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Translucent Liquid Sculpey! Bakable Transfer & Color Medium
Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS) is liquid polymer clay, and it opens a whole new arena for artists and crafters alike! It is a bakable transfer medium for the new millennium! When artist's oil paints are mixed with it, it can be an enamel, a glaze, or a backfilling compound. When pigments or mica powders are mixed with it, it can be a stipple, a metallic glaze, or a grout for polymer clay mosaics.

TLS is a fantastic transfer medium, also. It is a terrific adhesive agent. Its adhesive qualities are activated only after baking. It increases the clay to clay bond between raw layers of clay, and when adding raw layers to previously baked layers. Baking temperatures are similar to solid polymer clay, but translucence increases when the temperature is bumped to 300 degrees F for a short period of time. This technique takes careful attention and a well calibrated oven!
Order #
Size
Price
Buy Me!
130306
2oz.
$6.99
130307
8oz.
$11.99
Uses:
  • Make transfers from
  • Offset printed images like magazines, etc.
  • Black & white and color photocopies
  • Colored pencil drawings
  • Add oil paints to make a bakable painting and surface medium
  • Add dry pigments to create glazes and color washes
  • Create stained glass effect sun catchers and window clings
  • Use with polymer clays for
    A bakable adhesive
    Grout for mosaics
    Creating faux enameling
    A translucent glazing and polishing medium
 
1. Color you design with colored pencils

2. Paint on Liquid Sculpey and bake
3. After baking, wash off paper
4. Design has permanently transferred onto Liquid Sculpey! Use the flexible image to decorate clay items, or windows or for decoupage!


Getting Started with TLS Bakable Transfer and Color Medium
Techniques by Jody Bishel, photos by Elizabeth Campbell
Materials:
  • Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS)
  • Sculpey Diluent for thinning TLS
  • Work surface such as glass or paper
  • Artist's Oil Colors (any brand is fine. The more expensive brands have fewer fillers than the student grade. Because so little actual paint is used to tint the TLS, it probably doesn't matter at all which brand you use. Note: DO NOT thin oil paints with solvents or paint thinner.)
  • Sculpey Super Slicer or cardstock for spreading TLS in thin layers
  • Small artist's brushes, synthetic bristles
  • Alcohol for cleanup
  • Toothpicks for applying paint
  • Disposable small paint cups or palette

  • Basic Instructions:
TLS has a honey-like consistency. Over time it does advance and thicken. To thin it, add a drop of Sculpey Diluent.
TLS has great adhesive properties, but only AFTER BAKING.
TLS has more of an odor when baking than solid Sculpey clays. It is not toxic, but you might want to use a dedicated, inexpensive roaster pan (speckled enamelware or two heavy foil roasting pans clipped together) to minimize the odor. Take the pan outdoors after baking before opening lid.
  • Directions for coloring TLS:
  • Tint several puddles or paint cups full of TLS by adding small amounts of Artist's Oil Colors. Mix well with toothpick so that no streaks or spots are apparent.
  • If your oil paints are "runny" you may leach them by placing a dab on cardstock. The excess liquid will leach out into the paper.
  • Take a tiny dab of your color of leached oil paint and add it to a paint cup of TLS. Swirl and mix with a skewer or toothpick.
  • Swirl and mix. If color is correct, proceed on to your next color.Add tiny amounts of additional oil paint to make your tint or shade darker. When all of your colors are mixed you are ready to paint.

On flat surfaces you can build up thick layers, but on vertical surfaces, the TLS will slump and run.
When preparing to marble a design, drop small dollops of paint, lifting the brush slowly so that the last bit falls onto the dot or pulls back into the brush. Then take a straight pin or needle, and from the center out, draw the pin through the lines and dots.
If working on mosaic structures, TLS mixed with powdered pigments (PearlEx or Midnight Pearls for example) create a thicker, pasty material that can be grouted in between baked polymer clay tiles and then re-baked to set.
Multiple bakings create very interesting effects when adding colored TLS to other polymer clay items, whether vessels, jewelry, or transfer items affixed in a cabochon of polymer clay.
For a patina, add Sculpey Diluent to colors, and stipple , leaving some of the base clay showing. Bake in stages. Stipple with a darker color and then with a lighter one, baking in between to set the earlier colors.
For a glossy surface, apply the TLS thickly enough so that it flows together and do not add diluent. Thinning with diluent and dabbing on a thin coating leaves a powdery matte surface.
Backfilling is another neat technique to use on carved raw clay or scored baked clay. Fill a craft syringe with the colored TLS and squeeze into the depressions. You may want to heatset with a heatgun to prevent running before actual baking.
You can also drizzle TLS on a piece hot out of the oven. The heat instantly sets it for dimensional effects. Then re-bake so that the TLS won't crumble.

Although we try to keep the most updated prices on our website, all prices are subject to change.
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