Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006 - 8:29 a.m.

All this experimentation with varnish is getting me nowhere. I coughed up $30 for a gallon of Varathane, diamond finish floor varnish, because I read on a polymer clay website that it was good for varnishing finished polymer clay jewelry, but in fact I find it not shiny enough for my purposes (I like shiny). I have also tried an oil-based clear polyurethane, with no UV protection, and it doesnt' seem to have the same shininess of the UV protectant stuff, but it is still a pain to clean up. I tried a few coats of varathane (waterbased) plus a couple of topcoats of the polyurethane, and the result is markedly eh. I think I can get the effect with a couple of coats fewer this way, but is it worth it, with all the fiddling between two kinds of varnish, and the purchasing of mineral spirits to clean the brush after the oil-based coats? I don't think so.

The only one that it remains for me to try is Polycrylic.

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