tarnished leaf
saraja...@dinosaur.com
Dear group
Allow me to clarify what I said in my last post about tarnished leaf.
NONE of the aluminum leaf has tarnished. And Patti-don't switch to
the expensive gold too fast--I've never tested it, so you will need to
experiment to see if that is better for claywork---it might not be!
I THINK that the translucent is the key---some kinds of COLORED
clays are the constant I see in the tarnish problem...any one else
confirm this? that the tarnished bits touch colored, not translucent
clay? Mine all do....backed with colored clay, translucent on top.
And the Flecto Varathane makes a good sealant, I think.
As to the CFC sheets that I baked, which have become brittle--
they were on a #6 pasta setting, and quite thin. Thicker pieces,
such as beads have held up as well as FIMO. And I have some
box lids of CFC with gold foil, sealed with Flecto, that are 6mos
and older with no tarnish. CFC, or Premo Sculpey, I should say
is also changing over time from the very first testing batches,
so longterm testing has to start over again NOW, since it is just
now to the open market.
Sarajane Helm
Vicki L. Domansky
saraja...@dinosaur.com wrote:
> some kinds of COLORED
> clays are the constant I see in the tarnish problem...any one else
> confirm this? that the tarnished bits touch colored, not translucent
> clay? Mine all do....backed with colored clay, translucent on top.
My first problem with tarnish was with a piece that was ONLY Fimo
translucent and gold composite leaf. No coloured clay at all. Tarnish
developed so quickly that I thought the translucent was the problem, until I
found tarnish on my latest pieces that had no translucent in them at all.
The rundown on my pieces with gold composite leaf:
- leaf on raw sculpey translucent/copper mix that has been rolled into
sheets and left open to the air on wax paper - no tarnish after about 10
mos.
- leaf on raw black fimo rolled into sheets and left open to the air on wax
paper - no tarnish after about 10 mos.
- leaf on raw translucent fimo rolled into sheets and left open to the air
on wax paper - small amount of tarnish on leaf after 10 mos., but the leaf
seems to be actually tinting the translucent clay pale green. Clay is quite
green when scrape pieces of gold leaf off. QUESTION -- is the leaf actually
tarnishing, or is the clay on and around it reacting to the leaf??
- leaf on raw tinted translucent fimo, rolled into jelly roll and sliced -
clay where leaf is underneath is very green. Interesting to note that the
leaf which is exposed to air is completely tarnish-free. about 8 mos.
- same jelly roll when sliced into has tarnish outlining the leaf layers.
- leaf sandwiched between raw black fimo and raw translucent fimo rolled
into sheets on wax paper - no tarnish after about 10 mos.
- leaf in raw mokume gane slices with white fimo, gold sculpey and fimo
translucent - slight tarnish in leaf layered between clay and around exposed
leaf, but exposed leaf seems ok after 14 mos.
- leaf in same mokume gane as above but baked - one piece has significant
tarnish after 14 mos. (buffed and coated with Future), smaller one has
slight tarnish after 14 mos. (varnished with Flecto varathane). Looking at
the pieces, it appears it could be the clay that has turned green in the
area of the leaf, not necessarily that the leaf has tarnished green.
- leaf shredded in straight fimo translucent and baked - I noticed the
translucent had turned green pretty much all over from the leaf when I
looked at it about 3 mos. later.
- leaf in mokume gane slices with white, lite turq, and translucent fimo
baked onto bead, Flecto finished- kind of strange - either has tarnished a
dark turquoise instead of green, or there is an extra colour in there I
forgot about :-) Since the dark turq is directly over leaf areas, I think
it is tarnish (a lot). about 14 mos.
- leaf shredded in baked faux lapis (translucent, dk blue and medium blue
fimo), Flecto finished - fair amount of tarnish
- leaf in Donna Kato's "jelly roll" mokume gane (tinted translucent fimo or
sculpey - Skinner blended pink to blue) baked on pendant and finished with
Flecto - looks ok in areas where the leaf shows thickly, but in thinner
areas it looks like the area has darkened with tarnish. At least the layers
no longer shine in the light. about 7 mos.
- leaf applied to gild entire surface of raw pin (mixture of caramel fimo
and copper sculpey), then baked and almost burnt, finished with Future -
tarnish appeared in less than a week. I had given up on saving the pins and
only noticed the tarnish a few days later. Tarnish on various areas of
pins, but definitely most obvious around the cracks and gaps where the clay
was exposed. Since the pins that worked ok were mailed out to the swap
before I noticed the problem, I'm not sure if they have also tarnished (I
really hope not!).
I would be very interested to talk to Tory Hughes or some of the others who
have been teaching with the gold composite leaf for many years to see if
they have had similar problems. Maybe someone could bring this up at
Ravensdale?
Vicki in Vancouver
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/8565
Sherry Bailey
Wow, this gets odder and odder!
It SOUNDS like baking has some influence -- baked samples and raw samples of
the same batch are changing at different rates, is that right?
A Mystery!
I will make it a Ravensdale Quest to try to find out whatever I can about this
if we haven't gotten it figured out here before that.
Sherry
J J J Jami
Oh Vicki, and I thought I was a foil-aholic!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have me beat
hands-down.
I have a thing for varigated foil and I will admit to cruising the foil section
at Aaron Bros for mis-marked foil since it is so horribly expensive. Yesterday
at lunch I found a package of varigated RED mismarked to regular foil price
that had been opened and then returned. not only did I get it for $8.29
instead of $22, but the manager felt bad about it being opened and marked it
down 20% at the register. Varigated red has the most incredible hues of
fuschia and purple and warm reds and I just love it!
Jami Miller