Sunday, August 1, 2010

RIK PIERCE WORKSHOP day 1 afternoon

After painting our fireplace/oven we set it aside and  attached the interior baseboards to our walls. We measured up 1/2 inch to accomodate the floor so it would fit right under them. We attached them with wood glue and a few dots of super glue the length of the boards. Rik said when you use the combination of the wood glue and dots of super glue it gives an incredible strong bond. Once the baseboards were attached we painted the wood and got ready to use the paperclay.
 Rik made these wonderful boards to roll the clay out on to insure that it would be 1/4 inch thick. It consists of a block of wood a little bit larger than a 12" linoleum floor tile(cheap one) with enough of an  edge to attach 1/4 inch wood around the edge. The "rolling pin" is a length of pvc pipe. You start to roll out your clay like you would a pie crust. Roll one way and flip it over and roll in the other direction. When you have your paper clay ready to go you cover it with plastic to keep it moist. Your other clay that is open should already be in a zip lock plastic bag. It will dry out fast if left uncovered.  Now, you need to prep your wall by smearing an even coat of wood glue all over the surface that you are going to attach the paper clay to. go right over any window or door opening because you will cut that away afterwards. You might not cover the whole wall with your first piece of clay that you roll out and will need to add more. Make sure that you feather the edge of the clay at the new seam. When you add clay to complete the wall,this step will prevent a large crack showing up as it drys.Now you must press a little bit with your hands and make sure that it is really touching every part of the surface. We then used a very inexpensive sculpting tool like a spatula and rubbed that all over the wall and make sure that the clay is really attached. Remove any air pockets that might have formed beneath the surface. The other end of the spatula tool had an angled cutter type of look. We cut by the baseboard to make sure the clay wasn't overlapping there. At this point you can cut away the clay covering up the windows or doors. Put all of that clay in your plastic bag. For texturing you wall at this point you can see a small paint brush by Rik's right arm. It is one of those inexpensive paint brushes that are about .86 cents each. He cuts them down about 1/3 of the way down and told us to pounce the brush on the table to spread some of the bristle's. Once it is ready pounce all over your wall and twist your wrist a little bit so you  have an uneven pattern on the wall. If you want to mark a section to look like exposed brick you can mark it in now. If you do that process you must remember that about 1 1/2 hours later go back to your "brick" and with a stylus clean out the grout lines to make sure they are deep enough. When you do this you can round the corners of your bricks just a tiny bit so they will look realistic. Set your wall aside if it is finished and let it completely air dry over night. Sometimes you walls while drying will have a few tiny cracks appear. You can leave them if you like the looks of them or fill them with a little bit of clay the next day...........more to come. I plan on taking a real good picture of the board to roll the clay out and will get the right dimensions of the wood and the lip. It is so great to have..........when the tile starts to look shabby and not work as well you can just buy a new tile and slip it in. Great to have this jig!! Too much in one post?? If you have any questions ask me! I plan to take a close up photo of the brush for stippeling and the board to roll the clay.

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for all the details Patty. I really want to do a project with Paperclay but I am so hesitant because I know so little about it. You've given really detailed instructions. When you glue the clay to the wall, was there any type of wood glue that is preferred? I assume you can't use tacky glue like Aileen's?

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  2. Patty,

    This is SO GREAT!!!!! I have been eagerly waiting for your next post!

    That is a wonderful tip about using the two different glues (wood and Super glue).

    I knew he didn't use Elmers Wood Glue. I would like to know what brand it is too. I know he likes the Paperclay brand (in the black package).

    I have seen the clay rolling jig before in other peoples posts about his classes. I just didn't know it was 1/4 inch. I thought it was 1/8th.

    Did you have any trouble with the Paperclay shrinking (too much) after you applied it to the wall?

    I can't wait for the next installment post. Thank you so much!!!!

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  3. Catherine, I might be wrong about the measurements for the jig for rolling the clay and plan on measuring it and posting photos of just that. I will also get a good photo of all of the tools that we used....paint brush,sculpting tool, etc.
    Wanda, You need to use wood glue......Aileen's isn't strong enough. He used a wood glue called Welbond. I have had trouble finding that so far and have looked in two different stores already. (hobby) I will look at a hardware store soon. I still have alot of things to do on my house and will be able to blog about the progress. I am also going to be able to show everyone how to make leaded glass windows!!!!

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  4. Thanks Patty. I want to make one of those jigs for rolling out the clay so I do need to know how thick to make the wood slats that go around the tile. I am really looking forward to reading about the lead window making. This is GREAT! :-))

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  5. BTW Patty,
    Was it you that shared the site of the woman that makes the fabulous clothes that are on a hanger (not a doll) I can't remember who it was that shared that. I am dying to order one of her pieces. They were so beautiful.

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  6. Thanks for sharing this, Patty!

    Catherine...I have one of those clay rolling jigs. The wood frame is 3/16 inch high so that when you put in the vinyl floor tile (which is 1/16 inch thick, usually), you end up with a 1/8 inch "well". The PVC pipe has to be long enough to roll over the edges of the frame, thus resulting in a nice even 1/8 inch thick piece of clay. It's really a very efficient way to do it.

    I cannot find Wellbond so easily but in the class I took, we used plain old Elmer's white glue (the thinnish kind we used in school) and spread it around with an old credit card. My piece is over 2 years old and everything is holding nicely...

    Tabitha

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  7. Muchas gracias por la informacion y las instrucciones.
    besitos ascension

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  8. I am sorry... I think the correct name for that glue is "Weldbond" and is apparently a favorite with woodworkers.

    Also, forgot to say that using a bit of CA glue along with the wood glue for molding is very much like the technique used for making miniature flowers. The CA glue gives the instant bond which keeps the molding (or flower petal) from moving until the pva have a chance to dry. A bond using ONLY CA glue is actually very brittle... the wood glue is what forms the strong bond. And by "wood glue", I mean the stuff carpenters use. It is usually yellow in color, slightly stickier than Tacky or Sobo and is more water resistant.

    Tabs

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  9. Thank you for this! It seems I have my paperclay for my walls at the correct thickness, but I'd like to make one of those mats/jigs, though I'm still not quite able to roll my clay out to that size (that you have in your photo). I haven't managed to get any PVC drain pipe yet, so I am having to make do with my polymer clay rolling pin! lol

    I had already checked over my grout lines before the clay had dried out, so it seems I'm not going horribly wrong....yet! lol Though I didn't feather the edges (I should know better!!), but I did use lots of PVA (white glue).

    I use wood glue too for walls (though not for my courtyard stones), but I don't think any of the brands mentioned here are available in the UK. I would never mixed it with super glue as I would have thought about compatibility issues. I will experiment! :o))

    I can't wait to see the final piece! :o))

    Michelle xxx

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  10. You can buy Weldbond glue via Ebay.

    Michelle xx

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  11. What a great opportunity for you. Thanks for the breakdown. I've had a package of paperclay waiting to try it out.

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  12. Thank you for sharing this information, you explain step by step very well... good luck in the giveaway!! greetings
    Paqui

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