Carving up more than the Thanksgiving turkey!

The theme for the December 2014 challenge for the PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy) is "Carved". I had been wanting to try my hand at carving for a while, so even though I'm quite busy right now with various other projects, I couldn't let this challenge slip by without giving it a try.

I've been having a lot of fun doing larger scale items, moving away from jewelry design. I will eventually go back to Jewelry (I think), but I'm having so much fun working larger with home decor and sculptural items. So, when my thoughts turned to this challenge I immediately was thinking on the larger scale. Then one night when I was in my creative brainstorming time (just before falling asleep) I struck upon the idea of using up all the cured polymer scraps that I had sitting around. These are pieces that were made and after curing either weren't strong enough (pieces that broke during finishing or jewelry assembly), pieces that burned during curing or were experiments that didn't turn out well. I have a lot of these scraps, to give you an idea, here's my box 'o scraps:

I got the idea to make a kind-of polymer soup, mixing these cured scraps with some liquid bonding agent (Bake 'n Bond). But, "what to cure it in?", was the big question. I needed something that the polymer wouldn't adhere to or be tough to remove. So I thought of silicon bakeware. Luckily, my local thrift stores usually have a piece or two of silicon bakeware, so off to the thrift I went. I found what I can only describe as what looks like a gravy boat, all in silicon, and it was only $1! Perfect!! I brought it home and set it in my studio. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that its original owner was a heavy smoker, the next day, as I began working on my other project (with the silicon mold sitting next to my workspace) it literally began making me sick! My sinuses dried up and my nose became stuffy. Whenever I left the room for a decent chunk of time, the stuffiness subsided. I kept getting the hint of stale smoke, but couldn't figure out from where it was coming! I finally realized it was the silicon piece, so I soaked it in a bath of bleach water for 24 hours. The smell still wasn't removed, but it did lessen it. 

In the meantime, I decided to try a practice carve, using the tools I use for wood-cut printing to carve my polymer. I had a business card case which I had decorated with a polymer slab, but then decided I didn't like it. When I tried to remove the polymer, the superglue had other ideas, and the polymer came off in tiny bits leaving big bits behind. I decided this would be my trial piece. I carved into the polymer pieces left behind and then coated it with black LPC before curing. A coating of resin, some sprinkles of glitter and another coating of resin, and here's my practice piece: 

Kind of funky and interesting, so I kept it and added some black liquid pc leaving areas of the bare metal uncovered, added a touch of glitter and two coats of resin. I intentionally added scratches all over the metal case to add to the primitive feel of this piece. I'm not quite sure if it's finished yet, I'll have to give it more consideration.

So, trial carving out of the way, it was time to get down to the business of my challenge project. I made a thick soup of some of the broken bits of cured polymer and the Bake 'n Bond. The uncured raw "soup" looked like this:

I made sure that all bits of cured clay were covered and I kept some bits of the cured clay peeking out of the top. In it went, to be cured for almost an hour. When it came out, it looked like this:

I decided to cut it in half, so that the sculpture could stand on its own. I was going to use a saw for this, but decided to just use an old tissue blade to saw through the cured clay. That worked surprisingly well. Then, time to sand! I needed to sand the two newly formed bases, as the cut wasn't as even as it might have been had I used a saw. Plus, I wanted the rounded, moulded sides to be finished to shiny perfection. So I sanded through many grades of micro mesh and then buffed with my buffer/grinder.

Now I was ready to begin the carving. I started first by hand drilling circles with the flat v shaped carving tool. Next I mapped out where I wanted spiral shapes to be added, by drawing them with a sharpie marker. Tip: If you've never worked with carving tools, when you are trying to carve a continuous line, it helps to first draw outlines with a straight carving tool, then go back and carve out the inside with either the v-shaped carver or the c-shaped carvers. This rule holds true for wood cuts as well as carving polymer. Even when one takes the time to cut an outline the gauging blades still can slip if given too much force, and that will either scratch the piece or skid across and slice one's hand (ask me how I know this). Three V shaped cuts in my left thumb plus a bandaid later, I had both pieces carved to my satisfaction.

I decided to paint the carved out areas with black acrylic, to make them stand out against the background. I really like how these two pieces can be arranged in different ways, according to one's preference, which could change daily! ;)

Finally, here's a shot from the side, so you can see how deep the clay is, and how the carved side has edges of the scraps that pop out of it:

I had a lot of fun with this challenge. While I like carving a lot, the part I had the most fun with was using up old failures and upcycling them into a new piece! My inner enviro-girl was quite happy about that! ;) I still have lots of scraps in my box 'o scraps, so I plan to do more of this scrap soup making in the future!

Voting for this challenge will open on December 1st, and will run through midnight December 7th. Remember 3 randomly chosen lucky voters win a prize every month! I'll try to remember to post a voting reminder here!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this project, and on my carved primitive card case too, please leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

Book luck

If I were to believe in messages found in cookies, "You will have an auspicious week of books" would have been my fortune last week. Big, big news arrived two Fridays ago when I received a congratulations email stating that I was to be a contributor to a book for which I had submitted some of my recycled artwork. I submitted images of my work about a year ago and had forgotten about it, so the news was a great surprise. And, last week I received my advanced copies from the publisher! The book is called Art Without Waste 500 Upcycled and Earth Friendly Designs and can be purchased here at Amazon.

The book is packed full of great ideas and beautiful work; from personal items and accessories, home and garden, to art installation and design.

I really had no idea what piece the author chose, so I was quite happy to find 2 of my images in the book! Plates 107 and 109 - OneMoreUse (that's my recycled etsy store) by Create My World Designs
Here are close-ups of my two images in the book.

Oh and I'm in the book too! ..that's my neck! ;) LOL! All of these pieces were made with plastic from discarded snack food bags, which I fused, cut and formed.

The other book luck also happened last week when I was declared a lucky winner in a drawing for a jewelry design book! The drawing happened on the Pretty Things Blog, where blog mistress Lori Anderson generously gave away 6 different books. (you might remember Lori's name as she was the host for the Bead Soup Blog Party that I joined this spring - find my post about that here) I commented on the blog, telling Lori the book I would love to receive; and was lucky enough to be a winner, plus I got the book I wanted! The book I won is called Simple Soldered Jewelry and Accessories by Lisa Bluhm. I can't wait to dig into this and start incorporating what I learn into some of my work! Thanks so much to Lori for the generous giveaway! If you don't already follow her blog, head over there and follow! She did another book give-away this week too! Lori even gift wrapped the book, it was such a fun package to receive, here are photos of my prize book:

Yes indeed it was a great week for me and books! I am a lover of books, so I am extremely grateful for this lucky book week!

Rays of Summer

*If you are looking for my Bead Soup reveal, go here. 

For the month of August, my guild (PCAGOE) challenge theme is home decor.  I had been wanting to do an experiment with polymer by creating lots of negative space (sort-of a lacy polymer if you will).  Having sat on this idea for more than a year, I decided to push my challenge idea to incorporate this feature.  I prefer items for the home to be functional as well as beautiful, which I wanted for this piece as well.  So, my question to myself was, what functional item could incorporate my "lacy polymer" idea?  My mind immediately lighted on the idea of a soap dish because the negative holes between the polymer would allow a bar of soap to dry out and keep the bottom from becoming gooey. 

So, my first challenge was to find a base over which to create the "lacy polymer" part.  Considering that I "can" a lot of food from our garden every summer, I have an abundance of Ball jars.  The ball jars have metal rings which, after a season or two, become spotted with areas of rust around the inside of the ring.  When there's rust on the inside of the ring, they should not be used to seal jars of food.  I have had a bag full of these slightly rusted Ball jar rings waiting to be turned into something else.  If you follow my blog or know me at all, you already know how much I love to upcycle and recycle items that would typically be tossed to the garbage.  So, one of these slightly rusted rings became my base.

I first created the "polymer lace" over the ball ring and cured it.  Next, using Premo white, I added an oval dish, surrounding the circular ring, that I formed over a glass vase.  The piece was cured again.  I then added clay around the entire metal ring and joined it to the oval dish.  After a second curing, I sanded the solid clay parts to smooth out any bumps and fingerprints.  I then extended the radiating design of the center out over the oval part of the dish, these extruded pieces of clay were secured over bonding agent to assure their strength and bond to the dish.  I loved the idea of the center lace design radiating out onto the dish, and this reminded me of a sunflower or summer sun rays.

The outside of the dish was treated to winding extruded strands of polymer and finally a thicker extruded strand was added as a lip to the dish.  After another cure, the entirely white dish was then painted with a mixture of green, yellow and blue liquid Kato polymer, and flecks of copper and antique copper mica were splattered on to add interest and to achieve a glazed ceramic-like finish. 

I used the heat gun to spot cure the lpc and then did one final oven bake to be certain that the liquid polymer was completely cured.  As usual, I'm really happy with my prototype simply because the idea is out of my head and made a reality!  But, I still hope to revisit the idea to refine the process and improve the end result.   What do you think about my little soap dish?  Leave me a comment below!

The voting for this piece will take place from August 1st through midnight on August 7th at the PCAGOE blog.  I'll try to remember to post a reminder when the challenge voting is live...

Cloudy with a mix of Tyvek®

**If you are looking for my bead soup reveal post please go here

Mixed media.  That's the challenge for my guild (PCAGOE) for the month of July.  Summer is always a time when I don't spend a lot of time in my studio.  From garden cutivation and cooking up the bounty, to daily walks in the park and about town, to staying up late watching double feature movies and just simply enjoying life... the time in my studio comes in short bursts.  When I contemplated this challenge, I knew I wanted to create something simple.  I've actually been in the mood to go minimal.  Perhaps it's the simplification of my life in summer that also makes me want to lead my art in that same direction, whatever the reason, it's where I'm at at this moment. I'm yearning for clean, simple design. 

The idea that birthed this piece was entirely different from how it finished.  I first created the half moon shapes by cutting out circles in gradations of premo blue pearl mixed with white.   I draped these circles in half over a skewer and baked them.  After baking, I played around with the pieces and realized that my initial idea would not work with these shapes and pieces... so, I kept playing until something that I liked came together, because frankly I was almost out of time, for the challenge deadline was within a day away.  Next, I cut out pieces of a Tyvek® mailing envelope which I then connected together and dyed a blue color to match the polymer hues.  I then assembled the central focal by connecting the Tyvek® piece to the largest polymer cluster.  I also added a silver line detail around each polymer piece with a gel pen, and the edges of the Tyvek® are brushed with silver as well.

I strung the pieces on a length of upcycled silk sari material, and played some more to come up with the idea of various ways to wear this necklace according to how one arranges the pieces on the length of silk.   One can wear the piece with just the focal in the front and the two smaller beads hanging as a pendulum down the back for a dramatic look:

(pardon my freckled back.. I need a younger, unblemished model!)

The second option for wearing is to move the small beads directly next to the focal and tie the sari ribbon at the nape of the neck at preferred length.

And the third option for wear is to slide those small beads up a little on the necklace, again tying the sari ribbon at the nape of the neck. 

I really like the versatility of this piece.  But I still have that original idea stuck in my head and it's much more minimalist than this piece turned out... I need to make time to get that one brought to life before it slides into the recesses of the creative ideas pit!  So, what do you think of this new necklace design? Have you tried to create something in a minimal style?  Leave me some comments and tell me your thoughts and experiences!

8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

The day has finally come for the Bead Soup Blog Party (BSBP) Reveal.  I blogged about the BSBP when my soup arrived in the mail from my partner, and again when my partner got my soup.  You can find those posts here and here.  So, to recap, this is the soup I received:

I created a bunch of pieces, using most of the soup ingredients.  I started on the focal, the curved copper band with swirls and painted coloring.  As beautiful as this focal is, it proved a challenge for me to use it.  The reason for this is that I'm mostly a necklace girl.  This focal was simply made for being a bracelet.  I really tried hard to think of how I could make this into a necklace focal, but in the end I made it what it wanted to be, a bracelet.  I also incorporated the silk sari fabrics into this and 2 of the pink shell beads...  I had some vintage buttons that became the beads for the bracelet band.  Here are some shots of that piece:

 

I had this pink cord necklace that perfectly matched those pink shell beads... I also had a pendant that I had made out of polymer clay which had that same pink color, and those items were what created the second piece.  From the soup, the only items I used in this piece are the pink shell beads:

Next up, I had to use the clasp.  I didn't want to use the clasp in the same piece as the focal because I have an aversion to mixing metals.  The metals in the focal piece were copper and the clasp is silver tone.  The clasp also is in the whimsical shape of butterflies.  I decided to do a spring inspired piece using most of the multicolored crystal beads that were found in my soup, and I decided to make a butterfly pendant using my upcycled materials.  This butterfly pendant is created with fused plastic snack bags:

Next, I still had more of those fun, bright pink shell beads to use, so I decided to pair them with one of my dyed tyvek pendants as seen here:

The soup included a bunch of pearls, some glass ones and some freshwater pearls.  They were all in various shapes, sizes and colors... and some of them were drilled off center.  I decided to pair them with this great neutral variegated cording that I had.  I also decided to go for another bracelet design and earrings (another rarity for me).

Next I zeroed in on a small grouping of pale green cube beads (possibly fluorite).  I decided to do a boho look necklace with these pairing them with varying strands, disc beads from my stash and some garnet colored glass beads from my stash, and the focal is a multi-colored polymer clay bead:

There were 4 large moss agate (?) beads in my soup which I decided to pair with a polymer pendant that I made last year, which was sitting around waiting for inspiration.  The pendant was created while playing with Lynda Moseley's controlled marbling technique.  I pulled in some coral beads to draw on the orange tones in the pendant:

And finally, I wanted to use at least one of those metal sheets that I was sent in my soup.  Now, they were quite a challenge.  First, I'm no metalsmith... but I do like to play around and experiment with things.  These babies are big, about 3" by 4", and the metal is quite heavy.  I don't have any tools that can cut through that, nor do I have any great shaping tools.  But I do have a vice and decided today at the last minute to play with one of the plates to see what happens. I paired my bent up piece of metal with some thick grey knit cordage, its almost like a scarf necklace:

I still have some ingredients left over for further play! Plenty of the silk sari fabric, a couple more of the various colored crystal beads, the big green lampwork bead, and still a few more of the pink shell beads... oh, and the other 3 metal plates (though I think the one with the best impression will become a polymer clay texture plate). ;)

I had so much fun creating things with the soup.  It was a definite challenge for me, as all of the ingredients were items I wouldn't normally have acquired for my own supply, so it really pushed me to work with things out of my "norm".  I'm considering making 2 of the pieces part of my "permanent collection", so I think it's safe to say that I created pieces with which I'm quite pleased!  Please do have a look at my partner's blog to see what she did with the soup I sent her.  My partner is Arlene Dean from A Glass Bash, and you can find her reveal here.   Here is the soup that I sent to her:

Thank you Arlene!  There were close to 500 other participants in this blog party, please take some time to check out some of the other soups and reveals!  You can find the full list of participating artists, with hotlinks to their blogs here.  Many thanks to Lori Anderson for organizing everything!! Oh, and leave me a comment and let me know what you think about my creations! :)