Christmas ornament of DOOM

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christmas ornament, fimo clay, kato clay, metallic clay, mobius bead, polymer clay

When I did my demo for making a Christmas ornament, as I made a mobius shape, instead of stretching, the clay tore (I think because it was cold). So I quickly made up a plain white and gold version using white Kato clay instead of Fimo Classic which I usually use. When I got home I baked the ornament on some polyester batting on a tile in my oven (just as I had done for the others). Sadly it distorted under its own weight and the tip popped open.

Since I never leave a man behind, I thought I would see if I could remedy some of the disaster. First I drilled through the tip so I could squeeze the pieces together and wire it up (I had needed to do this with some of my Fimo ornaments too – I must remember to add a drop of liquid clay!). First the sides cracked, then the tip shattered as I twisted the wire together! To be fair I hadn’t cured the Kato clay at its full temperature since the gold clay was Fimo which is not supposed to go above 130° C.

I wasn’t quite ready to give up yet, so I suspended the ornament on a bead pin over a small glass and cured it again. My idea was to see if the weight of the ornament would pull the shape out when the clay got hot again.

Don’t do this!

Before it even reached curing temperature the other tip snapped off and the ornament plopped to the bottom of the glass! It was just as squashed, and there were now even more cracks. NOW I was ready to give up. 😦

I thought I’d see how the Fimo ornament coped with being cured on a pin, so I dug out the square of uncured clay I had used in the demo (the one that had torn). I healed up the tears using my magic parchment paper and piece of card (the same method I use to smooth a surface sheet).

Sure enough this one also tore through, so the ornament ended up getting cured at the bottom of the glass (and didn’t squish). I cut off the torn point and drilled perpendicular so I could add a wire loop. The other tip also opened up with this one but I was able to wire it together without causing cracks and I added a bead dangle.

There is a small scar visible in the metallic clay, but overall I’d say this one survived.

I wondered if a cardboard egg box would make a good support to cure these ornaments? Otherwise I’m afraid my advice is: stick to Fimo Classic clay.

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How to make mobius Christmas ornaments

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christmas ornament, Christmas ornaments, craftworkshop, decoration, extruder cane, free tutorial, how to, jelly roll cane, metallic clay, ornament, polymer clay

Here are some videos of the demo I did at Craftworkshop making mobius Christmas ornaments.

The first video has some information about using metallic clay, and I made a jelly roll cane.

Next I made a surface sheet with an Easy Peasy Extruder Cane thanks to Ron Lehocky (see this article about him – he’s made over 24,000 hearts to sell for charity!).

Finally I make the ornament and… it all goes wrong!

I used a different brand of clay for the second try ornament and I had some issues when I baked it 😦 I’ll try to do another post about that with images, but in the meantime I suggest you do the following:

1. Put a drop of liquid clay on the tips before you pinch them to make sure they stick together
2. Don’t rest your ornament on a tile to bake – suspend it from a bead pin or try to support in some way (perhaps with balls of foil).

* Edit: see my follow up post about the problems I had *