Raffle Winners and birthday day :)

I had a great day yesterday!

Started my birthday day at home wishing "happy birthday"wishes to my 14 yrs old daughter, we celebrate our birthdays on the same date :) with all the kissing and hugging i headed to the the train station just to see that i missed the train by 1 minute (!) but nothing will upset me, waited to the next one!

The day was full of fun and productive stuff, i was invited to a very interesting workshop (non polymer) and after that joined a friend to a 6 hours -restaurant-coffee-shopping tour, and when logged into my facebook account, saw hundreds of wishes - this is really heart warming! thank you all!

It's only the start! Next month is the PolyPediaOnline 1st anniversary birthday!! Time really does fly by. Does not feel like it’s been a year! i am planning a wonderful celebration - stay tuned! lot's of FREEBIES and GIFTS right on time for Christmas!

As promised i am posting the raffle winners for my latest PolyPediaOnline tutorial # 17 - Paint on Clay", this is one of my intermediate-advanced tutorials and got wonderful feedbacks on it! all the people who purchased it till my birthday date entered a raffle to win 3 free tutorials!

I used the random name picker.

Here are the winners!

Silke, Starrglow and Nancy!

emails will be sent to you to claim your free prizes :)

Enjoy!

Do you have space for more??? Part 3

Final post about ALL the great items we are "moving" to our studio :)

Knitting and Sewing

Knitting needles - Needles are great for rolling, piercing (you can use needles for that purpose) and for making final finishes on beads or covered vessel, just take a knitting needle, make it short or leave it long and use it for your needs. i am using both metal knitting needles and plastic ones in different sizes.

Threads - Stringing! necklaces, bracelets, threads are very useful in your jewelry projects. you can also consider curing a cotton thread if a piece requires it.

Scissors - Cut paper or cut clay (if it's thin enough), i even cut cured liquid clay sheets.

Eyelets - Wonderful for decorations and as an elegant finish to a bead hole similar to Pandora beads.

Fabrics - Jeans, Corduroy - Can be used as part of a design, jewelry, canvas, or as texture. place the fabric on the clay, roll with a roller and the texture is transfered to the clay.

Zippers - These metal parts are also a possibility to use in our work, use them as is or as a part of a design.

Buttons - Use buttons as a part of your design or make your own polymer clay buttons by using real buttons as a template for holes and size.

Ribbons - Great for gift wrapping and also useful for stringing.

watchmaker

The inside parts of watches - steam punk style!

Office stuff

Paper - Used for absorbing the extra plasticizer in clay, and (naturally) for sketching.

Rubber eraser - Can be used as a carving block using carving tools.

White plastic glue - This material is used frequently in my studio, sometimes as a replacement for liquid clay. it is not as strong as liquid clay, if you need a light bond - this is great, also can be used with kids.

Ink - I have never used real ink with clay (ink is too sticky and messing everything up) but it maybe useful when used with care? craft inks are also used with polymer clay.

Markers - Use them on clay, with clay, on paper - some permanent markers work very well with clay.

Color pencils & Crayons - great addition to my studio! these oil based colors work perfectly with clay and can give wonderful results (used them in my last polypediaonline # 17 tut).

Stamps - names? letters? signature? these rubber thingies can be taken to our studio with a smile! use them with ink (dry/wet/paints) or directly on clay!

Glass items

Every oven proof items can be used as a tool or a part of a piece - use glass items for covering with polymer clay, or as vessels and a part of a bigger design - Vases, cups, test tubes (for bases of mezuzah and as a vessel), lamps, plates and the list can go on. from now on, every time you enter a department store, check what can be your future project!

Enjoy!

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 :)

Want to see what you are about to learn?

Click here for more details AND about my 39th Birthday special!

:)

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.

http://www.whatimade.com/index.php/a-scary-shark-mouth-container/

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

http://madimaginations.blogspot.com/2010/10/dt-witch-card-and-fimo-witch.html

Devil Shoes with airdry clay? why not try it!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Super-Angry-Unapologetic-Scorch-the-Earth-Shoes-/

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.

http://www.flickr.com/people/mnkyse/

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!

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.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15654625@N03/sets/72157602601430854/

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?

http://www.tugboatprintshop.com/HOWandWHY.htm

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/09/maker_faire_craft_demo_profile_4.html

I found a couple of cool tutorials in the Russian community, they are very productive over there!

1st is an Almonds beads tutorial

http://community.livejournal.com/polymerclayfimo/2793192.html

and second one is for sweet cherries

http://community.livejournal.com/polymerclayfimo/2959522.html

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!

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!