Friendly Plastic Product Review AND Giveaway!

Runic Mixed Media Necklace by Margot Potter for Amaco Copyright 2009

(Leave a comment to be entered to win a Friendly Plastic Prize Package!)

One of the best parts of my job is getting to play with new or rediscovered materials. Recently the wonderful folks from Amaco invited me to explore Friendly Plastic. I’ve never actually used this medium, my crafty forays in the 80s revolved entirely around things I got at the thrift store and the occasional jaunt to the local costume shop. I’ve been meaning to try this medium, so this was a great opportunity to check it out. I googled the topic to see what other folks had done with the material, visited the Amaco website, the Friendly Plastic blog and other blogs and videos. Then I took some of what I learned and in typical Madge fashion headed off in my own direction. I grabbed my non-stick craft sheet and my heat tool and started making what I like to call glorious messes.

Friendly Plastic has a fairly low melting point, so it’s pretty easy to quickly get it to a soft stage using a variety of methods. It’s also pretty easy to overheat it and melt it into a gooey mess. A lot of folks use a non stick baking mat section in a griddle; I didn’t have those handy so I opted to use my trusty heat tool. You can see the foil begin to change; as soon as that change is consistent the Friendly Plastic is soft and pliable. I realized fairly quickly that overheating it makes it harder to work with because it gets super sticky like taffy. Once it’s at the optimum ‘just turned soft’ stage you can cut into it with metal cutters (you can even make your own cutters using the sheet metal Amaco makes), you can stamp into it, you can carve into it, you can fuse it together and you can mold, bend or shape it. I embedded things in it, but I suggest you put the item in with a dash of glue after creating the indent and allowing it to cool. Some sites suggested that you dip your tools and fingers in cold water, others in oil. I didn’t do either and my rubber stamps held up just fine after repeated uses. It’s important that you let the plastic cool before you try to remove it from your stamp. I used a small spatula end of a clay tool to gently pry it off of the stamp. It’s easy to cut when solid, so I’d suggest waiting to use scissors until it’s solid again.

The downside to the low melt point is that several people told me it melts in a hot car. So you won’t want to make a steering wheel or dashboard cover with Friendly Plastic. Also don’t leave your Friendly Plastic jewelry in your car or say on a sidewalk in the desert in the summertime. I think wearing it in the heat should be okay, if your car is hot enough to melt it while you’re wearing it, I think you should be more concerned about breathing!

Landscape Mixed Media Pendant Copyright 2009

I've shown samples of designs I made after a lot of experimenting. I played with stamping into it and cutting it into organic shapes and then mounting it on tim holtz’ Fragments acrylic tiles with the new Beadalon BeadFix glue squares. I really love how this turned out...what about adding decoupaged vintage text behind it? Archival or alcohol inks on the back of the acrylic? It’s one of those ideas upon which it’s easy to expand, but I’m loving how striking and simple this is. It looks like archeological finds mounted on glass. I also made an Amate bezel pendant by fusing two colors together and then stamping into them and fusing a third sliver along the seam to make a landscape, I’ll share a full how-to on that here next week.

I tried adding alcohol inks on the surface of the cooled plastic, which looked great. I also played with embossing powders. If you do use embossing powders, my advice is that you add them to the surface of HEATED material and get it pretty soft before you add the powder and hit that again with a heat tool. Come in on it slowly and don’t just blast it. I had holographic powder all over me for two days. Sparkly Madge! Also remember if you do this on acrylic that it’s not the best plan to heat acrylic tiles because they’ll melt too. Yes, I figured that out the hard way. Get the Friendly Plastic elements finished before you attach them to the acrylic. Also take care not to get fingerprints all over it; I did on a few trial pieces.

If you like exploring new mediums, you’ll definitely enjoy this one. You can use it to make beads, you can create mosaics, you can stamp and mold it...and it doesn’t have to be too shiny if you add things to the surface. I’m definitely adding this into my standard bag of tricks and hoping to discover more ways to use it in the future!

I’d love to see what you do with it and hear about your experiences. In fact...if you leave a comment here the fine folks from Amaco have offered to send a box of samples to a random winner! I’ll select and announce the winner here next Wednesday! Good luck!

Cheers,
Madge