WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

Sometimes I get these great ideas, and I'm all excited to create them - until I sit down to actually DO it and remember that what I planned to do presents a bunch of challenges! For example, I purchased these really cute and inexpensive pumpkin-shaped treat jars from Wal-Mart with the intention of covering them with clay, and then creating bas relief Halloween scenes around the center of the jar. It's been a while since I took on one of these projects, so of course while all caught up with thinking about the darling designs I wanted to sculpt on these jars, I completely forgot what a royal PAIN it is to cover curved surfaces like this! Especially when the piece is narrower in some places then others. UGH.

I contemplated taking them back, but I really wanted to use them. I just didn't want to spend hours working on them driving myself over the edge into insanity (a short drive I admit) while doing so. So I altered my plans a bit. Instead of covering the entire center of the jar with one continuous piece of clay, or having to seam several pieces together to create the background for the scenes I wanted to create, I decided I would do little vignettes instead. I have a large square cookie cutter with a decorative edge and I decided I would do 4 squares with little scenes in them instead. I did however cover the entire lid of the pumpkin with orange clay. I have to say that after trying a brand of clay that shall remain nameless to cover that lid and having nothing but problems with air bubbles, stickiness, etc. I decided to try Studio by Sculpey clay. I had a bunch of it on hand that Polyform Products had graciously sent me to try. It worked FANTASTICALLY! It was a dream to roll out, no air bubbles, and the seams blended smoothly. I know this stuff is controversial in the clay community for reasons I won't go into here, but I have to say it was wonderful to work with for covering the glass jars. This clay has an interesting feel to it, almost powdery. It's hard to describe. It's soft right out of the package but not overly so. It bakes to what the company calls a suede-like finish. It doesn't really feel like suede but it does feel different from other polymer clays when baked. It was a pleasure to work with. :o)

This shows one of the jars in progress:


(click to enlarge)

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

What's on my worktable today? Some custom orders and some adorable glass pumpkin jars I am covering with clay:

But what's on my list of things to do is growing longer by the day. Being a self-employed artist, we do it all - creating the art, photographing it, editing the photos, uploading the photos, writing up the ads, listing items for sale, wrapping, packing, shipping, billing, bookeeping, customer service, creating the website, promoting the art, and on and on it goes. I love what I do but it does get a bit daunting at times when you add on the responsibilities of being a mom, running a household, etc. I get tired just thinking about it all!

I've been enjoying working on the Halloween items. It's one of my favorite holidays to design for. Here's a cute little candy jar project I did for a magazine a couple years ago:

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

I just love creating items for the holiday seasons, though for some reason, I never seem to do much in spring for Easter! Don't really know why that is. I guess Halloween and Christmas just bring back such happy memories from my childhood. Easter wasn't as big a deal I guess, just going to church, and having the Easter basket. I have to get myself in bunny mode really quick here though because I have some due for a swap I'm in. I've been fortunate enough to be part of a wonderful swap group for quite a few years now. Some of the best creators of darling whimsical clay critters are in this group - several of whom have authored some of those adorable clay books by Hot off the Press and Design Originals, most of whom are well known on ebay for their wonderful creations. They are an awesomely talented, sweet, fun group of gals and I'm thrilled to be part of such a talented group!

So here's what's on my worktable at the moment. I'm working on an ornament featuring an Irish Setter I sculpted recently. On the tile I'm working on you can see my three absolute favorite tools. These are the tools that I cannot seem to work without. The purple one is a knitting needle that my husband cut in half and then ground the one end into kind of a rounded triangle to help me shape the clay. Then the flat half moon shaped one is a potter's rib. This tool has a myriad of uses such as getting under unbaked pieces and lifting them up without distortion, or popping baked pieces off the tile carefully, or cutting pieces of clay - much safer than a blade! Then the last tool is the needle tool which I use a lot for adding detail. I have a ton of tools but these are the three I usually use. I also like to use small cutters to help measure out pieces so they're uniform, and also use Kemper cutters for detail pieces like hearts or stars. I like to buy ornaments like the one here on the tile on clearance from the craft store. They make wonderful bases for clay ornaments and when they're on sale or clearance you can get them really cheap, like 20 cents each.



I use the little square cutter to make my "sort of" holly leaves. They obviously don't look exactly like holly leaves but they give enough of an impression of holly that it works. I use the little Kemper heart cutters or circle cutters, whatever's handy, to cut out small pieces that I will roll into holly berries. This makes it very easy to keep them all uniform in size. So the idea is to put the "holly leaves" all around the sides of the ornament with the dog in the center. Sort of like the English Springer ornament pictured. Not sure this is how this Irish Setter ornament is going to end up, but that's one of the things I've been playing around with today.


(click to enlarge)

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

As I mentioned last week, I've been doing some refurbishing of some pieces lately. So that's what I'm still doing today, but I thought it might be fun to actually show you in a short video. My friend Michele and I have been talking lately about how great it would be to be able to offer tutorials in video format, rather than in pdf or something like that. How much better if we could actually show, step by step, how we create a piece? So knowing my digital camera also has video capabilities I decided to play around a bit today and I came up with this dorky little video showing how I go about refurbishing a pin.



I attach all the elements of my pieces very well, so they're not going to break during normal wear and tear, but as I say in the video, I have just learned over time how to carefully and gently pry pieces off and I can usually do so without damaging the original piece. I then use a little bit of liquid clay to attach the new elements I want to add and I have a new, and very sturdy piece.

Hope you enjoy the little video. I'm hoping to be able to do more in the future. Unfortunately my digital camera does not have a ton of space on the memory card so I can only do short little videos using it. My camcorder is as old as my youngest child which is now 16 1/2 yrs. old. So I'm not too sure about using it either. But doing videos is something I definitely want to play around with some more. :o)

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

Wow, already? It's already What's On My Worktable Wednesday again??? Oh boy.

Before I get started on that, I wanted to mention that I figured out how to keep my playlist from automatically starting as soon as anyone accesses this page. I know not everyone cares to hear it, and that some people will be listening to their own music when they come to my page and probably won't want mine interfering. So now IF you want to listen to what I'm listening to, all you have to do is click on the arrow to start, and then you can just let it play as I've got it listed, or click on any individual song to hear that one instead.

OK, so what's on my worktable this morning is a custom order. A very nice lady ordered a pin with a pair of German Shorthaired Pointers for her mom's birthday. So this morning I am finishing up the pin. The sculpting of the doggies themselves was a breeze, it's determining how to join them together without the pin being huge, or the dogs getting distorted that gave me a bit of a hassle. The customer left it up to me to decide the style of the pin.

Since the dogs are so dark, a rich liver brown, I thought a really pale soft pink pearl would look really lovely as the background. I really didn't want a lot of the background to even show, so the dogs themselves are the focal point of the pin.

So here's what I ended up with:



I'm very pleased with the finished product. :o) I have to thank my 16 yr. old web wiz daughter Caitlin for her photo editing on this pic.

So I still haven't finished the poor patiently waiting little sheepdog figurine unfortunately. Custom orders have to come first. But soon!

Ever Evolving, Expanding, Improving

As an artist, I am always learning. Despite the fact that I have now been working with polymer clay for well over 20 years, there is always something to learn. I find my work is ever evolving, techniques are always being refined, which keeps things always interesting.

Lately I have been drawn to sculpting one of a kind figurines that are more realistic, and I am finding the process both fascinating and challenging. I absolutely LOVE sculpting with Super Sculpey clay, which is different from the colored clays I usually work with in creating my pins, and other whimsical pieces. The SS is wonderfully easy to blend, and rework. Very user-friendly! This is the clay I created my earliest figurines with as a teen years ago.

From this:



To this:



To finally this:



It is always an interesting, sometimes frustrating - especially since I have no formal art training - journey!

Creating art in clay is for me always an exercise in persistence. As I said, I've had no formal art training. I've never taken any classes in sculpting whatsoever. When I first wanted to learn to sculpt dogs, I found that there were no books available, no classes I could take, or videos I could watch. So in teaching myself to sculpt, I've learned the most important thing is persistence. Many times I have wanted to wad up the clay and throw it against the wall! But something inside of me has kept me coming back again and again. This is how I know that creating in clay is what I'm meant to do. :o) I believe it is not really me teaching myself, but that part of God I believe He puts into each one of us working with me.

Okay enough philosophizing for one afternoon. ;o)