Keepsake Altered Art Gift Tags

I love creating these Altered Art Gift Tags, especially this time of year. Each tag carries an inspirational message, and provides me with an opportunity to use many wonderful bits and pieces I have stored away in my studio. What do you think?

Need earrings to go with my bracelet...right?

More Primitive Influences

Primitive Influences

Primitive images on my mind find expression in these bangle style bracelets.

Primitive is the new contemporary (at least in my eyes).

More to come.

Let me know what you think.

More About Mudcloth

A fellow polymer clay artist, treasurefield, in commenting about my Mudcloth cuff bracelet, said she wondered if the original mudcloth technique really used mud. I thought it did, so I looked up a couple of sites about the history of mudcloth. Here is site that gives you a summary of the origin and significance of mudcloth.

I also ran across a site where you can virtually design you own piece of mudcloth. You can try it here. I had fun with this, but I don't believe I'll be making any real mudcloth any time soon.

Inspired by...

...the designs of African mudcloth.

Inspired by...

...Ronna Weltman's wonderful textures, colors, and designs from her recent publication, "Ancient Modern". A must add for your polymer library!

Thanks Ronna!

Coming Out of Hibernation

...to be continued

Woodshedding

Okay, it's been a minute since I checked in. So what have I been doing? Celebrating some wonderful family milestones, visiting family out-of-town, and woodshedding. I know you get the first two, but what about this woodshedding thing.

As I understand it, this is a musicians' term that means "going off to hone your skills". It's typically used by jazz musicians when they need time off to work things out. Well, since the celebrating and visiting quieted down, that's what I've been doing, woodshedding.

I'm practicing some new techniques , working out some ideas, just experimenting at a nice slow pace. I am excited to see what will will come of it. Maybe something, maybe nothing. But that's okay. The joy is definitely in the journey.

Right now, my mind it still working on slow, but my hands are getting pretty restless. So I am keeping my hands busy until my mind catches up.

And you can bet, I'll share it here. Until then.

Bloggers Delight!

A chance for all you bloggers out there to win a basket full of wonderful gifts! WOW! You can't pass on this unbelievable giveaway!

So here's the deal....

The Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy is having a Mother’s Day gift basket giveaway, and all you have to do for a chance to win it is…

1. Post a comment on the PCAGOE website with two links: a link to a PCAGOE item you like (just search “pcagoe team” on etsy) AND a link to your blog.

2. Agree to make a blog post about PCAGOE if you win the prize.

It’s that simple! (One entry per person. Thanks.)

Comment any time between now and midnight EST on Mother’s Day (May 10, 2009) to be entered in the drawing. A winner will be drawn on May 11.

The prize is this gift basket full of goodies from PCAGOE artists.

Visit the PCAGOE blog over the next several days to find out about the beautiful handmade items in the basket and the artists who created them.

What's New With You?

I've spent the week working some new cuff bracelets. You know I love bracelets. I don't try to fight it! These are built over an aluminum blank armature. I've completed a couple and have a few more in progress.

What's new with you?

Back on the Block

Or back on the blog, if you must. Just popping into say I did finish a few pieces of unfinished business. This necklace includes a few of my faux bone beads.



And earrings to match-

And more-

...earrings too-There's more, but I'll stop here until another time. In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at that pile!

Faux Inspiration

The theme for the upcoming Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy April challenge is faux techniques. I needed a little inspiration to warm up to this challenge, so I looked for some examples to get me going. Of course, there is never a shortage of creative and skilled artists at Etsy. I found a few great examples of faux pieces and I created a treasury for all to see. Aren't they wonderful!

Well, I guess I'll have to get to work now. Enjoy these in the meantime.

Another Great Challenge

The theme for the March challenge was cane work. The winning entry is this amazing set of pomegranate cane work by Cristalline.



This gorgeous Rainbow Suncather by polymerclaycreations took second place.



Needless to say, as always there were so many fantastic entries as always. Coming in third, fourth and fifth, all within one vote of each other, were Rainstick by divadea, Madame Butterfly by beetreebyme, and Winter? I Scoff! by cocojaneandme.

Read all about the winners at PCAGOE, and the upcoming April challenge theme "faux".

Amazing Canes!

Once again, another great challenge from the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE). The theme for March is canework. Here is a collection of cane work challenge entries. To view the entries close-up, you can click on the mosaic. To vote for your favorite entry, visit the PCAGOE website and complete the form at the bottom of the post then hit SUBMIT. That's it!

You could be a winner of one of the three fantastic prize packages. Prize winners will be randomly chosen from all of the voters. You can vote once between now and midnight EST on Saturday, March 7, 2009. The challenge winners will be announced on March 8 - there are prizes for the first and second place vote-getters! Thanks for voting, and good luck!

Unfinished Business

My Collection


I would venture to guess I am not alone in being an artist/crafter with a collection of unfinished projects that I am going to finish "someday". Since I have not been sparked to attempt any new techniques this week, I have decided to pull out some of those unfinished projects. "Someday" has arrived.

As you can see from the sample of my collection in the photo, I have bracelets, earrings, pendants, and half painted boxes waiting for my return. I think this is a worthy endeavor for the next few days.

Of course, I'll share it all right here!

"Someday is not a day of the week." ~Author Unknown~

And the winner is....

This was a challenge for one, so I guess I couldn't lose. So what did I learn in the transfer challenge? Well, first I needed to begin at the beginning. How did I intend to use these transferred images? Deciding on how I intended use the transfers would help me choose which methods I should focus on. Next, I needed to be mindful of what type of transfers I had to work with. I had toner copies, ink jet copies, water slide transfers, and images copied on different weights of photo paper. I even threw in a couple of images I had cut from a magazine.

Once I had cleared my head and sorted the transfers, I realized I would like to have a variety of transfers available to apply to other projects. So, if they are flexible, and light in color I will have more options when I am ready to use them. I proceeded to transfer images from each type of paper onto white clay, translucent clay, and liquid clay. Most of the images were transferred onto very thin sheets of clay.

The black and white toner copied images were easiest. Burnish, wet with alcohol, then pull off. For the color copies I used the burnish, wet with water, and SLOWLY rub off method. And last, my favorite method was applying several layers of liquid clay to the image, bake between layers, then soak in water and rub off paper. The liquid clay worked well with the magazine images. I love them! They are thin and flexible and should apply easily to a variety of projects.

In the end I would say I was somewhat successful. I finally figured out what method worked best for each type of transfer. I paid close enough attention to remember how I did each type transfer, so I will not be starting all over again next time.
And one other very important thing I learned about transferring images - patience is required.


My transfer successes!


My Bob Marley Inro with a transferred image.

The Transfer Challenge

dragonflyII
Originally uploaded by katco40

This is a challenge for one - me! I love transferred images on polymer clay, and I have tried my hand at it from time to time. A real "hit and miss" endeavor I must say. I have to decided to concentrate on a few image transfer techniques this week.

So, now I will gather up all of the transfers I have collected over time, on various types of paper, needing various techniques to get the image to the clay. The first challenge will be to remember which technique goes with which transfer. I have water slide transfers, toner transfers, ink jet transfers, photo transfers,... I could go on. Once I get past that hurdle, this should be fun. Hopefully, I will get the hang of it once and for all.

Maybe I will eventually use a transferred image in to create a piece as beautiful as this one by Katherine DuBose Fuerst. Her "dragonfly II" pendant is my inspiration for yet another attempt at this. You can see more of her wonderful work here.

Check back in a few days when I will be sharing my success, or not!

Congrats to the winner of the PCAGOE February Challenge

The Dog Ate My Homework !
Originally uploaded by beetreebyme

This month's challenge theme was ACEO's. Mary Ellen Nicols of beetreebyme sure outdid herself with this cute one!

Here's what she had to say:
The Dog Ate My Homework !
The PCAGOE challenge is to make an ACEO !!!
I don't know a thing about them !
I 'll need to do some serious studying !
I'll have to learn all I can asap !
But, what if I can't get this assignment finished by the deadline?
I Know.......
I'll just say " the dog ate my

Click here to see all the winners.

Presenting....

My texture tools!

I think I have finally satisfied my texture itch. Here are a few texture plates, texture wheels, and molds I have created over the past week or so. Also, a few small textured treasures made with my newly designed texture tools. Mostly all of this was done with scrap clay too. What could be more fun! I will definitely be making a few projects with these soon.

Okay. What's next?

Here's to Texture!

Bet you thought I forgot about posting those texture plates and molds? Well, I have not! I am still working on the project and I will post what I have completed in a couple of days. In the meantime, here's to texture!

I Heard You

The events of the past few days have filled many with inspiration and hope. This altered art tag was inspired by what I heard. What did you hear?

Where to Next?

This week will pick up on last week's detour. Making a few texture plates and molds sparked my imagination for the designs I could make as a first step to many wonderful creations.

I have bought many texture plates in my time. As a clayer I am sure I am not alone in this. Still, there are those times when I just don't have the one I really need. Don't laugh! No matter how many great tools you have, you know you are always missing the one you need right now.

So, we'll see where this week's exploration leads me. Texture plates can be made with scrap clay, baked clay, artist carving blocks, mold compounds, who knows what else. And the objects that can be used to create the designs are endless.

If you have and ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. When I come up for air I will share it all here. See ya'!

Faux Enameled Hearts

My intention at the start of the week, to explore one technique, has led to my learning a few new things. I had not planned to use ink in creating these faux enamel pieces. But I ended up combining two techniques I had read about and I loved the result. The colors are deep and vibrant.

I think I had the most fun creating the texture plates. I have so many ideas for ways to use this. So no sooner than I get started, my list of things to explore grows even longer.

I am far from perfecting the faux enamel look, but now at least I have the "how-to" on file for later use.

See you next week .

Detour Ahead

Here's what happened as I started out on my faux enamel exploration. I found a great article by Ron Lehocky in the February 2009 issue of PolymerCafe. Colorful "Wired Hearts" were created using scrap clay as the base and extruded clay as the "wire". The extruded clay wire is adhered to the base clay to create a surface design. This sounded like a good way to create the sections that would hold the liquid clay for my faux enameled project.

I loved the idea, plus I figured I'll make heart shapes this go round because Valentine's Day is around the corner. But, after completing a couple of surface designs I thought, "Aha! Why not create a mold from a piece that I like and use that to create the surface designs on my hearts, or whatever shape I choose".

So, I have been sidetracked for a minute making molds. Now that I have a few designs I like I can go back to faux enameling, for now. I think I will explore more mold designing next week.

Ready, Set , Go...!

I have decided on my technique for this week. I have seen many articles on creating a faux enamel look with polymer clay. That's what I'll try first. Why did I pick this? Well, the technique I'd like to try makes use of scrap clay. Don't we clayers have tons of that? The idea of making something pretty with that scrap clay appeals to me.

I have seen different variations on this. While most use liquid clay, there are different surface techniques used to get the desired effect. I am not sure which technique I like best so I'll just get started and see where this takes me. Check back in a couple of days when I share my explorations right here.

In the meantime I'll leave you with a wonderful inspiration piece I found on flickr. This faux cloissone pendant is by Sherri Sneed. You can see more of her wonderful work here.

Starting a New Year's Journey

I am blog challenged. There I said it. Now the question is how do the blog challenged begin a new year? Well, if you accept the challenge and add a little resolve, you could find yourself on an interesting journey. The best part being that you don't know exactly where the journey will take you.

The other challenge I'd like to dance with is actually doing something with that long list of projects and techniques I have been so eager to try. The list has gotten so long I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. It's so easy to slide back into my comfort zone, back to what I think I know.

So where do I begin? Every journey needs a starting point. Or better yet, maybe the point is just to start. As a polymer clay aficionado I have collected more books, tools, supplies, and to-do projects than I care to count. So why not start by picking just one idea or technique and exploring it. I think I like that as a place to begin. I will pick one technique to focus on for this upcoming week. And, of course, I will share it all right here.

How's that for a start?

Happy New Year Magnets by rayfa of Etsy