This tutorial is free and you are welcome to invite your friends to view it.  All photos and text are copyright© 2007 by C. A. Therien.  All rights are reserved.  Each of the photos can be enlarged by clicking on the pictures in each step.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me!  ~Cat

Opal is a soft precious stone with an iridescent play of rainbow color on and beneath the surface of the stone. It is most commonly found in semi-opaque base colors: white, blue, and green. Black and red are rare colors and highly prized. Most opals are mined in Australia, with Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and the US contributing.

Cabochons are a common shape for opals used in jewelry, and this tutorial will show you how to make them. The recipes were used to make 20 x 30 mm cabochons, as shown in the picture. But you can use the recipe to make all sorts of projects in addition to cabochons.

There are a few other tutorials for making faux opal on the internet, and each has value. So try all of them and take what you like from them to come up with your own recipes and ways of making your opals.

Materials:

• Translucent Clay – FIMO Classic, FIMO Soft, or Kato for the white opal; Premo Frost for the blue opal. (You can use the regular Premo translucent or the SculpeyIII translucent, but your results might not have as much clarity as the Frost. Also, the SculpeyIII translucent may be more brittle than the other brands after baking.) You can mix the different brands of translucent clay together to take advantage of the best things each has to offer
• Iridescent Flakes – Arnold Grummer Iridescent Flakes are for hand paper-making. These flakes always work well and I recommend them. But you can also try iridescent eye powders, decorative snow, or glitter. Whichever you try, put a few of the sparkles on a baking tray and do a test bake before using the product in your clay. Not all iridescent flakes or glitters are heat-safe. Also, the irregularly-shaped flakes look more natural than the uniformly shaped glitters. Try a combination of flakes and glitters and powders!

A note about the size of the flake: You might feel that the flakes are too big. You can make them smaller by running them through a coffee or spice grinder. But beware! This is a messy process, and a static charge builds up in the flakes when you do this. Open the grinder CAREFULLY. Otherwise you may be picking flakes out of everything for weeks. LOL - then again, regardless of how careful you are with the ground flakes, you STILL may be picking flakes out of things for weeks! On the other hand, it does work really well for making the flakes smaller so it might be worth the effort.

• Alcohol-based Inks – I use Pinata Inks, but you can use any brand of alcohol-based inks. A little goes a LONG way, so use sparingly!

Alternative to alcohol-based Inks – If you don’t have any inks, you could use a very TINY bit of colored clay, concentrated watercolors from the tube, oil paint, ground chalk, or colored powder. But since most of these are opaque, the results may not have as much clarity as using the inks.

• Rubber gloves – disposable latex or latex-free gloves, to protect your fingers from getting stained by the inks or paints. You could also use finger cots.

Tools:

• Baking surface – I recommend a smooth ceramic tile, but you can also use a blank 3×5 card, a piece of poster paper, etc. Just make sure the paper you are using is unlined and blank, so the ink from the paper doesn’t transfer to your baked item.
• Aluminum foil – to tent over the clay while baking.
• Oven and oven thermometer – It’s always important to have an accurate oven temperature, especially when curing the white opals.
• Ice water – for immersing the baked opals right out of the oven - it clarifies the clay a bit.
• Sandpaper – I use 3M Wetordry sanding paper, in grits 400, 800, 1000, and 2000. These papers are available at most Wal-Mart stores in the car detailing aisle, near the touch-up paints.
• Bowl of warm water – with a drop of dish liquid (not dishwaster liquid) in it, or Jet Dry (the drop helps to keep the sanded clay from clogging up the sandpaper).

Optional tools:

• Cabochon mold – I use the Amaco one and really like it alot. But any mold will be fine. I use the Amaco one and really like it alot. But any mold will be fine.
• Mold release – you can use powder, cornstarch, a spritzer of water, Armor All, aloe vera gel, etc.
• Shape cutters - Makins Clay cutters, Kemper cutters, canape cutters, Shapelets and templates, etc.
• Buffing cloth – or rotary tool with buffing disc. It’s not necessary to buff but I like it.
• Gloss sealer – I recommend the Rustoleum Varathane Diamond Interior Gloss (in the blue can). But you can use any water-based, brush-on gloss sealer.

Instructions: These steps are for making white opal. The blue opal recipe is a variation (see below). Click on the pictures for close-up versions. There’s also a troubleshooting section at the end of the tute.

I. White Opal

Step 1: Create the mix

Materials: 1/4 pkg. FIMO Classic, FIMO Soft, or Kato translucent clay; 3/4 to 1 teaspoon-full of Iridescent flakes (you can use less as desired, but not more). You can adjust this recipe by double or half according to how much of this faux you would like to make.

This is the easiest of the opals to make, and also my personal favorite. I’ve used FIMO Soft Transparent clay for the pictures. FIMO or Kato translucent clays will be the best for this white opal, because they are naturally whiter in appearance than the Premo or Sculpey translucents are. However, one caveat: they are also the least translucent. One extra caveat: These clays also tend to plaque easier. It’s not such a bad thing necessarily, and you can cause plaquing intentionally by over-conditioning the clay and adding a touch of moisture. More on that with the blue opal

Condition your clay and pinch it out into a small pancake. Add a small pinch of iridescent flakes in the middle of the clay. Fold the clay over the flakes. Be careful about air in the clay - press the fold as flat as you can before mixing. Mix the flakes into the clay and repeat the flattening and adding more flakes, until you’ve added as much as you think you’ll need.

 

Step 2: Mold or shape as desired

To use the Amaco cabochon mold, pinch of a ½ inch diameter piece of the clay and set the rest aside. Use the mold release of your choice to prep the mold. I like using aloe vera gel the best when molding. But for the purpose of the pictures, I used a sparkly face powder. You can see the sparkles in my powder that I use.

 

Press the clay into the shape. Try to keep the edges of the clay from overflowing the rim. Make a small ball of soft scrap clay and press the ball into the back of the clay in the mold. Gently pull back on the scrap clay to peel the faux opal out of the mold. This may take some practice and a few tries to get it right. If the clay won’t come out of the mold, you may have to pull it out and re-mold it with more mold release.

After you’ve lifted the clay from the mold, the soft clay will still be stuck to it. Peel the soft clay away from the molded clay, and if any sticks to the back of the molded clay, just scrape or trim it off with your knife. Smooth the edges and surface of your cabochon as much as possible.

 

Step 3: Bake the clay

Preheat your oven to the temperature listed on the package of the brand of clay you used to make your cabochons.  The newer clays can cure at lower temperatures so be mindful of the instructions on the clay you are using.  Place your faux opal on your baking surface, rounded side up. Tent with foil. Bake for 30 minutes for each 1/4 inch of thickness (if the clay is less than 1/4 inch thick, still bake for 30 minutes but no longer). You may want to bake a test piece to see if you need to make any adjustments to your recipe. (See the Troubleshooting section below.)

Immediately after the baking time is done, plunge the baked cabochon into the ice water. This will help clarify the clay a bit more.

 

Step 4: Sand and polish

Dip your faux opal and your sandpaper into the water. Sand the opal for about 30 seconds per grit, or more if the clay needs more shaping. Rinse frequently, and keep both the sandpaper and the opal wet. After sanding, rinse the sandpaper thoroughly under running water. Set aside to dry. The sandpaper can be re-used over and over again. It’s a good idea to cut your sandpaper into sizes that are easy to use. When you do that, make sure to write the grit number on the back of the sandpaper, because many of the sandpapers look alike.

After sanding, you can buff as desired. A piece of light-colored denim, or faded jeans works well. (You don’t want to use new jeans - the dye could rub off on your clay). A cotton buffing wheel and a rotary tool works best, in my opinion. I have both a small bench grinder and a dremel, with cotton buffing wheels for both. 

Polishing can be done either by brushing or dipping. I do both. With these molded opal cabochons, I would recommend brushing.

II. Blue Opal:

Step 1 Variation

Materials: Rubber gloves; 1 oz. Premo Frost translucent clay; tiny smudge of alcolol-based inks in blue and green; 3/4 to 1 teaspoon-full of iridescent flakes. As in the white opal above, you can adjust the recipe as desired. But be careful with the inks - a little goes a LONG way.

Condition the clay and pinch it into a flattish pancake. Add the barest drop of blue and green ink. For this small amount of clay, you don’t even want a full drop. With the tip of a gloved finger, just swirl the two colors together a bit on the clay.  I use more ink for the darker blue opals and the barest moistening of the ink for the lighter blue opals.

 

Now you have a choice about plaquing. If you want more areas of interest in this faux, and more of a quartz-like look, you would mix the clay with the ink while the ink was still wet. But if you want to minimize plaquing, let the ink dry thoroughly before mixing. I like both looks.

 

You don’t have to mix the ink in thoroughly before adding the flakes. Just add pinches of flakes and mix until you’ve used all the flakes. You may even want streaks of color as veining in the mixture, so try to do as little mixing as possible in that case.

 

Follow steps 2-4 to mold opal cabochons with this recipe.

 

Black Opal?

 

Black opal is something I’ve made, although without 100% perfect success. All the tinting colors I’ve tried so far have looked black in some light, and in other light the same pieces look more purple than black. 

But they still look interesting, so here’s the options you can try for tinting the clay.  You can use any of these alone, or in combination with one another: a tiny bit of black clay; black alcohol-based ink; black watercolor paint or oil paint from a tube (use only the amount of an unshelled sunflower seed); and Carbon Black Pearl-Ex, about 1/4 teaspoon per oz. of clay (more or less as desired of course).

 

Troubleshooting:

1) Help! My clay is too crumbly! Too many flakes!

If you have put too many flakes into your mix, don’t worry… just add more clay. Or you could add a drop of liquid clay to the mixture.

2) Uh-oh, too much ink!

That’s okay. Just add more clay. You may want to add a little more flakes, depending on your color preference and how much more clay you just added.

3) Arggh! My flakes left dents in the clay after sanding!

Sometimes you will sand a flake or two right out of the clay and it leaves the surface of the clay cracked or dented. That’s fine - just add a little liquid clay into the cracks and dents. Let the liquid clay settle for about 20 minutes. Re-bake the clay and sand again. You may need to repeat this process, but it does work wonders. You also may want to add a bit more clay to your mix and next time, add less flakes.

4) Aw shucks! Why can’t I see the flakes after baking?

You probably needed more flakes. Add some more to your raw clay and bake another piece. Just keep in mind not to add too many. Plus, sometimes the sanding will reveal the flakes you didn’t realize were right under the surface.

5) GRRRR! My white opal turned yellow!

This means either you didn’t use FIMO or Kato, you didn’t tent your clay during baking, or you baked too long. If you followed the directions exactly and your clay still yellowed, it’s possible your oven has hot spots or spikes. You may want to try lining the bottom of your oven with ceramic tiles, and double-tenting your clay (two tents) and watch it for any signs of yellowing. I wouldn’t drop the baking time - you want to make sure the clay is thoroughly cured. But I wouldn’t go longer than 30 minutes if your clay is less than 1/4 inch thick at the thickest part.

6) Doh! My clay is sticking to my mold!

You may want to change to a different mold release. Armor All works great, and so does water, aloe vera gel (the straight clear gel, not a lotion), and powder. The only caution I have is that the aloe, water, and Armor All shouldn’t get re-mixed into the clay if you decide to try molding the piece again. Just wipe the liquid off the surface of the clay before mixing it.

7) Waaaaaahh! How come mine doesn’t look like yours?

Well, that might just be a matter of practice. And that’s the key - practice!! Keep trying. And if you really hate the ones you made - just find a pre-teen girl to give them to. She would probably be thrilled with a gift of a bunch of your experiments.

8) This is SO cool! What else can I do with it besides making cabs?

One of my favorite things to do is to roll the mixture out on the thickest setting of my pasta machine, and bake the sheet. Then I draw a grid with a ruler and an ink pen. Re-bake the clay for about 5 minutes to soften it, then use my ruler and knife to cut the clay along the grid lines. This makes great tiles! That’s how I made the faux opal necklace below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Experiments, anyone?

If you’ve experimented with this tutorial and made something really cool, please let me know! Send me pictures, tell me what you did, and what you liked about how the experiment came out. I’ll post pictures (or links to your site with the pictures on it) and a short synopsis of your experiment.

 

 

All text and images © 2007 by C. A. Therien. All Rights Reserved.