Bird Image Transfer on Polymer 03/20
I haven’t done this in a while. The bird thing image was used which is what I had in mind when created it. Previous attempts at this was achieved by burnishing the image on paper onto polymer then removing the paper after a five minute sit in the toaster oven. I was never able to get consistent results this way.
I picked up a copy of Donna Kato’s creative surfaces techniques sometime ago. In the book she describes another technique involving burnishing the image to clay then wetting the paper and slowly rubbing it off without heat setting. As she claims the results are superior and more consistent. It is also easier to trim away the excess clay making a cleaner looking piece. I didn’t reverse the image but not an issue here.
Both images were printed from my monochrome laser printer on common copier paper and transfered to white Premo Sculpey clay. With the piece on the right Prismacolor pencil was applied to the paper. The pigment transfer was superior as well. Life is easier in this respect at least.
Cindy Lietz said,
March 22, 2008 @ 6:30 pm
I love doing image transfers this way in fact I have a tutorial on this technique at: http://hubpages.com/hub/polymer-clay-tutorials-photo-transfer-beads-77
But I have never tried coloring the image before transfering it. I love what you’ve made, they are very beautiful. I am really surprised how bright the colors are. Do you have to use Prisma Color pencils, or will regular pencil crayons work?
Glynn Black said,
March 23, 2008 @ 6:44 am
Cindy,
Thank you for the compliments. I think what medium you use to color your image before the transfer is a matter of experimentation. I like to use best quality I can afford whatever I use to insure the permanence of the pigments. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with something I bought out of a department store such as walmart.
With the water method I did find a certain amount of bleeding with the color pencils. Cutting away as much of the excess clay as you can get away with helps hid the problem. The bleed off of the Prismacolor pencils I used was minimal. I tried a set of metallic Prismacolor pencils with much less success. I wound up with a muddled looking wash.
Appreciate the link to your tutorial. I will look it over to see your approach. If you do experiment with other mediums with any success I would be interested in your results.
Regina Coffee said,
March 26, 2008 @ 11:30 am
These are great. Makes me want to try.
Regina
Cindy Lietz said,
April 6, 2008 @ 8:10 pm
Did try some ‘colored in’ transfers with some watercolor pencils. Did run into a few problems, but eventually got it to work. Couldn’t remove all the paper before baking like I normally would, but if I baked for five minutes the wet the paper and rubbed it off, it worked pretty good. Thanks for the info, I love love the idea of adding some color to my B/W transfers!
Glynn Black said,
April 6, 2008 @ 9:43 pm
Cindy,
Appreciate you passing that information on. I used to get some pretty decent transfers with some of my black and white photos from my laser printer by heat setting them on the polymer first. It was hit and miss most of the time, a corner lifting or pinhole here or there but I was pleased a lot of the time. Without heat setting first the continuous toned images have been blurred and a disappointment.
I hadn’t thought about rubbing the image off after heating. I will give that a try. What brand of watercolor pencils do you use btw?
Thanks.