Which came first...

...the chicken or the egg?  It was this age-old riddle that provided the base inspiration for my newest piece.

For my guild's (PCAGOE - Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy) March 2014 challenge, the theme is eggs.  I had decided to finally make use of a glass egg-shaped container I purchased at one of my local thrift stores some time ago.  This cute little container was a frosted glass egg that was made up of 2 halves separated by a decorative wavy cut.  I had other ideas for this challenge initially; I thought perhaps I might do another cut and layered project; I tossed around ideas pertaining to "traditional" Easter egg themes.  And then one day, while working on my studio and moving a vintage glass hen dish (you know the ones, mine looks exactly like this)...  I thought of the old chicken/egg riddle, added that thought to my guild challenge, and the rest as they say, is history.

The hen is modeled from buff orpington hens (click the link to see a photo of one).  I first sculpted the hen with some yellow premo, knowing I would give her lots of texture and would alter the coloring with an antiquing coat of burnt sienna, white and black paints, to add lots of depth to the feathers.  Her comb, beak, ear lobes, eyes and wattle were all coated with a gloss finish to add a little shine to those parts, her feathers and the bottom basket half have no coating. Next came the sculpting of the grass and then constructing the basket with extruded strips.  I knew again that I would antique the basket with white to make it look like a white-washed Easter basket.  I then decided to add a little surprise to the inside of the box....

...some grass and some brown eggs.  The grass and eggs are not attached to the inside, so they could be removed and the box could be used as a trinket box.  I had originally intended to sell this piece, even after it was finished I had decided to list it to my etsy store.  But after my husband saw it, all that changed... he at first thought it was something I had bought.  When he realized that I had made it, he urged me to keep it, as he thinks it's one of my best pieces.  The dimensions of this piece are 4 1/2 inches tall by 3 inches wide.  The little eggs are about 3/4" tall by 5/8" wide.  Here are a few other views and close-up shots:

 

Top View

 

Tail View

I'm pretty happy with my little sculpture, not as happy as my husband seems to be, but happy enough....  What do you think about her? Leave me a comment below!  Voting for this challenge opens on March 1st and ends midnight March 7th.  I'll post a reminder here with a link to the guild blog when voting begins!

My Space

Where I create, my personal escape....
My studio reorganize is finally complete! I took about a 2 week hiatus in between the start and the finish of it.  The first 5 days I worked diligently on my 2 rooms and little else, but then I got distracted by creative sessions, a new fitness regimen, projects for family members and daily life.  Finally this week I decided that I needed to just get the job completed and document the event before I mess it all up again! ;)

So, on with the photos.  First I'll show you photos of the main (original) studio space.  For anyone who has already seen this space, it's not much changed.  And for those who prefer a minimal style, you'll wonder where the organization happened. I'd call my personal style "eclectic cram".  That is, filling every available nook and cranny with items one might some day need for a yet unknown project or for that idea I had 2 years ago that's still lurking in the back of my head...  So now that you're psychologically prepared here's the view...

 This is what you see immediately upon entering the room, straight ahead is my circa 1919 treadle sewing machine (and my first quilt).

And oh yes, that cabinet does have the machine in it, and yes it works! 

The view off to the right looks over my polymer work space and my jewelry assembly table

I'm so happy with my chair, it is newly reupholstered (actually, I reupholstered all the chairs in both my studio spaces).  Before, this one was a blah beige office-type fabric that had bits of polymer ground into the seat..hmm, wonder how that happened?!  I found this fun geometric vinyl on sale and recovered it just a few nights ago.

Here are a few shots of my polymer space, both of these desks and the book shelf are new to me. Luckily, the furnishings I chose for this room years ago happen to be a set that shows up quite often (nearly every time I go) at my local previously owned furniture store, a natural cherry Ethan Allen desk and bookshelf set which must have been a popular kids/student bedroom set at one time....(sorry the next photo got a bit grainy when I adjusted the deep shadows in photoshop)

Another recent thrift find, to outfit my new organize, was this rolling cart that stows away by the closet.  This piece is essential for my polymer work space, as it holds my vise and pasta machine.

Some close-up shots of my polymer area:

The lazy susan spice rack in the back corner of the desk is new, and perfect for holding all my liquid polymer so that I can keep it blended by just giving each bottle a turn every day.  Much of my tools and gadgets are also in a lazy susan caddy (between the light and the spice rack).  See those inchies on my plastic drawer container?  inspiration from my guild mates (plus my own extras) who attended the retreat last summer (here's a closer look at them):

All I have to do is whirl my desk chair around to face my jewelry assembly table:

And if the hubby wants to be close to me while I work, a chair that came from his beloved grandparent's house is waiting for him (once he clears off my childhood friends).  I positioned the chair so it looks out the window to our back yard:

 

That beautiful grannie square afghan on the back of the chair is older than me and my hubby, it was a wedding present to his grandparents... over 60 years ago.  This is such a peaceful spot, that some days he may have to fight me and my quilt-in-progress for access!  I've been working on this quilt for years...  only about 10 blocks left to quilt before I have a new living room blankie!

The next spot around the room is my electric sewing area:

 

Those baskets on the left hold my drop spindle and my wool batts.  One of my creative diversions during the reorganize was to spin some yarn on my drop spindle, so meditative...  Those things sticking in the corner on the back right are my inkle loom stacked on top of my rigid heddle loom, these will likely be moved to a wardrobe cabinet in the other studio space, as I don't like them shoved in the corner here.  Some close up shots of my sewing storage essentials:

I finally got that thread rack mounted on the wall, only took me a year since I got the idea to do so!

Here's a view of the back wall of shelves that holds some of my book/magazine and fat quarter storage:

 

My Recycled art desk:

I even made space in my closet to organize my fabric stash so that I can see and access everything easily without having to pull 20 things out of the closet to get to the one thing I want!

 So that's the original studio space still very cramped cause it's only a small bedroom size, but I can move around freely again, yay! 

 My newer space was a space originally built for my cats, a small room in the basement level of my home.   So, it's not a very big room, only about 12' by 9'.  Here's the view upon entering the door:

A shot of the desk at the window:

I cut and mounted all the window/door trim and baseboards, caulked and painted them.

More of my trim handiwork:

All the furniture (except the corner desk and bookshelf, and the shelf holding my weaving carpet warp thread that sits on top of the window desk) were thrift store finds.  The corner desk is another of that Ethan Allen set and was previously in the upstairs studio, but I moved it down to make room for the other pieces that make up my new polymer workspace.  This room houses all of my weaving threads, knitting and crochet supplies, tatting and candlewicking suppies, needlepoint kits, my drawing and professional art portfolios, silkscreen, printmaking, wood cutting and paper making supplies.  Plus, my kiln, my oven for baking polymer, my laminator, a stash of lamps that I plan to make polymer shades for, and my stash of plastic bags for fusing (for my recycled art).... lots of stuff for this little room!

 

I fell in love with the art deco wardrobe and had to have it when I saw the price was only $69 at our local thrift furniture store (and the inside of the long cabinet is cedar!):

 

My collection of yarn took up one entire filing cabinet (thanks to inheriting a great stash from my grandma-in-law).  These filing cabinets were Craig's List finds that cost me $35 total.  The only problem was that they didn't match, one was cream the other a dirty beige, so I bought some cans of yellow spray paint and voila!  The hubby hates the colors I chose for this room, but I love it!  I knew I'd need something bright and cheery, as every time I enter this room I miss my beloved kitty.  

The room is nearly complete, I had my local "go-to" Amish furniture guy build me a drop leaf table to match the colors of the other furniture in this room.  This piece is too heavy for me to mount by myself.  I'll have to enlist the hubby's help for that job and so it waits for another day... and the window is in need of new dressing, a roman shade is in the planning stages for that purpose.

While I know some people will not understand one bit why I wrote this post, there are others out there who I know love seeing this stuff as much as I do.... there's a whole magazine/book line dedicated to the subject (called "Where Women Create").  I own the book and a couple of the magazines, and I love looking at other people's studio spaces.  I think too, it helps give one some idea of how artists work; as one of my guild mates phrased it when she posted a photo of her workspace on facebook, it's "where the magic happens".  I hope you enjoyed my little tour, I'd love to hear any comments you care to share!  And if you have a studio tour of your own, be sure to share it so I can have a peek at another magic making space! ;)

Addendum:

I meant to and then forgot to add this when I originally posted; here's my supervisor.  I often have to fight him for the cutting mat as this is where he likes to position himself while I'm working.  He even keeps that nylabone right next to that space, never takes it away from this general area, I guess that's his work in progress! :)

Voting time!!

Please go vote here!

Voting ends 2/7/2014 midnight EST

A Play Break to Repurpose

I've been busily reorganizing my studio spaces over the past week.  I'm not yet finished, but the end is in sight, only a day or two more....  I took a break from my organization project to create a piece for my guild challenge.  The PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Guild of Etsy) challenge theme for the month of February 2014 is wall hangings.  I had a completely different idea in mind for this challenge, but the presence of something that needed to be used sparked this project.

I had been asked by a friend to make another one of my turtle island pieces, which I began a few months ago.  I had stretched the canvas on my frame and coated it with liquid polymer, but when I cured that layer the center caved in and there was a lot of slack in the canvas, which for a "quilled" polymer look would not work.  The quilled project really needs to start with a taut canvas surface, because of how many layers of clay are concentrated in one layer creating a lot of weight.  Here's a photo of what went wrong with the canvas:

I've been so busy with my studio reorganize that I had pushed myself to the last day before the challenge deadline and realized that my original plan for this challenge would not have enough time to come together (I'll have to revisit that particular idea another time).  About a year or more ago, I had an idea to try a two layer sandwich of polymer then make certain shape partial cuts to fold back and allow the folds and the color contrast to create the design, so I decided to try this on my saggy  canvas.  At first I was going to cut away the canvas, but quickly realized that I could incorporate it into the design, thus giving more stability to my project.  So I covered the canvas again with liquid polymer, but this time I mixed it with some gold mica.  I made a swirl pattern radiating out from the center.  Some gold glitter scattered on top of the lpc layer added just a bit of shimmer.  I then made two large sheets of polymer (the circle is about 12" to 14" in diameter); one was a skinner blend that radiated from gold in the center to bronze on the outer areas and the top sheet was a blend of blue granite (has silver glitter flecks) mixed with blue pearl, cobalt blue and translucent.

After cutting the shapes and mounting the large polymer sheets to the canvas, I was ready to make the folds to reveal the design.  Some bonding agent, with the help of a few embossed dots as design elements, helped to secure the sheets to the canvas.  Here are some side view shots of the piece, so you can see the folded over elements:

And here are some close up shots:

While I'm fairly happy with my idea becoming a reality in this piece, this project was simply too rushed for me.  I think this design idea has some great potential and I do plan to revisit this idea another day when I can devote more time and effort to the construction.  Plus, (as always seems to happen) I have a whole other tangent of new ideas to implement in the next, or perhaps the 3rd iteration! ;) Please take a moment and let me know what you think about this piece in the comments!

Voting for this challenge will begin on February 1st and will run through February 7th (midnight EST).  I'll try to remember to repost a voting reminder at that time.  A post with my new studio changes is coming soon! 

New Year Blessings and New Challenges

Some thanks for last year and New Year blessings are in order.  Right before Christmas I had the honor to be featured on the Polymer Clay Daily website (curated by Cynthia Tinapple), for my recycled Christmas Tree (seen in my last blog post).  Again, this is a huge honor for any polymer artist, and I am so thankful for it!  Speaking of honors, I must also mention that the same piece (recycled Christmas Tree) was chosen in the top 3 votes of both the public and the PCAGOE guild members in the January challenge!  This is a huge honor as well, considering all the wonderfully creative pieces that our members produce each month!  Many thanks to anyone who took the time to vote!

For some reason every start of the calendar year brings a desire to reorganize and restructure.  This year, my major restructuring is the project of my studio space.  Because I like to recycle items, my studio supplies are outgrowing their designated space, and in the process, driving me crazy.  Sadly, last June a small room in my house became available.

Sadly because, for the last 14 years this space was home to my beloved cat who had to be put to sleep in June.  If you don't know the story, you might wonder why a cat has his own room... long story short, I had 2 cats (read furbabies) when I met my husband.  Husband is asthmatically allergic to cats.  Every time while we were dating/engaged that the subject of getting rid of the cats came up, I was reduced to a puddle of tears.  So, my brilliant hubby devised a plan that worked... we built a room into the basement of our new house plans, with a door that had outside-only access (no air exchange with the rest of the house).  It was a process, to spend time with my cat(s) every day, of changing clothes to snuggle with them, keeping a sealed container for clothes worn into the room, laundering all cat-room related items at the laundromat, and bathing immediately after a visit. But for me and my baby(ies), it was worth it.  I lost my pretty girl, a tiger long hair who resembled a Maine Coon, 9 years ago.  The last one, a flame pt. Himalayan - my sweet boy, is now gone.. so I began the process of turning this space into a spare studio space.

This is my baby, sitting on his bed by his window,  just one month before he was put to sleep and before I knew anything was afflicting him, beyond old age.  I had just painted the room the color of raspberry ice cream (before that it was a khaki color) to make things more cheery for him and me...

The room was always drywalled.  But, it was the only "living space" in our house that had never been trimmed out with baseboards or window sills/door jam trim, as you can see (the exposed plywood window frame) here:

 

So, late this fall, once I felt I was ready (emotionally and after healing a broken ankle) to turn the space over to it's next purpose, I made a trip to the lumber yard and picked up what I needed.  Thanks to a loan of my dad's mitre box, the trim is mounted, caulked, and ready for a new coat of paint.  The trim and door will be a darker shade of the wall hue.  A trip to the local furniture thrift store outfitted the room with a large desk, 2 filing cabinets and a vintage art deco wardrobe closet (all for under $200).  I'm anxious to have things completed, and should have the trim painted by next week (I hope).  I'll share photos of everything when it's done!

Oh, and I'm challenging myself to do a few other things this year: #1 be more active and heath conscious, #2 get more studio time, #3 keep things organized (once I'm finished with both studio spaces) #4 write those tutorials I've been promising (and perhaps consider writing a project book on recycling with polymer) and #5 blog twice a month.  Let's hope I'm able to meet these challenges!  Have you decided to challenge yourself to do something new this year?  Tell me about it in the comments!

Recycled Christmas

Any one who knows me, or has read this blog, likely knows how concerned I am with environmental issues.  As a result of my enviromentalism, I have learned to look at "trash" with a different lens.  I try to minimize our trash by refusing, reducing, recycling, upcycling, mending and repurposing.  My OneMoreUse line of products and etsy store was born out of my desire to reduce my household trash footprint (specifically single use plastics).  So whenever any product is past it's intended use in my household, I give creative thought as to how I might repurpose, recycle or upcycle each item. 

For January 2014, my guild's (PCAGOE) challenge theme is Recycled, which is a theme that speaks to both my sensible environmentalist self and also my artistic creative ideas.  I wanted to do something really unique for this challenge.  The solution for something different presented itself when my very organized hubby threatened to reorganize our silverware drawer.  He is the type of person who needs to be able to see and easily access whatever item he needs from a drawer, closet, cabinet, etc.  While I certainly like things neatly sorted too, because I have a pretty good memory of where items are located even when hidden, I am guilty of cramming as much as I can into any available space... so if that means I have to lift up a few spatulas to get to the ice cream scoop, I'm okay with that; this method drives the hubby crazy.  Every so often he threatens to organize something, which essentially means tossing some items, which he deems unworthy of the space they occupy, into a bag for a thrift store donation.   When he does threaten, I make sure to get the job done before he has a chance, that way I can be sure not to lose my favorite tools.

So, when I tackled the silverware drawer, I came across these hand mixer beaters that I had kept although both hand mixers that we've had in the last couple years have died and were irrepairable.  Removing these 4 beaters gave me enough room to organize my drawer to the hubby's standard; Perfect!  Normally I would send these to the local thrift, but I've seen a container full of such beaters sitting at said thrift store, so I don't think they have much of a market once the mechanicals of the mixer actually dies.  So I decided that THIS would be my item to use for my recycled project! 

I envisioned the beater becoming a stylized Christmas tree.  I made a red base for it, with green polka dots.  I secured the beater into the base and then coated the beater with many layers of Kato green colored liquid polymer that I added gold mica to create a custom color.  The scrolled filigree tree design is meant to mimic the look of quilled paper (as I explored in a previous piece here), and the design on each of the 4 paddles is the same.  I added some red dots to carry over the same design as on the base and add some contrast interest in the tree.  In the following photo of the tree with two paddles turned forward, you can more easily see the scroll pattern and you can see the areas of the metal batter more easily. 

While this was my first attempt at this idea, and it's far from perfect, I was very pleased with how it turned out, considering how difficult it actually was to complete.  I do have new ideas on how I will improve upon the execution of this type design in the future.  I just need to make time to revisit the idea before forging into something new, which is always a problem with me!  My favorite part of the creative process is the idea stage, and I always have way too many ideas waiting to be brought to life!  Here's a detail photo of the scroll work:

And finally a top-down view:

 

Voting for this challenge will open on January 1st and will run through January 7th.  I will try to remember to post a voting reminder here when the voting opens.  Last month, I was again honored to be chosen in the top 3 entries of both the public and the member vote for my penguin snowglobe piece.  Many thanks to everyone who took a moment to vote!  Comments are always welcome, so let me know what you think about this piece in the comments!  And a Very Merry Christmas to those who celebrate this holiday.  For everyone I wish you a happy holiday for whatever you celebrate... and a Happy, Healthy 2014 to all!!