I’ve come across numerous tutorials describing how to transfer toner images to polymer clay using only water or rubbing alcohol.  It’s probably the most frequently cited technique I’ve found, even more common than the liquid clay technique.  So of course I’ve tried it—and I must be missing something.

The first thing I learned—which I’ve only seen mentioned in one video, and that recently—is that it’s really, really easy to rub off too much.  Really easy.  This was probably my most frequent failure; the image would get distorted or parts of it would rub off entirely.

And coming in a close second:

It’s really, really easy to over compensate and rub off too little.  I don’t know how clear it is in the photo here, but the foggy look to Alice’s head and a few other spots are bits of paper that are still clinging to the piece.

And, of course, it is possible to do both at once.

The videos and tutorials make this technique look so easy it’s almost annoying, but in my experience it’s anything but.  I have had some success with transferring images using liquid clay (Kato polyclay is supposed to be the best), but it would be nice to be able to transfer an image to raw clay.  So I have to ask:  what am I missing? What about this technique am I just not getting?