Bottle of Hope

Bottles of Hope are small medicine bottles(usually glass chemotherapy medicine bottles) which are covered in polymer clay and then given out to cancer patients to give them hope in their time of sickness. This is one I've made today:


and the back:


The bottle is in memory of my mom, who died of breast cancer in 1992. I wish I had known about PC back then. If I remember correctly light blue was among her favorite colors. At any rate, it's the color she looked best in, IMO.

Analytically, I'm still having trouble with translucent clay slices. I'm told submerging translucent projects in ice water immediately after baking helps with the translucency. But seeing as this is glass it's a good thing I forgot to do it. I guess I'll just have to spring for some new blades to help get thinner slices like I really want to.

No Title.. again

Here's a pendant I made from the flower mold as seen in the previous post:



I can't sand it, because of the Pearl Ex powder on it. I should have worn gloves when working this one so I wouldn't have any prints on it. And polishing it will just bring out the fingerprints even more.. Oh well. live and learn.

Good Mold

This is the cast for a flower mold I made based on the book "Starting In Polymer Clay", by Monica Resta




And this is the mold I got from it:


So far, the mold works but I think I was probably seeking more of a STAMPING type thing. I guess that will mean carving images into thick rubber for stamps. I was hoping I would be able to use up my enormous clay stash for stamp making but I keep reading to use rubber erasers or something of the sort. So we'll have to see.

Pearl ExPeriments

I finally got some of that Pearl Ex pigment powder that everyone in clay-land raves about. A 32-color kit, in fact. It's not bad, the colors are awesome and I like the shimmery effect they give to clay. This jar I made was textured with the handle of a fork! When they say 'go around the house and look for texture' they meant it! I wish I could have gotten the impressions more even but hey, I'm still new at this.


I also picked up these:



I can't wait to try some of the caning projects. And theres a cute little flower pot project I want to try too. With spring coming I know I can find some flower seeds cheap at Home Depot. They had the little terracotta pots cheap at Ace Hardware downtown.

Nothing really new on the claying front except these:

and these:

I've been tinkering with texture sheets, and trying to perfect my cane-slicing. I'm finding out sadly, that new slicing blades are gonna have to be a constant thing. They just never stay sharp. I could get a self-healing mat for slicing, but right now I'm unable to buy any more major supplies, so...

No Title

I made these last night.


I rolled out the clay sheet first and applied the cane slices to it, instead of doing it the way I used to. I think I like covering the item first and then adding slices as needed. I think it provides better coverage and it uses less clay that way.

I've got a bottle waiting for slices and the top form is in the oven now. I have NO idea what I was thinking.. I got advice at Polymerclay Central to just do things the way I want to, instead of following others. If only they knew how hard that is to do! I see something really nice and I want one like it; so I try to emulate it and it comes out like crap. Believing something is attractive doesn't necessarily mean I have a good artistic eye-- I've had crushes on guys I'm sure most other women would NOT find attractive.. I've just got weird taste.

I never expected to make a lot of money with clay but I hoped I could make some stuff nice enough that I could sell it and make back SOME of what I spend on the supplies. I'm supposed to be going back to work come the new year. I hope so cause I would like to continue my knitting and clay but I can't do both if I'm not recouping anything. The knitting is more functional for me. I have 3 kids who can use knit items( and it took learning to knit to realize yarn isn't just for cold weather), as well as a husband, friends, neighbors, and myself! But clay items? For some reason they don't seem as useful a lot of the time.

Polymer clay-made items can't be used for food and drink. If they could I'd go nutto with bowls, cups, plates, you name it. I've seen the handles of tableware decorated with clay but I already have silverware(but with 3 small kids who CAN'T use more spoons and forks!?) and just about everyone else I know doesn't have wooden handles to cover. And would they be willing to eat with their hands while I work on them? No newlyweds to gift to(I swear I'm the only married person I KNOW!), and our 10th Anniversary isn't for another 2 years.

I think I have this passion for buying things. Yeah, that's it. I bought a mess of beads and don't use them. Don't ask me why. I have a knitting yarn stash that, held end to end, could circle the Earth 40 billion times. I kid you not. Ok maybe I'm exaggerating, but you get the picture. I've got books I have read maybe twice.. and I refuse to get rid of them. But I think it's deeper than being a pack rat.

It's mostly craft items I keep a lot of. At least I've stopped buying clay supplies(thangQ MC for being near the limit). I've got a box of pens to cover. And I sit and think to myself, " I just bought 60 pens for 4 bucks. Who's gonna pay me $10 for a covered pen when they can buy 60 pens for 4 bucks?" Yeh, I understand it's the artistry involved; the personalization they can get from a clay pen. But after they find out they have to buy a bunch of pens to get refills for it, they'll wake up and say, 'What the hell did I pay $10 for a pen when I can buy these for $4?!' I don't know....

Mokume Gane tin

This is a Mokume Gane altoid tin I covered. My first. I could certainly improve on this. I don't like the way the clay is around the hinges.. which is why I didn't show you. this is a view of the side to show the bottom color



I want to try again, but with a different pattern.

Check THESE out....

Heart pendant made of flower slices over a ball of scrap clay. I got the heart shape concept from the chrysanthemum cane tutorial when I made this:



These next pens are the result of mixing some mosaic cane slices and putting it through the PM. I'm afraid I won't ever be able to use that cane for anything but mixing for pen-sheets. Really sad, as that's a lot of freakin clay. But I learned never to make a cane that big if I'm not going to reduce it.
Also, there's the pen with the Dominican Flag on it. Sadly, that's not coming out well either. I'm starting to think that too, was a bad idea.



And Finally my first Mokume Gane piece. I've got to work on covering the edges of things, as you see the top of the can is not fully covered. It's going to be yet another pencil can. At first I was thinking Piggy Bank, but I measured wrong and couldn't make a lid the right size. I'd run out of the Mokume Gane sheet I'd made for the can and I didn't want a lid that didn't match. I also need to use a thicker sheet to cover these cans. Chef Boy Ar Dee cans are a good size but those ridges on the cans are a PITA.


Below are some canes I made using a Kemper clay gun. I wanted to see if I could make a square cane from little pieces instead of shaping a cane that way. Yes, I'm extremely lazy. And I don't have the acrylic brayer I'd need to make shaping and reducing non-round canes easier, so for now the square cane stays short. The yellow-black one is not really meant to be a "T"(my initial), but it came out that way. Was trying to do a jigsaw-type thing but it didn't quite work. At least I know now that with my little clay gun buddy I can make letters, of a fashion.


Some flower canes I made up. Including one of the canes I used on the heart pendant above. the smaller flowers on the pendant were made with a similar cane I'd made before.

Bloody Pasta Machine!

!^*)$%$#!!!! I decided to take my pasta machine apart to see if I could determine what was causing the setting notch to not stay in place. I never did find out what caused it per se, but it did go back into it's spot and I managed to get the machine back together again... Until....

I went to use it and it kept snagging the clay. Or clay would get stuck and wouldn't come back out! It took me an hour to figure out I'd had the scapers on in the wrong direction and by then I'd almost forgotten what I was doing in the first place!! @&*(%^$!!

I've got a red/pink skinner blend cooling off. It is supposed to become another flower but I already know it's gonna be a small one. Gosh I need more money so I can splurge on more clay so I won't be afraid to use more in one setting. In order to get more detail into a cane you have to start BIG.

Duh... again!

You know how I was complaining about how my digital camera pics weren't coming out sharp when I did close-ups? Well duh, I wasn't using the macro setting. See, I thought I WAS using it. But I wasn't. So, here are the flowercanes I've been doing the last few days.


That middle one is my rendition of a Poinsettia. I hadn't planned on it coming out like that, it just did. I really need to get more details in my flowers. I keep flubbing the skinner blends so that's a problem.

Which leads me to my pasta machine. It's broken. Kaput. It won't stay in its setting notches and that's not cool. The notch moves when I roll clay through it. Well, that's what I get for being cheap. I dropped it too, which I'm sure contributed to the damage but still. I could have gone better with an Atlas. I can't wait til the new year. Then after our refund money comes in I can try some new claying techniques, like Mokume Gane, and Filigree. And also I could try covering more complex/larger items, like tins, votive holders and vases. I've got a LONG way to go before I even THINK about jewelry, as a bead tumbler is almost as much as a good pasta machine, and I'd really need one if I'm going to be sanding a lot of beads.

Duh.

Yeah, I said Duh. As in, Duh, you're not supposed to try and add cane slices to an item that's already been polished. or.. Duh, don't forget to take your cane OUT Of the freezer if you're not gonna use it.


Lately my claying hasn't been up to par. It sucks. My leaf cane looks a mess and my camera is acting up so pics aren't as sharp as they used to be.

¡ Quisqueya!

Quisqueya is a sort of nickname for the Dominican Republic, whose flag I have tried to recreate in polymer clay :

Not bad for a first attempt. All I have to do now is come up with something to decorate with it. In the meantime it's cooling with some other canes I'll be using to decorate, You guessed it!, another pen. It's for another pen and holder set; though this time I'm not too thrilled. The translucent didn't come out as clear as I would have liked. I used Fimo. I'm trying to hold off on using the Premo until the blocks I ordered from Clay Alley come in, probably tomorrow(while I'm out running bloody errands!! grr).



ugly pen holder... yeeewwww. I guess I should add that this piece has not been polished yet. I'm sure it'll look a LITTLE better polished..

Lookie!!

It was just an experiment but I think I've got a better handle on covering script bottles.. I don't know how the slices on the holder turned out more pinkish than the ones on the pen; they're from the same cane and the background on the pen was NOT white.. hmmmm


I do know, that somebody is getting one of these jimbobs for Xmas :))