Ferido

Ferido is a 2 part epoxy clay that is used in making jewelry, among other things. It is the perfect formula for encasing rhinestone crystals to create a pavé effect. Mix two equal parts together and you end up with a polymer clay-like medium that will adhere to almost anything and harden without any heat.

I first experimented with the material last week at the Crystallized workshops in Tucson. We were given the Ferido, an assortment of Swarovski fancy stones, and a blank ring base. After mixing the 2 parts of Ferido together, you have 70 minutes of working time. Without anytime to plan a design, everyone in the class just started sticking stones into the clay. Being obsessive, I needed a plan: so I decided to stick to all shades of blue. Here's how my very first Ferido piece turned out...

When I returned back home to NYC, I decided to play a little more with this cool material and the left over fancy stones I had. With the limited color and stone size selections I had, I decided to make a little Valentine tin to demonstrate the process and show a different application for Ferido.

If you want to try this amazing material, I recommend experimenting first with some inexpensive rhinestones. Start with a dime size worth of the 2 parts Ferido and form a coin and then apply a few rhinestones. You will get a sense for how the Ferido feels and works. You can practice smoothing it out and pressing in stones. You will see that as you push in the stones the clay expands and puffs up, just like any other clay would.

For my Valentine candy box, I used a glass covered round specimen tin. I taped a heart template to the inside cover of the tin.

Then I traced the heart shape with a red sharpie and colored it in so that on the inside of the lid, under the white Ferido, it would be a red heart. I mixed a medium amount of Ferido, formed the heart shape over the template and adhered it to the glass. Immediately, after smoothing it out, I started to insert the random mix of fancy stones I had in all the shades of pink. Here's how it turned out!