Island Sunset Transfer

Turn a favorite photo into a beautiful clay masterpiece with this Island Sunset Transfer from Polyform Products. It's easy to follow along with this polymer clay tutorial. You'll learn how to take a photo you treasure and turn it into a piece of artwork. You can use the photo transfer on a magnet or even a piece of DIY jewelry. Not only is this a stunning craft, it's also a great conversation piece because you can tell inquisitive friends and acquaintances about how that picture came to be.
 

Materials:

• Sculpey® III: Jewelry Gold - 2 oz-- 2 blocks
• Premo! Sculpey®: Black - 2 oz-- 1 block
• Clay Conditioning Machine
• Clay Extruder
• Sculpey® Super Slicer
• Black and white transfer, printed on a Laser printer (not ink jet)
• Rubbing alcohol
• Cotton ball

Video:

Instructions:

1. Trim the transfer with only a small ¼ inch selvage. Roll the Jewelry Gold clay out on the #1 setting of the Clay Conditioning Machine to create a sheet of clay that is a little larger than the transfer.
   
   
    
2. Place the transfer face down on the clay and rub the ENTIRE surface of the paper with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol. You want the surface damp, but not wet. Look for any bubbles and rub them out.
   
   
    
3. Allow the alcohol to evaporate and repeat the process. Once the alcohol has evaporated a second time, swipe the paper with the cotton ball again and slowly peel up a corner of the transfer to see if enough ink has transferred. If not, slowly lay the corner down and repeat step 2 again. In this case, the flaws in the transfer actually helped “age” the image.
   
   
    
4. Use a craft knife to trim the edge of the transfer. The edges are not perfectly straight.
   
   
    
5. Extrude some of the Jewelry Gold clay using the half circle dye. Use a toothpick to texture the extruded clay to resemble bamboo. Create 4 pieces that are roughly an inch longer than the two widths and lengths.
   
   
    
6. Roll out a sheet of the Black clay on the #1 setting and then put the Clay Conditioning Machine on #3 and roll the sheet of clay through again. Position the transfer on the clay and lay the “bamboo” strips so that some of the black shows on each side and the strips overlap at the corners. Use the toothpick to lightly mark lines on each of the bamboo sections.
   
   
    
7. Use the craft blade to carefully trim the Black clay to the edges of the “bamboo” strips.
   
   
    
8. Bake according to the clay package directions.