B:
You made me laugh. Polymer clay is like crack, it's totally addicting. I
think it's because one can start and finish a project in one day. The
color is in the clay so there's really little need for paint. We've
found that there are so many effects we can get from polymer clay from
miniature cheeseburgers to faux cloisonné.
As for your question about using cork. I did a quick search and found
this information:
"Is cork heat and cold resistant?
Cork is temperature resistant from -180 degrees C to + 110 degrees C."
Hmmmm, polymer clay is cured at 130C/265F, so that's higher than cork's
temperature resistance.
"Is cork flammable?
cork is fire retardant."
Well, that's good to hear.
http://www.nfpimports.com/faq.html
I love aluminum foil. It's cheap and easily obtained. I have a handful
of inro experiments and I'm going to show you the oldest ones first
where I was experimenting more with how to cure two layers of clay and
have part of it not stick. These first efforts are rough, but the basic
techniques are ones I kept on using in more current experiments.
2003:
 http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/Japan/Inro-GoldCrimson/Index.htm
This section shows you putting clay colors
through their paces to make designs for the sheet on the outside of the
inro.
 http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/Japan/Inro-GoldCrimson/3DemoInro-thms.htm
Here the first inro experiments were cured but not sanded or given a
finish. These are not classic inro, but rather the early experiments on
getting the sections to overlap. It was trickier than I thought it would
be.
 http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/Japan/Inro-GoldCrimson/3DemoInro-Done-thms.htm
Here are the first experiments wet sanded and given a finish. It felt
like a "close but no cigar moment".
Those are the earliest efforts. I used a toilet paper roll for the
inside.
http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/Japan/Inro-GoldCrimson/Inside.htm
Paper is flamable at 451F, I only remember that because of Ray
Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451". So using a toilet paper roll is fine
in the oven for the temperatures for curing polymer clay.
 Since
inros have some overlapping areas the challenge was to find a way to
cure two layers of polymer clay and have some areas not stick together.
I used aluminum foil again, covering the inner section that I didn't
want to stick to the outer layer, or to the other inner section.
Pictures from 1-17 show this process:
http://www.norajean.com/EpsonAlbums/WebCam-01/Inro-Gold-Crimson/Index.htm
 A
close up example:
http://www.norajean.com/EpsonAlbums/WebCam-01/Inro-Gold-Crimson/Inro-Gold-Crimson-007.jpg
As you can see in the chat log I ended up using masking tape to hold the
edges of the aluminum foil in place.
 2004-2006:
As I kept on practicing I did come up with something that's not quite
inro but still in the same family of a stacking vessel.
This experiment kept on baffling me and I kept on putting it aside and
returning to it.
http://www.norajean.com/New_Projects/Inro-Gold-Brown/Index.htm
I wanted the inside to be as trippy as the outside and this was the
experiment to do that. It was tricky to remember to expose the good side
of the sheet on the inside of the inside section. I about lost my mind
during this experiment.
 2007:
Ok, moving forward in time, my only real inro, done for my son's
birthday:
http://www.norajean.com/2007/03-20-BD-Inro/Index.htm
 I
still used the toilet paper roll filled with aluminum foil and mashed
into a shape that's more oval than round.
http://www.norajean.com/2007/03-20-BD-Inro/001.htm
It
has holes for the cord to go throught the different sections.
http://www.norajean.com/2007/03-20-BD-Inro/008.htm
Now I've given you the links in the order of the process of
experimenting. The tutorials on my website build upon each other as I
stumble over the ways to do things. You'll see the "crappy side" of the
birthday inro, to let you know that no one is perfect straight out of
the gate. On the crimson and gold inro I show you how the old sheet
cracked because I didn't warm it up by laying it on my stomach before
wrapping it around the inner section. No one is perfect and I'll be the
first to point out where my experiments had miscalculations.
So sally forth and make that inro and if you run into any problems just
give a holler and we'll help where we can. Ok?
Oh, welcome to CITY-o-Clay, ;-)
xoxo
NJ
aka NoraJean Co-Owner of CITY-o-Clay
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