Saturday, June 5, 2010

Where I've Been

5x7 Box





Time flies! I'm still exploring polymer clay. It's so versatile! These are some of the things I've been working on, a box covered with clay tiles which have been textured with stamps and then I added a mica powder on the texture. The iguanas are for my sons who live near Miami. And the jade pendant and earrings show how polymer clay can mimic other materials.

Two weeks ago I went to the Virginia Art and Soul retreat. Well, I live here so it's not a retreat for me. From all of the yummy choices, I attended Susan Lenart Kazmer's class, another class on moldmaking which was so out in left field as far as I was concerned, and a class with the dashing Robert Dancik.

Susan's class was way above my head, but some really nice women gave me advice and a hand when needed. I learned so much. We used sheets of copper in a disc cutter to cut out circles by pounding a hammer ( yes!! ....anxiety relief), then used a flexshaft to drill a hole in the metal, then we used a dapping block and another hammer ......yes!!..to shape the discs we had cut. After that we chose colors of powder which we sprinkled on and dipped in....uh, something...and then held it in the roaring flame of a torch until the powder turned to enamel....Well, I can tell you, I was awestruck! This is powerful jewelry making.

It turns out that Susan developed Ice Resin and even though we didn't use it in the class, she had her video for sale so I bought it to learn by myself. Something else to combine with polymer clay.

Robert's class was the most useful for me. He showed us how to use a jeweler's saw and we cut plexiglass circles which we held under a heating gun until it softened and then we dapped it into a disc shape. The object of the class was to make a hollow plexiglass bead, but I am thinking of ways to combine this with polymer clay. He introduced us to Faux Bone, which he developed. I bought some of that to make bracelets but of course I didn't realize that polymer clay makes very cool faux bone!! Live and learn, right?

4 comments:

Dean Grey said...

Glad to see you back, Deborah!

My, you've been a busy lady!

The tiled box looks AMAZING! I want one!

But doesn't the clay have to be baked? Or did you do that beforehand then glued on each tile to the box? Just wondering.

Sounds like you learned a ton! Wish I could've attended the art retreat too!

Go you!

-Dean

bed frame said...

You are continuing to grow on everything that you do. You are very hard working. I love your blog, keep updating it. I will visit your blog every day.

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

Deborah, I'm liking what you're doing here.

Momo Luna S!gnals said...

I LOVE the box, so very grogeous....