#2015PCChallenge : Week 36 : Resist attack!

Hi !

I am back to playing with alcohol inks this week. While I liked the bangles I made a few weeks back using the resist technique , they don't look very batik-y to me. So I have been pretty much experimenting for a bit now.

Clearly I haven't gotten a handle of how to get it right. But this particular experiment may  slightly, very slightly help me progress. At least I haven't traveled backwards this time ( I think ).

I was too tired to photograph them separately , so I just did it together :) .

Thanks for reading !Have a great day !

Also :
 Please pardon my late posts. We are having intermittent rains and frequent power cuts here , and its frustrating to upload and fail multiple times.I am thinking of even posting just once every month with four items , but I wont do it simply because its the next step  to posting once in three months and so on.
Thank you guys who still bother to read :) 

#2015PCChallenge : Week 19 : Neck pieces , mirrored style !

Hi !

It is already week 19 for the #2015PCChallenge! Wow ! That's a lot of learning for me :)

I have accumulated a lot of scrap clay during this process , as I tend to experiment as much as I can.This particular pieces were made from a recent cane experiment.

I recently joined the 52 weekly cane projects group on Facebook.The theme of the week when I joined was homestead. A little hobbit home immediately came into my mind.This picture by Ted Nasmith is what I was thinking of.
I did not know of the artist before I searched it out , even though the picture has been a favorite for years.I feel really terrible about that.

Anyway , my cane looks nothing like I planned ( LOL) , it was pretty fun never the less. I think I should proceed like a sane person from week 1 and THEN go into the second year :)

I used up the spare pieces from making the cane and also the pieces left over after reducing it,

Both the pieces are made using the Natasha bead technique. Even though it is an easy technique on paper , I found it takes some restraint from me to form these pieces.

The primary piece reminds me of a bubbling brook ( as the saying goes) , the plants in it swaying to a rhythm unknown to us.It is finished with silver colored chain.

The secondary piece reminds me of wahat I think plants on a ice would look like.It is finished with cotton cord and some rainbow beads , I still have plenty left over :)
I had cut a rather unlikely piece for the secondary piece. I cleaned it up a bit , but I left the trailing "tail" pieces as it is.If you notice , it has two separate Natasha pieces joined together.

In case any of you were wondering , here is my cane and "the idea". They definitely don't match! I sure have a long way to go!Please ignore the spelling comedies , if you can read my handwriting.

Thanks for reading through ! Have a good day !

Wide Bangle attempt : Tape base

Hi !

I wanted to share a mishap that I had a few weeks back.I had a large cello tape ( also called a scotch tape ) base, around the width of 3 inches. I was eager to tackle it , seeing it is such a huge base.I don't have a pic of it before my experiment.

I happily covered it with a clay film , and I proceeded to put all the clay slices and I was finally done. And completed baking. What I did later was quite stupid. As soon as it came out of the oven , I dunked in Ice water , which is a standard procedure for me.

What I did not take into consideration was the fact that there is  a cardboard base inside. The base got water logged .As soon as I began to sand , the cracks appeared. Then more appeared. I gave up all semblance of  trying a save and I have kept these aside as a warning.

In case anyone was wondering , there are a few complex canes in there , a few bullseye canes reduced by the extruder.

Thank for reading ,hope my mishaps help you out from doing the same :)
Have a good day !

Some trials and failures

Hi !

This was a rather strange week. A lot of excitement on the shopping front and a lot of disappointment from the results front.
Last week , I finally splurged and a bought a lot of supplies for my polymer clay addiction. I bought six shades of Adirondack alcohol inks (6 !!! ) , a booklet each of imitation copper leaf and gold leaf ( I couldnt find any in silver ) ,a few tutorials , a few polymer clay books ( through Kindle for PC ), amazing mold putty and a Dremel , which hasn't been delivered yet.

What I did not count on was my natural tendency to spaz out. I went mad. I was trying to do everything , all together , my brain coming up with  new ideas every other second.I could not keep a track of it. I could not sleep , my brain was spamming me with strangest possibilities. AAArgh! I do appreciate my spontaneous brain , but it was very tiring.I have a been a mute person more less , this whole week. If talked it was only of polymer clay gobble de gook.

So in effect , I had a lot of trial pieces and a fair bit of learning.For one , dont always start sanding with lower grits.Sometimes its just not needed. Turns I needed  a experiment to finally keep this is in mind.

This is my first time trial of copper imitation foil and alcohol inks , which apparently leads to crackling technique. That was a pleasant surprise. I liked how this turned out. However , I sanded it a
bit too much and I thus sanded out the foil. There is a thin layer of translucent clay on top of it , then I applied Acrylic gloss varnish. This is the first time I have used any sealer / gloss on polymer clay. I ended up with brush strokes ,not easily visible to others , but glaring enough for me . To see if I can rectify it , I baked it again.The acrylic does seem smoother.

Another thing that I experimented with was my photography technique. I have a Fujifilm S 3300 , one of my most favorite possessions. People make fun of me a bit , because I tend to shoot pictures of tiny flowers and play of light rather than people.I don't like my photos being taken either , I am too fidgety, standing still is a total trial.My camera is fabulous for outdoor photography , which is what I do best.
 After shifting to Hyderabad a few months back , I discovered something I deeply disliked. There are no light spots. I always keep a few spots around the house as designated light spots , where the natural light is most ample , where my dog would fight me for it , if I had a dog.I  These light spots are my temples and my new house does not have any save one.That one light spot is on the tiny side grill of the entrance to my apartment. There is a stone there , on which I place my jewelry and shoot. I have taken all the PCChallenge photographs to date , on that circular - ish stone , maybe around 7-10 inches across. If I miss something , my jewelry would fall down 3 floors and break. Thankfully this has not happened yet , but I worry.

When I tried to take the photos of the blue-green ( earth ) cabochon outside, it took me forever to get the copper glints.On some half baked memory of reading  how to set up a jewelry photo booth , I improvised and shot these.I am not a big fan , but hey, practice right.

Remember the weekly challenge ? Well , I could not do anything. I had to try all the toys , all at once. Now I have basically nothing to show as a completed piece for my weekly challenge.I am thinking of  sanding and polishing my sister color bangles to submit.I made it last week , right after the jungle flower cuffs and bangles  , week 8 challenge. While the base idea is complete , it still has some work left.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post :)
Have a good day !

Week 7 : Polymer Clay Challenge : Dragon Cuff & Bangle

Hi !

I am presenting both original and companion piece together : My dragon cuff ( primary) and my dragon bangle ( companion)

This is a bit of miracle as far as I am concerned , you see this is a floral bangle that got burned. I had somehow turned the temp knob up and I did not notice it. My nose isn't too functional ( myriad allergies) so I did not smell it out.When I happily went after an hour, opened the oven and saw it spewing out the toxic smoke , my heart was broken.I mechanically went through the crazing process, that's what dunking it in ice cold water is called, and waited for the smell to go away.

After a few sad hours I went back to the bangle / bracelet and I looked at them. Strangely , I liked it. I wore it for a few hours, then my husband came back from office and was all " whoa , that's a cool dragon bracelet ! " I was a happy girl.

I am also a lazy girl , I hate sanding.So this was lying around for a few weeks now and I found it a while back and I tried to fix it :) I love the end result !

Thanks for reading :)

Polymer Clay : Experiment 1 : Baking

The story so far :

The first time I stumbled on to polymer clay was during my 12th standard board examinations.I am not quite sure how , but suddenly there were these Google pages full of polymer clay and cool things made out of polymer clay.I saw stars and dreams in a millisecond.Just looking at the fascinating possibilities kept me in check for a little while , then I decided I wanted it.

Accordingly I started searching for its availability in India.Even as I searched  extensively, I drew a  complete blank .There was nothing online and nobody in any craft shops knew what I was talking about.I reached out to some Indian artists working with Polymer clay, I learned that  :

1. They were settled outside of India, where polymer clay is easily available.

2.They have friends/ family settled outside India , who bring the P.C to India or ship it in.

3.They buy it from web stores based outside of India.

At first I was greatly excited by the 3rd option and I thought ,"Wow! I shall now buy it from web stores !".I calculated the conversion charges from foreign currency to Indian rupee." Hmm", I thought",Expensive ? Yes.But not super expensive !I can totally buy this ! ". 

Unfortunately for me , I had not looked through the shipping charges involved.The second I did so, there was a big BOOM ( in my head ). My dreams blew up , and floated down to the earth in little realistic pieces.
You see , the shipping charges were 5 to 6 times the value of the clay.I could not afford it at all.

That rude awakening happened around seven years back.I still found P.C fascinating,I read up as much as I could anticipating the wonderful day where it would be affordable for me.At first ,I checked the prices every few weeks,then every few months , but seeing no remarkable change, I became resigned to my fate and stopped looking at all.

In the meanwhile ,I found cold porcelain around 2 years previously.Its pretty great , and absolutely affordable .The only hitch is that  I don't trust the durability for making jewelry.I found that sometimes, metal corroded in reaction with it.Clearly the metal needs to be put in after the clay has cured (air dried ) completely, but if the metal is not put in immediately , it may not stay in.It was a bit of catch 22. I still love making beads with it , I leave it to dry for a few days and make sure I don't put any metal in it during this time.

Last month we were shifting houses and to alleviate my nervousness and snappy behavior, I started looking at polymer clay art (which calms me down),and somehow I stumbled onto  yahoo answers with the link to where polymer clay can be bought in India.I thought it would be fake or at least misleading ( a lot of links go back to non Indian websites that ship it to India at a very high rate ).This particular link was real enough though, and affordable and I bought a sampler pack !

I was very excited.I tried to make canes, needless to say,it did not turn out great.In the meanwhile I read that toaster oven temperatures are not very reliable so ,I ordered for a oven thermometer to use with  the Croma toaster oven I purchased.
So everything's good till now , except I got impatient. And that's how my first experiment with P.C came in to being.

Note: I did not take any before pictures for the first lot, so only the outcome pics are here for that.
     
Experiment 1 :

Materials used : (Please go through here for a more detailed explanation of the basic tools).The materials italicized are not mandatory for making a bead , I had them so I used them.
1.Polymer clay : I bought Premo! by sculpey. Its a sampler set with 1oz of 12 colors. The quantity as you figure is not much.I just mixed up some colors to use for my first baking trial.
2. Toaster oven
3. Plastic sheets
4. Rolling Pin
5. Dedicated clay knife
6. Dedicated Cutters
7.Oven thermometer
8.Fire extinguisher ( not used , only for emergencies )
9.Some wire : I already had some 20 gauge, color coated copper wire that I purchased from a hard ware shop. If the shop person does not know the gauge,look for a thickness approximating earring posts.Again,any gauge can be used,its just easier to work with this gauge.If you can get regular copper wire ( without color coating) , that is always better
10.Jewelry pliers

If this is the first time you are doing this please set aside at least an hour or two.It is lots of fun , and you know how time just passes by without you knowing anything about it when you are having fun.
I am not going ahead into the making a bead part of it , mainly because I already conducted the first experiment before making this blog and I only have the outcome pics.

What did I do :

1.Condition the clay : The clay is quite stiff when left alone.Before using it for any project , roll it in your hands , or using the roller so that clay softens. Using your hands works out well, because the  heat from your hand  warms up the clay a little , which in turn softens it.Once it becomes soft knead it well, so that all air bubbles ( if any) are released , which ensures that cracking will reduce.

2.Make the bead :I just rolled up two identical pieces of pc in my hand , of a color I liked.I wanted to make a pair of earrings , so I shaped them identically into something vaguely resembling a dagger. Trust me, its quite easy to do.

3.I made a little horse shoe shaped wire piece, and put it into the bead.(One end of the wire is a loop , then it comes together and then separates out).This is not a mandatory step as this further requires jewelry making pliers.You can just poke a hole in the bead and be done with it.

4. Now this has to be baked at 130 degree Celsius (275 Fahrenheit). I thought frankly this was going to be the easiest of the whole job.Oh boy! To put it simply , I set up the rack of the oven , set the dial to 130  and the timer to 30 mins and then I went about my merry way.

5. This was the result :

While I tried to prettify it ,as you can clearly tell, this is an experiment that did not go well.To put it simply it was major burrrn for my "I can get everything done right, the very first time" attitude.It looked like bird droppings hanging from a wire.The whole kitchen smelled really toxic , and I had to open all the windows and doors.While it did put me back in my place ( that of a novice who has no practical knowledge) , I was thankful that it did not poison anyone else and did not set fire to anything.So another thing added to my list : fire extinguisher.

The reason I put up the picture was because there are hardly any pictures of what happens when things go wrong.Hopefully I will get better in time and I wont put up such gruesome pictures anymore.Anyway, to proceed ,

What I learnt : ( After going through search results for " why did my polymer clay get burnt")

1.Invest in an Oven thermometer.Even though your toaster oven may have a temperature dial , its accuracy may be well off. ( My oven is off by around 50 Celsius )

2.Try to keep temperature consistent.Ovens have a tendency to both spike the temperature and cool down sporadically to maintain the temperature on the dial.But this may mean that the oven may heat up to a higher degree than 130 and burn your clay before cooling down.

a. Keep the polymer clay inside two aluminium foil containers ( such as the ones restaurants commonly use for packing food ), clip it and then cure it.The temperature inside the aluminium foil remains more consistent.

b.Preheat the oven before curing clay .I did not know this at all, since I have never used an oven before this.

c.Use ceramic tiles to line the oven and containers that are being used.

d. Do not disappear after putting on the timer.Be physically present so that you may check the temperature to dial it down if required , or to remove the item if it starts burning.

e.I also cook it for an hour at least now.I have found my oven is more even tempered while cooking longer duration's.But do not put pre baked and then painted pieces in for an hour , 10 mins is sufficient.( updated : 19.02.2015)

That's all for today ! In case you were wondering, I did make the beads once more , and it came out all right.I shall update on how exactly I did that very soon.
Thanks for reading.Please do drop in with your comments , they are always welcome.