Textures in Metal Clay

Texturing with common household items and "found" natural materials

Once you start working with metal clay, you start looking at everything around you through a different lens (so to speak). Indoors or out, from your backyard to your refrigerator, you'll start to look at things and think, "wow, that would make a great texture on metal clay!" Sure, you can buy or make texturing tools, but if you use your imagination, you can find a nearly endless variety of textures just sitting around your kitchen, bathroom, garage, and even your refrigerator! And Mother Nature provides fabulous textures wherever you go - leaves, tree bark, shells, dried pasta, fruit peels, feathers, etc.

Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Kitchen Tools and Supplies. There's no end to what your kitchen can provide for texturing metal clay. CeCe Wire made a famous ring design using a meat tenderizer for the texture pattern! Use an oiled garlic press to extrude strands of clay. Potato mashers, sponges, plastic scouring mesh, plastic netting from onions, ornate silverware handles - once you start looking for texture ideas in your kitchen, you'll see them everywhere. Yard sales are another great place to find cheap kitchen tools that make great textures. Drag the tines of a fork across your clay (or a layer of slip) to create parallel lines, straight or wavy. Impress aspic cutters partway into your clay in overlapping patterns. Ditto with straw ends of different sizes to create circle patterns. Caveat: When choosing texture tools from your kitchen, avoid those made of aluminum (or spray them with acrylic lacquer and dedicate them to metal clay use).
• Hardware/Garage Items. Your stash of hardware, tools and automotive items is a treasure trove of texture possibilities: screwdrivers, screws, nails, broken reflector lamps from cars or bicycles, old tire treads, pieces of torn window screening, etc. Leftover bricks, vinyl siding scraps and lumber with interesting grain patterns can make great textures; capture them with 2-part molding compound. Lightly-oiled coarse sandpaper makes a very interesting texture. Again, yard sales are a texture-scavenger's paradise for these types of items.
• Bathroom Items. Combs, ridged caps from toothpaste and other plastic tubes, jars or bottles (tip: you can drill a hole in the center, use a pin tool as a handle and roll the cap across the surface of your clay), toothbrushes, makeup sponges, rubber eyelash curler pads, clean mascara wands and more can be found in your bathroom.
• Textiles. Burlap, cheesecloth, lace, embroidered ribbons, appliqués and crocheted doilies all make great texturing tools for metal clay. Wonderful scraps of lace or stained doilies can be found at yard sales for very little money (or in the attic for nothing, if you're lucky!).
• Office Supplies. A clean typewriter ball is great for impressing individual letters and numbers on clay, although you have to be very careful when you use it. Changeable date/message stamps are much easier to use, especially the new magnetic ones. Take apart an old, cheap ballpoint pen that's run out of ink and use every part of it - the barrel, the tip, the end, even the pocket clip, if it has one - to impress textures into your clay.
• Metal, Leather and Clay Tools. Check out the tools you already own to see whether they can be re-purposed for texturing metal clay. Leather embossing stamps can be pressed into soft clay, as can metal stamps (just be sure to use a release agent, such as olive oil or a non-stick spray, before using with metal clay). Ball stylus tips make wonderful texture tools, as do burnishers, blades, paintbrush handles... just about anything in your toolkit, if you look at it with an eye for texture possibilities.
• Jewelry and Jewelry Making Supplies. Charms, jewelry, brass stampings and beads can be pressed directly into your clay or into 2-part molding compound. Create a changeable rolling texture tool by lightly oiling a bead with a great surface, sliding it onto a needle tool and rolling it along the surface of your clay.
• Pantry/Refrigerator. Everything from dried pasta to citrus peel can used to texture metal clay. Look beyond the obvious: breakfast cereals, corn husks, even oiled gummy candies can be used to impress textures. Some items, like the dried pasta, can be left pressed into the clay to burn out in the kiln. The rest, including the gummy candies, should be oiled, pressed into the clay and removed, or you can make molds from them and then use the molds with your metal clay. (You'll find lots of information about molding materials in this lens.)
• Nature. Tree bark, leaves, twigs, nutshells, pine needles, pine cones and seashells are just a few of the many natural textures you can capture in metal clay. Press them directly into the clay or make molds from them (see Texturing Tools to Make, below).
• Found Objects. This is the most fun part of finding texturing opportunities. Buttons, carved moldings, old silverware, carved boxes, thimbles, wire mesh, plastic needlepoint canvas, knobs, finials, molded or textured glass - nearly anything can become a texture tool for metal clay. Start looking around your home - and at the world - through a different lens and you'll never be at a loss for texturing ideas. Keep small amounts of 2-part molding compound with you (you can put some into clean film canisters or buy individual-sized packages) to pick up textures you discover - a concrete sidewalk, wrought iron railing, slate tile, brick, etc.

Make your own one-of-a-kind textures to use with metal clay!

Silicone molding putty molds, tear-away textures, carved polymer clay texture plates, photopolymer plates (PPP) and more!

Lavender colored flexible texture sheets and molds made by impressing Kosher salt (left), three antique buttons and a brass flower stamping into Knead-a-Mold two-part silicone molding compound; green polymer clay tear-away texture papers made from Dover royalty-free clip art; green texture plates made by carving cured slabs of Premo polymer clay with Dockyard micro carving tools (v-gouges and u-gouges); small photopolymer plate strip with two name stamps (made to impress into the insides of ring bands).

There are lots of fabulous commercially-available texture mats, molds, stamps, etc. But since they're available to any other artist who chooses to purchase them, there's always the risk that someone else will end up making something that looks very similar to your designs. The way to guarantee that each of your designs is unique is to design and make your own textures and molds for impressing your metal clay. And it's really easy to do! Here are some of the most popular materials and methods for creating your own texturing materials.

• Make molds or texture sheets with a two-part molding compound. Just mix together Part A and Part B of the molding compound according to directions (generally with silicone molding putty, you mix equal amounts of Part A and Part B until marbled or, in some cases, until the mixture achieves a uniform color) and press the item you want to mold into the mixture. (A personal note - I've had better luck when I mix the two compounds to a uniform color even when the directions say you don't need to, but you have to work fast to press your item into the mold before the mixture starts to set up.)
  
  Like epoxy, proportions matter! I use plastic spoons that look like tiny measuring cups to measure out exactly equal amounts of each part. If you have to eyeball the amounts, try rolling each part into a separate ball to make sure both balls are the same size before you mix them together. (While not strictly necessary for most of these compounds, it also helps if you can contain the mold in a makeshift frame and weight it down with something heavy while the putty cures around the object you're molding.) Wait the recommended time and then test the mold by pressing your fingernail into the outside of the mold (the part that won't touch the clay). If it springs back immediately without leaving a dent, the mold has cured and you can remove your item. Each compound is a little different, so follow the detailed instructions for its proper use.
  
  Many smooth-surfaced items don't need to be coated in a release before molding, but matte items may stick unless you first coat them with a thin smear of olive oil, Badge Balm, Cool Slip, etc., or spray them with acrylic lacquer and let them dry before molding. When in doubt, use a release agent on the item to be molded.
  
  Some popular brands of 2-part molding compound include Castaldo Quick-Sil, Cold Mold, Belicold, Puffinalia's Miracle Mold, Mega-Sil, Silicone Plastique Alley Goop and HattieS. Art Clay World also sells its own brand of 2-part silicone molding compound. My personal favorite is Knead-a-Mold by Townsend Atelier - not inexpensive, but it captures amazing detail.
  
  A final note about 2-part silicone molding compounds: They have a very limited shelf life! Don't buy more than you think you'll be able to use up within six months..
• Get crisp-edged, detailed textures from black-and-white images by making them into photopolymer plates. Once you create a simple set-up with a UV light (available at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc., or you can use a manicurist's UV nail gel curing lamp from a beauty supply store like Sally Beauty Supply) and purchase the special sheets of photopolymer plate material, creating your own custom texture plates or stamps from black and white artwork is a quick and easy. Basically, you copy your image onto a piece of acetate (overhead transparency sheet), reverse the acetate copy so the design is backwards, lay it over the photopolymer plate, cover it with a piece of glass and back it with a cushioning of thin bubble wrap (or foam) Clamp the "sandwich" together with bulldog clips and expose the top to UV light to harden the parts of the design that are transparent, then scrub out the soft, unexposed material (where the design was black) under barely tepid water with a brush. Expose it again to harden the newly washed-out areas, brush with vegetable oil, and you've got your own, one-of-a-kind texture mat or stamp. A detailed tutorial, including a test strip for determining the correct exposure times for your individual setup, and an illustrated demo are available on Maggie Bergman's wonderful site. Whole Lotta Whimsy has a great video tutorial on making PPPs, and Art Clay World has another excellent tutorial. Whole Lotta Whimsy also sells thermal negative film and developer, which requires another step but creates the crispest results, especially if your pattern has any fine lines.
• Create subtle textures with soft edges (perfect for applying gold foil accents using the keum-boo technique) by making polymer clay tear-away textures. This wonderful technique was invented by polymer clay artist Gwen Gibson in the mid-1990s and then developed further and refined by metalsmith, polymer clay and metal clay artist Celie Fago for more consistently repeatable results. It involves warming and burnishing toner-based photocopies against polymer clay and then tearing away the paper so that a layer of polymer clay adheres to the toner in the image. The paper is then baked to harden the polymer clay. The resulting texture is low-relief, making it perfect for texturing metal clay that will be used for keum-boo (diffusion-bonding gold to the surface of the silver). Excellent, detailed instructions for the tear-away technique are available in Celie's book, Keum-Boo on Silver, which you can purchase from her directly. It is also available from many of the metal clay suppliers. Be sure to purchase the "Revised and Expanded" edition.
  
  Sadly, the future of tear-away textures is uncertain at the moment. All polymer clays have been reformulated to remove phthalates, which are the key ingredient required for the clay to bond successfully with the toner. Fortunately, Polymer Clay Express still has a good supply of the discontinued Studio by Sculpey clay in stock (which contains phthalates), so you can buy up what you think you'll need for the next year or two, by which time hopefully another material and/or technique that produces similar results will have been developed. Also, some artists have had good results using white Fimo Soft polymer clay for their tear-away textures.
• Create custom molds and texture sheets with polymer clay. Sculpey Super Elasticlay MOLDMAKER was designed specifically for making one-sided flexible push molds. The clay needs to be baked before using the mold and it doesn't take detail as finely as the 2-part molding compounds, but it's also far less expensive. You can also make a reusable texture mat by rolling out a slab of conditioned polymer clay (I recommend Premo), pressing in a texture and curing it according to the polymer clay package directions. Many molded or embedded items can be baked along with the clay to retain the best detail and then removed after baking. You also can make a texture mat by sliding a bead with an interesting surface onto a needle tool and rolling it across the surface of the clay before baking.
• Carve-your-own texture plates with micro-carving gouges. You can use knives, files, woodcarving or linoleum gouges to carve your own textures from baked polymer clay, wax tablets used for jewelry casting, rubber carving sheets, even erasers! Caveat: Don't try to re-carve over your lines - the resulting image won't have clean edges. I like mixing colored and metallic Premo polymer clay into a homogeneous mixture, conditioning it well and rolling it through the thickest setting of my pasta machine (dedicated to polymer clay use only!), cutting it into rectangles (usually around 3"x4" or so - any larger although they can be any size you like), baking them perfectly flat and then carving the flattest/smoothest side with Dockyard microcarving tools. The Dockyard carvers are the sharpest and best tools I've ever used, and I recommend them highly! Celie Fago wrote a wonderful blog post about making and carving your own polymer clay texture sheets as well as another excellent post about different types of carving tools that includes some additional tips on carving polymer clay texture sheets.
• Design your own custom rubber stamps. Many printing companies will take black-and-white artwork you supply and turn it into a custom rubber stamp for you (be careful not to give them copyrighted images that you don't own!). I recommend sending your artwork to ReadyStamps, a division of the United Cerebral Palsy Association of San Diego. ReadyStamps provides excellent-quality rubber stamps as well as employment and training to people with disabilities, so you get a great product while also helping promote the independence of disabled workers. Make sure when you order your stamp to ask for the plate and matrix with which it was made as well as the rubber stamp itself. These are terrific texturing tools and really give you a bang for your buck!
• Make temporary molds and textures with reusable molding materials. MagicStamp is a heat-sensitive, reusable, moldable foam material. Heat it according to directions, press in the object whose texture you want to capture and let it cool. When you're done with your mold, reheat it and press in a new object to create a different mold. Oyumaru is another reusable molding material that is softened by heat. Dip it into hot water for 3 minutes, remove it with tongs, wipe it dry and press the item to be molded while the Oyumaru is still warm and soft. If it hardens before you have finished impressing the texture, just put it back into the hot water to soften it again.
• Etch permanent brass texture plates that will capture the details of even intricate designs. It is possible to create permanent texture plates from brass or copper sheet metal by applying a resist to the metal that you want to remain raised and then etching away the exposed areas of the metal. (You also can use this technique on silver to etch sheet metal as a jewelry making material, using different etching chemicals.) This gives you control over how deep you want the etch to be, and the texture plates will last indefinitely. You can also get shallow textures similar to tear-away textures, except that the edges of the etched metal textures are crisper than those of polymer clay tear-away textures. Most of the mordants (the chemicals that eat away at the metal) are potentially dangerous and must be handled with care and disposed of properly.
  
  There is an excellent step-by-step how-to article by Mona Clee in the November 2006 issue of Art Jewelry Magazine about etching brass or copper texture plates with PnP (Press n Peel) paper and ferric chloride.. If you don't own the back issue, you can purchase the article individually as a PDF download.
  
  Artist, author and teacher Sherri Haab, who sells the E3 Etch System she and her husband developed, has published the handout from her presentation on etching at the 2010 PMC Conference, which explains the various types of resists and compares the pros and cons of chemical vs. electrolytic etching methods. She also has published additional information and a very helpful video demo of her E3 Etch System.
  
  There also is an excellent 2004 article on "Better-Safer Etching" on by Gail Nelson on The Ganoksin Project site.
  
  And Linda Woods, a teacher at St. John's Lower School in Texas, has written a simple, step-by-step teaching lesson plan/tutorial on etching copper or brass sheet.
• Make your own custom steel stamping tools (from inexpensive allen wrenches or large nails!). If you have metalsmithing skills, you can make your own steel stamps. Victoria Lansford tells you how on her web site, and Tim McCreight also explains the process in his iconic book, "The Complete Metalsmith," published by Brynmorgen Press.
• Make your own texture sheets with dimensional fabric paint and non-porous paper. An easy way to make your own original drawings into one-of-a-kind texture sheets is to draw your design on non-porous paper (such as glossy photo paper) with a fine-point black permanent marker and go over the lines, dots, etc. with dimensional fabric paint from the craft or sewing store. (You also can create a design on the computer with a graphics program and print it out on the glossy photo paper before applying the dimensional fabric paint.) Allow the paint to dry/cure at least 24 hours (you definitely don't want fabric paint coming off onto your metal clay!). To use these texture sheets, lightly oil the surface of the clay rather than the texture.
  
  Tip: If your design is not symmetrical, you'll need to paint over a mirror image of your drawing so that the impression of the design in the clay faces the correct way. There are a few ways of doing this:
  • If you created your drawing with a graphics program, one way is to use the same program to reverse the image (flip it horizontally) and then print it out onto the glossy photo paper.
  • Another option is to print the original image from the graphics program onto a sheet of transparency film and then to photocopy the back (unprinted side) of the transparency onto the glossy photo paper.
  • If you are going to draw the image by hand, do it with a fine-point non-permanent marker onto plain white paper (so the marker ink won't bleed through the paper). Photocopy the drawing onto a sheet of transparency film and then photocopy the back (unprinted side) of the transparency onto glossy photo paper.
• Create a texture sheet that simulates metal granulation. Artist, author and instructor Patrik Kusek came up with a neat idea for texturing clay to simulate granulated metal. He posted a video demonstration of how to make a granulation texture sheet on his blog. The "glitter" actually is tiny glass microbeads, and the basic technique involves taking a drawing or a printout of the desired design, tracing over the design with white glue, pouring a thick layer of microbeads on top and then pouring off the excess beads. After the glue dries, impress the microbeaded texture onto a slab of two-part molding compound metal clay, so that the bead balls protrude from the clay instead of being impressed into it.
• Turn a textured bead into a texture roller. Patrik Kusek also has a video demo for creating a texture roller from a bead. This quick and easy-to-make tool is created by folding and shaping a piece of craft wire into a simple handle and then bending the tips of the wire so they fit into the holes of a textured bead. Patrik's demo also shows how this type of roller can be used to create different textures simply by rolling it over the clay from multiple directions.
  
  Texture rollers create infinitely repeating patterns, making them ideal for texturing clay that is longer or wider than commercial textures.

Texturing with Clay-on-Clay

Impressing or molding isn't the only way to add great textures. Try adding more clay to your clay!

• Metal clay shavings or gratings. When you carve dried metal clay, save the shavings. Alternatively, take a bone-dry piece of clay and grate it on a cheese grater or something similar, or shave off pieces with a tissue blade or old vegetable peeler. Paint a generous amount of paste clay onto your piece and sprinkle heavily with the shavings. Press them into the paste to make sure they adhere well.
• Paste clay textures. Paint a thick layer of paste clay onto your piece and texture it while still wet. You can use a spatula like a frosting knife to create stucco textures, or draw a lightly-oiled pin tool or comb through it, just for starters.
• Sheet/paper clay appliqués. Cut or punch shapes from PMC+ sheet or Art Clay paper type metal clay and attach (appliqué) them to rolled-out lump clay with a very light brush of water (on the underside of the cutout only!). Press with your barely-oiled fingertip or paintbrush handle. You also can laminate the remaining metal clay paper/sheet (negative image) onto rolled out lump clay to create recessed areas where the paper was cut or punched out. These recessed "cells" can be filled with enamel, resin, etc., if desired.
• Syringe textures. Syringe clay embellishments are a great way to add texture to your piece. Dots, parallel lines, crosshatchee latticework, filigree-like curlicues - these are just a few of the ways to add texture to your piece.
• Slip trailing. This is a decorative technique borrowed from the world of pottery. It creates a result somewhat similar to syringe but much more organic, with softly rounded edges, since the slip is a bit thinner than the syringe clay and doesn't hold its shape as precisely. It's almost like "painting" with slip, except that only the slip itself, and not the brush or other applicator, touches the greenware on which it is being applied. Slip trailing is best done with slip about the consistency of heavy cream. If it's too thick, it leaves points where the applicator is removed and can't be pulled out into a thread to make thin/delicate lines. If it's too thin, it spreads out too much (and may not have enough viscosity to hold together when you try to draw it out into a thread). To learn more about slip trailing with metal clay, I highly recommend the chapter written by Terry Kovalcik called "Developing Form with Slip" in the excellent book, PMC Technic.
• Metal clay veneer. Jay Humphreys invented a unique Metal Clay Veneer solution (formerly called PMC Veneer solution)that can be mixed with metal clay and poured onto textures to create flexible, textured sheets of metal clay. You can use them for embellishments, bezels, and much more. You can purchase both the Starter Kit and the Refill Kit for Metal Clay Veneer from Whole Lotta Whimsy. Petra Wennberg has put together a Squidoo lens on Metal Clay Veneer.

Create a range of texture by carving, filing, drilling or watcher etching dried clay!

Carving, filing, drilling, water etching

There are lots of opportunities to add texture to metal clay greenware (i.e., dried metal clay)..Here are a few techniques to try.

• Carving. Carve dried metal clay with woodcarving or linoleum gouges. I love Dockyard brand microcarving gouges (be careful - they're VERY sharp!). Gouges come in a variety of sizes and shapes.
  
  Original PMC is the best silver metal clay for carving because its high proportion of binder makes it cut "like butter" and the details of your carving are sharpened after firing because it shrinks nearly 30%. Original BRONZclay also is wonderful for carving. However, you can carve on any metal clay. Clays with lower proportions of binders will tend to chip more readily.
  
  For helpful tips, read Celie Fago's excellent blog post about carving directly into metal clay greenware (and also about carving cured polymer clay to create your own unique texture sheets), which also discusses the pros and cons of various different types and brands of carving tools.
• Filing. Files can be used on dry metal clay pieces to form gouges, depressions, and other interesting surface textures.
• Drilling. Some interesting surface textures can be created by drilling depressions (or even holes) in the dry clay.
• Water etching. Absolutely wonderful surface textures can be created by applying a non-water-soluble resist, such as nail polish or wax, on dry metal clay and then removing clay from the exposed areas by wiping with a damp sponge or moist towelette (e.g., Wet Ones).
  
  Jewelry artist Catherine Davies Paetz published a terrific how-to article about this technique called "Water Works" in the September 2006 issue of Art Jewelry Magazine. Back issues are available directly from Art Jewelry Magazine or you can purchase a PDF download of the article.
  
  Jewelry artist and metal clay instructor Lora Hart also published a great water etching project, "Butterfly Bead", in the September/October 2006 issue of Lapidary Journal's Step by Step Beads.
  
  And CeCe Wire, a former PMC Guild director, author, jewelry designer and award-winning teacher, has published notes from the wonderful "Clay Techniques with PMC" presentation she gave at the 2006 PMC Conference, which contain excellent instructions for water etching on PMC.

Fabulous, ready-to-use commercial textures and texture tools

In addition to textures you can make or find around the house or in nature, there are many, many ready-to-use rubber stamps,, texture sheets, metal stamps, paper punches and other tools and supplies that you can use to texture your metal clay. pieces. When choosing commercial texture sheets, in addition to looking for designs and patterns that appeal to you, also look for even depth and good definition that will leave a crisp impression on the clay. Here are some ideas for textures you can buy.

• Rubber stamps. Rubber stamps are a great source of textures. They come in a huge variety of sizes, shapes, depths and styles to suit any taste and project, and they're readily available. They can be used mounted or unmounted. Use an appropriate release on the stamp before impressing it on your metal clay. I prefer either olive oil or Cool Slip (by Cool Tools).
• Rubber and silicone texture plates/mats and tips. There are some really fantastic patterns available in these flexible texturing mats and tips. Some of my favorites are Cool Tools' Texture Tips and Texture Tiles and Victoria James Art's Real Textures sheets. See "Suppliers and Information Resources for Metal Clay Textures" below for more information about these products.
• Brass texture plates. Brass texture plates create a subtle, low-relief texture that works well for keum-boo (diffusion-bonding gold foil to the surface of your fired fine silver piece with heat and pressure). PMC123 offers a particularly wide variety of them.
• Plastic texture plates / rubbing plates. These are comparatively inexpensive and both sides can be used so you can create positive/negative textures with them. Some brands include Shade-Tex, Roylco, Makins and Fiskars.
• Push molds. You can purchase push molds designed for polymer clay if you use an appropriate metal clay release (olive oil, Badger Balm, Cool Slip, etc.). However, most of these are not flexible and it can be difficult to remove the clay unless you allow it to dry in the mold first so it shrinks a bit. There are flexible silicone candy molds you can use (again, coat these with a release first) that have lovely designs.
• Magnetic alphabet/message stamps. Office supply stores and craft or scrapbooking stores carry magnetic alphabets you can use to create custom words or messages on a metal bar and then imprint on your clay.
• Embossing punches for paper. PMC sheet and Art Clay paper can be embossed using punches designed to emboss paper. Crafts and scrapbooking stores carry many different embosser designs, some of which have coordinating paper punches. Emboss first, then punch out the shape.