Johnston Original Art Dolls

Karen, I bet that you can take that varnish off with Lacquer thinner, or acetone. Just brush it on and quickly wipe it off. You dont want the acetone to just stay on the clay for too long.

I used an oil based varnish on a completed piece and it is still sticky 24 hrs later. Is there any way to fix this or do I need to just start over?

Joanna makes some great comments. I personally use acrylic paint because it works so well on polymer clay. If you do paint with acrylic you should put a thin dry coat of paint on and let it totally dry before you put on the thick coat. The thin dry coat will work as an undercoat. Layering paint on the clay will give wonderful skin tones, antiquing, etc. To go back to Joanna's comments. You may use oil paint or Genesis paint on polymers as long as the polymer is totally cured. Once the clay is totally cured the oil base paint will not effect it. Remember, polymer clay is PVC, so anything that will work on PVC will work on Polymer clay. It is nearly undistructible except for sun light and heat. Good luck, Jack

Meant to add, use fine bristle brushes to eliminate brush strokes... i prefer natural bristles. Hope this helps... ~joanna

Michael, i would use more water in my wash so that the pigment build up is thin, showing no brush strokes. That is the key, unless you want texture... It is very important to get the first coat very watery. Practice on cured scrap pieces. Dry throughly in between. My favorite acrylic to use is GOLDENS. I find that the thinner my washes the better the end result. I know that some artists, have used the pigment straight from the tube in a dry brush, after applying the first watery layer, then layered on thinly afterwards to build up colour and depth. Hope this helps... ~joanna

One of the problems I have not figured out yet is, a technique of either acrylic paint or china paint for caucasian skin. I have done the wash build up and dry brush highlights, but end results are not always the same. From a distance, the acrylic looks natural, but up close, like most paintings, it has a rough painting look. On the other hand, china paint gives a nice, smooth color tone up close, but from a distance, the highlights don't look natural. I would appreciate any tips or advice that anyone has.

This is one subject that can get confusing. Using oil based products on work: I keep seeing this discussed on different forums, and i think some people are misinforming others. Oil based paints should not be used on any baked polymer piece because of the oil (petroleum oil), that can break down the baked polymer. I personally like to use high artist quality paints, pigments (water based oil paints, acrylic, pastels, pigments, water colours, pencils, etc.), with my work because of the high concentrate and durability of colours, and because i have worked with them in my 2 D work for years. I recently saw a post that you could also use oil pastels, which uses wax as the binder not the oil. (On the glassattic site, i think an artist states, that you could use oil based oil paint if it is linseed oil instead of the petroleum based oils, though it would take a long time to dry on the surface.) I have not tried either the oil pastels or the linseed based oil paints, yet. i have a whole palette of oil pastels in a closet that is left over from when i use to work in them along with my Rembrandt pastels. I love the depth that you get from repeated water down acylics applied in washes. I have some Genesis oil paints that i have not tried yet and also love using my pencils on my work. What is the consensus here on use of the different oil based paints other than petroleum based? I have seen some recent posts where some people have actually used a oil based wood stain on work also. Which i would not use, unless it was a water soluble product. ~joanna