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Condition dark jade green polymer clay and translucent clay;
about 2/3 green and 1/3 translucent in proportion. Blend these
two together thoroughly, running through pasta machine until
uniform.
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Condition pearl white clay as above. Take thickness of both
clays down to 5.
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To get a 'swirly' natural stone look, take the mixed green
piece and the pearl white piece and put one on top of the other.
Fold once. Run through pasta machine at 9.
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Take the resulting piece and fold *once*... crank down the
machine by one level. Run clay through.
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Fold *once*, crank the machine down one setting again, and
run clay through. Keep doing this until you reach level 5.
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Take the clay and lay it flat (on a piece of plain white paper);
measure a length and width to wrap around bottle and cut the
strip. Also, cut a small circle of the clay for the bottom of
the bottle. It should be able to wrap up the sides a teeny bit.
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Apply the circle to the bottom of the bottle, smoothing up
the sides. Then carefully roll the bottle along the side strip
you've already cut. Overlap edges just a bit, then slice through
both layers to trim. Remove excess piece and smooth seam.
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The neck of the bottle is tricky. Find a dowel, a stick, or
a clay tool that matches the indentation of the neck and carefully
press clay to fit. Slowly roll the tool around the neck until
all is smooth.
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Cut away any excess clay from the top of the bottle, leaving
enough to smooth over the top lip but not inside.
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After smoothing everything down with your fingers, carefully
roll the bottle on a smooth surface (paper, glass, etc). Don't
worry about getting things perfect, since this tiny bottle is
meant to imitate stone.
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Using a rubber stamp and permanent ink, imprint the bottle
with images and/or words. Use light pressure; too much will
poke through to the glass. (Practice on some of your scrap pieces).
Place bottle upright on index card.
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Make a cover for the rubber stopper. Cut out a small circle
cut from your remaining clay and press onto the stopper, smoothing
down along the top edge and trimming any excess. Remove the
formed clay and, keeping the shape intact, place piece on index
card.
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Form a small ball to go on the very top of the stopper. Make
several if you like so you can choose the best looking. Flatten
the bottom slightly, so when glued it will sit properly. Add
this (these) to the index card. Note: if you want to make the
balls into beads, poke the holes now.
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Using a small cutter, or by hand with an exacto knife, make
small leaves from leftover clay (in the example just the green/translucent
clay was used). Draw leaf veins with a toothpick, etc, if desired.
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Bake all clay pieces as directed on polymer clay wrapper.
These bottles were baked at 270 for an hour in a dedicated toaster
oven.
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Let bottle cool completely. Sand pieces down with a fine grit
sanding block, wiping away sanding dust with a cloth afterwards.
This brings out the swirled stone patterns you've created with
mixing the clays.
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Varnish pieces with polymer varnish (the samples used glossy).
Tip: Put the bottle, upside down, over a dowel. Put the dowel
in a clamp, a holder, a piece of styrofoam, etc, to hold it
in place. This way you can paint the varnish on every surface
without touching it.
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When varnish is dry, drill small holes in the leaves. Choose
sage-green embroidery thread and string leaves with other beads
as desired. Tie around bottle neck.
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Glue the lid-cover to the stopper, using a glue that can handle
rubber and clay. E-6000 might be a good choice. Also glue the
small ball atop the lid. Allow to dry, and assemble.
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A nice touch might be to write a teeny note (for example,
a wish for happiness or good luck) and roll it up to be secreted
inside the bottle. Finished!
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