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