ABS May challenge

Tags

ABS May, ambrosius bosschaert, bead, flower, flower beads, handmade, necklace, pendant, polymer clay, seed beads, yellow

This month I have managed to be organised enough to complete an entry for the ABS monthly challenge in time. With a new baby I don’t have much time for making beads, but I thought the pendant I made previously was appropriate with its sunny yellow flower and the brass frame which echoes the window in the inspiration painting.

Vaas met bloemen in een venster / Vase with Flowers in a Window, 1620
Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder
Oil on Copper, 64cm x 46 cm

I used brass coloured metal flower beads and multiple strands of mixed yellow seed beads to complete the necklace.

In search of clarity

Tags

acrylic paint, basse taille, enamel painting, experiment, faux basse-taille, faux enamel, glass paint, liquid clay, liquid polymer clay, metallic powder, polymer clay, renaissance wax

Back in January I tried making a faux basse-taille (metal and enamel) painting, but I was disappointed with the finish as it lost its metallic shine and enamel clarity. There were a few things I was fairly sure were mistakes so I did some tests to see if I could work out a better method.

The first mistake was that I shaped the clay, brushed it with metallic powder and added the tinted liquid clay all before the first bake. This meant that the metal powder brushed off the base and mixed with the liquid clay making it cloudy (particularly visible on the crest of the hill). The next problem was that when I used the heat gun to try to clarify the liquid clay it caused blisters.

For the first test piece I made (left) I baked the clay with the metallic powder on before adding the liquid clay and baking again. Then I very cautiously used the heat gun. It made no difference. Then I tried the heat gun more boldly. Again no improvement. Finally I used some Renaissance Wax and this did bring out the colour and shine.

Then I compared using varnish before adding the liquid clay (after first baking the metal powder on), and if skipping the heat gun made any difference. The two central moons indicate the heat gun does not make much difference (I finished both with wax). Using the varnish did make a difference – primarily I could leave the raised “metal” areas exposed without a layer of liquid clay for protection so this improved th shine of the piece. For the last moon on the right I used glass paint instead of liquid clay and this was much closer to the finish I was looking for.

Next I compared using the glass paint with and without a layer of varnish underneath. Again with the varnish I could leave the raised areas without paint but more importantly the one without the varnish now has a slightly sticky surface (I made these in late January). I did not use wax on either of these.

Finally I wanted to test if the base clay had an effect on the finished piece. I compared the metallic powder and varnish with silver acrylic paint. When using the powder the base colour did not seem to make a big difference, but with the paint it did. The paint also tended to be more streaky.

In conclusion the metal powder gives a smoother finish than the paint and the colour of the base clay is less visible; the varnish gives a better finish and may prevent stickiness; the heat gun makes no difference (but the wax does); the glass paint has much better clarity and shine than the liquid clay.

I just need to wait a while to confirm whether the varnish continues to prevent stickiness so I’ll put these in quarantine for now. Speaking of which it has now been over a year since my experiments with DIY expanding foam and there does not seem to be any adverse reaction. Perhaps it’s time for me to dust them off and use them?

Lantern for baby

Tags

candle, filigree, glass paint, heart, jade, lantern, polymer clay, purple, Scottish Polymer Clay Guild

February’s theme from the Scottish Polymer Clay Guild is “Hearts and Roses”. Initially I planned an elaborate mosaic of a rose, however I have had some complications with my pregnancy so I have been spending a lot of time in hospital under observation. Even when I am at home I haven’t been doing much claying because the stress has knocked my mojo.

My sister gave me a glass lantern so I could burn a candle for baby. It was plain clear glass, with a raised heart shape on the front. I decided it would be simpler (and more appropriate) to decorate the lantern instead.

I made a marbled cane and applied it as thinly as I could (so the candle light would still shine through). Then I got slightly carried away with some silver filigree. Once the clay was baked I had to add some Super Glue around the edges of the filigree to stop it lifting.

Unfortunately I discovered that my toaster oven was not big enough to bake the lantern standing up, so instead of using polymer clay to decorate all around I decided to use glass paint on the inside. (I have been doing some experiments with polymer clay and glass paint and they seem to react and get sticky so I didn’t want them to come into contact with each other.)

I’m not really happy with the paint effect as it ended up a bit streaky. I wanted a dip-dyed gradient effect with layers of paint drips flowing upwards. I used a clear medium to get a more pastel shade of purple, but it seems this prevented the drips. The pure paint dripped, but is a bit darker than I intended.

I think I prefered it before I added the paint, although the lantern does have a nice purple glow when lit

New improved doughnut recipe

Tags

doughnut, hollow, pendant, polymer clay, tutorial

This gallery contains 17 photos.

I have made some modifications to my original hollow doughnut tutorial which I think makes the process easier (and the …

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Birthday Box

Tags

box, deck of cards, faux, filigree, jade, mother of pearl, pietra dura, polymer clay

I made this polymer clay box as a birthday gift. It is designed to fit a deck of cards. I used the mother of pearl tutorial I mentioned in an earlier post (links at the bottom), and the new Fimo gemstone colour “Jade Green” for the extruded filigree. I don’t usually use clay directly out the packet but i wanted to see what the “fascinating double effect” was (it seems to be a combination of transparent and sparkly).

I made the interior of the box a bit of a contrast, by using fully saturated blue and a blue/green/yellow kaleidoscope cane for the underside of the lid.

I made the interior panels separately on pieces of card and then wrapped clay around the outside, but it was a bit of a challenge trying to attach the pieces together and keep the corners square. Previously when I have made smaller boxes I have used a cardboard box as a mold and baked the polymer clay over that – I think that way worked better.

Have a look at this polymer clay pietra dura box by Fiona Abel-Smith to put my humble efforts into perspective!

January Blues

Tags

blue, cloisonne, january, liquid clay, liquid polymer, painting, polymer clay, Scottish Polymer Clay Guild, scrap clay, starry night

The Scottish Polymer Clay Guild has started a monthly themed challenge. For January the theme is “Blue”. I decided to make a mini painting – my idea was faux basse-taille meets Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”.

While I am happy enough with the colours and the image, unfortunately the metallic effect has largely been lost. I used a base of scrap clay and dusted it with silver powder, then I applied liquid polymer with added alcohol inks. I think my mistake was that I didn’t bake the base before adding the liquid clay so the metallic powder lifted and got mixed in with the glaze.

“January Blue” by Cate van Alphen
Polymer Clay, 6.5cm x 5.5cm

After it was baked I tried to clarify the liquid clay glaze by using a heat gun. Sadly this did not improve it much and caused blisters to appear. I’m not sure if the heat gun was too hot, too close or used too long. Does anyone have any advice?

Peacock Earrings

Tags

bead, blue, bugle beads, earring, feather, glass seed beads, green, JAN ABS, peacock, polymer clay, yellow

For the ABS January monthly challenge I have made a pair of earrings. How could I resist those peacock colours? (Actually the earrings made themselves, I was just there at the time.)

ABS inspiration painting
“Black Peacocks with Japanese Persimmons” (1940) by Jessie Arms Botke

I like that they are an abstract interpretation of the peacocks – incorporating the colours, the pattern of the eyes, and the flow of the tail feathers. The focal beads are polymer clay, handmade by me, accented by long bugle beads and a mix of glass seed beads. The ear-wires are bronze coloured niobium.

See my previous entries for the Art Bead Scene monthly challenges.

New year, new shop

Tags

bead, earring, new stuff, pendant, polymer clay, shop, stock

I have been working on a new and improved hollow doughnut recipe, but unfortunately part way through I realised that there is a flaw in my method. While I’m still working on that, I have decided to open a new online shop on Folksy. For the moment I will also keep my Zibbet shop open, but I’m not sure if I will be able to make enough stock to fill two shops when the baby arrives.

I still have more listings to add to both shops (I only get time to add a couple every day), but here’s some of the new stuff so far:

52 Earrings – Complete

Tags

52 earrings, bead, challenge, earring, new year, polymer clay, style

At the start of 2012 I signed up for the 52 Earrings Challenge on Flickr. The idea was to make a pair of earrings every week for a year. Here is a thumbnail summary of what I did:

While I did manage to make more than 52 pairs of earrings, some were a bit late (or I would make the earrings and forget to upload them). At one point I stalled trying to think of a new style of earring to make until I decided that anything was better than nothing.

This caused me to realise something – for a few years now I have been waiting for “my style” to become evident, but when I work I keep trying to make things different to avoid sameness. Perhaps and artist’s “style” DEPENDS on an element of sameness, so I am preventing mine from developing?

All in all it was an enjoyable and worthwhile challenge. I particularly enjoyed the themes, and I would have liked to have made more of my earrings to fit them. Perhaps in 2013 I will challenge myself to make earrings for the themes I skipped?

Happy New Year! Whishing you all enjoyable and worthwile challenges for 2013.

Christmas, presents, past

Tags

bead, cane, christmas gifts, gift, kaleidoscope, necklace, polymer clay

Unusually this year I did not make Christmas gifts for all the family (actually I have hardly made anything this month). But I was commissioned to make a custom necklace using a given design, which now that Christmas is over I can show. It was an interesting challenge to make a cane to a specific design as I usually just make them up as I go with the only requirement being “to be pretty”. While I was confident that it could be done in polymer clay, I was slightly less convinced that I could do it!

In the end I did manage to do it by working very slowly. I made one 6th of the design which I flipped and joined up to complete the kaleidoscope pattern. I was fairly pleased with the results, although I miscalculated the height of the cane so I had to reduce it before I could cut and join up the sections resulting in some visible “seams”.

I hope you had a joyous Christmas. Wishing you all the best in the New Year.