The Gift of Hope

July means charity theme for my guild, the PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy).  This year we decided to do Bottles of Hope as our charity.  Bottles of hope are little bottles that are covered in polymer clay which are then given to cancer patients.  Each bottle represents a wish for hope and health.  The Bottles of Hope project has spread internationally, and you can learn more about this great cause at:  http://bottlesofhope.org/

Because most of our guild members personally know at least one person who is currently battling cancer, it was decided that each person would make at least one bottle to donate, and additional bottles for any friends or family affected by cancer.  I have a friend that has been courageously fighting cancer for the last 5 years, and continues her battle today; so I decided to make one bottle for her in addition to my donation bottle.  Also, due to member's limited time in the summer and our limited participants this month, the guild decided that we could enter up to 3 bottles per person, which is why both of my bottles are found in the guild challenge.  Here are photos of my 2 entries:

My concept for both of these bottles was based upon the desire to give a bottle that illustrates being filled with love and hope, not empty. But how to decorate the outside of the bottle to allow for the hope inside to show through? This problem was solved by covering part of the bottle with translucent liquid polymer with inclusions of embossing powder, to create a translucent but colored layer. Part of the bottle was left naked, to create a window to see the inside clearly. The polymer pieces on the top of the lids are both each attached securely to the lid with a screw. And the "hope" that is inside consists of many tiny polymer hearts and spirals. It was my original intention that the owner could make a wish on each heart and spiral, or share the tiny tokens with anyone she wants to give a little love or hope. The bottle is tiny, measuring in at 3" tall and about 1" wide at the widest point, the hearts and spirals inside the bottle are about 1/4" wide and 1/4" long. More views of these bottles can be found in my flickr photostream at: www.flickr.com/photos/createmyworlddesigns

Here is the group photo of the other entries from all the participating guild members:

Surely another tough decision to choose just 3 favorites.  As always, great effort went into each creation resulting in 11 wonderful pieces of art!  So please head over to the PCAGOE blog to cast your vote, you have until July 7th midnight EST!

Experimental work keeping me busy

Over the past couple months, I have been busy working on the development of four new polymer clay techniques.  {Hint: I've saved my favorite for last, so keep reading! ;) }  The first technique involves bonding food grade plastics to polymer clay.  A design is drawn on the clear food container plastic and it is bonded to the polymer clay.  I have much more work to do on this idea, but here is a sampling of my initial test pieces (more detailed photos can be found on my flickr photostream):

There's something about the ring that I just love (even though it is so basic and you can't really see the drawn paisley design very well, I just like the look of the raised clear plastic on the ring face), and I will be keeping that piece for myself, but plan to make others.  I have a few other favorites in here, specifically, the stained-glass-look piece, the large center piece, the small marquis shaped fish piece and the silver piece with the vines.  I'm having fun with the process and hope to have better results with the next firings.

The second idea with which I've been playing involves incorporating dyed tyvek material (upcycled from used mailing envelopes) into polymer clay.  This idea has much more experimental work needed, but here is a photo of the preliminary results of this technique:

The third project I've been working with involves "harvesting" the fine sanding bits from finishing my polymer clay pieces and incorporating it back into raw clay material.  I decided to try doing this to keep as much of the fine bits of polymer from being washed down the drain and into our water system, because I am very concerned about the environmental impacts of plastic pollution to our water ways.  Though these first beads are a bit drab, because all of the sanding bits in this batch were of many hues, which combined creates a muddy color... I have ideas for separating like hues into separate containers to keep colors more vibrant.  Here is a photo of my initial set:

Finally, (this is my favorite) I've been working on another brand new technique of transferring patterns from fabric onto polymer clay.  I'm so excited about this technique, as it is producing some great batik looks and there are so many possibilities yet to explore with this.  I will be concentrating the bulk of my work in the coming months on this technique and expect to have much more to come, but I wanted to share my favorite pieces from my first exploration.  Here are a two photos from my initial testing of this idea...

There are more photos and some different examples from all of these techniques on my flickr photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/createmyworlddesigns

So, as you can see I've been very busy, and continue to be so.  I'm also in the process of writing a magazine article on the fabric transfer process.  Something I'm simply thrilled to be doing!  So, keep your eye out here for new photos and news of my ongoing experimentation... and at my etsy shop, as some of these new pieces will very soon be making their way into my shop.  And please leave me a comment either here, or on my photostream, about which pieces or which technique ideas you like best.  Thanks!