Faux Turquoise so far

I tried one of the methods of faux turquoise where you chop the clay (I used my blender) and then reform it, painting on black acrylic paint after baking then sanding so that the black remains  in the cracks.

I used my turquoise ring to match the colour and decided it wasn't a uniform colour so made a shade and a tint of my original turquoise colour, chopped them all in the food processor

I combined all the colours and grated some cured black clay to add as the inclusion

I formed some chip beads from a small pile of clay and rolled in in the black clay gratings I had spread out with a paint brush so there weren't too many on each bead.

Forming a large coin bead using a solid clay core

The coin bead covered

Baking the beads (I decided I needed to get some proper wires sorted when I took this picture!)

A chip bead baked and covered in a layer of black acrylic paint.

Close up of faux turquoise chip bead after painting and sanding

 
 I tried sanding before the black paint was completely dry (it seemed dry on the outside but was still a bit wet in the cracks). This meant the black was a little washed off and the cracks quite deep. I wanted to sand the larger beads and the spoon (there always has to be a cutlery handle somewhere ;) flat and smooth so would need to fill the cracks in with black. I need to go back and try adding some more paint and letting it dry properly this time! I also wondered about mixing some paint with some liquid kato. I'll try and have another go later in the week and let you know how it worked out.

Faux turquoise selection

 I thought I would give the other method I know a go too. You chop the clay the same but apply black acrylic paint before forming and baking.  Unfortunately my bead fell apart whilst sanding :( The instructions said to let the paint dry but on reflection they then used the black chips to cover a clay core and I just mushed some together. I guess they may have stuck to the clay core but didn't have enough stick to stick to each other due to the paint.

Watch out for my next attempt to master the faux turquoise!