Wednesday 7 May 2014

Experiments with Fimo: White and Gold Bowl

Whilst searching in the Kids Craft section for my Shrinkies experiment I blogged about on Monday, I also came across another section of childhood crafting: Fimo.  I used to love fimo, but Have absolutely no idea what I made with it - I think I used it similarly to clay, making figures and a general mess.  I plan to use the fimo to make beads for jewellery, but before jumping straight in to that, I decided to get used to using it again by making a little trinket bowl [you know I love a trinket bowl].



What I Used:
Gold and White Fimo packs
Rolling Pin
Round Cutter
Craft Knife

Do you remember the Gold Sharpie Bowl that I made back in March?  I decided to make a smaller version of that, minus the triangle details in the end - a two-toned bowl, white on the outside, gold on the inside.  The process was simple [I thought] - rolling out a thin layer of gold and think layer of white Fimo [no more than 2mm thickness in the end]:
I then layered the two and gave them a quick roll to bond them together and then used the largest round cookie cutter I had to make my bowl shape:
Peeling the Fimo from the table was not fun.  All future Fimo related products will be make on a sheet of baking paper or thin plastic - something flexible that can be peeled away from the Fimo, rather than the other way around.  Fimo is not dough.  Lesson learned :)

I did manage to salvage the round though, which then left me with a new problem - this was a thin round of Fimo and would not hold a bowl shape easily at all - and I didnt have anything I could mould the Fimo around.  So prepared and everything so well thought out.  Not the best medium to spontaneously test.

Thinking outside the box, I decided to use my cutter for more than originally planned - as a holder.  I moulded carefully the sides of my Fimo bowl to the top of the cutter and once secure, helped push the bottom and sides into a bowl-like shape:
The Fimo was held in place at the top, suspended in a bowl-like shape, but the cutter was deep enough to stop it from touching the bottom - and made of metal not plastic!  Win!

Deciding that this was as good as it was going to get, I got the thing in the oven as soon as possible.  I settled on a Google average of 135 degrees for 20 minutes before removing from the over to completely cool to see if it would remove from the cutter:
It couldn't have been easier - phew!  The Fimo was not of a strong texture, but it still felt a little like it could be bent or moulded a little.  The colour had also stayed bright, which I was worried would be lost in the bake:
To neaten it all up, I was able to cut away the top with a craft knife easily and also remove any imperfections from the outside:
Cutting away, this was where the discolouration between the outside and inside of the Fimo showed in the gold, so I now will remember the importance of having the correct shape made before baking.

It's not a smooth finish, certainly not perfect or quite how I imagined, but it is quite cute.  If I was to do it again, I'd love to test a larger and thicker bowl, possibly with some cut-out details too.
...this though, is perfect for little pretty, sparkly things:
I might pretend my God Daughter made it for me :)
see you next time x
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