June 2nd, 2009
More stuff from the Weekend of Clay. I’ve done faux turquoise before but I got some really good tips.
Dirt! It’s the way to go 
We mixed real dirt into our antiquing acrylic paint and it added a “gritty” touch of realism.
Since I’ve done it before, I decided to do take some liberties with the colors and I made a cane and sliced it, instead of making beads. Still needs to be sanded and buffed but it came out pretty well.
I can see why people do beading now. It’s not quite as hard as it looks and it could be soothing. It could also drive me out of my flipping mind when the stupid thread gets tangled around the stupid bead for the tenth time.
I enjoyed the class but I’m not sure I’ll ever make a beader. I could see doing some simple stuff once in awhile though and this gave me some good background.
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May 28th, 2009
Metal Clay from class
Helen did a four hour workshop on PMC at our guild weekend recently. I’ve done a very little PMC (I’ll have to see if I ever posted the couple pieces I made) but not much and this was really helpful.
The manatee was from one of my own molds. I used rubber stamps to make the other pendant since I figured I really should learn how to handle the clay properly. I still struggle with having it dry out too fast or getting too sticky if I dampen it. I need practice I guess.
I tried Liver of Sulfur for the first time. For the manatee I went down to a deep grey-black, then polished it off the high areas. I really like how it brings out the detail. For the other pendant, I added a little ammonia and got some irridescent colored effects. I polished a little of it away but I’m wishing I hadn’t. It’s really cool as you progress through the colors, and now I know how you can get that yellowy-gold looking silver.
That’s just one more thing that I’ll want to play with some more
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May 27th, 2009
Dragon's Keep in Cold Cast Bronze
So, this is what it’s supposed to look like As you can see it worked this time. I measured parts A and B of the resin, poured them into a separate container (one with a round flat bottom) and made sure they were thoroughly mixed before adding the bronze powder. I also used quite a bit less bronze powder, since that was the last of what I had.
I slushed it around in the mold until it started to set, then mixed up my backing layer and poured that in. The picture below is what it looks like when it first comes out of the mold. The bronze powder is dulled by the resin and it’s a chocolate brown color.
Casting fresh from the mold
You have to break down that very top level of resin to let the bronze shine. I’ve seen 000 steel wool and scotch brite pads suggested. I tried both on this - they work, but they’re very messy as they disintegrate so I looked through my sanding supplies for more options.
I tried my pmc bristle brushes, but the brass one didn’t seem to do a thing, and the steel one scratched the resin too much. The best thing I found was a flexible, yellow sanding sponge from 3M labelled extra fine/320 grit.
I’m pretty happy with how this came out. The mold kept all the detail I was hoping for, and the dragon scales look great in bronze.
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May 26th, 2009
Resin and bronze powder casting
I was going to cast this in Hydroshrink first (more about that later on when I get some more ordered) but when I went to open the container, it had solidified. So… on to Plan B which I was going to do anyway - Cold Cast Bronze.
Cold cast bronze is a casting using real bronze powder mixed with resin or another medium to give you a real bronze surface without all the expense of having it cast at a foundry. I’ve done one before after taking a workshop on it, but unfortunately, this time it didn’t work out so well.
You can find the detailed instructions that are basically what I followed at sculpt.com. They also sell all the materials you’d need to do it, sculpting tools, videos, etc, etc - anything related to sculpting, The Compleat Sculptor has it.
I think the problem was that my resin wasn’t mixed well enough. I put the bronze powder in Part B of the resin, along with a bit of black tint, mixed that, then added Part A and mixed again… The bronze forms a heavy sludge at the bottom though and I was mixing it in a plastic cup which had an odd shaped bottom. I poured that batch of resin in, but there were some lumpy bits of bronze powder that kind of plopped in at the end. I then mixed up a bit more resin without the bronze powder to fill the rest of the mold. That’s the shiny black surface you see on the top (what will be the back of the casting).
I could tell it was still squishy in the middle after an hour so I left it overnight but no luck. This is what I ended up with. Areas of pure bronze powder and areas of sticky, unset resin, in between cured layers. The back layer cured completely so it didn’t seem to be the resin itself.
Better luck next time (and I DID have better luck on the next one). So, I guess this is a good reminder not to give up on the first setback .
Partially cured resin - still sticky after sitting overnight
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May 22nd, 2009
I wanted to try a mold of this relief. It was a little large for a push mold so I used two part liquid silicone. I put the relief in the bottom of a disposable aluminum pan and sealed it to the bottom using some plasticine type clay I had to minimize the mold material seepage underneath the piece. You could use polymer clay just as well, I just had the other type handy and didn’t want to contaminate my polymer clay.
That created a thin, rather flexible layer of silicone which contained all the detail but wasn’t very sturdy. So I got a slightly bigger pan and dammed up the area I wanted to fill with more plasticine. Then I mixed up some plaster of paris (try the hardware store, it’s a lot cheaper than the craft store) and poured that over the silicone to make a mother mold. The mother mold supports the silicone and keeps it from flopping. I overdid it on the plaster a bit but now I have a VERY sturdy mold 
The following shows the blue silicone mold within the plaster, once I pulled out the original piece and trimmed away the thin bits of seepage from both the plaster and silicone. This mold isn’t quite sturdy enough to be a push mold. I did try it with some Studio clay and it worked slightly but the blue silicone is too flexible to keep all the detail under pressure. It should work well with liquid casting materials though.
Final Mold and Original Relief
Tags: casting, molding
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May 20th, 2009
Dragon's Keep
I finally finished this! I started it last year but hadn’t gotten around to the finishing touches until recently. This is a relief that I sculpted using a 6″ ceramic tile for a base. I took the clay off the tile after baking and I’ll probably glue a hanger on the back and make it a wall piece.
I sculpted this in all black clay - I was experimenting with Kato clay which seemed to work fine although I’m not a big fan of the vinyl smell. I used Pearlex mica powders to highlight the dragon. After it was baked I drybrushed the stone with light gray acrylic paint to bring out the detail.
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May 15th, 2009
A couple people noticed my matrix board at our recent clay weekend so I figured I’d mention it here. If you don’t know about having your own stamps made at Ready Stamps, you should check it out.
You pick or create your own black and white artwork, send it in, and get back a sheet of stamps relatively inexpensively. Dover books are great resources for images, or look for other copyright free sources if you don’t want to draw your own.
Renaissance Faire necklace
The best thing though, is that you can request all the parts that they use to make the stamps - you can get the matrix board which is a reverse of the stamp, as well as the acrylic/clear stamps - think innie and outie. That way you double your design potential from the same images.
Sarajane has all the info over on her website so I won’t repeat it here - http://www.polyclay.com/ready.htm - but it’s well worth it.
The links in the necklace above were made from pressing clay into the matrix board.
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May 13th, 2009
Just in case you drop in to this blog every now and then and were wondering…
And the good thing is that I’m starting to feel alive again. I’ve been tied up with excessive hours at work so long (since November) that I’d forgotten what it felt like.
When you’ve putting in that many hours it seems to sap your creative strength. Even when I had a bit of time here and there, I just didn’t have any energy or motivation to do anything. I hadn’t written since NaNoWriMo, or touched my clay since then either.
But a couple weeks ago I did go to the SCPCG Clay Weekend - 4 classes by our members and had a wonderful time. We did PMC, Faux Turquoise, Beading a Cabochon, and Cold Connections/Rivets. It was great.
And this last weekend I finally finished a dragon relief I’d started ages ago. It felt so good to finish something. That sensation of “I made this” and the sheer pleasure when you’re happy with something, can’t be replaced. Of course, I can see all the areas I could have improved, but that only makes me want to make something else and do even better next time.
Work is quieting down now (hopefully it will stay that way) and it’s time to pick up my life, dust it off, and get back to creating again
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December 30th, 2008
Check out Christine Kane’s blog post about picking a Word of the Year.
I’ve done it once - at the time I picked Delight. It helped me remember to have fun, try new things, and allow myself to take some time just to do what I wanted, and be happy. It’s not a resolution, just a little reminder, but it helps.
I’m not quite sure what I want my word to be this year… I know what I want it to mean. I want it to be all these things rolled into one (only without any associated advertising jingles):
- Seize the day
- Just do it
- One step at a time
- Baby steps
- Mighty oaks from little acorns grow
I want it to remind me that all it takes are little changes to add up to something big. That all I have to do is Start, the rest will come on its own. That if I just take those 5 or 10 minutes here or there, that I can accomplish something, but if I just sit and procrastinate, I never will. One foot forward. One step at a time. But taking time out to slide down the bannister is always allowed.
I want to remember who I am and who I want to be, and “keep on swimming” until I get there. Emergence, Leap, Practice, Accomplish, Do, Action, Begin, Focus, Climb, Stairway? It doesn’t really matter what the word is, as long as it brings the right thoughts to my mind.
And the word that seems to resonate for me right now is Focus.
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November 30th, 2008
I finished my 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month on Thursday night. I still had a few scenes to rough out to get to the end of the story but I finished that over the rest of the weekend.
I learned that if you just sit down and start, it’s not nearly as bad as you think. The hard part is starting - getting over the fear of trying something, and the fear that it won’t be nearly as good as you envision it in your mind. That fear can make cleaning the oven look good in comparision. But if it always stays in your mind, it will never become real. That’s true whether it’s writing or sculpture or jewelry or any creative endeaveor.
And making time when you don’t have much was difficult, but that’s true about anything.
I made my goal and I printed out the whole thing just so I could look at all the paper it took up Actually, I’ll use it for editing later on but I want to go back and finish my other story first. In the meantime, I’m not even going to reread what I wrote.
I have no idea how good or bad it is at this point, but I’m not sure that matters. What matters is that I did it. And that seems to matter a great deal.
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