Hollow Beads
I have been experimenting with hollow beads and learned quite a lot along the way. I have used some old maths (surface area of a sphere!) to calculate how much clay I need to surround a pressed paper ball and made some lovely stripy blends. After baking I plunged in to ice water and here was where things went wrong! Of course the paper expands in the water and this cracked most of the beads. I fished them out as soon as I noticed but I was really annoyed with myself as I rarely get cracks in my work. Several remained crack free so once cool I placed them back in water to soften the paper so I could remove it. Anyway, I was quite pleased with the finished result and have learned a lesson for next time!
Hi, In the US we have packing peanuts made of a corn starch mixture. They can be shaped and then can be dissolved in water.
Hi Grace
We have them here too. I have used them before but found it harder to get the more perfect spherical shape. Since posting this I went on a workshop led by Christine Dumont and she showed how to create hollow beads using the paper balls and I have had much better success since. I just haven’t posted ant pictures. I must get on and do some more posting soon!. Thank you for you comment.
Susan