Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Best Place To Start Is In The Middle

I've got a few different test runs going on right now; image transfer, matchbox inro and texture sheets.

IMAGE TRANSFER
Image transfer is giving a lot of headache. I can do a water rub transfer in colour and black and white no problem, very little loss of image. I can feel that the transfer is paper-free, to the point where my fingers have a coating of ink that feel. Then I go to lay a coat of liquid polymer clay on the image and all of these specks show up. I've tried different methods of putting the liquid on; brush, finger and pouring but still the specks. I thought they were bubbles at first but they definitely do not want to move.

Scouring the internet for words of wisdom regarding finishing are few and far between. If anyone has some insight please share.



INRO
I've just started this experiment and I think it is progressing well. You can see in the photo that I have the cores built, one with the top removed and one with it still intact. The hard part is trying to come up with designs and surface treatment that will work. That's where all my image transfer problems started.




TEXTURE SHEETS
I have been playing with leaf textures and radial designs. The radial design sheets are influenced by a Helen Breil tutorial I purchased. Although her tutorial deals mostly with drawn designs, I decided to take it further with organic textures and some old keys I found while cleaning. I am excited to see what I can do with these sheets.


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Cure at 275 for 15 Minutes per 1/4 Inch

We have been experiencing a wonderful start to summer. May gave us an early jump on the garden and July is giving us record heat days.

You know you are in deep when you install the air conditioner in the studio first so that the polymer clay is comfortable.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Day One


It was an innocent purchase. I was traveling for work and filling time by wandering through Michaels. I bought a few variations of red polymer clay with the intent to make a heart as a Valentine's gift for my partner. Shouldn't have been that big of a deal right?

Two years later half of my studio has been taken over; clay, books, templates, stamps, and the oddest collection of texture items. And of course a pile of attempts and disasters.

It looked so easy in the book, nothing to it, just follow the pictures.

What follows is a documentation of my attempts and more importantly the disasters and how I survived.