuff. After about six months to a year, up to 20% of these PC pens have developed cracks. I think it has to do with very low humidity...it gets down to 8-10% here in the high Rockies.
 
Ed and the rest,
I've made about 20 of the PC pens just after your article came out and I have two that I use and the clay doesn't hold up to daily use. I have noticed cracks and chips and our humidity( in Texas) is not as low as the high rockies. I too have not continued the PC route. They are fun to make and some nice patterns are possible, but I could not sell them knowing what will happen to them after a few months of use.
Do a good turrn daily!
Don
Originally posted by YoYoSpin
<br />Hey guys, I wrote an article on polymer clay pen turning for Woodturning Design magazine a while back. I think you can still buy that issue (Summer 2004, page 74) through this link: http://www.woodturningdesign.com/issues/back.shtml

However, after making a couple hundred PC pens, I’ve given up turning the stuff. After about six months to a year, up to 20% of these PC pens have developed cracks. I think it has to do with very low humidity...it gets down to 8-10% here in the high Rockies.
Click to expand...
 
I've made a few pens of Polymer Clay, and like Ed and Don, I have stopped using it due to durability issues. They sure are fun to make, and you can do all kinds of colors. Your time would be better spent with casting polyester resin blanks, and playing with color there.

That being said, I'll tell how I did it. I would form the clay around the brass tube, using whatever combination of colors I wanted. Then I baked in the oven as instructed. Then I squared off the face and turned as usual. I usually turned the speed of the lathe down and just used a sharp spindle gouge. Try to keep your cuts light, as this stuff will chip. I would think that a good CA finsh would help, but I stopped using it before I had a chance to try it. If I were going to encase this in PR, I think I would roll the clay thin and work anintricate design into it, and just wrap the tube instead of turning it.

If anybody has tried CA or PR on polymer clay pens, I would love to hear it!

Scott.
 
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