Counter Culture DIY Mica Powder on Ink Clay

In our previous blogs, we have written reviews and ways on how to use the Counter Culture DIY Mica Powder. Mica powders are crystal-like powders that enhance and give shimmer on your artwork, creating more depth and professional-looking finish.

For this blog, we will be showing you how to apply Counter Culture DIY Mica Powder with alcohol inks. This is actually a long process since we will be dealing with clays as well. Here are the steps and tips:

You will need:

– Counter Culture DIY Mica Powder

– Ceramic Tile

– Polymer clay

– Alcohol ink

Steps:

Set your ceramic tile on your work desk. Make sure it’s clean by wiping the tile with a clean cloth and spraying it with alcohol or water.
Get your polymer clay. In our testing tutorial, we used half of a block of polymer white clay. Use a solid steel knife or a thick blade to cut the clay.
Once you’ve cut your clay, slowly run it in a pasta machine at the thickest setting. Keep it running and fold it from time to time until your clay is smooth and flat and ready for shape cutting.
When the clay is flat and smooth enough, set it on the ceramic tile carefully. Get your pattern design. Pattern design can be made from plastic, silicone or hard metal. Once you’ve placed your pattern design on the clay, and for safety purposes, use a mallet or any hard object to press your pattern design on the clay. If you’re using a mallet, make sure to start stamping in the middle to avoid the pattern to make unnecessary bounces when pounding.
When the pattern has stuck to the clay, you may now cut it into various shapes of your choice. You may use Kemper cutters or even metal cookie cutters to cut your designed clay. Cover the patterned clay with plastic wrap and start cutting shapes. Once you’ve used and cut all the patterns, you may roll the clay again in your pasta machine, stamp the pattern again, and make some more cuts. Do this until all of the clay has been used.
After all the pieces are settled in the ceramic tile, it’s time to take out your Counter Culture DIY Mica Powders and start brushing your preferred powder colors on the clay cuts. Use a clean brush to do this step.
After coloring the clay cuts with Counter Culture DIY Mica Powder, take the whole ceramic tile to the oven. Cover it with an aluminum baking pan. Then bake the cuts for half an hour at 275 degrees.
When the baking is done, move all the cuts from the ceramic tile while it’s hot. It comes off easier this way.
When it’s cool enough, you may start with the alcohol ink washes. Brush the ink washes on your baked clay cuts. Use different brushes for different alcohol ink wash colors to avoid an unwanted mixture of color. Or if you only have one brush, you can clean the brush while working by rubbing alcohol.
For the alcohol ink wash and the Counter Culture DIY Mica Powder to blend in, use a spray of rubbing alcohol and spray it on the baked clay cuts. Use a brush to spread the ink wash and the powder. If there are natural lines on your piece you can use them as borders for deciding where to blend colors. A spray of alcohol really helps to blend it all softly.
Once done, let it dry for a few hours. When it dries, you can see that the shine is unbelievably beautiful and may almost look like a gemstone!