What is a good way to make a bead that looks like a license plate?

Question

I'm torn between trying to make one out of polymer clay and drawing on it with sharpie, or cutting out a rectangle of aluminum and painting it. Any ideas? Does anyone make beads that look like license plates?

Answer 1

I'd try the polymer clay.  you can use different colors for the background and numbers so you wouldn't have to use a sharpie.  it'd give it more dimension too.  :D  just don't forget to poke holes for the jump rings (or cord or whatever) before you bake it.

Answer 2

Well, most license plates are metal but they're painted opaque colors so polymer clay (or another clay) would look more realistic than aluminum foil.

"Sharpies" aren't always the best things for drawing on baked polymer clay though unless you seal the clay first (they can sometimes eventually bleed a bit) --use an acrylic sealer if you use one.

If you want to check out other pens/markers/etc that are safe to use on polymer clay, as well as all kinds of other ways to make "lettering" on polymer clay, check out this page of my site:

http://glassattic.com/polymer/letters_in...

(... look at all the categories under "Letters"

.....also look under Inks  for "Inks for Writing & Drawing on Clay")

(and this page for just painting over baked polymer clay:

http://glassattic.com/polymer/paints.htm

...click on "Preparing the Clay" and on "Acrylics")

If you want to get the upraised lettering that license plates have (as well as the upraised edges) I'd suggest perhaps making a polymer clay mold first, then baking that and using it fresh clay.  

( http://glassattic.com/polymer/molds.htm )

That way you could use letter and number stamps (rubber or metal) or just draw/impress your own (backwards though) --and also depress the outside area-- in the raw clay that will be the mold (then bake). When you cast the new clay into that mold, all those impressions would be raised instead of depressed.  (Start with a larger sheet of clay that you'd need.)

If you really want the license plate to look metallic, you can do that really easy with the polymer clay too by using a metallic powder (Pearl-Ex, etc., or real-metal powders) or even metallic acrylic paints though those would be a bit pearlier.

If you wanted a specific plate, you could also make a "transfer" of that plate onto polymer clay, or just decoupage an image of it onto baked clay.

You could use other clays as well, but most shrink to some extent.

HTH,

Diane B.