Halloween Pumpkins

Tags

Halloween, jack-o-lantern, lantern, mixed media, polymer clay, pumpkin

I’m not a massive fan of Halloween (I don’t like the idea of teaching kids to ask for sweeties), but my children are. Last year my daughter insisted on keeping a small squash on her windowsill until it decayed. This year, after months of nagging, I decided to make something more permanent from polymer clay.

They are hollow led tea light holders with jack-o-lantern faces. I used sketches by the children as inspiration. I tried to keep the lively wobbles from the drawings but I did need to make the edges a bit more simple.

These are mixed media. I started with a layer of gum tape paper mache, foil armatures to build up the bulges on the pumpkin, plaster bandages to give a rigid surface and finally an outer layer of polymer clay.

These took about three days to make, with drying times, and figuring out how to make the lids. Maybe by next Halloween I’ll have made a tutorial to share with you.

Just to make them extra cheesy, I used glow-in-the-dark polymer clay to outline the features.

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Art Vessel – week 12

Tags

2016PCchallenge, ArtVessel, candle, glass nugget, lantern, medieval, polymer clay

This week, for my 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge, I have finished the lantern I started back in week 10. What I had in mind was something like medieval reliquary – all encrusted with gold and gems.

Glass and polymer clay lantern by Cate van Alphen

Halfway through decorating the jar I thought of something that might make the snakes less clumpy looking, but I decided to continue as I had begun. It was a bit of an exercise in stamina. I’ll experiment on something smaller like nugget pendants to see if my new idea is an improvement.

The ribbon around the top is still on probation. I didn’t want a big slab of polymer clay to hide the thread for the jar lid. I had originally planned to wrap it with beads, however after working on the jar for 3 weeks, I just wanted something to finish it off quickly!

This lantern is much more interesting than my previous one when lit from within 🙂

Earrings by Anna Bragina

While I was working on the lantern I found these beautiful earrings by Anna Bragina. I thought they looked like an elegant take on the look I was going for. I like the minimal bezels. Why didn’t I think of that?

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 🙂