I've spent today in the kitchen working with Friendly Plastic and AMACO bead rollers - what fun! It's hard to imagine that you can turn a flat stick of Friendly Plastic into these little gems. And once I got into a rhythm, I was producing beads production-line style.
I also tried some different colour combinations to produce unique, one of a kind beads (shown below). They're set up on a block of foam ready to be painted with a coat of resin.
The resin really brings out the metallic lustre of the Friendly Plastic and makes the beads glow so that they look more like dichroic glass than plastic!
Once they're all dry I'll turn them into unique pieces of jewellery. But you don't have to coat the beads with resin: this sample shows that they look equally as good without the resin coating.
I'll be revealing my secrets on how to make these beads in an AMACO tutorial soon so I'll post the link when that happens but in the meantime check out their
website for all sorts of other Friendly Plastic techniques.
I also tried some different colour combinations to produce unique, one of a kind beads (shown below). They're set up on a block of foam ready to be painted with a coat of resin.
The resin really brings out the metallic lustre of the Friendly Plastic and makes the beads glow so that they look more like dichroic glass than plastic!
Once they're all dry I'll turn them into unique pieces of jewellery. But you don't have to coat the beads with resin: this sample shows that they look equally as good without the resin coating.
I'll be revealing my secrets on how to make these beads in an AMACO tutorial soon so I'll post the link when that happens but in the meantime check out their website for all sorts of other Friendly Plastic techniques.
Your beads are gorgeous Mylene!!! I was so excited to hear that you'll be giving us a tutorial for the AMACO site!! Im a huge fan of your work!
ReplyDeleteCheers! Linda
Thanks Linda *blush*.
ReplyDeleteI'm really excited to be doing the tutorial.
Im featuring you on the blog for Monday! I've posted several of your bead roller pictures along with the link to your blog. I hope you get some great exposure from it. Thanks again for being so willing to share your technique.
ReplyDeleteWill you email your phone number to me? I have an international calling plan on my mobile phone. I just need to check to see how much it costs to call australia. I can talk to my friend in england for 8cents a min... love to chat with you when you can.
Mylene, the beads are beautiful. Did you have any trouble at all with sticking in the bead roller?
ReplyDeleteHi Liz.
ReplyDeleteYes, the first batch of beads I made were sticking to the rollers all the time. I've found that a light coat of cooking oil and having the temperature of the Friendly Plastic cool enough are the two most important factors for successful rolling. Once you get that right, they hardly ever stick.
Wow, gorgeous beads, I especially love the green one, stunning!
ReplyDeleteI like the third one bead, in which you are using different colors. This is very good color combination.
ReplyDelete