Translucent polymer clay rocks, the problem was that I didn’t know how to use it. It was one of those situations where I knew what the potential was, but just didn’t know how to achieve it. Carolyn to the rescue, she suggested that I try slicing my canes thinner and buffing them to increase the translucent quality.

Worked like a charm. The one on the left is where I left the translucent slices a little thicker (and didn’t dunk it in ice water to clarify) and the one on the right is where I sliced much thinner and did dunk it in ice water.

I managed to get a good photograph of the translucent effect by propping some acrylic sheet (plexi-glass) at an angle and shooting one of my work lamps onto the paper and the other lamp over the baubles.

I don’t know the technical term for the plain baubles. I’ve heard them called garden glass, or flattened marbles. I use them for weights on my cutting mat to hold down pattern paper for smaller pieces. Putting clay on them doesn’t really serve a purpose other than to make them prettier.