Glazed Heart Pendant
A Tutorial From Sky Grazer Designs

I came up with this piece while making some experimental pieces with my new Piñata inks and Kato liquid clay. I really liked the effect. Feel free to change the colors, shapes and textures used.

Materials:

• White, or light colored clay
• Piñata inks – rainforest green, passion purple
• Kato Sauce, TLS or Fimo Gel ( I used the Kato liquid clay in this lesson)
• Needle tool or skewer
• Burnishing tool or your choice of tool for smoothing
• Paintbrush
• Molds or stamps of your choice (I used the Amaco Violets & Ivy)
• Mold release such as water, corn starch or talcum powder
• Alcohol for cleanup

Step 1: Form a small ball of clay. Flatten it slightly on your work surface to form a pancake. Pinch one end into a point to form the bottom of the heart. Use the side of a needle tool or a fake credit card to indent a line in the top
as shown.

Step 2: Widen the indent made by the credit card to form the top of the heart. Smooth the edges and refine your shape until you are happy with it.
 

Step 3: Dust your mold with baby powder or other mold release. Press some clay into your mold and then gently remove it. I used a combination of leaves and violets.

Step 4: Arrange them on your heart and press gently. Smooth the edges with the burnishing tool or similar smoothing tool.

Step 5: Make a design on both sides of the heart if you like. I choose to put a single violet on the back of the heart and I used a piece of scrubbing pad to texture the clay around it. 

Step 6: You can pierce the heart for stringing now or choose to drill a hole after it is baked. Another option is to embed a jump ring in the clay.

Step 7: Put some liquid clay into a palette or small container. These little paint cups come in handy to save your colors. Add a drop or two of piñata ink, wait a moment for the alcohol to evaporate, and mix it in with a toothpick. Mix up a purple or blue color and some green. Use your paintbrush to sparingly paint the over the leaves and flowers on one side of the heart.

 
Step 8: Don't worry if the colors bleed into each other – it creates a beautiful glaze effect. Don’t add too much liquid clay though since it will run to the lowest point and form a glop (the technical term for any unsightly mess that you didn’t want to be there). If you have a heat gun, you can set the glaze slightly on the first side and paint the other. Since I don't (YET!!) I put it in the oven laying flat, and baked it for about 10 minutes to set it.

Step 9: Remove the heart from the oven and paint the back of the heart. Bake the heart for the full amount of time needed for your brand of clay. Make sure it’s wet side up!

You can use rubbing alcohol to clean your brush and any spills of liquid clay. I keep a couple of paintbrushes dedicated to liquid clay so I don’t have to worry about getting them completely clean.


Finish: If you want a glassy effect, you could give your heart a coat or two of Future, Flecto, or the varnish of your choice. I chose to leave it as it was since it had a slight shine already. String it on a ribbon for a sweet simple choker.