Tuesday, August 31, 2010

favorite brand of clay


CreativeCritters.artfire.com


I use several brands of clay including Sculpy, Fimo, and Premo. For most of my sculptures I use Premo, or a mix of Primo and Fimo. Premo is strong, flexible, and fairly easy to condition. I like the vivid colors and the smooth texture of Premo. It blends well and holds details nicely. Sculpy often gets too soft during the sculpting process to hold fine details, and sometimes Fimo alone can be a bit crumbly, especially if it gets cold. As with all things in my life I like variety, so I use different brands of clay for different applications. My Miniature Lighted Boot House sculpture was sculpted using mostly Premo clay. For the base I coated heavy duty cardboard with tacky glue, then covered the base with a thick layer of Sculpey and Fimo clay mixed together. The Sculpey softened the Fimo enough so I could add nice texture, and the Fimo firmed up the Sculpey enough to hold the detail. The delicate pieces like the vines and flowers are pure Premo. The boot itself was sculpted from a mix of Premo, Fimo, and just a bit of Sculpey. Each brand of polymer clay has it's own qualities and uses, and I do plan on experimenting with new brands of clay as I discover them. Pardo clay is definitely on my list of clay I'd like to try.

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Monday, August 30, 2010

What are your favorite uses for translucent clay?

Like Haffina I use translucent as the background for a lot of my canes:



One non bead use for these that takes advantage of the translucent is my little bowls. The translucent from the canes gives the bowls a "frosted" look and I actually sand the bowls a little rougher after I sand them smooth to "frost" it more:

Shallow Brown & Turquoise Bowl

Inside Ring Bowl 3

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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Its the cats meow

Polymer Clay Smooshers along with some other fabulous ArtFire artisans

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Black and Red

Friday, August 27, 2010

Blooming Out, Flowering and Growing

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Favorite Tool: cookie cutters

A lot of my favorite tools come from the baking aisle of the grocery store.
For example, cookie cutters have saved many of my projects:






I buy the cookie cutter sets that come in graduated sizes.

Another favorite of mine is parchment paper. I will cut a piece that is just large enough to cover my baking tile and work the clay on it, and then pop all three in the oven. This is especially useful if you are using a very sticky clay.



My last example is toothpicks. I think I have used them for just about everything. I have used them to apply alcohol ink, shape edges, remove fuzz and widening bead holes. I usually pierce my beads with a straight pin and then gently enlarge the hole with a toothpick.



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