My colorful mood

Everyone seems to be thinking about color these days.  Like everybody else in the clay world, I'm doing some of the exercises in Polymer Clay Color Inspirations by Haunani and Maggio, but in addition, I decided to mix up some colors from the recipes I've collected through my subscription to Cindy Lietz's Polymer Clay Tutor service.  Each week she sends out three recipes, two for people who get her free weekly newsletter (To receive this newsletter automatically by email each week, you can fill out the opt-in form at: http://www.beadsandbeading.com ) plus another one for paid members of her Bead Making Video Library.  I made 66 color chips, wrote the recipes on the back and put holes in the corner so I can keep them on a wire.  I like having individual chips so I can move them around and see how different colors work with each other.  Some of these are yummy and I can't wait to use them in a project.

In addition to the color recipes, Video Library members get a new video each week showing a clay technique or a project.  This week the video shows how to make extruded flower canes.  At only $3.32 per month, it's hard to pass up this great service.

Another Frame

One of my guildmates, Laura McIntosh, is having a baby and has decorated the nursery in a jungle theme using green, yellow and white. I made this picture frame for her but don't tell her. She hasn't seen it yet.

It's a Frame Up!!!

The infamous Daniels 12, my best friends in the whole world, got together again, this time in Niagara Falls. We were all freshmen together in a small dorm called Daniels Hall and after seeing each other every 5 years at reunions, we decided to start having our own private reunions. It has become sort of a tradition to exchange small gift items, so last time I gave everybody Altoid tins covered in clay. This time I decided to give everyone a picture frame - covered in clay, of course. I bought unfinished wooden frames at Michaels, baked them, sanded off any resin that oozed out, coated them with Modge Podge, and then added clay. This was a technique I learned from Gaby Orbach at Morrisburg. For most of them I used Bev Larose's texture sheets (which I think will be available soon through Shades of Clay) either covering the clay with PearlEx powder and then running it through the pasta machine with the texture sheet, or texturing the clay and then adding pigment. (Click on photos for larger views.)



















Even the ones made with plain gold or silver clay looked nice. Then I got playful - this is my first try at the extruding technique. Kewl.

Morrisburg, Day 2 and 3

Georgia Ferrell, aka Iggy, treated us to Fanciful Fabric and Other Stuff.
Georgia encouraged us to play with liquid clay and a variety of materials including yarns, thin fabrics, ribbons, sparkles and, essentially, anything we can think of.


Wendy Orlowski made a New Year's resolution to use up some of her stash before buying anything new, and as a result, came up with a class called Resolution Steampunk. We were told to raid our tool boxes and garages and to take apart obsolete items in order to find parts appropriate to the Steampunk trend. The results were spectacular.



In addition to workshops, there were a variety of swaps. Everyone was encouraged to clean out their studios and bring unwanted items for the "Table of Junque." It looked like Filene's Basement as we elbowed each other aside to find the good stuff. We also swapped canes and beads.






The queen of miniatures, Jacey Culham, showed us how to create a picnic of miniature hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and donuts. Yum. Then there is poutine - yuck - the Canadian dish consisting of fries, cheese curds and gravy.












Last year's mystery project was so much fun that we did it again. On the first day we were each given a small square of paper with a fragment of a photo on it. Our job was to duplicate the image in clay, matching colors and size. Then on Saturday night, we each stuck our square onto a larger canvas.



Margi Laurin supervised the project.


And we produced this masterpiece.

Rite of Spring

Once again I was lucky enough to attend "Morrisburg", the clay retreat held in Morrisburg, Ontario for members of the Quebec and Ontario clay guilds. Kudos to Margi Laurin and Violette Laporte for another well-organized, well-run, and FUN event. That's Vio having fun on the right.

As usual the workroom was a hubbub of creativity.



Gaby Orbach got us started with a workshop on interesting surface techniques including a silkscreen effect that doesn't use a silkscreen. We used the results to cover wooden picture frames or to make jewelry (jewellery for Brits and Canadians).



Next Sandy Willis showed us how to have fun with flakes, although at first we weren't sure if she was referring to us or the stuff from Grummer. It turns out we colored little iridescent flakes and used them to make sparkly surfaces which could be used in many applications.

Finally, Violette Laporte showed us how to create lovely books using covers made of clay. We tore or cut paper and then bound everything together using a needle and thread in a technique called Coptic stitching.



More on Day 2 tomorrow........

Playing with Liquid Clays

I've been experimenting with liquid clays recently, trying different brands and mixing different substances into them.  I've used Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS) a lot, especially for "gluing" baked clay to baked clay, but it isn't as clear as I want for a project I'm working on using sort of a cloissonne effect.  I'm looking for clear, vibrant colors to use for translucent butterfly wings and I want some subtle variations in colors.  To figure out what to use for my project, I compared Fimo Gel with Kato Clear Medium.

 Fimo Gel starts out the clearest and is wonderfully clear after baking at normal temperatures, i.e. the 265° specified on the bottle.  I was disappointed with Kato Clear when baked at 275°, the temperature specified on the bottle, and even after using a heat gun on it.  But then I read a paper about Kato Liquid that was handed out by Tony Aquino of Van Aken at the Synergy Conference.  "When cured at 275° it will give you a flat finish.  The recommended curing temperature is 300° for 20 minutes.  This temperature will result in a matte finish.  To increase gloss and clarity, cure an additional 10 minutes at 350° or wave a heat gun over the area until gloss is achieved."  When I followed this procedure, I got a nice glossy and clear result  with the Kato Medium.  

I found some "artist's pigments" at a local store and tried mixing them into the liquid clays. These are "no name" pigments from China and I don't think they are ground as finely as some more expensive ones may be.  I got a nice clear yellow and a bright red when mixed with both Kato and Fimo liquids, but the blues were grainy and mixing two pigments did not produce very nice secondary colors.  I found that oil paints worked very well although some of them were more opaque than others.  There are lots of colors and they blend very well, so I could get a nice range of hues.  Pinata Inks are very translucent and some of the colors really pop, but the color range is limited.  I had problems with bubbling when I baked the clay right after mixing, but letting them sit for a couple of hours until the alcohol evaporates seems to solve that problem.

When I tried making my butterfly wings (small example in the first photo), I found that the Fimo Gel was difficult to get into the tiny spaces formed by the black ribs where they come together.  I used a toothpick to apply the liquid clay, and although the Kato tended to drip, it flowed very easily into the smallest spaces.  The Fimo Gel wings had some problems with bubbles, although I haven't had that problem in the past when I applied the clear gel with a brush.  

It turns out that all three liquid clays have their advantages and I will probably use them all for different purposes.  TLS is great glue.  Fimo Gel works very well as a clear sealer over mica powders and gold leaf and does not have to be baked at high temperatures, making it safe to use with translucent clay.  Kato blends well, flows into small spaces and had no bubble problems, but having to bake at 350° or use a heat gun at the same temperature could cause problems in some situations.

In my next post, I'll show you my prototype butterflies.  And in the future, when I can get hold of some Kato Color Liquid Clay, I will see how that compares to my homemade mixes.

I'm Published!

Hooray.  One of my photos from Synergy was published in the current Polymer Cafe!  It's on page 57.