Glazing charms question!

[PixieHearts]

Hi there! Whilst glazing charms, you obviously cannot set it down as the glaze will stick to the surface it is on. What are your contraptions for hanging charms while they're being glazed?

[neiceysclaythings]

A thin, but thick piece of wood with several nails, in a row hammered not all the way in. And then the piece of wood is nailed right into the top of the door jam.

[neiceysclaythings]

Katrina - Just went and checked out your shop! Such cute stuff!!!

[ClayTree]

I love this question!

Sometimes I stick a tooth pick through the eye pin while painting or glazing then to set it down, I put the tooth pick in a lump of play dough - my daughter hasn't noticed yet ; ) which is wrapped in plastic wrap to keep it soft.

My other method, usually for over night drying, is a wire shelf that I bought at the dollar store and never used. It sort of looks like a tiny shoe rack. I cut some small bits of cheap wire and bent them into hooks. I can paint the charm while holing onto the wire, then when I'm done, I just hang it up on the shelf. Very handy!

[PixieHearts]

Thank you both :D What I've been doing is bending wire into a hook which I stick in clay, much like what Heather said, but sometimes I have way too many charms that I feel like I need some sort of contraption. I think I'll try the wire shelf since I have one handy at the moment!

[jangeisen]

I also use a wire shaped into an S hook. I hang them on the clothes line in my laundry room. Lots of room since the clothes line is one of those multi strand retractable ones. I use the same method for glazing beads, only I use a longer wire with only one hook. I put a #6 seed bead between each PC bead. When I have filled up the wire I bend it at the bottom to keep the beads on it, and hang it out to dry.

[Former_Member]

I use my head pin to make a hook at the end and hang it from an earring holder.

Before that I glazed in section.... Glazing was like a day event before I started using my earring holder! (It was only 10 bucks at Claires! Good deal!)

[Former_Member]

I do something similiar. Almost all my items are charms, so they all have a wire or headpin in them. I'll hold onto the wire while glazing them, then stick them upside down into a brick of clay to dry.

[TheHeatherWells]

Hmmm...

I actually don't put the metal componants in until after they are cured.

After my pieces are finished, I start the glazing process. if the bottom of my
pieces are completely flat I will glaze the whole thing and let it dry on my plastic containers that I store them in and let them dry completely before taking them off the plastic.

If my piece doesn't really have a front or back I will glaze one one side first, let it dry then glaze the other side.

After the glaze is completely dry I force a hole into the cured clay.

[Former_Member]

Wow, you force a hole in after it's cooked? Do you make a hole all the way through or just a small one for a screw eye? I've tried to do that in the past and my item has cracked.

[Former_Member]

Back when I was doing charms I built a collapsible thing so I could take it apart and put it in a drawer. It was basically a flat piece of wood with two holes in either end. I put dowels in the holes and it had a ribbon between the dowels. I sewed fish hooks with the ends cut off so they weren't pokey, like these ones,
http://singlebarbed.com/2010/07/16/when-a-great-fish-hook-goes-bad/
at intervals along the ribbon so I could just slide the loop onto the fish hook. Probably hard to imagine, but it worked really well. I left the single barb on because if the charm was really heavy and tilted the hook, the barb caught it.

[TheHeatherWells]

Alia B. from Outpost8 says

Wow, you force a hole in after it's cooked? Do you make a hole all the way through or just a small one for a screw eye? I've tried to do that in the past and my item has cracked.
-----------------------------------------------------------
It is best for me actually I make 20-50 of the same food in a batch. Some people occasionally want them plain, or on a ring pr bobby pins, or the hole needs to be in a different place for beaded bracelets. Often I make one of each (1 ring, set of bobby pins, one pair of earrings, a charm)
Then the rest are left plain, and made after the item is ordered

Usually cracking isn't a problem in my polymer clay (premo/sculpey),
They will crack though if I didn't condition well enough. Most of my items go in the oven many times and made in layers though.. so they are completely cured.

Many times they are so hard once I have the safety pin in I use the flat head pliers to finish forcing it through. I tend to rotate the pin as I apply the pressure to make it easier.

I know this is a long answer, but it is a quick process, and allows me to go a little longer between batches

I force in a hole using pins for sewing, and safety pins

[TheHeatherWells]

Ohh, I go all the way through.. and use head pins...

[Former_Member]

You can always use a dremel and drill a hole too! I do that all the time. You just have to buy the tiny drill bits... Harbor Freight carries them.

[TheHeatherWells]

Thanks :)

I know that they are supposed to be really useful!

Heather

[Former_Member]

Huh, it's so interesting to hear how other people do things when we all use the same medium. Heather I love your shop, btw! Your food is so realistic. :)

[Former_Member]

A wire cookie wrack. Can hang tons safely with a needle that you use on bead trays. Works great and looks pretty too.

[averilpam]

It's great hearing what everyone uses! For beads I use cocktail sticks and stick them into a slab of old clay to dry. For pendants etc I varnish one side at a time and leave them flat on a tile to dry. Of course this takes ages if I do more than one coat which I usually do!
I have a small hand drill for making holes, with bits that go from really teeny tiny to about 1.5mm. With beads I usually put the hole in before I bake, or at least mark a starter hole at each side. I've ruined some lovely beads drilling them badly! I find if I stop as soon as the drill starts to break through at the back and then drill from that side it stops it cracking up. Also starting with a very small hole and building up to larger, particularly for buttons also stops cracking at the back.

[Former_Member]

I use a piece of styrofoam edging/brace (recycled from appliances, furniture) and simply stick the head/eyepins through. I weigh it down with a few tiles so it doesn't tip over. Both sides can be used over and over again.

[TheHeatherWells]

Do any of you miss the old sculpey glaze :(
I want them to bring it back soooo bad

[TheHeatherWells]

I called and complained and basicly the scientist that changed the formula said to find a new product... That the reformulated glaze wont work for what I did with it in the past.

I am down to my last 3 bottles. ughh..

[jangeisen]

I miss the Fimo glaze, which has probably been gone for at least 10 years. I used to mix the gloss and the matt and get a really nice satin finish that looked like it was hand rubbed. That was a lot less work than the sanding and buffing I need to do now.

[TheHeatherWells]

I do like the deco gel.. I will be using some for soup soon :)

[TheHeatherWells]

I didn't get the chance to use the fimo glaze though

[TheHeatherWells]

It sucks when you depend on a product and it gets discontinued :(