I have been working all day on some Halloween items, and have had to stop several times to condition clay. I don’t know if it’s the white Premo, or if this block is old, but it is sooo hard. Even after I’ve worked it for quite a long time, it still seems to be somewhat brittle. So, I’m trying adding some Sculpey to it, because it’s much softer. It does seem to be helping. I don’t usually use Sculpey, because it’s too soft to hold the detail that I usually work in. A touch, though, in this really stiff clay, makes it just soft enough that it’s not cracking easily.

I’ve been getting in the “holiday spirit”, so to speak, by listening to Halloween radio (http://www.neverendingwonder.com/halloween.htm), while I work on some ghoulish ornaments for Halloween Trees, or just hanging around anywhere! I plan on painting them, so I’m just working with white clay. I’ll try to get some pictures of them posted soon! And when they’re done, I’ll post them on my Artfire shop! The link is to the right, but I’ll include it in the post when they’re ready.

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Silly me, forgot to post about my finished morel mushrooms.  LOL  Ah well, that’s par for the course for me.  I’d forget my head, if it weren’t attached.

So, yeah, I got them finished!!!  And, I even got them made into jewelry, can you believe it?  I posted them on my Artfire page, but I’ll show you the pics here, too!  Here is my Artfire link.

Hi!  Thanks for stopping in today!

My last post showed how I tried to use rock salt to add texture to my morels.  That experiment failed.  The salt just didn’t make the right shapes.  I know, I’m too particular.  LOL

I thought and thought, and couldn’t come up with any other solution other than just (very carefully) sculpting the holes one by one.  Let me tell you, it got a little bit tedious.  But, I think they turned out pretty good!

In case you don’t know what a morel mushroom looks like, here is an example.

Those dark areas are holes and crevices.  I was trying to create a fairly realistic representation.  Below are the pictures of the the two pendant sized, and two earring set sized sculpts.  I’m curious to know what you think.  I haven’t added the matte varnish yet.  Creative criticism is welcome!  Do I need to keep working?  Do they need a tweak?  Or, are they ready for prime time?

This is what they looked like before I baked them.

This is Set 1 after they’ve been baked and stained.

This is Set 2 after they’ve been baked and stained.

They look huge in these pictures, but they are about 1 inch for the small ones, and 2 inches for the big ones.

So, tell me what you think! Are they ready to make into jewelry (after varnishing)?

A while back, I decided I wanted to try sculpting small morel mushrooms.  I thought they would make really neat jewelry.  I did pretty well on one size, but when I tried a smaller version, it turned out much more difficult.  Here is a photo of the larger version.  (You can click the photos to get larger versions.)

Since I had such trouble with the small ones, I thought it would be a great idea to have some sort of texture sheet that I could press them in to get the holes.  The best thing I could think of was to use course salt.  Actually, someone gave me the idea.  And it seemed like a good one!  But, it just didn’t work out the way I had hoped.  It was not a lost venture, though, as it still turned out a good texture sheet.  Just not for what I had intended.

The first thing I learned is that “course salt” on the package does not always mean “course” salt.

Here, I took some scrap polymer clay, pressed salt into it, and then added some liquid clay, so the salt would stay put. The upper piece has the small pieces, and the lower has larger pieces that I picked out.

This is what they looked like after baking.

So, even though I’ll have to make my mushrooms the hard way, this experiment did turn out a pretty cool texture!

Hi there!  Thank you so much for stopping by!  This is a brand new site for me, so it’s pretty empty, but I will be filling it up as time goes by.

I’m a wife, mom, and artist, just to name a few things.  LOL  I will be sharing news on projects I’m working on, links where you can buy them, and tidbits about what’s going on at home.  I’ll also be talking about online friends, sites I like, and things I find interesting.  I hope you’ll find all this interesting, as well!

As for my art, I make things with polymer clay.  Usually it’s Art Dolls, but sometimes I make jewelry or small sculptures.  I really LOVE Art Dolls!  Not just my own, but lots of others made by some really wonderful artists!  I follow lots of blogs by doll artists, other artists, not to mention moms and other great folks.  What can I say, I love reading blogs!

As you might have guessed, I live in West Virginia.  I was born here, and I figure I’ll die here.  To me, it’s a beautiful place and the people are known to be some of the friendliest around!  Wild, Wonderful West Virginia is our motto, and it really describes this state very well.  It seems like Country Roads by John Denver is our unofficial state song, because most of our inhabitants feel the same as the lyrics.  “Country roads take me home to the place I belong, West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home country roads.”

And now that you have that song stuck in your head, I’ll leave you, and talk to you again soon!

Shannon

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