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!

Diamond in the rough

I had decided to do something with a different shape for the April PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy) challenge.  The theme this month is "containers".  I had this wooden form in the shape of a hexagon that tapers to a point (the shape of the bottom of my piece).  Something in the shape reminded me of a faceted diamond and thus the wheels went spinning! 

My first job was to cover the wooden pyramid with translucent white clay.  That was then covered with gradients of black to translucent white cut into triangular shapes to give the feel of light reflecting on the facets of a stone. 

The bottom part, having been cured twice, was finished when I set to work on the top.  I had figured if I covered just the widest part of the wooden form up only part of the way, this would create the walls of my lid and should sit easily on top of the base, but how to get the flat piece on the top of the lid?  Well, I just happened to have a big Fat Daddio's hexagon cutter which I used to first determine how far up the wooden form the lid walls needed to come and then cut out a flat piece of translucent white clay.  After curing both the lid walls and the flat hexagon, I glued the two together.  Because I wanted the lid to sit securely in place, I needed to build up a lip inside the lid's mouth, so I did that in the next baking and added another layer of translucent to give more strength to the lid.  After another curing, I then mapped out and placed layers of black to translucent white value in triangle and polyhedron shapes to mimic light refracting off the facets of a stone.

After curing a final time, I sanded and polished for hours.  I was almost afraid I wouldn't make the deadline, but I squeeked it in with an hour and a half to spare! The metal holder was something I hadn't originally planned, but when I had considered this piece laying on it's side and the potential of the lid falling off from the angle which it had to sit, I decided only yesterday to go to my local thrift store.  It seems that whenever I am in need of something specific, serendipity or my fairy god mother, just makes it appear at my thrift store.  I'm quite lucky in that regard.  I had wanted something gold.  I think this piece had once belonged to a copper coffee carafe, it is an aged copper metal (close enough!).  And the hole and three support curves were perfect for my 6 sided geometrical shape!  

While the piece doesn't really scream faceted stone, as the original thought had been, I do like the minimalist geometric shape of this piece and the design interest which the varying values in shapes lends to the whole.  If I were to recreate this piece I would construct the bottom in similar fashion to the top, with more solid values instead of gradations... lesson learned.

Another interesting thing with this piece, is that it can be flipped around to have the lid be the bottom and the bottom become the lid.  With this switch, it can even be simply set on a table without the metal holder.  I like it both ways, but think I prefer my originally intended positioning idea.  Though there are a few things I would change to remake this piece, I am quite happy with how it turned out.  I do think it's a deviation from my typical style, but that's just my opinion, others might see this as fitting right in with the rest of my work....  And I think it is an example of how my handwork is getting better with executing my crazy ideas.  I noticed with this piece, and with the last, that things just seem to fall in place and work out the way they were intended with little struggle, which has not always been the case in my history.  I know that in setting a goal for myself, to complete a full year of my guild's challenges (I'm now halfway into my 2nd year of continuous entries), it has strengthened my skills and honed my idea process, for which I am so grateful.

What about you?  Is there anything that you have done to sharpen your talents or hone your idea process?  If so, please share with me in the comments!  And let me know what you think of this new piece!

Voting for this challenge opens on April 1st and will run through April 7th at midnight.  I'll be sure to post again here, as a reminder!