Product Review - Opal Mylar vs Angelina Film vs Iris Film vs Tavoos Thick vs Tavoos Thin vs Holographic Paper

After working with the Opal Mylar recently and posting the results online there were a few questions in regard to Angelina Film, Holographic Paper and Tavoos and because I had all of these products on hand I thought I would do a bit of test to see which one I like the best.

This is what I did:

* Conditioned black kato clay and ran through the pasta machine on setting #2 so fairly thick.
* Cut out small squares and placed a solid piece of each “film” on one square and then mosaic pieces on another – so each film had two examples.
* Burnished to the clay slightly.
* Baked in bench top oven on a tile for the recommended temperature for 30 minutes.
* These are how they turned out.
* All of these examples are on baked clay.

Holographic Paper
This is the stuff you can buy quite cheaply. Florists use it, kinda like celophane but with a shimmering image (I think you all know the product I’m talking about)
Looked beautiful when it came straight out of the oven. Edges curled a little but seemed to bake well, until I touched a piece of the mosaic and it popped off the surface. I’m not sure this product would withstand a heat gun either.

The product peels off the baked clay very easily.

Tavoos Thick
I think you’ve all heard of this product by now. If not just google and you’ll find it. This one looked absolutely beautiful as it came out of the oven. It seemed to bake beautifully to the clay. The edges on the mosaic curled slightly. When I went to see if it would peel off the surface of the clay it simply snapped. This product would be perfect for a flat piece that was going to be covered with resin or something similar. You’ll note in the third pic I went to peel a little of the mosaic off and a clear layer came off the top leaving a shimmering piece underneath that I couldn’t get off.

Tavoos Thin
This is just a thinner version of the thick stuff…obviously!! This also looked beautiful when it came out of the oven – the solid piece that is. The little mosaic pieces curled as you can see. I also tried this on a pod bead and it totally didn’t work. I’m sure there are many applications for this product with polymer clay but not on a pod bead that’s for sure.

This one peeled away easily from the baked clay also.

Prior to baking – note it doesn’t stick well to the bead.

After baking…bit of a failure.

Angelina Film or Textiva

Fusible iridescent film is the raw material for Angelina. This is a reasonably thin, shimmering paper that sticks well to raw clay. It looked beautiful on the black clay both before it went into the oven and after it came out of the oven. The edges did curl slightly and it peeled away from the cured clay very easily. I dare say there would be some applications for this product with polymer clay if it was to be sealed after baking.

Iris Film or Polyester Film

This is a product I purchased many many years ago which, when I dragged it out, looked very similar to the opal mylar. This is a wonderful highly reflective semi-transparent, silvery film You can stitch on it and shape it and because it is polyester, you can use transfer paints on the surface as well. Again, very similar results to the Angelina Film. This looked amazing after it was baked and didn’t lose any of the shine whatsoever…..love it. It did however, peel off very easily – bugger!!

I did however, decide to try this on a pod bead to see if it would work similar to the Opal Mylar. The mosaic pieces stuck beautifully to the raw clay bead and also baked beautifully. I didn’t try to pull the pieces off, instead let the bead cool completely, popped a skewer in the thread hole, applied liquid clay and cured it and the finished result was incredible. I tried to handle the mosaic pieces as little as possible and worked carefully so as not to pop them off the surface of the bead.

This bead has an incredibly smooth surface but I love the way you can see the wrinkles in the paper underneath.

Opal Mylar

I think you possibly all know what this is by now. This is my favourite of them all. The film sticks to the raw clay beautifully, even on rounded surfaces. It bakes beautiful, no curled up edges….and the best part I couldn’t pick it off the surface of the clay when it had cooled down completely. You’ll see in the last pic I’ve tried to pick the film off the clay and it just wouldn’t budge. This is pretty awesome stuff I think.

So there you have it. Lots of different “films/papers” on the market and all would possibly work well, depending on the application, with polymer clay.

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Evelyn Sharland

4 years ago

Thank you Debbie, for sharing these results with us all. Best wishes for a happy New Year.

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Debbie Crothers

Reply to Evelyn Sharland

Thanks so much Evelyn, I really appreciate your comment.

My absolute pleasure Evelyn. Happy New Year to you too. x

Lenora

7 years ago

I'm in US. Now that I've seen your other post, I don't think it will work for my intended use. I was hoping it was more like Jones Tones which used to adhere well to raw clay but they don't any more.

Reply to Lenora

Oh I understand Lenora. No these products are unlike the Jones Tones. I thought they were and tried to burnish onto the clay but nothing happened. I know there are nail foils that work the same as Jones Tones and of course the Lisa Pavelka. I think there's also another range on the market now (saw in Spotlight the other day). It's in a scrapbooking range and I've seen it used to make stickers. Not even sure what it's called but if I remember I'll let you know.

Is there a brand name for the opal Mylar that we might find someplace besides Australia?
Lenora

Lenora, it seems there's plenty of different variations for this product around the world. I've had quite a few people contact me with links to different sites so I'm pretty sure there are many suppliers that stock this product or something similar. I also think it has many different names. Try googling Polyester Film as well as Opal Mylar and see what you come up with. Where are you Lenora?

Sharon Curtis

Hi Debbie
I loved your tests with the different films. I plan on getting into Polymer Clay to make Jewelry next year and am especially interested in using Mylar, Angelina and different mediums with the clay. You have saved me a lot of work by your experiments. I have a lot to learn about the different kinds of clay and which brand is best to use. I cannot wait to start. Merry Christmas to you.
Regards
Sharon

Reply to Sharon Curtis

Sharon it's my absolute pleasure. I'm sure there are many things you can do with a number of these films/papers. My experimenting was quite limited but it's all I needed or wanted to do at this point in time. Glad you got something out of it.

Hi Dakota

I sent you an email regarding your order. Can you please respond. heirloomsbysharon@gmail.com

Regards
Sharon

Product Review – Opal Mylar vs Angelina Film vs Iris Film vs Tavoos Thick vs Tavoos Thin vs Holographic Paper

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