Elemental challenges

As I write this, I'm enjoying a slow, steady, rainy day.  Perfect for thinking about a challenge whose theme is the elements!  Actually, I'm quite late in writing about this due to many other challenges at home with getting the house and garden prepared for summer, picking strawberries, picking strawberries, picking strawberries (did I mention picking strawberries?!?)...  and finally, the loss of a beloved pet.  I've been so busy and so heartbroken over losing my sweet kitty that I hadn't considered posting about the challenge here until the last minute.  As of this writing, there is less than a day left for voting.  If you catch this on this day (June 7, 2013), you have until midnight tonight to cast your vote!  Please take the time to go vote for your 3 favorite entries at http://www.polymerclayartists.blogspot.com/   And remember that if you do take the time to vote you may have the opportunity to win a prize!  Three random voters are selected each month to win a prize of their choosing. 

Here are a few photos of my entry piece:

For this month, our guild members were asked to create a piece that reflected any, or all, of the elements (earth, air, fire, water).  I had originally intended to create a piece with all of the elements.  Throughout the last month, I worked on creating portions that would eventually be combined which signified each element.  Then on the 2nd to last day before the challenge deadline, I spent the day assembling, disassembling and reassembling the piece to no avail.  Each time I put it together, no matter how I changed the necklace layout, it just was not cohesive.  As a last ditch resort, I decided to pair it down to simply the one element which struck me as the best conceived piece.  From the 4 choices, fire was the one which I felt was best represented.  I called this piece Flaming Embers Necklace.  The pendant was created with translucent polymer and alcohol inks, the embers shooting out of the top of the flame were created with necklace cable wire and liquid polymer.   The asymmetrical necklace design is created with clear glass seed beads interspersed with orange and red beads to carry the theme of flying embers of a flame.  

And here are all of the participating artists' entries for this month:

Surely a tough decision once again, to choose just 3 favorites, as all are well conceived and well executed ideas!  So please head over to the guild blog and vote for your favorites!

Ms. Fix-it: or Confessions of a chronic Do-It-Yourself-er

This blog post is about a different type of creativity…  Ever get frustrated with corporate America's planned obsolescence?  I do.  Imagine... you're using one of your trusted tools or gadgets when suddenly it stops or no longer performs properly.  So, whenever  a product I own decides to die, I do a search on the internet to find any available information to diagnose and fix the problem.

So, about a month ago, in the midst of whipping up a batch of home-made bread, my Kitchenaid stand mixer made a funny noise and simply stopped running.  In aid of eating foods that are as minimally processed as possible, (i.e. no chemicals), I make my own bread.  I knew I would be wanting the help of Ms. Kitchenaid in a week or two to make the next batch of bread… what's a girl to do?
I should mention that we live on a one income budget, so we are very crafty with how we spend our money.  Also, I tend towards extreme environmental consciousness, so the thought of tossing something like this to the landfill is unacceptable.   
I first called the 1-800 number located on the back of my machine.

After the nice customer service person told me: 1.  That my bread recipe was ½ cup more than what my model could handle (really? I've been making this same bread recipe with this machine for many months with zero signs of a struggle till this point);  2.  That he couldn't diagnose my problem over the phone; 3. That he highly recommended that I pay for the mailing kit to send my machine to the factory for diagnosis and repair; and 4. That just the mailing kit cost $35, and that didn't include any part of diagnosis or repairs…. Realizing that I can buy a refurbished machine on ebay for likely just a little more than I'd spend sending them the damn machine and paying the factory labor and parts costs for fixing whatever was wrong with it; I thanked him for his time and kindly said that I'd look into all my options before purchasing the mailing kit.  I then headed to the internet for some research.  There are some sites out there that helped; these sites got me to a preliminary diagnosis and realization that I could possibly fix this myself for less than the $35 shipping kit cost!  The sites I found were this:  http://www.ehow.com/how_7780654_apart-kitchenaid-mixer.html   and this:  http://www.foodonthefood.com/food_on_the_food/2009/04/how-to-repair-a-kitchenaid-mixer-yourself.html
It sounded as though my machine had the same issue that was described, a broken worm gear (which apparently is the most common problem when these machines break down).  It seems these gears are made out of nylon (read plastic).  We're talking about a $4 part... Yep, this machine with a heavy metal exterior, leaving one to think the machine is built to last, has plastic gears inside.  The company claims these plastic gears are designed to break down, as to prevent the motor from burning out; though it sounds logical, I admit to being a bit skeptical about that reasoning alone for plastic gears.  Neither of the two websites listed above had many visuals to go with the instructions of dismantling the machine.  Frankly because I'm a visual girl, the how-to instructions on their own left me less than 100% confident that I knew what I was doing.  Never one to let that hold me back when a chance to experiment is at hand… and hey, what did I have to lose by just taking the thing apart?  I set to work, screwdriver in-hand.  After I got the thing successfully apart, I decided that I should do a blog post on this topic, to help anyone else "out there" fix their machine.

 My model is the Kitchenaid Classic 4 ½ quart capacity.  (**Note: it might be of benefit to read through both of the previously mentioned websites and through all of my instructions before you have a go at it! **)  So here are the details…

First, gather the tools you will need to take the machine apart.  Here's what I used:  a small flat head screw driver, a phillips head screw driver, a metal punch tool (not sure of technical name) and a large flat head screw driver; you will also need a hammer:

 

1.  Make sure your machine is unplugged!  Then, at the back top of your machine there is a phillips head screw located on the top of the rounded part as seen in the next photo, unscrew this screw to remove the rounded cover on the back of the machine.

2.  After you remove the rounded back cover, you will see the two small phillips head screws which hold the outer band in place, unscrew both these screws (see red and yellow arrows).

3.  Remove the outer band by stretching outward slightly and slipping it off the machine.

4.  Next we will remove the round band at the front of the machine head, take your small flat head screw driver and place it in one of the little grooves you will find at the top of that silver band, then nudge the band downward (careful not to scratch the paint on your machine), it should shimmy loose so you can remove it.  Note: This band is not fastened with any screws, so when you put the machine back together you want to push this band up far enough so that it will stay in place.

 

5.  Next take your metal punch tool and place it on the pin that you see on the planetary, the pin is located near the shaft which holds your beater attachements (this entire piece that rotates is called the planetary), as seen here:

 

Hammer the end of your metal punch tool to draw out the pin and remove it.  Note: when you put the machine back together, the holes on the outside of the planetary must match up with the hole on the inside shaft, if you can't see clear through all of the holes, simply rotate the planetary until you can see through it and then you will be ready to reinsert your pin.

6.  Now you can pry down the planetary (the part that rotates).  I did this by inserting the long shaft of my screw driver between the planetary and the top of the machine (like a mini crowbar), then wriggled the screwdriver shaft up and down until I was able to pull the planetary off the rest of the way with my hands.  This takes some force, but it will come free.

 

7.  Next you will unscrew and remove the 5 flat head screws on the circular area that were revealed just now after your removed the planetary (seen below)

 

8.  Unscrew and remove the 2 flat head screws just under this circular area as seen here:

9.  At the back of the machine there are 2 more flat head screws that are recessed into the butt of the machine which need to be removed, you will find one on each side of the machine as seen below:

10. Now the top of your machine should be free to lift up and off, again this may take some force (I also used the shaft of my screwdriver to help here) but it will come off... Once it is free, be sure to slide the plastic housing at the top of the cord wire out of the base, as the wires are attached to the mechanics in the top part of the machine but the cord is seated in the base (you don't want to set the top down with this still attached to the base, as it could detach wires from soldered points)  Be prepared, a lot of black gooey grease is housed in the head and may fall out so you might not want do this on your best table cloth or while wearing your favorite outfit!

This is only a small portion of the black icky grease that was in mine, a lot of it fell out as I was taking the top off and a lot of it was in the top part of the machine. 

Now that your machine is apart, you need to diagnose the problem. Clean off as much of the old grease as you can with some paper towels.  Check all your gears to see if any teeth are broken off or shredded.  Not only was the worm gear on mine shredded, but the pinion gear below it was missing teeth - because the pinion gear is metal, those missing teeth were still lodged in the center pinion gear that it connects with, so I had to go through each gap of the center pinion with my small screwdriver to slide out any broken bits to be sure it wouldn't mess up my new replacement gears.  Be sure to inspect all your gears before you order your parts...  I almost missed the pinion gear issue but luckily caught it right before I placed my order.  Go to this website, to view a machine diagram (look for the "enlarge the image" for easier viewing), to determine which gears you need to replace.  This site also has the best price point that I foundon the internet to order the worm gears :  http://www.mendingshed.com/k45map.html   Be aware that when you put it all back together ***you MUST replace the grease!!*** (the manufacturer actually recommends you replace the grease every 2 years or so, but this was the first time I'd done it in the 13 year lifetime of my machine).  You MUST to use a food grade grease such as Benalene, which you can also buy at the Mendingshed website, it comes in a small pint sized can:

So here's my bright new shiny worm (the worm gear is the cream/yellow colored part) and pinion gear box that I replaced, before I greased it back up and reassembled the beast... The cost of this shiny new part was about $7, the can of grease was about $18 and then there was shipping, but I think I got the job done in the range of $35-$40... and I still have a fairly full a can of grease ready for the next time I need it:

When your parts arrive in the mail, swap out the old parts for the replacements by unscrewing the old parts where you see them attached.  Remember to add a generous amount of new grease (comparable to what you cleaned off the parts) and reassemble by following the directions in reverse. 
And there you have it, how to disassemble your Kitchenaid stand mixer... 

Mine has been singing along perfectly since the replacement, as my oven will attest, and I've learned to do my bread in 1/2 batches so I don't break another worm gear!

I'm dreaming of owning an Electrolux mixer someday, but I don't think I'll have a spare $600 to $1000 any time soon, so I have to make my Kitchenaid last as long as she can and with this knowledge, she should last for many years!

I've done this same Ms. Fixit routine for my ibook and my MacBooks.  Thanks to www.ifixit.com for perfect instructions paired with photo visuals of each step, for the past 13 years when I've had a computer problem I fixed it myself on the cheap.  I also buy my new-to-me, previously used computers with "issues" to get a bargain that I can fix fairly inexpensive.  So, next time something breaks, before you just toss it, head to the internet to see if you can learn how to fix it yourself!  You might just impress yourself, or your spouse... I love hearing mine say (and he does often), that he married the right woman; one who's just as handy with a power tool as she is with a kitchen utensil, sewing machine... (insert random homemaker tool), etc.... ;)   Good luck with your machine, if it should ever break, and leave me a comment with any questions!

A Special Thank You

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to vote for the May 2013 PCAGOE challenge!  I was honored to have my Peacock Mosaic Serving Tray (seen here) chosen by both the public and by the guild as the 1st place entry.  As is the case every month, all of the pieces deserved an award, as all were well thought out and executed ideas.

 A special Thanks too, to friend and guild mate Marie Young of Young Creative, who mentioned me on her website... Thanks Marie!  Marie also placed in the challenge, with her innovative Peacock Crazy Quilt Mosaic Light Switch Plate tying for the 3rd place public vote.  Please go check out Marie's website post; and while you're there, stay a while and read through some of her other posts.  She does with her website what I wish I would do with this blog...  she posts regularly (much more often than my typical once-a-month posts), she features artists who inspire her, and she talks about her current projects and her creative process to achieve each piece, including things she's learned along the way from trial and error.  I'm signed up for her email list and I always enjoy getting the email when she creates a new post.

Thanks again to everyone!  I'm planning an unusual blog post for my next posting (hopefully within the next few days, and hopefully I can get it done before the next challenge blog post).  Check back to see what I have planned, especially if you own a Kitchenaid stand mixer... 

Going to pieces

This time of year is so crazy busy for me with garden work and preparing the house for summer.  May always seems to be a month where I feel like I'm running from the time I get up until the time I collapse into bed.  So... this is a quick pop in to post about the challenge for this month and my entry. 

This month's theme was mosaics.  And as always happens, many great interpretations on the theme were crafted.  Here's a sampling of the entries:

Please remember to go to the PCAGOE blog to vote for your favorite 3 entries before midnight 5/7/13 EST.

Here's a larger photo of my entry: 

 

I began designing this piece in my head in the middle of March and it literally took all of April to pull it together.  The polymer clay tiles were created using various techniques.  The brilliant blue tiles were created with mica shift, the lime green back feathers were simply a skinner blend of greens, and the darker green tail feathers were a take on Lynda Moseley's controlled marbling technique.  For the green of these tail feathers I did a controlled blend of teal and emerald greens with one contrast of rust red, then I took the blended sheet and cut it into strips which I assembled bargello style before I cut all of the individual tiles.  The tray's background was created with a blend of clays and mica powders to create a look similar to Travertine marble. The hundreds of pieces were all hand cut and individually glued in place, then a grout was smoothed over the entire piece.  The piece was sanded and buffed and coated with a protective finish.  This piece will likely end up in my mother's hands, as she loves peacocks and I think she'd love receiving this for Mother's day.  She has always been such a strong influence on me and what I create... when I begin creating something special like this piece she's never far from my mind, so it's no wonder I tend to create special pieces themed with subjects that she deems beautiful.  And it's no wonder that when I feel like I'm scattered by all that awaits on my schedule, thoughts of my mom can always ground me.... truly an amazing woman.

Figures... a practice of the human form and my process of achieving my latest sculpt

I've drawn and painted human bodies and faces from life countless times throughout my artistic background, but had never before done a sculpt of the human form.  So, when I lit upon the idea of sculpting a female figure as Mother Nature for the last PCAGOE monthly challenge, I knew it would certainly be a challenge. But, given my background of studying the human figure for drawing or painting, I was fairly confident that it was a challenge I could meet. The challenge theme for April was "the Seasons" (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter). My idea was to create Mother nature and decorate her form with the progression of the seasons; with the idea of a spring seed sprouting from her one hand, the vine continuing up her arm and onto her torso; leafing out in the full foliage of summer on her torso; eventually leading to vine down her other arm, turning to fall colors with two falling leaves which dangle from that hand. The thought to add winter to the bottom of her form, brought about the idea of a base where her torso blends into a tree trunk, with bare branches reaching outward.

 

This female figure concept initially began about a year ago, when I purchased a couple bottles of Vanilla Extract that happened to be hourglass shaped.  I instantly thought "female form" when looking at these bottles.  I thought perhaps I might do a miniature polymer dress form mannequin someday.  When I struck upon the idea of Mother nature for this challenge, I immediately thought of using one of those bottles.  So, this sculpture is a working bottle.  The next photo shows the sculpture with an example of what is at her core:

The following is a description of my working process to create the Mother Nature bottle sculpture:  The empty glass bottle was first fitted with 2 pieces of wire that were twisted together at both ends, leaving an opening in the center, through which the neck of the bottle was placed.  This created the armature for her arms.  The wire rests on the areas of the bottle which define the form's collar bones and scapula area on the back (next time I make one of these I will photograph this step), so it actually helped to define the collar bones of the form.  The wire was glued into place on to the bottle with super glue.  The tree trunk base has a core that is a cardboard spool which once held a skein of thread.  The head is supported with a screw that was driven through the metal cap of the bottle.  Her head fully unscrews from her body, as you can see in the first photo at the beginning of this post.

In the next handful of photos you can view a sampling of the progression of the sculpt.  In the first photo, you can see the rough sculpt of the body and arms, shown with one of the bottles, and my human anatomy for artist's book (which was my guide in getting the form right, since I didn't have access to a live model).  Take note too, of the screw protruding from the cap on the sculpted body, this is the armature for the head, ensuring that the bottle can be opened without having her head pop off the cap! 

The next photo is basically the next stage of the sculpt, adding more weight to her arms and the 1st sculpt of her head. 

At this next stage, a little more weight was added to her arms and her face is starting to take shape (more layers were eventually added to the face for better feature proportions).... you can see how rough her skin looks at this point (I don't have those nice silicone sculpting tools; I was working with my knife, my fingers, a pointed needle tool and a small round metal burnisher).  This was the stage when my husband saw her for the first time; his first comment was, "why did you make her so old and ugly?"... after he was banished from my studio ;)  I set out on the next step, baking her a second time.
 

After the second baking, she went through a sanding process to smooth out the bumps and ugliness so honestly pointed out my my dear hubby, and this was the result:

After this stage, she was coated with translucent liquid polymer and baked (two times) to give the skin a nice finish.  Finally, her torso was attached to the tree trunk base (which was sculpted with wire added to create the bare branches of the tree and baked separately).  Clay was sculpted over the join of the torso and tree trunk base to hide the seam and she was baked again.  The seed, vines and leaves were added, facial features were enhanced (eye lashes, eyebrows, color to her lips and highlights to the whites of her eyes) and she was baked to cure the final details.  I lost count, but I think she was baked a total of 8 or 9 times from beginning to end.  Her hair is made from angora fleece and was attached section by section to her head with super glue, which was a messy job; there has to be a better way to do this part, which I will be researching before my next human form. (Yes, a "next one" is already in planning stages and will be a "sister" to Mother Nature).  As a final touch some translucent gloss acrylic was added to her eyes and lips for shine. By this time, it was 11PM on the night of the midnight deadline for my guild's challenge, so I took a photo of her at night, at a bad angle and without adequate lighting... which resulted in a sinister look on her face (that photo is in my flickr if anyone didn't see it in the challenge entries).  Before I took daylight photos, I noticed that the vines on the front of her torso were off balance and threw the entire design off... so the next morning I set to work to fix that imbalance, happily forgetting to get daylight photos to include in my flickr and to add links to my challenge description.  That is why I held off in posting the daylight photos of her here and on my flickr until after the challenge voting ended. 
While I am fairly happy with how she turned out, her torso sculpt is the area with which I was most pleased, especially her back.. I was also especially pleased with the vine design on her back.  The front of the torso could use improvements, the same is true of her hands.  The area which I think begs for the most improvement is the face sculpt, it just did not turn out as well as I had hoped.. more study to do in that area for female body #2 which is coming soon...  Mother Nature is available in my etsy shop.

Two more days!

Time keeps slipping by too fast for me to get a grasp on everything!  There are only 2 more days left to vote for this month's guild challenge (as of this posting on 4/5/13).  So please head on over to the PCAGOE blog to vote!  Here are the awesome entries for this month:

I did enter a piece this month: the mother nature art doll bottle.  I will post more about her after the challenge, because..... 

After she was finished (so I thought) I spent the last hour before the midnight deadline trying to get a photo of her posted to the flickr pool (a last minute entry, even though I began her at the end of February/beginning of March).  Once I finally got the photo posted; I was scrutinizing the photo, fretting over how bad it turned out, because of my inadequate lighting. I pretty much just turned on all the lights on the first floor of my house to photograph her, because I don't have a lighting set-up for indoor photographing.  The wrong lighting is just as bad on a sculpted figurine as it can be on us humans.  When will I learn to give myself enough time to finish a challenge at least the day before the deadline, so I can get daylight photos?!?  I've made this error too many times to count.  (mental note: since I can't seem to get most of my pieces finished before the night of the entry deadline I need to work on a better lighting set-up)  While scrutinizing this horrible photo, I realized that the balance of the design was completely off. (mental note 2: remember old school trick of holding item in mirror to get different perspective to notice flaws in design easier)  The next day my fingers were itching to fix the problems.  I forgot about getting a better daylight photo to post for linking to my challenge photo (as I've done in the past).  After I had fixed the design issues, I happily took my daylight photos and realized that I didn't have "before" daylight photos.  So, I didn't feel right about posting the new photos on my flickr because my fellow guild-mates did not get that extra time to work on their pieces.  I did post a photo of her back side to flickr because I didn't do any re-touching to that side; that photo can be seen in my flickr photostream under better (daylight) lighting conditions.  I will post more about her and my creative process with better photos after voting has closed on April 7th (midnight EST).  So please, do head over to the PCAGOE blog and vote for your 3 favorite entries, you might win a prize! (3 lucky voters are chosen for a prize every month)  And please check back next week for the new photos and the story of how my mother nature art doll bottle was created!

Star Light Star Bright

It's time again for voting.  The March PCAGOE challenge theme was Celestial (Sun, Moon, Stars, etc.).  My idea was a multi-layered, dimensional, star shaped night light. Constructed of 3 layers and various cuts to reveal the different layers and allow the light to shine through.  The base layer is made of translucent clay with gold mica. The second layer is a mixture of red and translucent with the star arms of this layer cut into shapes that would leave an open star shape in the center, revealing first layer. The third layer is a mix of purple and translucent, the star arms again were cut into shapes that would leave another center open star shape, revealing the red layer outlining the original center cut out star. Some circle cut-out shapes were included in the layers on each of the star arms; one to reveal the red layer, one to reveal the first translucent gold layer and 2 smaller holes that were cut through all 3 layers to reveal complete negative space. After curing, sanding and buffing, as a final element, spirals were drawn onto the purple layer using an embossing pen and gold embossing powder which was heat set. I fabricated a clay piece for the light fixture attachment and the final step was to glue that in place. Below are 2 photos of the piece, unlit and lit...  For more views of this piece please visit my flickr photo stream.

 

 

 And here are the other entries, all stellar examples of how versatile the polymer medium truly is!

Please remember to go vote at the PCAGOE blog before midnight 3/7/13 EST!

A little bit rusty, a little bit busy

 I've been tied up with a custom order lately, so I haven't had the chance to post any new items to any of my shops; I haven't had time to play with my new purple kiln (more about that soon!); and I didn't have time to make a new piece for the challenge this month.  Fortunately, I had a recently made piece that I could submit for this month's Faux themed PCAGOE challenge.  If you have read my blog before, you will recognize it as the piece I made in the faux rusted metal tutorial which you can find here.  Here is a photo of that rusted metal pendant necklace:

You can view more photos of this necklace in my etsy store and my flickr photostream.  And here are the other artist offerings for this month's Faux challenge:

Ah, the possibilities with polymer seem endless!  And these pieces are so well done that the voting this month is another tough choice.  Speaking of voting, please do head over to the PCAGOE blog and vote for your 3 favorite entries!!  You could win a prize (3 lucky voters will be randomly chosen for a prize!).  You have until midnight on 2/7/13 to cast a vote, so if you're catching this post on the day I'm writing it, you only have a day and a half!


So, back to the custom order.  In total, I've made something like 22 pendants for this order.  No, the customer isn't going to buy all of them, I just like to give a customer lots of options when I'm given a somewhat open ended design request.  The good news is that the customer has decided to take 5 of the necklaces; 4 of which are completed.  The 5th is still in progress.  So I decided I'd share here what has been consuming my energies and free time this past month.  This particular customer had seen one of my necklaces with a real flower incorporated in the design in my artfire shop.  That necklace also had an unusual asymmetrical hanging design.  The only parameters were to create a piece with the asymmetrical necklace hanging design, a hydrangea flower, and colors in the purple family.  Here are a few of the pendant options that I created (some of which only use a hydrangea petal, some have a skeleton hydrangea petal, and still others have a full hydrangea flower):

There are many more that I created, all of the extras will be popping up in my etsy or artfire shops.  And here are the 4 that were chosen by the customer and have been turned into finished necklaces (the 5th one is being cured today and will hopefully be finished and hung tomorrow):