The summer sands of
  August are colorful
       and useful

John Allard
Staff Writer

Ahhhh, August. The high time of summer, the sun is shining, the air is warm and the festivities are in full swing.

I enjoy the pleasant weather and the ability to work outdoors. It is freeing in so many ways, you don't have to worry about messes, the light is far better than any lamp can provide, the air is fresh - what more could you ask for? Oh yeah, the bugs. Oops, forgot about them, well that's why they invented screen houses.

One of the things that I do a lot with my work is sanding and I relish the opportunity to get outside to do it. Of all the things I do to create my minis, sanding has got to be the messiest, followed closely by spray painting. I have to do it, but I still hate the mess it leaves in my studio, dust everywhere, so when the warm weather comes I like to step outside to a porch, or a driveway, my back yard, wherever a comfortable spot can be found and let the dust fly!

For our tool talk this month I chose sanding as a topic because of the delightful little sanding tools that I love so much. Called flexi-pads and I buy them at, you guessed it, Micro-Mark.com.

Now I am sure they are to be found at many other places as they are so darn useful. A flexi-pad is very much akin to a foam nail pad, the difference being that they come in so many different grits and even polishing grades. The colorful sticks each have a different color to let you know what grit it is.

So many of us use polymer clay and let me tell you these sanding sticks are indispensable when it comes to smoothing out finger prints and rough edges on polymer clay. Change the grit and work your way down, with these sticks you can make a polymer pieces shine with its own natural gloss so smooth you would swear it was glass.

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