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!

Art Deco Dreams

My favorite two design styles are the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods. (If you're here in search of my Bead Soup reveal, please scroll down to the next post or find it here)  My latest polymer project proved difficult, simply because I love both of these styles and I had many ideas and inspiration.My guild's challenge theme for June 2014 is Art Deco/Art Nouveau, hence my dilemma.  I'm actually more drawn to the Art Nouveau style, and I had originally had something else entirely in mind when I stumbled upon this fantastic bottle at my local Goodwill:

This bottle screamed Art Deco to me.  Actually, as it sat on the shelf at the Goodwill it called out to me, "you must use me for the Art Deco challenge"... really it did! ;)  I tried to ignore it, because well, I already had something else in mind for this project, but it sat there staring at me saying, "You can't ignore me, you know you must use me".  And so I brought it home.  This baby is big, with the globe stopper on top, it measures 16" tall, with the stopper pulled off, the bottle alone is 12.5" tall and about 6" in width at the widest point.  The cd in the photo above is for scale, to give you an idea of just how large this piece is. 

So I began by sketching out an idea.  I decided to stick with a traditional Art Deco palette in peachy/coppery tones. I started out with the first layer, covering the tear drop shapes with a blend of translucent premo mixed with a tiny bit of pearl white and a lot of copper metal leaf. For the other areas of the bottle's first layer, I chose premo copper straight from the package.  I cut some circular shapes and a line connecting them down the centers out of the teardrop areas and put it in for the first cure:

 

After a nice sanding to get rid of any bumpies, during which the cut circles popped off of the piece, I worked on building the next layer.  Using the half circle shape on my extruder, the extruded lengths were used to frame the teardrop shapes in a blend of premo copper, sienna and red.  A cut pattern of radiating rays and circles (in premo bronze mixed with translucent) was put in place to decorate the copper areas.  And a large circle was placed around the top... in it went for a 2nd cure: 

 The next step was to add more circles around the top, cover the bottle's lip and to cover the bottom.  I also had to cover and decorate the globe shaped stopper.  The top 1/3 of the stopper had a beautiful pattern of graduating rings, which I wanted to keep uncovered.  I used the translucent/metal leaf blend, the copper premo and the bronze/translucent blend for the base layer of the stopper.  The cut decorations on the stopper were also done in the bronze/translucent blend.  

 After the 3rd cure, I coated the entire piece with liquid polymer and hit it with the heat gun.  A fourth and final bake to ensure that it was fully cured, and it's finished!  I didn't want a high gloss sheen on this one, so I didn't sand or buff any further, I quite like the semi-gloss finish that resulted from the liquid polymer glazing.  I was going to glue the circle shapes back into place in the teardrop areas, but I like it better as open glass, besides it mimics the open glass as on the top of the stopper. 

 

Once again, I'm fairly happy with this project.  But it's not one that I feel I need to keep, so it will likely be going into my etsy shop, unless the hubby protests! ;)   What do you think?  Let me know in the comments, and tell me what's your favorite time period for style and decoration?  Voting for this challenge will open on June 1st and will run through June 7th midnight EST.  I'll try to remember to post a reminder here with the link!

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! :)

Labor of Love

My latest piece was truly a labor of love.  I wonder if I jinxed myself in the post about my last piece, when I said it just went together without a hitch.  Not so with this one.  The May challenge for my guild is the theme of bowls.  Immediately I knew 2 things, I wanted to make a yarn bowl and I wanted it to have a different design, perhaps 2 levels that were separated by space.  I made some sketches and came up with a design and shape that made me swoon.  I decided to use hammered metal spirals to support the upper level of the bowl.  While this idea was fun, it proved a challenge.  In hindsight I would have made the bowl and drilled holes into it for the metal supports.  I had actually considered doing this, but was wary of how thick I'd have to make it for drilling and was worried that I would drill through the bowl, so instead I tried to build the bowl around the metal supports.

I began by making a first layer of the basic shapes I needed to create the look I wanted.  I used a glass vase to form my shape.  After the first cure I wanted to sand down any bumpies, and in doing so cracked the top piece right in half.  I guess it wasn't cured well enough, as that should not have happened.  Super glue to the rescue and onto the second layer for strength.  This layer went off without a hitch.  Next up, was to build the hammered metal spirals -  I shaped these with my round nose pliers and hammered them on my anvil, and during that process I once missed and hit my thumb with the hammer.  Did I mention that this piece was a labor of love? ;)

After a few choice words and successfully forming and hammering all of the spirals I glued them to my pieces, which was a feat in and of itself!  Once I had them glued, I had to create another base layer to bring the clay to the same level as the metal.  In this next curing the cracks started.  I had 3 cracks from where the metal was straining while the piece rested on the vase for support.  I patched up the cracks, added another layer and back into the oven for another cure.  This time the cracks were healed, but I still wanted one more layer.  Imagine my disgust after the additional layer was cured and I pulled the piece out to find 3 cracks in the same general area as before!  One more patching and a layer of black lpc fixed that issue.

Next I gave it a good sanding all over to eliminate the bumps and fingerprint marks, then another layer of lpc for one more full polymer coating.  I wanted a surface treatment on the bowl that was just as unique as the shape, so I opted for a version of what I call impasto polymer technique, which I did in the Premo Bright Green pearl color, straight from the pack because I love that color so much. 

One final curing to harden the surface treatment, as I held my breath and watched over like a mother hen for fear of more cracking.  It survived with no issue! YAY!  I gave it a nice coating of a polymer gloss sealer for extra protection.  The interior bottom of the bowl, I forgot to mention, is a slab of mokume gane polymer done in black, silver, wasabi pearl and white.  You can get a glimpse of that here:

As I said, the idea for this was to be a yarn bowl, and the 2 layers askew were meant as a place for the knitting needles to rest as seen here:

And the yarn is meant to feed through the metal spiral like this:

Yes indeed, this one was a labor of love.  Lots of work went into it and while it is not perfect, I do love this piece.  The design of it is very "me" and I was so pleased with how the surface treatment turned out considering that part was totally unplanned.  I love it when pieces come together with something that just "happens"! :)  If I ever revisit this project again, I will definitely make the base parts full thickness first and then drill the holes for the wire support, that's the lesson for this one.  But overall I'm quite pleased!  What do you think of my funky bowl?  Have you ever had a project that kept giving you problems all through construction but you stuck with it and it turned out as good as you had originally hoped? Tell me about it in the comments!

My Vegetarian Pizza recipe, it's in a contest... I'd appreciate your votes!

I'm finally posting about this on the final day of voting for this contest, but better late than never.  I entered a recipe contest for a vegetarian/vegan meat substitute called Neat.  This stuff is awesome.  I've made meatballs with it that seriously taste just like the real deal!  Anyway, they had a call for entries, and they were requesting creative recipes.  Because I've never seen a vegetarian or vegan pepperoni that didn't have soy (another thing I don't eat), I decided to send them my Neat-eroni Supreme pizza recipe.  The creator and owner of the company already chose the #1 and 2 recipes, but I'm in the running (with 4 other recipes) for the #3 slot, which will be determined by a public vote.  Voting ends tonight (Friday April 4th) at midnight EST.  So, if you have a facebook account, you can vote for my recipe here: http://eatneat.com/blog/the-neat-est-dish-fan-vote-3rd-place/  Go to the bottom of the neat page and you'll see "Stop back on our Facebook page to vote for your favorite dish!" you can click on that link and it will take you to the facebook poll.   Pretty Please!!   Thanks! ...and here's my recipe:

Vegetarian neat-eroni Supreme Pizza 
Make the Neat-eroni ahead of time to allow it to cool enough for slicing.

Neat-eroni:
Ingredients
1 package Neat brand original flavor meat substitute
¾ c. Garbanzo bean flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill brand)
2 ½ c. water
1 T avocado oil
1 ½ t. liquid smoke
1 t. organic barbecue sauce (I like Annie’s)
1 T. paprika
¼ t. to ½ t. cayenne (depending on how hot you like it)
1 t. sea salt
1 T. cane sugar
1 t. whole anise seeds
1 t. fennel seed
1 t. whole red or black peppercorns
1 t. green peppercorns
1 t. crushed red pepper

Method:
Bring the 2 ½ c. water to boil over medium high heat.  Whisk the garbanzo bean flour into the boiling water.  Cook for one minute stirring constantly.  Lower heat to medium low and continue cooking for 5 minutes.  Set aside and let cool slightly.  Either with mortar and pestle or with a coffee grinder, grind anise seed, fennel, peppercorns and red pepper flakes.  In a bowl, combine the cooked garbanzo bean mixture with the packet of neat, avocado oil, liquid smoke, barbecue sauce and all spices.  Mix well.  Divide mix into 2 or 3 equal portions, spoon each portion onto a well oiled sheet of heavy aluminum foil.  Wrap each portion into a log and wrap tightly by twisting the ends of the foil.  Using a steamer insert, steam in a pot for 45 minutes.  Let cool.

To make the pizza:
Ingredients:
1 batch pizza dough (see link below)
pizza sauce (my original recipe below)
neat-eroni – sliced thin
your favorite toppings (I used organic green pepper, organic red onion and organic mushrooms)
grated romano cheese (Locatelli is best)
grated mozzarella cheese
oregano
 
Method:  
Make the dough first, using your favorite pizza dough recipe.  This is the best pizza dough recipe I’ve ever found, and its what I use faithfully for a great pizza:  http://www.frenchlogic.com/2011/04/homemade-pizza-and-dough-recipe.html  While the dough rises, make the sauce (see below) and chop the veggie toppings and neat-eroni in thin slices.  Once dough has risen to doubled in size, punch down and shape into pizza crusts (if using the dough recipe in the link I’ve added, it yields 3 pies).  Spread pizza sauce on crusts and top with neat-eroni and veggies, sprinkle with both cheeses and oregano.  Bake at 500˚ until crust is browned and cheese melted to your preference.
 
To make the Pizza sauce:
Ingredients:
2 24 oz. jars pureed tomato
1/3 c. avocado oil
2 t. garlic
1 t. salt
1 T. sugar
1 T. oregano
1 t. basil
Add all ingredients to sauce pan and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, or until oil has been incorporated into the tomato.  Adjust seasoning to your preference.

If you make the recipe, leave me a comment and let me know how you like it!  And thanks for any votes! :)

Voting time!

Voting time is here! ...actually we're already 3 days into voting time!  You have until midnight on April 7th to cast your vote, so please head over to the PCAGOE blog and choose your 3 favorite entries!  This month's participants really pulled out the stops with so many creatively engineered and carefully constructed pieces.  I know it was a tough choice for my top 3 votes... Have a peek at all of the lovely artwork for this month:

Remember, you could win a prize for voting, so head over to the blog and cast your vote!