I’m not sure what it is about manatees, but they fascinate me. Elephants of the sea, mermaids – they almost don’t seem possible. I’ve sculpted a few different versions of them.

These two were made from a silicone mold of my own sculpted original. I like being able to make my own molds. It allows me to try out different variations, and I have to say I’d probably never sell anything otherwise. It’s difficult giving up the original, and it certainly wouldn’t be for any reasonable price. I spend too much time on each one

While we were up there, Grandma took us to Wolfboro and a gallery run by the League of NH Craftsmen. Simply beautiful work in all sorts of materials. I got to handle some work by Sandra McCaw – her work is just as meticulous in person, and I hadn’t realized how thin some of her layered feather pins are – very intricate and delicate.

Dave got me an early anniversary present. I’ve always admired Barbara Sperling’s work and now I own a pin, similar to this piece. It’s just amazing – everything is so cohesive, even the back of the pin was decorated. Makes me want to take my own work to the next level.

You can see more of her work on her website BeadUnique.

I picked up some cool silver frames that I plan on using with a sculpted design inside. And I also got some wonderful labradorite beads – I love the way the colors flash in the light. I haven’t decided what to do with them yet, so they’ll probably spend some time in my collection with everything I’ve bought in previous years

I also got some great pewter charms which are made by Green Girl Studios – definitely worth checking out if you don’t know their work. I love the round little hippo I got.

If you’re in New England, drop by the Connecticut Bead Society’s 12th Annual Bead Bazaar.

Sept 12 & 13 – Hours 10am – 5pm
admission $5
The Holiday Inn, 201 Washington Avenue,
North Haven, CT
(Rt 5) Exit 12 off I-91

Official description: Over 40 vendors will offer for sale everything from vintage glass and lampworked beads, semi-precious and freshwater pearls, raku and porcelain, seed beads and silver, polymer clay, beading supplies and much more.

The Southern Connecticut Polymer Clay Guild will be there and we’ll be selling original work by our members – including me. Stop by and visit.

The postcard above shows some of the great work from the rest of the guild. The fox in the lower left is mine.

It’s a nice bead show – the only problem is that I always spend more than I make

Cormorant relief sculpture

My Cormorant relief was accepted into a local exhibit – the Wickford Art Association’s 14th Annual Art Of The Ocean State Open Juried Show. It runs from July 17 – August 12, 2009.

I think cormorants are really interesting birds and I haven’t seen them depicted as much in art. I also wanted to try a looser style with this and just capture the feel of the bird, not every feather.

This was the largest relief I’ve done yet. It’s 12 inches high and sculpted in black Premo.

I added a wash of watered down turquoise acrylic paint to the background, and also used acrylics to highlight the beak and eye. I drybrushed the feathers in dark brown to bring out some of the texture and lift them from the dark background.

These are some Bottles of Hope that my mother and I made a few weekends ago.

They’re a great small canvas for trying new techniques, color combinations, or using up interesting scraps, AND, more importantly, you’re giving something to someone else to tell them they’re not alone – someone cares.

Side 1

This was my first attempt at using my new metal working tools. I had some scraps of brass sheet laying around – they were meant for trophy plaques I believe. I don’t have a torch (yet) so I tried kiln annealing the metal. I’m not sure if it’s the right way to do it but 1000 degrees for about 10 minutes did the trick. I ended up with some color change and patination on the brass, and some nasty fire scale on the copper tubing I tried, but it worked.

I could have cleaned the brass but I rather liked the look and just banged on it a bit with a textured hammer to give it some interest. Then I cut out a brass rectangle with an attached vertical football type shape at the top for the bail. I only broke two saw blades doing it.

I filed down the corners and edges to get rid of any burrs and sharp edges. Then I used a set of forming pliers to fold over the bail although I could have just used a set of regular pliers and bent it around some sort of mandrel.

I drilled a couple holes for the rivets (brass escutcheon pins – thanks for the idea, Libby) in both the metal and the two clay pieces I wanted to attach. Then I cut the pins to length (love that tube cutting jig). The great thing about the brass pins is that I only had to mushroom one side. I ended up using a bolt as a punch since I couldn’t get the hammer in to the pin without smashing the clay.

It all worked out though and I made two sets of earrings to go with each of the sides. I’m pretty pleased with it for a first project when I didn’t really know what I was doing

Lunchtime Sculpting Kit

This is my portable sculpting kit. It’s a small subset of tools and materials that I can bring pretty much anywhere. Generally, I use it on Mondays because there’s a few of us who meet for lunch at work and do our own various types of art.

I usually work on a relief of some sort because it’s easy to carry around without damage. You can see a work in progress on a 6 inch ceramic tile above. I cover it with plastic wrap when I’m not actively working on it, and it’s always ready to go.

My favorite/indispensable tools include clay shapers, a craft knife, a needle tool, and a wooden sculpting tool with a loop on one end and a rounded and pointy surface on the other.

The kit also includes a bit of extra clay and whatever reference images I’m using to work from, in this case a Scottish Highlander. It’s all easily carried in an old metal Whitman’s chocolate tin.

Anybody else have your own version of a kit for your art?

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.

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