November Vote!

Well folks, it's time to vote! The PCAGOE November challenge is open for voting until midnight on November 7th (EST). Check out the wonderful entries the members came up with this month:

Remember to go vote at the PCAGOE blog. You could win a prize, just for taking the time to vote!

Boho Beach Glass Necklace - a back-up plan

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you think they will. This month's challenge project for the Polymer Clay Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) was one of those occasions. I had whittled away the month focusing on household issues and only began to work on my challenge project on Friday.

After spending the better part of the day, conjuring up my fabulous (if I do say so myself) idea... after the first baking of the surface design layer, my intended project was in ruins. The piece I had been working on is a mixed media piece, (I'm keeping "what it is" a secret for now, because I feel certain my blog readers shall see it eventually). I will say that it is a large item, about 14" by 12". Although my oven is large enough to hold said piece, I didn't have a large enough substrate on which to bake the flat piece. I opted to put it on parchment paper, then on top of the largest flat board I could find in my studio that would fit in my oven, but still the ends were about a 1" overhang. This, plus (probably) a failing oven thermometer led to the demise of my glorious idea. When removed from the oven, areas of cracking appeared because of my 2 previously mentioned issues. Reminder to self, it's time to purchase 2 digital thermometers. The cracking was all over the key surface design, which I had painstakingly mapped out in polymer over the course of a couple hours that day. The ruin of which, rendered the entire surface utterly destroyed. I had to then peel off the "design" layer, which is now contained in 2 ziplock baggies for potential future upcycling, to at least preserve the base of the piece which I had put together over the course of that morning. To start over with the design layer again would take too much time and the other problem is, it was A LOT of polymer, almost a whole 1 lb. of clay! To say I'm very unhappy about that is an understatement. But, lessons learned... I went to the thrift store and now have a piece of glass to bake on that is large enough for this project, and I will be getting a new thermometer to resolve the other issue. I didn't have enough time (or frankly, clay in the right colors) to finish my original project, so I had to come up with something else quick. Luckily this month's challenge theme is wide open for interpretation, the theme is "Personal accessories", and using up previously made jewelry components to create a new piece would fit the bill.

Back when I created my faerie light house, I made extra pieces of faux sea glass, that I had in reserve to use for jewelry. I also had just recently dabbled with a tutorial and created these organic shaped pieces that are meant to mimic bits of coral and a shell. Both the sea glass and the organic shapes were created using the tutorials (Faux Glass effects and Organic beads) from Ginger Davis Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree. Ginger's tutorials are some of the best ones out there, all beautifully detailed in written instruction and photo examples. And perfect for all levels of experience. You can find the tutorials in Ginger's online shop, she even has 2 great bundles where you can get 3 tutes for less than you would have to pay for all of them when purchased separately! Here's a close-up of those handmade beads...

When I realized that I would need to resort to a back-up plan, my mind went to these previously  made pieces. I decided to create a boho beach necklace... sea glass, coral, shell, and matching silk fabric... these colors and components reminded me of something a mermaid might wear, or at least a bohemian beach babe. ;)   I have a stash of these lovely robin's egg blue pearl antique buttons that went perfectly with the colors, so I decided to incorporate some of those in this piece.

So, after all the frustrations from the original idea not working out, this challenge entry turned out quiet lovely (if I do say so myself) :)  To make a necklace was NOT as I had originally intended... but that's okay, I will revisit that other idea another day. For this day, I'm thankful to have created such a lovely neckpiece. I'm tempted to keep this one for myself, but do think that I will be posting it in my etsy shop.

What do you think about my boho beach necklace? Have you had projects that you just had to abandon to move onto another more efficient idea? Did you revisit the original idea eventually? I'd love to hear what you have to share... leave me a comment below! Remember, the voting for this challenge will begin on November 1st and will run through till midnight November 7th. I'll post a reminder here at the blog. And I'll leave you with the back side view of this piece:

Polymer Art Printing

Texture plates is the theme for the PCAGOE July challenge. The idea is that each participating member would create a texture plate from polymer and then use the handmade texture plate to emboss raw polymer; then, create something with the textured clay impression. As I mulled over ideas for this project, I recalled the many mono prints that I created in a printmaking class that I took in college, and I thought it would be great to have a handmade printing plate to create a run of original polymer printed artwork! I would make wall art using the texture plate as my printing plate, but could make each one look unique by changing which media and colors I applied to the plate. 

Below is a photo of my first 3 polymer art prints with the original texture plate (solid blue at bottom)

My first efforts at my texture plate design were a total failure. I had the "brilliant" idea to combine paper strips with LPC which, in the end, turned into a big mess. I may revisit this idea again when I have more time to play.

 So, the next phase saw me making impressions in a slab of raw polymer using various tools and cured coiled quilled polymer (to create the spirals you see above). I wanted some areas that would create deeper impressions, so I made sure to add a band of small raised circles on top of the plate. My final result of the textured plate is seen below:

Once the texture plate was fully cured. I conditioned a large amount of white Premo polymer. I then set to work on creating a "print". I painted on the plate with various mica powder colors, in reds, oranges, yellow/golds and blue (I'm still in a blue/orange mood, as I was last month). I mounted the texture plate face down on the raw white polymer and gave every area lots of pressure, making sure to flip it over and press on both sides, to get a good impression. The result was this lovely print (my favorite of the 3):

After it was released from the texture plate, I did add a few spritzes of red/orange ink, which I smudged with a paper towel all over the surface, I did this to make the orange coloring more prominent and darker. After curing, this was mounted to a black frame.

For the second print, I decided to use blue Kato liquid polymer to paint the entire texture plate. I impressed into the clay as before and released the plate from the print. I fully cured the print, then I added some areas of orange Kato liquid polymer to accent the blue printed areas, and I fully cured that layer. The final result is this polymer print, also mounted to a black frame:

For the third print, I wanted to use alcohol inks, but before wasting ink tried first with just plain rubbing alcohol. This didn't work as well, the raw polymer was sticking in the fine spaces of the texture plate and did not release as easily as the other 2 methods. So, I decided to paint the entire texture plate with a white mica, to allow for easy release of the print. After the all-white polymer print was released from the texture plate, I then added alcohol inks to the embossed raw clay. (So, this one really isn't a print... I'd call it a painting because the colors were added after the texture was embossed. The previous two pieces, however, are true prints, as the color was added to the plate and transferred onto the raw polymer.) To paint this last one, I first painted everything with varying shades of blue alcohol ink, then I used some spritzers of white and orange to add interest. This one too is mounted on a black frame:

I was having so much fun with this, and wanted to try some other alcohol ink painting ideas, I just didn't want to stop creating... so I made the pendants for this necklace and earring set:

I was really pleased with the effects I achieved! This will be a tough necklace for me to part with, because I love it so much... but I think it might end up in the createmyworld etsy shop because it has matching earrings (I rarely ever wear earrings). Here are a few more shots of the jewelry:

Oh, and here's the backside of the jewelry:

I really had so much fun making this project, and I see my self exploring this idea further by creating more texture plates!

I am really so pleased with how these turned out! And when my hubby saw the prints, he said "Those are the coolest things you've ever made! Wanna hang them up in the living room?" That is a HUGE compliment! ;) I was going to put them in my createmyworld etsy shop, but I do believe the hubby will claim them for our house. I hope to make more to put on etsy.

Voting for this challenge will open on July 1st and will close at midnight on the 7th. I'll try to remember to post a reminder about the voting... I've not been good about that in the past couple months, but I do hope to be more organized this month!

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!

Belated Thanks

I have been remiss in mentioning here, the blogs in which I have been recently featured over the past 5 months.  This negligence on my part has simply been due to the fact that: 1. I'm not the greatest blogger... and 2. during the past couple months I've been consumed with garden chores and food preservation.  I was thrilled to be mentioned in every one of these features, 2 blogs in the polymer world, a fellow guild mate's website, a fellow polymer artist's facebook page, and a upcycled/recycled art world blog. 

The Polymer Clay Planet blog, which is curated and authored by polymer artist Anya Artesania, has featured me 3 times since June!  My Tiffany inspired lampshade, Peacock Mosaic serving tray and Paleo necklace were all featured at PCP over the summer.  Find all 3 features here.

The Polymer Clay Diaries, which is curated and authored by polymer artist Maria Petkova, featured my turtle island wall art.  Find that feature here.   You can use the Google translator drop down menu on the right side of the screen to translate the page.  

Back in May, fellow guild mate Marie Young featured my Peacock Mosaic serving tray on her creatively inspired website.  Find that post here.

And as recent as last week (Oct. 13), fellow polymer artist Ginger Davis-Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree kindly mentioned my blog and my Acorn Light on her wonderful Facebook page.  You can find her facebook page here.

And for those of you who know my work as Create My World Designs; I also have an upcycled line of art which I sell under the name OneMoreUse.  Just today I was thrilled to see a feature for my OneMoreUse upcycled art on the Sustainable Style blog, in an article written by a fellow upcycle artist, Amelia Musselman. You can find this feature here.

I think I may have posted some of these features (and thanks) on facebook, but I know I missed some of them there too.  So, I'm listing all of which I am aware here, with sincere thanks for the notice of my work!

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!