Rubbing Alcohol – A Must Have For All Polymer Clayers

00:00:03 –> 00:00:07 Hi guys, its Cindy Lietz, your Polymer Clay Tutor, and today’s Studio Tip is all about

00:00:08 –> 00:00:14 rubbing alcohol and what a useful tool it is…or supply for your Polymer Clay studio.

00:00:14 –> 00:00:22 Now I use rubbing alcohol all the time, my favorite type is to use the 99% ‘cause it

00:00:22 –> 00:00:27 is the strongest, it is super, super cheap, I bought, I don’t know, 4 bottles…

00:00:27 –> 00:00:34 4 of these size bottles, at Costco for about 5 or 6 bucks, and I use it for all kinds of

00:00:34 –> 00:00:36 things.

00:00:36 –> 00:00:41 First thing you can use it for with Polymer Clay is say you’ve got an old cane that’s

00:00:41 –> 00:00:50 getting beat up and it’s got other colors stuck to it, you can use it to clean the dirty

00:00:50 –> 00:00:55 clay up with the rubbing alcohol, and you can just wipe along, and this is a raw cane

00:00:55 –> 00:01:00 so it hasn’t even been used yet, and I can wipe off all those Pink sections that were

00:01:00 –> 00:01:03 stuck on there and clean it right up.

00:01:03 –> 00:01:07 If you’ve got some White Polymer Clay, you can clean off the dust and the lint by using

00:01:07 –> 00:01:09 rubbing alcohol.

00:01:09 –> 00:01:15 You can also use it to clean your work surfaces, clean your tools, clean your pasta machine,

00:01:15 –> 00:01:23 but it also is a fantastic remover of permanent pen like a Sharpie, so if you’ve got permanent

00:01:23 –> 00:01:28 pen anywhere…except for if it’s soaked in to some paper or some wood or something, sometimes

00:01:28 –> 00:01:34 it’s hard to remove, but if you’ve got permanent pen somewhere else…on a more nonporous surface

00:01:34 –> 00:01:39 and you can’t wipe it off normally, this is just a dry paper towel, I can’t get that off,

00:01:39 –> 00:01:43 but with the rubbing alcohol there, it’ll just wipe right off.

00:01:43 –> 00:01:51 And so to remove Sharpie, it works great for removing stickers on metal objects or glass

00:01:51 –> 00:01:54 objects, if you were gonna cover them with Polymer Clay.

00:01:54 –> 00:02:02 You can also use it to remove excess dried on acrylic paints, and if you’ve got an old

00:02:02 –> 00:02:10 finish, say you’ve used a finish on your Polymer Clay charms and it’s incompatible, it gets

00:02:10 –> 00:02:14 all sticky or it’s flaking off and it’s just not working, you don’t have to throw away

00:02:14 –> 00:02:20 your charm, you can soak it in the rubbing alcohol and you can remove that old finish…you

00:02:20 –> 00:02:24 may need to use a little toothbrush or something to get it worked into the crevices, but you

00:02:24 –> 00:02:29 can usually remove most finishes with rubbing alcohol.

00:02:29 –> 00:02:33 You can also…there’s a neat little trick that painters use if they’re painting the

00:02:33 –> 00:02:39 house, and they can’t tell whether it’s acrylic paint or oil-based paint, you can do something…this

00:02:39 –> 00:02:44 table here has been painted with acrylic, and I can test to see if it’s acrylic paint

00:02:44 –> 00:02:50 by just rubbing some alcohol on it, and if the color comes off, yeah, see the Yellow

00:02:50 –> 00:02:55 there, if the color comes off onto your paper, then you know that it’s an acrylic or water

00:02:55 –> 00:02:57 based paint.

00:02:57 –> 00:03:03 I use it for lots and lots of things, you can thin down your alcohol inks, you can clean

00:03:03 –> 00:03:08 up your alcohol inks, you can also mix it into a bottle with a little bit of water and

00:03:08 –> 00:03:13 spritz it onto alcohol inks and it will bleed out and do some really cool effects.

00:03:13 –> 00:03:21 And, what else do I use it for…it will remove…if you’re using like a UV Gel for your nails

00:03:21 –> 00:03:28 or a UV cured resin, you can wipe it with rubbing alcohol to get that sticky residue

00:03:28 –> 00:03:31 that’s on there after it’s cured, you can remove it with that.

00:03:31 –> 00:03:36 You can also clean glass such as like glass ornaments, if you’re going to be sticking

00:03:36 –> 00:03:42 Polymer Clay on them, you can clean them with rubbing alcohol, same with metal and if you’re

00:03:42 –> 00:03:47 trying to remove grease or fingerprints and that kind of thing, so I find it’s probably

00:03:47 –> 00:03:52 the cheapest but most used supply in my studio.

00:03:52 –> 00:03:57 So I hope that was helpful for you, and if it was, do let us know if you liked this video.

00:03:57 –> 00:04:02 And if you’ve got some other tips for using rubbing alcohol, leave those in the comment

00:04:02 –> 00:04:05 section below, I might have forgotten something.

00:04:05 –> 00:04:12 And if you have suggestions for future videos, things you’d like me to test, products you’d

00:04:12 –> 00:04:15 like me to show you how to use, that kind of thing, leave those in the comment section

00:04:15 –> 00:04:16 below.

00:04:16 –> 00:04:21 And don’t forget we have a great resource over at PolymerClayTutor.com where you can

00:04:21 –> 00:04:26 use the search box to find the answers to all of your Polymer Clay questions.

00:04:26 –> 00:04:27 We’ll see you next time and bye for now.

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