New Reflections

I have always loved participating in swaps because they are a help in the learning curve.  No, these Reflections Pendants are not new, but they helped me to 'refine'  the technique to something that was akin to production, which I do not like to do.  The swap required a minimum of eighteen pendants and so I did make the required number and had a bit more of the material prepared, so I made extra ones which I am going to give as gifts to friends. 

The colors in these are quite subdued, not the normal showy stuff that I do in the fish mobiles.  Also, I did not sand the finished pendants, leaving the option to the members of the guild to decide whether they wanted them shiny or not. I just buffed them a little on the surface, rather than the usual sanding with progressive grits of sandpaper and buffing to a high gloss.  I like the subtle sheen  and it is enough to make the 'reflection' part of the pendant noticeable.  Some of the burl effect even looks like a goddess in some of the pendants. 

As usual, I was under the 'gun' to get them done, as my days are very busy with visiting and participating in a couple of activities here under the sun.  Having made these many times before, I was able to streamline the activity which is one of the advantages of participating in a swap.  For the last ones I made as keepers, I completed those after last Saturday's meeting and do have to admit that I added a little more embellishment. In some,  I hammered out some wire and placed it in the underlayer of burnished black.  In others, I rolled the 'bail' part around a tube of metal to make it a little more mixed media.  Of course no two are exactly alike, which I love.

The past few days have been cool and there was a lot of rain over the weekend. However yesterday was sunnier (but cool) and I finally tried using the UV curing magic glos that I have had for over a year.  It's funny, sometimes I get stuff and have to use it right away.  This product was one that I was saving on the back burner.  I used the glos on a book cover and although the book is not completely done, I think I am going to continue using the medium.  It is VERY shiny!

I guess it's a toss up as to whether my personal preferences are for shiny, matte, or high gloss.

My dog Mollypup

Our little Molly has been mollygagging lately.  She love, love, loves to sleep in strange positions and her being the Princess Malllahkowalla that she is, we allow her to do just about anything she wants.  Besides doing a grasse matinée chaque matin, she loves to droop her head over the lazy boy.  There's a misnomer...They should have called the easy chairs LazyGirls.

We averted a near crisis last week with the help of our vet and his assistants back home, Centennial Animal Hospital.  It turns out that the insulin that Molly takes is NOT available here, or anywhere in the U.S. so to avoid Molly having to get re-regulated on a different strain and dosage, we had to have the type she is taking sent special delivery so she wouldn't run out.  It originally took over three months to get the correct dosage of insulin regulated (and how many trips to the vet) and we did not want to go that route again.  We had tried contacting several people who we know were coming down here, but none of them would have been here before her supply ran out. 

Originally our vet believed that the same type of insulin was available here, but it seems there was some problem with the porcine insulin coming out of suspension  in a rather short period (less than six months) so it has been taken off the production line here. All is well now, and the little girl is as normal as can be expected.  She is blind due to cataracts, but at least her drinking and evacuating is under control, leading us to believe that the insulin levels are correct.  It's not like we can do a little strip test everyday...

Our girl, who is eleven plus, still greets guests at the door and can do all her 'tricks' but she does bump into a few things from time to time.  She has learned to adapt pretty well though...she uses her nose as a 'white cane' and tests the base of the chair or sofa with her nose before jumping up on her favourite perch.  Outside, I keep her on a pretty tight rein because there are lots of 'big rocks' that could get into her path and I don't want her to hurt herself.  It's funny, as she can sense when people are walking by, and once in a while I think she 'sees'.  A bird flew by the other day and she seemed to follow it... but as for 'looking' at things, it's pretty bad.

I think we are pretty fortunate to still have her, as she is as lovable as ever.  I think I'll buy her a special valentine this year...

Super Bowl Sunday - The Cheeseheads

Well, I know this is not polymer clay, but if I had to make some funny cheeseheads from clay maybe this is what they would have looked like.  Actually, these are funny looking hors-d'oeuvres I am serving today during the Big Game...I am not biased, but just because we have folks who live in Wisconsin, I thought I'd better do up a dish in their favor.  I am going to serve Sloppy Joes at half time and calling them Pitts Burgers (no they haven't been warmed under the arm, lol) so that will make both teams even.

These little cheeseheads were simple to make and I used the leftover cuttings as wel,l just as I use all my leftovers from polymer clay.  None of them go to waste...these will go to waist.  The base for the heads were cut from lavosh bread I bought at Trader Joe's yesterday.  I cut the pointed head shapes from two  large rectangles of lavosh and saved the trimmings.  I heated those trimmings up to make little crackers. 

To cut the cheese rounds, I used the rinsed out can from the olives to make perfect circles out of cheese slices.  I used it as a cutter just like I use circular cutters for my polymer clay.  After slicing up a few black olive for the eyes, a couple of shrimp for noses and some pieces of a red pepper for the mouths, I was done.  I was laughing all the time I was making the little faces and I imagine it would be a cute project for moms to do with their kids for parties.  They do look a little on the gruesome side, but they're still  fun.    I already put them in at 400 degrees (baking not broiling) just to secure the cheese to the bread, and later on they'll just be reheated so I don't have to miss any of the game.

Go Packers Go!

Gone fishin'

Well I've done it!  My first rainbow trout of the year.  I plan to do at least a fish a month and I just made it under the wire for January.  This one is about eight inches in length so is a bit smaller than my usual ones, but I still think it's a keeper.  This time I hammered the wire before I inserted it to give it a little more 'backbone'.  I've also incorporated one of my favourite easy canes into the tail region and used some analogous colours in its construction.  The flip side has similar "Cleopatreyes" but they're outline in Kohl black instead of the Frank Sinatra Blue-Eyes liner.  I didn't want to make the liner so harsh, but since this is somewhat of a caricature of a fish (no pun intended Ms.Katisha), I thought I'd let it go.  As well, I am currently reading a mystery about a Victorian woman who's just embarked on her first Egyptian adventure so I thought it fitting that at least something would tie in with Amelia Peabody's adventures on the Nile.  Regretably, I am reminded of such tumultuous times in Egypt right now. 

I wonder if the Nile has any fish like these?

More Books

After doing the book demo last week, I finally had a chance to upload some pictures and am going to put a few of them here.  Some are entirely polymer clay covers...the others, well you'll probably be able to detect what they are!

This is one I started a long time ago and bound rather recently.  It's got a ton of texture and is loaded with parchment type paper.  It is a medium sized journal with about 80 pages, but I really haven't counted them.  The colours are very warm and the beads on the side are a little off the beaten track in terms of style.  One of the strands is split into two about halfway down thecord's length.

The cover is a Skinner blend that was  textured with some fabric.  Additional elements include a drape of  cane slices and some variegated canes I added for visual interest.

This rockin' one was inspired by the surrounding rocks out here.  I  actually put it down on the ground amid the stones that are outside and it blended in very well.  The rocky top on this is quite bumpy, but in the end I buffed it to make it less so and to make it easier to hold.  It is filled with charcoal type paper so that any naturalist can go out and do sketches.  In keeping with the rocky theme, there's a nature video inside with the sound of water running over the rocks.  I incorporated some smooth and irregular 'rocks' and also some glass and pearly beads.  Glass was once rock, right?

This mixed media book is of the type I made before Christmas in 2010.  It incorporates book board, which I coated with Gesso and then layered on coats of Jacquard Paint.  I added a few sunrays of co-ordinating colors of paint and then put on the polymer embellishment.  It consists of cane slices surrounding a medallion.  I also sewed some beaded elements into the cover and used similar beads on the spine.  This book is somewhat larger in dimension and is filled with good watercolor paper so that any media can be used to enhance its interior.  It was fun to combine a couple of elements in creating it.

Lots of folks ask what kinds of things should go in these art journals.  I decry those who want to use them as little notepads for grocery lists or telephone numbers.  It's so hard to be polite to people who call them notebooks...to me, those are the things you pick up at the dollar store and just rip the pages out when you are done with them.  To me an art journal is something you'd like to keep forever.  One of my friends has a guest book in her home that she has everyone write in as they visit.  Over the course of a couple of years, that has proven to be a wonderful recollection of all the friends who come over and the good times they've shared.  I also gave a similar book to another friend who decided that she'd use it for memorable events that occur over the years.  Of course most of the entries are happy ones, but she's also had the good sense to include some not so fun moments, because we all know that life doesn't always deal us good times every day.  And of course sketches,  paintings, significant quotes, photographs, calligraphy and other art forms can all be incorporated within the covers of these books.  That would make it YOUR art journal.

Blue Book done and others

As indicated in yesterday's post, (wow two posts in two days) I completed the binding of the book I'll be showing at the Saturday guild meeting. 
The interior contains 60 pages (actually five signatures) but the watercolor paper is so heavy that the finished book is an inch (2.54cm) thick.  I've made a couple of other books...some similar and some not so, and I've loaded them with Charcoal paper, so it's still a good quality paper but not as heavy, therefore making for more pages inside.

The book that I completed that is similar, using the same elements but other paper is shown here.  It's the same surface size, roughly 4 1/2 inches by 3 3/4 inches.  The beads are a combination of glass, metal and the majority are polymer made from leftover materials used in making the covers.

I used many of the same colors of clay in making this book, but employed a different combination of inks on the covers and in the Shimmer Batik Technique.  Sometimes the colors of the inks change in the process of layering and the pink color in the final outcome was originally more of a lavender color.  I personally love amost all colors so don't have a problem with that.  I know there are folks out there that don't want any pink in stuff.  The way that the colors merge on their own is appealing to me. It's one of the things about polymer clay that is a tiny bit unpredictable, but oh so much fun when you get those unexpected happenings.

New Year, New Book

Although the book is not yet finished, I thought I'd include it here as a work in progress to indicate that I actually have been working on clay, in spite of my hiatus from posting for over a month!  I will be doing a demo this Saturday and this is what I am going to be illustrating.  I have all the elements of the book ready, but had this picture taken before the covers were put in the oven, so this doesn't show the complete details. 

A while back, I had purchased Tina Holden's Shimmer and Batik tutorial, and finally had all the supplies (I got a ton of foiling stuff for Christmas) and needed to try everything out.  I did change the methods slightly...I added more texture to the impression as I needed a way of adhering the star to the background and I may have used more removal of the ink than was intended.  Anyway, it looks pretty and the colors of the background pretty closely match the colors in the Batik/shimmer element.  Instead of finishing it in the way recommended in the tutorial, I am going to add a coat of Future to preserve the inks, foil and pearl elements just to the cutout part. Just for the sake of clarity during the demo I will not be doing the Shimmer Batik technique.  I will be walking  folksthrough how to make basic covers for a book, how to prepare the signatures and demo the Coptic binding technique, the part of the book making which requires the most practice for 'unsewers' like moi.

  The interior is a Skinner Blend and when the whole thing comes together I will be adding watercolor pages inside and some beads to the binding, as I have done with most of my books.  I hope it turns out.