Friday, March 24, 2017

Fun Stuff! So Excited. Thank You Christi Friesen!

I never enter draws or buy tickets but recently, I joined Christi Friesen's Creative Neighbourhood on Facebook. We can share photos of our polymer clay work. It is a great place to connect with Christi (one of my favourite polymer clay/mixed media artists. She is such a fun alady, great artists and teacher. Little did Know our names went randomly in a draw and I won a surprise gift! So thrilled to even see my name, I waited for my prize to come from California all the way to Thunder Bay, Canada!
Today, it came. And it is a Christi Friesen handmade. original polymer clay heart. She even initialled it on the back! So cool. Not to mention a handwritten note. Christi is the movie star of the polymer clay world to me. So thank you for blessing my day Christi!! Love you! 
!


Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Polymer Clay Journey: Works In Progress And More Glazing Lessons Learned

Howdy guys! I've noticed that Wednesdays are often referred to as works in progress days. Well, I've noticed that in the polymer clay world anyway. It is where people share pieces that they are working on but are not done yet. So this is my first works in progress Post, I think so anyway. Maybe more like works I thought were completed, but then started to take photographs for my online Etsy shop, but noticed, thanks to direct sunlight and macro photography.... the Tiny little bubbles and flaws in the polyurethane gloss! This time, I thought I was so careful. And some of the pieces have yellow spots. Again, does anyone out there have any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? Too much at one? Should it be a really thin layer after layer? All that then means, the pieces I thought were complete and ready to prepare for sale, are not. Argh!

Polymer Clay Earring dangles, with copper,
handmade (by me) ear wires. 
Back to my works in progress. Been working on textured, polymer clay "dangles," created using my own texture plates/rollers/sheets (Here is article 1, 2 and 3 on making your own texture/image sheets and rollers) , whatever you want to call them. The first piece has, thanks to the inspiration of Christi Friesen's polymer clay art work, where she talks about incorporating inclusions, which is anything not made from polymer clay. I incorporated items like micro beads and a small faceted Glass bead. The surface was then treated with Mica Powder, acrylic paint, and finished with that frustrating water based polyurethane. I thought it looked great at first, but then as you take the photos under direct sunlight, then you see all those darn bubbles...teeny ones!


Here are a pile of some more photos of some of the pieces that I turned into earrings. I think they look pretty great, as long as I don't zoom in with a macro lens! Maybe I am being too picky. Oh
Polymer Clay Earring dangles, with copper,
handmade (by me) ear wires. 
well, it is important to perfect my work so customers receive professional wearable art! Creating is always a learning process.
Thanks for stopping by.
HeArtfully Creating,
Anita
Polymer Clay Earring dangles,
handmade (by me) ear wires. 


Polymer Clay Earring dangles, with copper,
handmade (by me) ear wires. 

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Friday, March 10, 2017

Practical Polymer Clay Projects: Make Your Own Tools

Hi guys! It has been a whirlwind week. Had great plans to get a few new blogs out by today. But, as many of you know taking photos of your work while you work, editing the photos - especially when you're like me and take at least 200 photos for every couple of items made. Actually, when I was just transferring photos just for this project alone, there was at least 500 photos. You can see why I turn them into videos to document my work. No one would want to look all of those photos in a blog post!

Practical polymer clay project: texturing tools
I am just trying to post this before I hit the hay, so I won't say too much right now. But I did want to show some photos before Friday ends.

With polymer clay and sewing needles, and a 26 gauge wire threaded through the eye of the needles, I grouped  them together and then formed polymer clay around them. I have to thank my Mandarin ducky, Anikko, for that idea. Take a look.


Then I made my own craft knife so that I can use up some spare tiny blades that were leftover, when a cheap craft knife broke within one month. Again wrapping wire so the clay had something to grab onto, I made my own detail knife. As well, I made a double knife so I can make Little strips of clay. I thought it was kind of cool. Take a look at these.



The loopy thing/ tool, was created from an idea I saw somewhere on the Internet, sorry I can't remember where... They took a guitar string and made a loop and formed it into a sculpting tool. This is a necklace cable that I used instead. No guitars here!



Everyone have a great weekend! Lord willing, I would posting more detail Photos and articles this weekend. Wait till you see the new textured polymer clay pieces I have been working on all week :o)

HeArtfully creating,
Anita



Monday, March 6, 2017

Turtle Spotlight: Need an idea? Make A Turtle

When I used to hear the jingle, "turtles, Turtles, yah, yah, yah,....Why (or was it Oh,) I love Turtles...." My mouth watered because those Turtles are laced with caramel, pecans and milk chocolate! Every try them? Okay, drool must stop now....These days, since I first met the biggest turtle lover that I know, the ever inspiring Luke, aka Jonathan Artman! Not only does he have a pet turtle, he makes them out of polymer clay. His love of the cute reptiles h as helped inspire me to make some turtles. You have seen them before, but I want to share mine and some of Luke's many Turtles made of polymer clay, in hope that anyone out there who may be seeking a subject to create, may be inspired to think Turtle! Or just go get some of those caramel kind!
Enjoy!
HeArtfully Creating,
Anita
A Turtle I made for Luke - see more here

A Turtle I made for Luke - see more here

A Turtle I made for Luke - see more here


See Howard Here, by Anita

See Howard Here, by Anita

See Howard Here, by Anita
My First Needle Felted Turtle - click here to see more

My First Needle Felted Turtle - click here to see more

My First Needle Felted Turtle - click here to see more

Luke's Clover- His Creation- take a closer look here.

Luke's  Creation- take a closer look here.

Luke's  Creation- take a closer look here.

Luke's Clover- His Creation- take a closer look here.

Luke's Clover- His Creation- take a closer look here.
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Thursday, March 2, 2017

Polymer Clay Adventure: Faux Stained Glass Effects

 Welcome back! Yesterday I shared a sneak peek at some we little imitation stained-glass drops that can be used for earrings or bracelet dangles, actually, anything you want to use them for. Because I had so much fun Learning how to create faux stain glass over the last several months, I thought I would put together a short video featuring a few items that I made.

Watch It Here:

The first piece below is a two piece window decoration. It is about 14 or 15 inches in total length and about six inches wide. It was created to be a special housewarming gift. Watch the video to Find out more. This piece was made using translucent Premo clay, that was coloured with little bits of solid
Clay, some Mica powder and alcohol inks. The flowers we're made from those mixtures into bull's-eye Canes, that I formed into flower petals and placed around the frames that I made.
When it was all completed, I flooded some epoxy resin over the whole thing. I clearly did something wrong because in some spots the resin is starting to lift off. So I suggest investigating that issue more before recommending a coating of resin over a piece like this.

Once I did have the flower petals all laid out around the frame pieces. I've been rolled out long thin strips of clay to spell out the word welcome. Then I was described in the video, the Open areas and lettering was flooded with coloured liquid polymer clay. The brands for this one was Kato.

Never Be Boring:
Something that works really well when working with coloured liquid polymer clay, is to Drop alcohol or colouring agent into the liquid clay once it is already poured out into your shape. If you look at the pictures closely in the background part of this piece, it is not one solid colour. Actually, neither are the wee little dangle drops that he made. I am a pretty mixed coloured liquid clay with alcohol inks, then take a toothpick and dripped in another colour. Just enough to swirl it with a pointy end of the toothpick. It just makes things more interesting. I am sure he goes back to my art school university days. Remember to mention Moe, one of my our professors, in my last Article? Thanks to her I learned all about giving things a painterly look. In fact look at the paintings of Cezanne, to see what painterly look means. Just look at all those layers of brush work and colour, layer after layer... Never boring. We actually had an assignment where we were to copy one of his famous paintings. Moe said we would only get an A grade if we copied his painting exactly. That was the first and last time, I ever did an assignment like that. After copious amounts of praying, let's just say I got in A.
So playing around with colour, trying not to keep it solid or flat unless absolutely necessary, is a great thing to do to make your pieces interesting.

Accidental Window Clings
The following photo is what I did with those flower cans that I use in the sun catcher above. I coded them with clear liquid clay just to hold them together and it Turns out, if you bake liquid polymer clay on a very smooth tile or glass, the piece is actually cling to the window! That was a delightful surprised to learn. Of course now that I looked it up online, it wasn't a profound discovery - but at least now I know.

Lesson Alert!!
Huge lesson learned when making imitation stain glass out of liquid polymer clay:
We all love sparkle and litter don't we? Well I is trying to make a sun catcher for my mom's birthday (in the end, she ended up with the vase that I assured a couple of weeks ago) and I totally wrecked it. How you ask? Aside from adding a
bit of alcohol ink into the Kato liquid polymer clay, I added some lilac coloured mica powder. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Not! As you can see in the photo  the Mica powder is not transparent like alcohol inks are. For some funny reason, I knew that but didn't consider what it would mean. The mica powder sunk to the bottom, as you can see on the piece showing the back of the flower. :o( So as you can see here, the light shines beautifully through the areas that do not have powder. It may be sparkly, but in no way can it catch any sun. Another polymer clay Lesson learned.


Miniature Drops:
As I mentioned yesterday here is my most recent imitation stain glass, liquid polymer clay project.
Still trying to make the perfect gift for my mom (the vase seem to be the best idea).
So just check out the video to see more detailed photos I listen to me babble on about some of the house use and lessons learned.

HeArtfully Creating!
Anita


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Wednesday, March 1, 2017

POLYMER CLAY JOURNEY: Earring dangle Drops Using A Faux Stained Glass Effect

Stained glass is so amazingly beautiful. The light shines through the coloured, translucent glass. We have a side light stained glass window that is so beautiful, handmade by a friend. When I remember, I will take a photo!
Due to a variety of reasons, I can not work with stained glass as an artist. It requires physical ability that I do not have. But, I discovered (thanks to all the online tutorials), that we can use liquid polymer clay or translucent polymer clay, coloured with alcohol ink or if it is already coloured then you can use as is.
I do plan on putting the many great photos I took of a variety of faux stained glass pieces. But for now, I wanted to share a mini tutorial for earring dangles.

Materials Needed To Create Faux Stained glass Mini Dangles
💗Polymer clay blended to colour of your choice for the "leading line."
💗Kato Liquid Polymer Clay OR FIMO Liquid Clay (a.k.a Deco Gel)
💗A shiny and smooth Ceramic Tile to work on and then bake.
💗Alcohol inks of your choice 
💗A craft knife, small ball tools and needle tool
💗A baking pan used just for your Clay work 
💗An aluminum sheet or baking pan to cover your peace while it bakes
💗Toothpick
Step number one: Create the Leading for the Line
Real stained glass as you may know already, has something called leading that forms the patterns and shapes that run around the coloured glass pieces. since we are making faux stained-glass and using liquid clay, we need to create something that represents leading. I used a bit of metallic silver and black Premo Clay. It is up to you what colour of lime you would like. I just thought it would be cool to try to replicate actual stained glass.

Step number two: Planning and Making the Shapes
To prepare the clay to use it to draw your shapes, just Roll out pieces of clay super thin and long enough to make the outlines and details for your little mini dangles.

Plan your shape, it just works better that way. You can be whimsical and just start making shapes out of your polymer clay colour mix. Or you can pre-draw out the shapes first. I drew the shapes in my sketchbook first because it was important that I remembered to make Twins of the same shape but in reverse. By reversed I mean when E-Ring dangles are created, I think it looks best if the shapes our mirrored images of each other. Now if you happen to make say, a cat and you forget to make a mirror image, both earrings will look identical. So you would have on your left ear say, the tale Close to your face and on the right here the tale away from your face. Okay I just realized how confusing that maybe, by think you know what I'm trying to say. Of course if your images are squares circles, something that is already symmetrical then it doesn't matter you can just draw one shape and make a copy of both for your dangles.

Step number Two B: Laying Down the Line
Now you can take your thin rolled Clay and lay it down on your drawings to match up the shapes and then transfer that onto a shiny ceramic tile, or, because the shape is so delicate, I suggest trying to make it directly on the shiny ceramic tile. It is important that the raw Strip of clay adheres to the ceramic tile. This is why it is important that the tile is shiny so that there are no air pockets there would be in a textured tile. If you don't have a tile a smooth piece of glass works well too. 

Step Number Three: Preparing the liquid Clay
 I wanted to see which liquid clay come out the clearest and most stained glass like, so I used both Kato liquid polymer clay and the FIMO liquid polymer clay, also known as Deco Gel. The conclusion was that both clays work well.  I learned from watching online polymer clay tutorials that the Kato liquid polymer clay can be made much more glossy and translucent buy putting a heat gun on to it after it has come out of the oven. I have not tried this, but I have seen it transform in videos. I was still happy with how it came out just the way it was.

Zapping it very carefully, with the heat gun to get the best effect, is wise. The warning is, don't put it too close, don't go too long with the heat, be super careful or Will ruin your piece.

Back to preparing the liquid clay.... On a separate non-porous surface, either glass or ceramic tile or actually even a piece of card stock, I placed Little quarter sized blobs of liquid clay, been added drop by drop, the alcohol ink. Just mix it with a clean needle tool or toothpick until combined.

Step number Four: Adding the Coloured liquid clay
Sorry I don't have a photo or video of this, but to Music colour to to liquid polymer clay to my shapes, it works well to pick up the clay with the toothpick. Make sure it is close by so it doesn't drip off. Point the toothpick downward, so the Clay can drip into your form. Push the liquid clay right up against the edges of the shape and pop any bubbles. That's it.

Step number five: Baking your Pieces
Set your oven to the correct temperature for the solid clay. You may notice that liquid polymer clay bakes at a different temperature. So I set the temperature that is correct for the Premo polymer clay, which is 275°F.
Place your tile into the baking tray. Lay tin foil over top to protect from scorching. Then bake for about 20 to 30 minutes. Normally, I follow the polymer clay tutors advice and bake solid clay for at least one hour, even if the pieces are small. In this case, use your own judgment because it is liquid clay and like I said, the temperatures are different.
When it's done, let cool on its own and do what you want with them!
Check out the extra pictures down below!
Save Money! Colour Mixing 101 Tip:
The alcohol inks are a great tool to have in your art studio, but they can be very costly to buy every
single colour that exists. I learned long ago in university, that you only really need Basic colours in order to create every other colour. The best thing to know about colour is that there are three primary colours. You may already know them if you are a practicing artist. What are they? Red, yellow, and blue. These three colours cannot be mixed or made. Hence the term, primary - meaning one or first. By mixing certain combinations together, such as red and yellow in equal parts, you create orange. That is a secondary colour. Our art professor taught us how to save money by learning how to mix our our own paint colours. It matters what types of red yellows and blues you use with each other, to get specific secondary and tertiary colours (meaning three of course), so spending money on variations of the primaries can help you achieve the colour mixes that you would like.

Acrylic Painting by me, Anita Berglund.

So what about alcohol inks? The same rule would apply. I have purchased some of the basic primary colours in their variations and I am  therefore, able to mix a majority of my own colours of ink. It doesn't take a lot ofink to tint liquid clay anyway. Personally, colour mixing is one of the bestest parts of being an artist. 
Not Black!
It may be easier to squeeze Black out of the tube, but as Moe, drilled into our heads in our painting class, never ever ever, use black out of the tube. It makes things muddy and just doesn't look right. Much better to make your own black. Not a big fan of black, but obviously, we need something to create drama and paint two dimensional images, to appear three-dimensional. 
The higher the contrast from light to dark, the easier it is to achieve that look.  
If you ever watch any of my videos, you may see you in the background that their are some paintings hanging on the wall. All of the flour and fruit and vegetable paintings you see, contain absolutely zero black acrylic paint from a tube. Pthalo Green and Alizarin Crimson, mix the perfect black.
Yeah
Okay one more idea about shading with black. I also like using indigo or just mixing opposite colours to create a neutral like brown, can be a great alternative to using black for depth.

HeArtfully Creating!
Anita











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