Crackle technique

OK, here are my first attempts at crackle technique.

Black Premo with IndigoBlu Autumn Blaze.

I love the colours of these flakes.  They are huge!  I realised too late that I needed to open them out before applying them and ended up picking off concertinaed bits, which of course did not stick to each other.

The technique worked nicely, but I ended up with too thin a sheet to handle easily.  When I put it onto a backing sheet, I must have trapped some air.  I only noticed after I had baked it.  Or possibly the air bubbles rose up in the baking and became more obvious.  How frustrating and disappointing.  I want to do a perfect job instantly.  Grrr.

I notice I also stretched the sheet in mostly one direction but then changed my mind and decided to even it up a bit.  I now see I need to either even it up completely or stick to one direction of crackle.  Also I need to pay attention to the direction introduced to the pieces when I cut for earrings.  I had been mean with the polymer clay and was then constrained into picking those pieces to get any at all from the clay.  I hate wasting clay, but have to learn to be a bit more generous with it.  I need scrap for one thing!

Also I decided to texture the back, but did it with a deep texture sheet which look daft on the back of the piece.  It needs to be something a lot more subtle for the back.  

I got the domed effect using my antique pie tin turned upside down.  That worked :)  It's just the right amount of curve.  I congratulated myself on getting something right, and determine to learn and move on.

I braided some metallic sari thread to string the pendant onto, but it is too stiff and the pendant is too light to make the thread hang well.  

It all makes a pretty blingy (I made up a new word) set which I am not sure I'd wear except at Christmas.

1. Separate the flakes into single thickness pieces to stick on your clay
2. Check for trapped air and slice and squeeze out before baking
3. Don't be too mean with the clay, it just makes things more difficult
4. Simple black cord goes on my shopping list
5. Don't be downhearted when it doesn't work perfectly.  Be pleased about learning something, Move on.
6. I suspect no. 5 is going to be the most important one.