Art Vessel week 5

Tags

2016PCchallenge, ArtVessel, black and white, monochrome, polymer clay, yarn bowl

This week I decided to have another go at making a yarn bowl to learn from some of the problems I had last week. Last time I made a green bowl to co-ordinate with my yarn so this time I made a monochrome one using black, white and grey polymer clay so it will go with any colour yarn.

No cracks this week, but I forgot to take a photograph of the inside. It’s pretty much the same as last week.

This time I cut the holes opposite the curl for structural strength.

I got a little bit carried away decorating the underside of the bowl since most of the time it’s not visible.

I think this coming week I need to think of a less time-consuming project for my 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge since this one is pretty late. I’ll be posting this to my Flickr group.

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Art Vessel week 4

Tags

2016PCchallenge, ArtVessel, embroidery, polymer clay, yarn bowl

This week I continued to work on my yarn bowl from last week. Because it was already cracked, I made a support to use for further bakes using tin foil rolled into a ball and squished into the bowl. Unfortunately making this actually broke the bowl into several pieces. I was able to glue it together with liquid clay for long enough to add a layer of plaster bandages.

The next problem was getting the outer “pretty” clay to stick to the plaster. It wouldn’t. The more I rolled and pressed, the baggier the clay got. Eventually I gave up and decided to start again – it came off in one piece like a big floppy hat. The dust of the dry plaster was acting as a release agent. Next I tried adding a layer of PVA glue over the bandages to give the polymer something to hold on to. At last it worked!

Polymer clay yarn bowl by Cate van Alphen

I had always intended to do a an embroidery style decoration as a link to the bowl’s function, but I think I was so excited to *finally* have something that would sit still long enough to decorate I got slightly carried away. 😀

Polymer clay yarn bowl by Cate van Alphen

After spending so much time decorating, I did have a little panic when I put it into the oven to cure that there would be air bubbles between the plaster and the outer decorative layer, but it went well. The edges of the cut out shape could be better. I had added plaster all the way to the edge so there was nothing for the outer layer to stick to. The space was a bit too narrow to fold the outer clay into like I did for the top of the bowl so the layers separated in places.

Underneath polymer clay yarn bowl by Cate van Alphen

I also made a little sample piece to test the look of antiquing the piece with silver acrylic paint. However I then remembered that my taxes were due so I didn’t have time to decide.

The inside of the bowl is still a mess but I’ll chalk it down to experience. I am considering making another yarn bowl while the mistakes are still fresh in my mind. Perhaps the next version will be better.

Polymer clay bowl by Cate van Alphen

Art Vessel week 3

Tags

2016PCchallenge, ArtVessel, polymer clay, yarn bowl

My project for this week’s challenge is unfortunately still a work in progress. The yarn I used to make my first vessel was hand dyed and came in a shank. I made a terrible mess getting enough to decorate the jar, so I wound it all into a ball and decided I wanted to make a yarn bowl to go with it.

I made it inside another bowl because that was the closest I had to the shape I wanted. The curve cut-out ended up a little lower than I had intended since I was working inside out, but I plan to put some feet on the bowl when I get to decorate the outside.

I used Kato clay because it’s supposed to be stronger, but with the cut-out there was a bit of flex to the bowl and it ended up cracking. I think Kato is more brittle than Fimo. I am considering adding a layer of plaster bandages to strengthen the bowl before I work on the outside so I don’t need to make it too thick.

Have a look at my flickr group to see a couple of finished yarn bowls.