Happy Daze are here again......

The brighter days are making me feel better lately and full of the joys of Spring.  I have been spending a lot of time making and taking moulds with polymer clay, which has been fun, and relaxing.  But I have had the urge lately to get back into paper crafting for a while, and having been inspired by the members of the Happy Daze Design Team Blog and also the work lately of Ginger's Welcome to my World Blog and her fabulous work and this latest box she's decorated - it's kind of kick started me into having a go myself.

'You can't take it with you when you go Mum' as my sons keep telling me and urging to spend and just enjoy my old age - I decided to do just that.

A big box of goodies arrived in my porch early today.  My goodness, Moira at Happy Daze gets her orders out quickly.

Want to have a peek?

 

Having been used to 'feet and inches' for over 60 odd years - I have decided that I must get my head around these cms things.  I'm fine with metres, it's those darn little cms that get me confused!

When my eldest son was little was taught in metric, I asked him 'How long is a centimetre because I can't work it out?'  And  he would reply, 'It's the same size as a two'er in lego mum!' and sigh.  I think that I shall have to perloin a 'two-er' from my grandson's lego box and keep it by my side as a guide!

So, it came as a real shock when Ginger's little Paris Exposition box on her blog, is not a mini little box but is one of those HUGE boxes in the background!  It's so big that it is actually really  very  very useful - well both boxes are fabulous sizes.  

 And Jo Capper Sandon's  lovely wood mounted owl stamp which I absolutely adore, is tiny sitting on the top of the box, when I expected him to be as big as her bumble bee.  But I love him so much, he's actually the perfect size and makes a great addition to my collection of her Stampotique designs.  He really looks grumpy, but he is going to get so much use as I use stamps on all the letters I send out - and I have a serious lack of small stamps.  I have to admit to an addiction to Jo's stamps and they are the most used out of all the stamps I have.   They sit on a shelf right in front of my eyes looking at me,  and I just can't resist taking them down and using them.  There is something very tactile about the wooden stamps - and the old adage 'Out of sight, out of mind', is often the case as my unmounted ones langish is drawers behind me.

So, if in the next few weeks, I haven't started using this latest stash - will you please leave a comment and 'shout' at me to get my finger out!

If it's miserable weather tomorrow, then I might just make a start - if not I have to spend a couple of hours up the allotment.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Making an Egyptian artifact

I have spent the past hour experimenting - trying to turn this

As you will see in the previous post - this is a bright yellow brass charm, with a  hollow back.

I make an impression from the back with polymer clay (having tried the traditional method of covering the front in clay to make a mould - unsuccessfully)

I baked the mould - as in previous post and here is what I have got now

It is a yellow gold in proper outside daylight, but it's looking darker because of the dark light outside.

I didn't want an exact replica of the charm, I wanted mine to look as though it been dug up, knocked about a bit, and aged.

I rubbed it down  with fine wet sandpaper to give it some natural wear and tear.  Then I rubbed black acrylic paint all over it with my fingers and wiped off the surplus.

I used gold rub and buff all over it - and rubbed and buffed it!

Rubbed over some more black acrylic, and repeated the process.

I am pleased with the end result - it looks so much  better in real life - it being gold rather than painted with gold paint.  The raised parts shine and the recessed areas are dull and dark pitted.   

I'll see what it looks like tomorrow and may do a bit more ageing.

This doesn't look like it's polymer clay at all which I am pleased about.  

It's great to experiment.

Making moulds for embellishments

After yesterdays mould taken from a big plaster cast - and as it has been hammering it down with sleet and heavy rain today - I decided to have a go at making more moulds and embellishments. 

 I need to scrub off the cornflour and tidy a couple of them up - but I was quite pleased with my efforts.

Apologises for the photos - I tried to use a daylight lamp and the bulb went!

A long time ago,  I was lucky enough to get some blog candy from Cath at Katy Krunch

They were little brass charms - which I have been sharing with other arty crafty friends.

 

I have used some here to make moulds from and see how they turn out.  

I love the Egyptian one especially.

I love shells, but find it hard to get them to stick, so I am using some from my collection to make moulds with, and then I'll make some polymer clay shells and see if they stick better.

The military button is one I found in my botton box and the rose button was a 'fancy' one for crafts. It's made a good impression, so hopefully, I'll get some nice flat roses.

The mushroom is from an embellishment I bought which broke before I had even used it! I had a couple of the same make break too, they are stuck on so hard to the card it's virtually impossible to get them off.   So I took a mould from the pieces of the mushrooms, in polymer clay, then pushed the bits back together where they were broken, and made some impressions in to biggest one to turn it into a fairy toadstall.   I  might have a go at making another one and turning it into a toadstall house.

I think I'll start to paint some now.

A Relic

Well this is going to be my most ambitious project yet.

 You can probably guess what this is - but you might need to see the whole thing.

 

Well you know where this came from now don't you?

 

From my art room of course!

 

This is the original - I have had it for years and bought it from an art shop.

It's a very thick and  heavy plaster cast of an 'artifact from a Roman Ruin.'

Don't ask me why I bought it - I really don't know - we had and still have a 'modern' home - but I just fell in love with the romance of it.

It's big - so I couldn't make a mould from all of it - so I took a mould from the top middle 6 inches or so.

I love all the texture and craggy holes and chunks missing.   I can see that I'll be taking more moulds of bits of it.

It's made of Super Sculpey polymer clay which I covered with burnt  umber - rubbing it in everywhere I could.  Then rubbed of the excess with paper towel.

You'd never guess mine was made out of plastic would you?

I think I'll take a bit of time to mount it and make perhaps, some mosaic polymer clay tiles to go around - which will take me rather a long time.

Pillow beads

Well, following on from my work in progress post which you can see here  I have been delaying posting them on my blog because I made a complete mess of them.  I had great difficulty in getting the 'pillows' to look right. 

You cut slices of the block which you can see in my link above, then using polymer clay you put some on in the middle, pinch the corners and then along the edges - sounds simple right?  The difficulty I found was getting them all uniform and squashing them into shape.  (And the fact that I have big hands and bent fingers doesn't help)  I am sure that my lovely Japanese daughter in law would be perfect for making these - she has such delicate little hands.

I am being brave posting some photos, I think that it is good sometimes to recognise failures, learn from the exercise and move on.

See what I mean!  I found it impossible to get them all of a uniform shape and size

All is not lost - they are brilliant for flower pot 'drainers'

This is a swirl of the left over bits of clay.  I like it because of it's colouring both sides which is totally different, and the fact that it has a lovely metallic sheen.

 

 

 

 

Oh well - best not dwell on it.  I'll put these out of sight - out of mind, and use them when I am potting on some plants.

Next experiment - trying to make an Egyptian style death mask thingie - or a rose can - off to flick a coin!

Giveaway at Bead up a Storm

If you love beads you will love Bead up a Storm, and there is a giveaway too for a stunning large heart.

The lampwork beads are just stunning - if only I could make those!

Playing/experimenting with polymer clay

I am still desperate to get some polymer clay lessons - but just can't find any in Norfolk.  There is a class with Sue in Suffolk where I did the Silver Clay, but it's on 1st April - when I'll be recovering from an eye operation all being well - so I can't go to that.

The bead shop outside the village is no longer listing Silver Clay and Polymer Clay as future courses which is a shame. I did find a place  via Google, in Dereham, but am not getting any response to emails or phone messages - despite the advert for lessons starting again in February 2012 so perhaps circumstance have changed or something has gone amiss there.

So I am just messing about experimenting really - but I'd much rather have a proper lesson or two.  I can't seem to get a good photo today - nothing unusal there  On my computer screen the samples look more like a cork colour rather than the lovely rich burnt umber and raw sienna colour with a nice dark bronze subtle sheen and just like leather in 'real life'.  I used Premo Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna and Bronze Accents,

 

It looks like a lovely rich leather - which I could capture it on here.

 I scrunched up some paper and pushed it into the polymer clay (after conditioning and rolling it)

I pushed a key stamp into the above

 

I used A Jo Capper Sandon large bumble bee stamp which I pushed into this one.

One of my all time favourite quote stamps - again from Jo into this one.
You can get the stamps from Happy Daze    and all sorts of lovely arty crafty goodies.

I painted each example  all over with with Burnt Umber acrylic paint, then rubbed off the excess with a soft rag.  When the paint had dried naturally, I rubbed on some Cosmic Shimmer  - it's called dark copper but after baking it shimmered like bumble wings do.  It looks a bit 'clumpy' in the photos but in natural light wtih the naked eye it doesn't - and you can see the wing veins through it.  

Not bad for a first attempt - I got better as I went along - but have not perfected it yet.

I desperately want a lesson on making canes with polymer clay.   I now there are books and on line videos - but it's not the same as having someone by my side showing me.

So if anyone fancies giving me a lesson - please email me.