Geek Meets Glam

I wear readers and have for a long time. I'm always misplacing them or juggling sunglasses and readers and I don't know how many times I've had to frantically search through the bookstore or market trying to remember where I left one or the other.
I don't care much for the regular ones as they're hard to change back and forth with those little stretch thingies, so just for the fun of it I made one of these. It worked. I wear one nearly all the time now.
Exchanging readers for sunglasses is a piece of cake.

10 X 10 Cover the World with Clay -- FIMO

Every time one of these opportunities comes along, I say "I WANT to do this and I WILL."  And then I don't.  I'm sure some of it is inertia, some wearing too many hats and not being particularly organized about it.  And some is my own shyness or reluctance when it comes to groups.  

SO, this Fiftieth celebration of FIMO and polymer clay was intriguing. An invitation to submit a 10x10 cm (about 4 inches) polymer clay tile.  These tiles will form an exhibit and will ultimately be sold to benefit two charitable efforts: One to aid children with heart disease, and one to aid indigenous women who produce art/craft items.

I almost "successfully" avoided it.  But on the very last day, lo and behold, a three day extension was declared.  It was the second extension and I thought...A SIGN.  So I decided to do it.  No excuses.

What to do?  As a painter I paint a LOT of cats, often blue since my interest is generally in "catness" as opposed to portraiture.  Other favorites include poppies and pears.  With polymer clay which I adore, partly because for some reason it permits me to take a much more abstract approach, I lean strongly toward mosaics, a long time love, but which, with clay, I find easier in terms of the technical stuff.  And lately I've been experimenting with metal leaf and alcohol inks. 

So, I took all that and made this, and while I see all manner of things I might tweak, I love him--his spirit.  As of this writing, he is on his way to Canada. 

Before making the above, I made the one below, but even though I like it very much, decided the mosaic wads much more expressive of everything I wanted to include. 

Materials were polymer clay, gold leaf, alcohol inks, a few metallic acrylic glazes (which is not as nice on big "cracks" as it can cloud the clay), and at the end 3 coats of PYM II. 

Undisclipined Me

I keep meaning to be more regular in my posting, but  so many things, many totally useless, keep getting in the way. So I will start where I am, and bounce around in time as necessary until I'm back In the NOW.

I've been working on leaf and ink techniques lately, inspired by a technique described by Page McNall.  I only went about halfway with her process, but got all involved with the needle carving/drawing and then of course "painting" either with paint or alcohol ink or both. 

She's on Flickr

I've done several, but the most current, now in progress, are these, destined to be earrings, done on copper leaf.  All are still in progress, so will no doubt be tweaked before I'm done.

                                                      

Red Bird Mosaic Pendant and Necklace

January 2016   Red Bird

A spontaneous sketch ... two sessions later. a Mosaic Pendant

 

A thin layer of gold Premo was applied to the back before baking just enough wider than the front to accept the extruded bezel. An admitted afterthought, but useful to know. The bail was then added as well.  

A hollow cord was used (shown off-center) to allow wire to be threaded through but to have soft material to protect against wear on polymer bail.  Wire required to accommodate coral beads.

The beads were made from scrap from the tesserae (tiles); the large beads made from translucent clay tinted with alcohol inks.  Beads were lightly buffed.   Red beads are dyed coral.

A polished black chain was used to complete.  It is 25 inches long and is intended to slip on over the head.