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...