I’ve just got my cute little snail, Wilbur, posted on Etsy! Please hop on over there and take a look! And be a dear, and share the link with any friends or family you think might like it! Thanks a bunch!
Tag: Polymer clay
Yes, I’m sculpting art dolls again! I have been on a creative hiatus for ever so long, and haven’t done any serious clay play in ages. I’m not really quite sure how it happened. I guess it was when my back trouble started getting worse and I had my first back surgery. I was hurting so much during that time that I just let the pain take over. Well, I’m not sure that “I let it happen” is quite accurate, but it happened, nonetheless. That was in 2008. And unfortunately, the surgery didn’t fix everything. I had two disks replaced, but more just keep popping up. Or maybe I should say popping OUT. LOL Yes, I can laugh about it, but when I’m hurting, it’s no laughing matter. And even though the pain is still here, I have just made up my mind that I’m going to start working with my clay again!
I recently made a little character that I think turned out cute! It’s a little snail with a basket of berries on it’s back, and there’s even a tiny little person in the basket, too! I haven’t been able to get real good pictures yet, due to overcast days of late, but as soon as I can, I will be putting it on Etsy! The link to my shop is right over there ———> on the right! Here is a picture, though, just so you can get the idea!
I’m also very excited about something else! Years ago when I was an active member of City of Clay group on Yahoo, we used to have what we called Clayalongs. Our Fearless Leader, NJ, of NoraJean.com, used to do free video tutorials, and a lot of us would also turn on our cams and clay along, so other members could watch several of us. It was just so much fun! Everyone had a great time! But for whatever reason, we stopped doing them, and haven’t done them for several years now. But I mentioned to NJ recently how much I missed them, and she has decided to start doing them again! So I am just super excited to get back in with the old group and get my creative juices flowing again! Woo hoo!!! When I find out all the details, I will let you know. I do think it will only be available to group members, but I’m not 100% sure.
I hope you all are as excited as I am!
Now, before you leave, please be sure to leave a comment below, so I’ll know you were here! (I just really love getting comments!!! LOL)
- Image by ShannonWilliams via Flickr
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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- MAKE’s Halloween contest (boingboing.net)
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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.
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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)?
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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!
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