Plexiglas™ is a brand name of a type of “acrylic sheet plastic” that has many and varied uses in all facets of art making. It can be sawn, filed, drill, tapped, bent, and polished.
It is easily worked with a minimum of fuss and yields beads that are unlike any that can be made with any other material. The tools needed are rudimentary and aside from the regular safety considerations, no special precautions need be taken.
Below are the instructions for using Plexiglas™ for making a hollow bead, however, most of the processes and procedures are applicable to many other forms and materials.
For this project I will be referring to 1/16” Plexiglas™ which is, oddly enough, not easily found and comes in a relatively few colors. The most readily available are black, white and clear. Faux Bone™ is another material that lends itself to this type of form and the 1/16” Faux Bone™ can be substituted for the 1/16” Plexiglas™.
Aside from the surface treatments listed in the last step, various other materials can be attached to one or both bead halves before the bead is put together. Another possibility is to cut “windows into a bead half and fill the opening with other materials such as epoxy, concrete or textured paper mache.
Note: The sandpaper used is Wet or Dry™ sandpaper and should be soaked for a minute or two before using. I just leave several sheets of each grit (320, 400, 600) soaking in a tub on my bench.
Hollow Plexiglas Bead
Scribe two identical circles onto the paper covering on the Plexi, approximately the same size as the diameter of the bead you wish to make. If making a lentil shape bead the diameter is about the same. If making a more spherical bead, the diameter of the circle must be larger to yield a sphere the size of the original circle.
Saw out the circles and remove the paper covering. It is not necessary to file the circles round.
You can either sand the surfaces of the circles now, with 400 grit Wet or Dry sandpaper, or wait until later.
Note: To form the circles into bowl shapes, you must heat the circles and push them into a concave “well” with a convex “sphere” of a diameter just smaller than the well. The sphere is called a dap and the well is called a die. You can buy sets of matching dies and daps or they can be made in several different ways, which I cover in my workshop.
Ready the dap and die. Place the circles in a toaster oven and heat to about 275° of 3-4 minutes. Check the circles: they should start to get like cooked lasagna noodles – pliable but still holding their shape. Alternately, the circles can be heated with a small heat gun like those used for embossing powders. If using the gun, heat gently from both sides and work right on or very near the die.
Once heated, place the circle on the die and push it into the die with the dap and hold it there for a minute or so. Remove the now domed circle; it should be cool to the touch. Repeat for the second circle.
Place a tape tab on top of each dome to form a handle to hold for sanding. To form the tab, take a 1 1/2”piece of masking tape and fold it in half but allow the ends to bend out at right angles away from the tape fold to form “wings”. Push these wings against the top of the dome so that the tape fold is now pointing up and you can hold onto it.
Place a piece of 320 grit sandpaper on a smooth, even surface, and drip some water onto it. Holding the tape handle of one of the domes, place it on the wet sandpaper and rub it on the sandpaper in a figure 8 motion until the edges are sanded down so that the edge of the dome is sharp and even. Repeat for the other dome.
Check to make sure the dome halves fit together smoothly at their edges. One or the other may stick out a bit but this will be removed later and is of no consequence now. Wipe the edges clean and place the tape handle of one dome in a vice or similar so that the inside of the dome is facing up. Remove the tape from the other dome and place it atop the first. Using a syringe, inject a bit of Plexiglas solvent into the joint between the two domes and let it “wick” around the seam. Leave in place for at least 10 minutes then remove the bead (yes, now you have a bead!) from where it was clamped and remove the other tape handle.
File and sand the edges to the roundness desired. Sand with the 3 grits starting with 320, ending with 600 and then turn the 600 over and rub vigorously with the paper back of the 600 grit. This will impart a wonderful soft sheen and even color.
The bead may now be textured in any number of ways including filing, sanding, scratching, grinding, or rubbing. It can be polished on a buff or in your hand or with progressively finer grits of sandpaper.
If scratches are put into the surface, various paints, waxes, Prismacolor pencils, metallic rubs, epoxy resins, and other colorations can be rubbed into the scratches. The surface can then be sanded to leave the color only in the scratches, much like Scrimshaw.