Thursday, October 28, 2010

PolyPediaOnline - Wave your magic wand and paint on clay! NEW tutorial!

I don't know why many polymer clay artists are intimidated by liquid polymer clay :)

This white, gooey, sticky material is some how too scary to deal with? I keep stock of all liquid polymer clays brands but i use them seldom. why? i don't know! i am more attracted to those vivid clay blocks with their intensive colors :)

BUT! we are missing a world of options over here!

In my new tutorial I am demonstrating how to transfer a drawing or a sketch using color pencils or oil pastels into clay - it can be an artistic sketch, the name of a friend, a
photocopy, your own drawing - anything!
We can paint on clay and use it as our canvas!

My tutorial demonstrates 3 eye catching designs -
a sophisticated symmetric square bracelet (the technique of course can be applied to other designs) OR a barrette using the same technique;

a necklace with chic "pastels-silver leaf" style beads;

a quick "canvas" ring with your own drawing - don't worry, you don't have to be a piccasso for it ;).

Each project has it's own tricks and tips for drawing, building (beads), layering, cutting, attaching and many more.

SO... get your hands a bit sticky :) the best way to understand a new or un-familiar material is to try it out! don't think twice and jump in, you may be surprised where it takes you :)


:)

Polymeri Online 28.10.10

Scott bedford from UK has build an impressive shark mounth container, i had to look close and check his drawings before i understood what i should do! LOL this probably means i am not too good with engeneering? When he was a kid he was obsessed with drawing crazy machines. As he got older he tried to build them.Now, he has kids of his own, and his love of making things has been rekindled – his blog is proof of that.

Maddy Hill’s from Mad Imaginations blog is a papercrafts and fimo mad crafter, i love her sweet polymer clay creations (especially her witch)!

Devil Shoes with airdry clay? why not try it!

and last for today - Stacy Aragon is a nurse. she works at a treatment center for anorexia & bulimia & loves to help others. She has 3 huskie wolf mixes and was told she has a fun spirit. her crazy critters are all hand sculpt polymer clay.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

PolyPediaOnline FREEbie for Halloween!

My daughter is so scared of Spiders! we have lot's of them over here, not inside the house of course, they are in our back yard with special colors and wonderful webs!



I've got a new Free tutorial for the upcoming holiday -Halloween, which i am sure is a grown-ups & children's favorite :)


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SPIDERS!
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and this time a magical mommy spider with a baby on her back plus, a 5 minutes spidery ring!

Hang those enchanting spiders on your walls, car, or as a magnet on your fridge or wear these bewitching rings :)


If you already Joined PolyPediaOnline, an email is waiting for your with the URL to download the PDF tutorial, no need to register again.
If it's your 1st time - Join the fun!

BIG p.s.
- in about a week i am celebrating my 39th birthday (oh MY, i'm almost 40!)

AND... I am working on a beautiful, new, artistic tutorial....
Get ready for Birthday surprises! more details soon!


have a wonderful holiday with lot's of scarrrrrrry & crafty fun!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Polymeri Online 21.10.10

spikekid / David Fisher says in his flickr gallery that his polymer clay figures were made over the last 5-6 years. Most of these projects took from between 40 to 60 hours to complete. There are bits of steel and wood involved, more for physical support, than anything else; the bulk of material is Fimo, with a good measure of Sculpey added in.

Not polymer clay but a bit about Wood Carving, same techniques can be adapted to our material as well. Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth are the husband and wife team TUGBOAT PRINTSHOP - Aren't these carving amazing?

I found a couple of cool tutorials in the Russian community, they are very productive over there!
1st is an Almonds beads tutorial

You are welcome to browse some more and look for more goodies, language is not a problem when it comes to polymer clay!

Enjoy the coming weekend!





Monday, October 18, 2010

What else have we "adapted" to our studio? Part 2

After posting about our kitchen stuff gone into the studio, i got a cool comment by one of my blog readers -Kraphti Dez

..."The contents of my kitchen are getting lighter and lighter by month. Something always makes it's way from the kitchen to make a permanent home in the craft room. My creme brulee are perfect for filling with cornstarch and baking beads. And I have fallen in love with baking slightingly concave shapes spoons..."

- it's amazing how we all share the same "problems" :)

I am moving on with the list -

Cleaning stuff, hygiene and makeup
dishes scotch pads - These are ideals for texture, you can use them in all kinds of shapes, sizes, thickness, and they are wonderful. A tip i learned from the great Nan Roche, is to hold your sanding paper on top of a scotch pad, this way the sanding paper is being held by the soft pad and your hand & fingers get a much more comfortable support.

baby wipes - cleaning and more cleaning! clean you clay, your hands, your floor, your pasta machine, these wipes are very useful.

floor polish - although i do not use floor polish as a finish to my work, "Future" Floor Polish is a great example of this. Some people like to dip their beads in finishing liquids, or you can use a brush and apply few layers until you get the effect you want. This material is an alternative to gloss and lacquer.

Tooth brush - another texturing tool (and cleans as well!)

Makeup brushes - I have a store nearby that sells cheap makeup brushes that are soft and nice, suitable for applying paint, lacquar, gloss or resin.

Makeup powders - those are great as metalic/matt effects on stamped clay, i use to be a makeup artist and have tons of those powders, they are perfect for clay and can be a wonderful substitute to the mica powders (see photo).

Lotion - a good material we can use with very dry clay, just add a small amount of lotion to your dry clay and keep conditioning it, it helps softening the material.

Manicure sponges - the manicure sponges have 2 main purposes - 1st is for sanding in medium-coarse grit and 2nd is texturing.

Manicure stickers - nails stickers are a great decoration for cured polymer clay designs - flowers, butterflies, dots, etc. Don't cure them, the plastic in them won't survive the heat of the oven. same with plastic rhinestones.

Stylus - this tool is awesome, making these cute dots on your clay whether it is cured or raw, i love "dotting" my clay, you can also use acrylic paints to add dots after cure.

Vaseline or other Petroleum Jelly - same use as lotion.

Talcum - very useful release agent, brush your stamps, texture sheets for easy releasing. you can also use cornflower for the same purpose. Be careful not to inhale talcum, it's not healthy.

Dental Clinic
Syringe - although this tool is not something i want to meet in real life, it is great for measuring material, especially when working with resin which has to be weighted carefully. i know some people use them as extruders, but i haven't try that :)

Dental tools for sculpturing - these tools are perfect for sculpturing and miniatures. if you are into those subjects - it's a must have.

Molding materials - haven't try those either but i heard from one of my students which is a dentist that the dental mold works great for polymer clay as well.

Carpentry, Construction
Sanding paper - sanding paper in all kinds of grits are welcome in our studio - coarse? use it for texture. fine? use it for sanding. they are fun to use, cheap and make a beautiful finish on your back pieces.

Lathe machines - Never used those but i saw the magic done with them by grant diffendaffer.

Tool boxes - working tools for your DH? no, they can be a great storage box for US! i have tons of boxes from the hardware store used to store my canes, tools, cutters etc!

Ceramic tiles - take all the leftovers from your home renovation (or ask the neighbor for some tiles) and use them as working surface. they are cleaned easily and can be cured in the oven.

Mesh - this is one of my favorites! metal mesh can be cured so it can be used as an addition to our clay designs, as armature and many other uses.

Screws/Nails etc - steam punk style? these oven proof tools and materials are a cool decoration for your work. they are also useful for texturing, piercing, and just for fun.

Pliers - it was supposed to be the other way around but i always find MY pliers at my DH tool box! these tools are a must for wire work, jewelry making and any studio needs a couple of these.

Silicone Gun - mostly used as an assistant to older polymer clay extruders (scroll down on this page) if you don't have the green Makin's extruder, you may want to use the silicone extruder as an aid.

More in the next post!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Whole Kitchen in our studio? - part 1

My real kitchen

Our polymer clay studio is a collection of all disciplines all together :) we collect everything that is usable to our studio - don't we? Whenever i go somewhere i think about my art - every visit to the store, every walk to the park, every stone or leaf on the tree, every tour around the house - i always find something and say - "hey! This can be adapted to my studio!"

Recently the girls at the Israeli forum made a long list of all materials and tools we borrowed from other uses, professions and fields and adapted them to our domain.
I am sure the list is not full and there are many more materials we haven't thought about that can be a great addition to our polymer clay art - you are invited to add yours too!

So let's begin!

Let’s start with the kitchen (that's my real kitchen in that photo!) -
what do we take out of the drawers and shelves? :)

1st - the Oven! all of us use the oven to cure polymer clay, some of us cure in the kitchen oven (don't forget to ventilate well after use) or bought a dedicated oven for the use of polymer clay.

Pasta Machine - i never made fresh pasta myself and this tool never met my kitchen, but some of you may use it for real pasta and then it was moved gracefully to our studio.

Food Processor - this is a great tool of you can get a second one for your studio - no more mixing my hands, just add some of this. Some of that, turn “on” the button, and you have a special polymer clay mix ready to use.

Cookie cutters - my favorite tools ever, these fun tools are easy to find, usually not very expensive, you can use either the simple plastic ones of the heavy duty stainless steel ones, but as always, don't mix food and polymer clay tools together, "borrow" them to your studio and buy new ones for baking.

Roller - Plastic or metal rollers are great, wood rollers wouldn't work so well with the clay (stick), this tool is also a must have in your studio.

Baking paper / parchment paper / wax paper - i am not sure this is the right word in English, but i use this paper a lot in my studio. Place clay on it, store sheets between 2 pages, cure flat objects on it, this paper is wonderful and has many uses in polymer clay work.

Aluminum paper - due to this material durability in heat, this makes it ideal to work with polymer clay and deal with the heat of curing. You can use it as a base armature for your creations, support for designs and many more.

Peeler - we had to take this tool to our studio to peel some clay! the sharp blades are ideal to peel slices of clay, similar to the peeler used by dan cormier, make sure your peeler is sharp enough to do the work and that it is stainless steel so it won't rust.

Tooth picks and shish-kebab skewers - these disposable tools are "multiple-able" in my studio! Great for piercing your beads and used for making all kind of special effects on your clay, can be cured easily and ideal for handling. Every skewer is used many times till it's thrown to the trash - only after it is dirty and worn out.

Corn flower - kitchen ingredient that was adapted to our studio - use it as a release agent, smoothing material and why not make a pudding as a snack :) just kidding!

Salt - another kitchen ingredient we can use for special effects on clay. The salt will be washed with water after curing and will dissolve and leave the clay stamped with the special texture similar to lava effect. Other spices can be used as inclusions to your clay!

Saran plastic wrap - a great material which is also a tool. use this one for wrapping clay (not all plastic wraps are compatible with clay, but Saran™ with Cling does not interact), and it is great for making "beveled" creations.

Plastic wrap - another great way to store our clay! Plastic wrap works great to help protect clay from getting dirty and absorbing dust. However, be careful which brand you choose. Certain types contain plasticizers that can chemically bond with the clay and cause your clay to go brittle or rubbery. Check the words, "Does Not Contain Plasticizers." to be certain which is best for storing your clay. Plastic boxes are good for storing as well, you must make sure that the type of plastic used to make the storage box, is actually compatible with the clay, but you can always place your clay inside the box on wax paper.

Grater - texture tool! great for texturing for beads, especially on the rough side of it!

If you look carefully you'll see that every kitchen tool can contribute something to our clay work, it's a great opportunity to see what we don't need inside those drawers and move them to our "packed anyway" studio drawers :))

That's it for Kitchen materials, next post soon with more tools and materials from other fields.

Do you have other tools and materials from the kitchen? Add it to the list in your comment!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Polymeri Online 7.10.10

Millefiori fun! that is what i thought when i saw Cathy Harm's etsy store: Hair sets, album covers, pens, key ring compartment boxes and lot's of cool polymer clay gifts!

Lorraine Seibold from British Columbia, Canada, is working with silver sterling and polymer clay to make unique looking jewellry that looks so peaceful! little dots and circles that make the design flowing and eye catching.

Rossella Puoti from Italy is graduated in Organizational Psychology but during her time of inactivity she moved back to her passion: art. Her polymer clay art is so cheerful and colorful!

Helena is also having fun with retro patterns - she used these square/round looking layered canes in all kind of designs and the result is always beautiful!

p.s. - reminder - my special sale of the October triple is about to expire soon! if you wanted to get 3 tutorials & learn how to make unique looking beads for just 16$ per tutorial, this is your chance :)

Monday, October 4, 2010

PolyPediaOnline - Are you ready for some doming, mesh and waves?

I'm so excited to introduce you to October's classes and tutorials featuring fantastic designs and techniques - 3 NEW tutorials this month
Learn the secrets of:

"Geometric Mosquito Necklace"
"Mystifying Floral Brooch" &
"The Wavy cuff - 3 versions"


"Geometric Mosquito Necklace"
Have you ever found yourself wandering around at stores and looking for items or tools that can suit your polymer clay art?
I do!

One day I was looking for something to help me create a thin but strong polymer clay bead so I thought – why not use some kind of net/mesh for extra strengthening and at the same time gives an elegant look. I looked for something delicate, thin, flexible, ovenproof and not expensive & I found the Mosquito mesh. Here (in Israel), almost every house cover it's windows with this net to protect against Mosquitoes.

My recent tutorial "Geometric Mosquito Necklace" is using the same mesh to create an innovative unique look of flat beads.
These flat beads can be made using all kinds of clays, colors, textures, powders, paints, skinner blends and any thing you can think of. Their beauty is in their uniqueness, The "mesh-clay" combination gives them a very elegant and stylish look.

"Mystifying Floral Brooch"
While i was playing with the mesh i came up with a design of a floral brooch with domed beads.
I didn't want to use the traditional curing way on light bulb so i used a different technique. These beads are half domed, half flat and can be easily placed on any flat base - as beads on string, on a bag or jacket.

The Mystifying Floral Brooch has a beautiful combination of mesh-beads, special bumpy dots, plus you will learn how to make half domed beads.














"The Wavy cuff - 3 versions"
Last tutorial offered are 3 cuffs versions which are a nice variation of both the floral brooch tutorial and the striped hollow bracelet tutorial - The Wavy cuffs tutorial is using domed hollow forms with millefiori to create this appealing design.

The 3 tutorials are offered for a special price!

To discover what it is -
CLICK HERE --->
http://www.polypediaonline.com/133688/october-new-tutorials

I recommend you do it now because this special deal will be removed within days..

Keep up claying and have a wonderful day!