Polymer Clay Podcast And Tv

There are two general types of inks that you can use, referred to as Pigment inks, which we talk about today, and Alcohal or Dye inks, which we saved for our next podcast in two weeks. The main difference between the two is that pigment inks stay where you put them, and dye inks "bleed" and tend to dye whatever clay is around them a new color. Pigment inks are created with ground pigments, much like the pigment powder we discussed last week, and a wetting agent or "binder." The simplest binder is water, but the company creating the ink decides what else to put in the ink to create it's many properties- such as how long it stays wet, how flexible it is, how opaque it is, and whether or not you need to heat set it. Most pigment inks need to be heat set on polymer clay so they won't smear. That makes using them with clay very convenient, since you have to bake it anyway! You can use pigment inks on top of uncured clay, you can mix it in to change the color of the clay, you can partially mix it in- which creates