Expressions Handcrafts: flashes of Creativity

Tinkering with Static Charges

The Electrifying Truth About Rubbing Balloons!!

Innocent eureka moment where science sneaks up and shocks you! You grab a balloon and rub it on your head. Suddenly, you’re either creating your own hairstyle disaster (lol!),or you are turning into a magician, sticking the balloon to a wall. It’s all fun and games until someone gets zapped. Welcome to the wild and wacky world of static electricity-a small-powerful force.

Kids are tinkerers and lovers of all things quirky, they would love experimenting with static charges. It’s a science that requires no fancy equipment. You just need a balloon and a bit of curiosity. Be prepared for hair that looks like it’s been styled wild.

What Happens When You Rub That Balloon?

Let’s get nerdy for a second. When you rub a balloon against your hair or a wool sweater, you’re essentially stealing electrons. (Not to worry, no one’s pressing charges.) The balloon becomes negatively charged while your hair gets left behind positively charged. Opposites attract. This makes the balloon cling to walls. It causes your hair to stand on end. Small objects like paper bits leap toward the balloon as if it’s the Pied Piper of electrons. It’s sure a way to impress people at parties by showing your impromptu magic.

Fun Things You Can Do

If you’re itching to dive into the static electricity rabbit hole, here are a few fun experiments to try:

  1. Balloon Wall Stick: Rub a balloon on your hair and stick it to the wall. Bonus points if you can arrange them in different shapes:)
  2. Static Water Trick: Turn on a thin stream of water from a faucet and bring a charged balloon close. Watch the water bend toward the balloon like it’s enchanted.
  3. Paper Picker: Shred some paper into tiny bits and see how many you can pick up with a charged balloon.
  4. Defying Gravity: Charge the balloon and use it to lift lightweight objects like a feather or a tissue.

So, grab a balloon, embrace the chaos, and let static electricity work its quirky wonders! Please share your quirky experiments & thoughts in comment box below.

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 Posted on December 10, 2024 by

 tinkering

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What is Polymer Clay?

Often, people ask me about polymer clay! Here’s a small write-up for those who are not familiar with this clay medium yet……

What is Polymer Clay?

Polymer clay is a very versatile art medium. It is an oven-bake clay, based on polymer Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). Once the sculpting is done, each clay art piece needs to be cured in the oven. The specific temperature is defined for that clay.

There are many brands of polymer clay and they all are different from each other. Choosing the right clay for your project can be little tricky for the beginners. Each brand has its own pros and cons in terms of their traits. Their availability also varies, so it’s really difficult to say which one is the best clay. It’s worth to try all of them and then decide which one suits you.

Some of the various brands of Polymer clay shown in the image above. There are other brands like FIMO, Kato Polyclay , Pardo and some unnamed polymer clay available in the market as well.

Malleability : Some amount of plasticizer makes the clay material malleable. It serves as an art medium for sculpting and other art projects. When conditioned properly, it is extremely malleable as any other clay and can easily be molded and sculpted. Once cured, it hardens. (Check out Wikipedia for more information on its composition)

Durability : Polymer clay is very strong if baked correctly. Use the right type of clay for your project. It is hard to break if you cure it at the appropriate temperature. Very thin pieces if cured properly are slightly bendable, but won’t break easily. Under-baked clay is brittle and easy to break.

After curing, they need to be cooled down to room temperature to attain their hardness and strength.

Color : It is available in a range of colors for some brands. Other brands may offer a limited choice of colors. These colors can be easily mixed to create blends and gradients. Some of the brands have sparkle effect, luminescence, metallic, faux pearl and stone imitations too.

Basic tools needed to start your clay journey

In my initial phase of this craft journey, I tried to gather quite a few tools from around the house. Here is a list of must-have tools for polymer clay beginners:

  • Clay
  • Rolling pin
  • Blade (Any ordinary blade or a craft X-acto knife)
  • Oven
  • A ceramic tile for baking

Yes! these are the quick must-five’s that should be handy to start with.

Later as I moved ahead with my craft, I started gathering other tools along the way. Some of the advanced level tools are:

  • Pasta machine
  • Oven Thermometer
  • Needle tool
  • Ball stylus tool
  • Some basic cookie cutters
  • Sandpaper
  • Liquid polymer clay

The list go on….. Eventually it all depends on the project you are working on!

Some other things which you might want to be handy while working on your clay project are:

  • Wipes
  • Cornstarch
  • Ziploc bags
  • Paper towels
  • Aluminum foil etc

To learn more about some of the different claying techniques, please subscribe to my blog.

Happy claying!!!

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 Posted on March 9, 2021 by

 tinkering

Expressions Handcrafts: flashes of Creativity

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