Spiral Pens

Something special happened on Tuesday.  I don't know what it was, but some have called this the best Unconditional Craft Night EVER.  Those people may have also been drinking.  In any case, let me indulge you with the glorious art of of Spiral Pens.  

You'll need to choose three contrasting colors of Sculpey or Fimo polymer clay. I like to use one dark color, one light, and one metallic. These first few photos are a dramatic re-enactment, because we were so caught up in the excitment of conditioning the clay on UCN, we didn't take photos. Sometimes you just gotta live, you know?

First, break a chunk of clay off and moosh it down a little into a fat pancake.  Roll it through the pasta machine (aka Clay Conditioning Device, aka High-Tech Molecule Redistributor) on the widest setting.  

(Moving on to a new color, same technique) fold the sheet of clay in half, and crank it through the ringer.  Keep folding and rolling on the same setting until the clay is approximately the same texture as a square of American cheese.  You can repeat this process as many times as you want.  You are only limited by how high you can count.  Once you have a nice square/rectangle, decrease the clay conditioner setting a notch or two.  Do not fold the clay.  Decrease again, roll again, and repeat, until you are at the second or third from the last setting.  Note to crafty cheese lovers: resist the temptation to roll Pub Cheese, Brie Cheese, or even a hearty Gouda through the Clay Conditioning Device.  Unless you've been drinking, and then it's okay.  

Try your best to get the sheets of clay to be the same size and shape.  This is not an exact science, so don't sweat it if you have some crummy edges.  Stack them together like a sandwich, press gently and uniformly so all three layers are sealed together.  Change the clay conditioning machine back to the widest setting, and send all three sheets through.  Cut the crusts off the sandwich, as it were.

Now, roll up your clay sandwich like a tight burrito.  Or sushi maki.  Or a jelly roll, whatever makes you happy.  Using gentle pressure, roll the burrito back and forth, until you have a snake of clay about 1/2" thick.  With a sharp razor ("Safety First" was the motto of this UCN), slice the ragged ends off the snake to reveal a perfect tri-color swirl.     

Slice 1/8" medallions off of the snake.  If you want to be extra crafty, stop slicing once you're about 2/3 of the way through the snake.  Take the remaining 1/3 and roll it into a thinner coil.  Then slice away.  Now you'll have two sizes of spirals to work with!  Celebrate your ingenuity with a cocktail.

Remove the meat of the pen with pliers.  All you need to cook these babies is the outer plastic shell.  We used clear plastic Bic Pens, and they didn't warp at all in the oven.  Working one at a time, press clay spirals all over the pen shell.  You can overlap them, join them tightly together like bricks, switch colors, whatever you please.  Once the pen is covered, you can roll it gently on the tabletop to smooth out the bumps and fingerprints.  Bumpy is a nice look, too.  The most important thing is that the whole pen shell is covered.  Try not to let any clay get in the hole where the ink cartridge will fit back in.  Now's the time to avoid restructuring issues.  

Bake the pens in a preheated 250˚ oven.  This is a little lower temp than recommended on the clay package, it ensures you won't melt the pen.  To keep the designs from cooking unevenly, you might want to suspend them in midair.  You can do this by sticking bamboo skewers in a foil ball and hanging the pens on the skewers, or stick a little clay in a baking dish and stick the skewers in there.   Bake for 15 minutes.  Just enough time to enjoy a frosty beverage.

And here are our final products.  The last step is letting your piece of art cool, and replacing the ink cartridge.  As you can see, we used two different color palettes, and those two eventually got mixed up into new designs.  This was a fun, easy, and cheap craft.  Cheers, Michele and Kristin, again, for all the great pictures!!