My Crafty Summer - Day 4 - Cold Porcelain

Today I tried out a new medium: Cold porcelain.  Though it's called porcelain, it's really a kind of air dry clay.  I had found out that cold porcelain is a great alternative to polymer clay when you want something to be white and dust/lint free.  For some reason, dust is a big problem at my work surface, and I figure it has something to do with constant interruptions leading me to touch clothing or other cloth materials before I go back to work.  I try to be vigilant with keeping my hands and my surfaces clean but I go into a panic whenever I have to work with white.

 Let me start by saying I love the stuff.  It's really an odd, sticky medium at first, but it molds and dries easily.   It truly is dust/lint free and all it takes is a little bit of water to fix mistakes.  The pieces end up silky smooth and beautiful.  However, I made a few errors right off the bat.  I knew cold porcelain was translucent so I thought I would just paint the pieces once they dried.  I don't know if I needed more time for the piece to dry, or whether I needed to do something to smooth it more, or even if I used bad paint but the painted piece looked TERRIBLE.   So I made a Hello Kitty and added paint to the wet cold porcelain and it worked beautifully.  Unfortunately I made mistake number two by not allowing the porcelain to dry enough before painting so you might notice that Hello Kitty has a cleft chin thanks to my fingernail (and I appear to be incapable of drawing her whiskers evenly).  Hopefully third time is the charm, but I think I'll use this guy to make a clip for Lauren.

Today I also came to a couple conclusions.  First of all, I need a new camera.  A good camera.  My point and click just isn't cutting it anymore and I ended up having to take these with my phone in order to get them into focus.  Secondly, I don't mean to punk out this early in the game, but I think I'm going to have to make weekends optional for this project.  I intend to craft those days, but I have so many things coming up, it might not be possible.  So weekend projects will be called "bonus projects".  Besides, I'm sure the two people who actually look at these blog posts wouldn't mind a rest from my ramblings!

My Melody made with polymer clay and cold porcelain

Translucent HK and Cleft Chin HK

The painted skull looks so much worse than it would if I had just mixed white paint before molding.

The cold porcelain pieces before painting

My Crafty Summer - Day 3 - Cupcakes Part 2

I finished the cupcakes and honestly I'm not particularly happy with any of them, but at least I got the chance to try a few things out.  Anyway, if you get a chance, let me know which, if any, you like.  Don't worry about the color of the cake or frosting, I'm really just worried about the style choices for each.  Thanks much.

I realize after uploading these that the lighting is very dim.  I might have to choose to be a day behind on everything so that I can take photos in the daylight.

Group 1.  Small base, whipple cream and chocolate syrup

Group 2. Small base, full frosting, fruit topping

Group 3. Large base, air dry clay topping, micro marbles

Group 4. Small base, large frosting, sprinkles and fruit topping

Group 5. Large base, polymer swirl frosting

Group 6. Small base, polymer swirl frosting

Group 7. Large base, whipple topping, fruit

Group 8. Large base, small frosting, polymer whip and fruit

My steampunk Hello Kitty and cupcake...just because!

My Crafty Summer - Day 2 - Cupcakes Part 1

This is a work in progress. I've made a few cupcake charms but the designs are all over the place. So, I'm trying out a few things to see what I like best. I will continue tomorrow and then ask for opinions.

My Crafty Summer

In order to celebrate my new craft area, and as a way of getting better at crafting, I have decided to create something every day while the kids are out of school.   Of course some days I'll be phoning it in and some days I'll be working on a larger project that can't be completed in one day, but at the very least I'll be posting my progress.  I may also miss a few days here and there due to illness (mine or the kids) or travelling (people coming here, or us going there).  But as many of you know, my goal is to sell some of my creations and the only way to get good at them, and build up an inventory, is to commit myself to making them.

And don't worry, this doesn't mean I won't see the light of day all summer.  Quite the contrary!  Because of the kids, 99% of my crafting happens after they go to bed and I've settled in to a Deadliest Catch marathon.  Or Dr. Who.  Or Parks and Recreation. 

Anyway, it appears that I'm already behind in my goal as we've just started week three of the kids being out of school.  However, a week of that was spent visiting my dad and I've managed to make a few things since then including a pillow case for Clark (which started out as me trying to teach the kids how to use a sewing machine and ended up with me working solo as soon as they realized I wasn't going to let them use the foot pedal without my assistance), a set of beads that turned into a bracelet for Lauren, a series of Mario-themed charms, some hair clips, a Pikachu charm, and a Pucca charm. 

It's already clear to me that I won't be proud of all the items I share with you, and sometimes I will even be embarrassed.  For example, as much as I enjoy the Pikachu charm, I very much dislike how I drew his face and would normally only show Dan and the kids.  BUT this whole exercise is all about improvement and hopefully the next Pikachu I show you will be much better.

Thanks for being my witnesses as I go through this process.

And here's the stuff I've made thus far (all of the hair clip centers are made by me):

Today's offering. She hasn't been glazed yet as I keep having to fight off the children to get to her.

MiniatureSweet Review

I recently ordered several molds (and a cane) from MiniatureSweet etsy store.  Not only did I receive my shipment blazingly fast (nine days, coming from Hong Kong), the molds are gorgeous.  I highly recommend them.  Here's my video review:

A Little of This and That Giveaway

If you're into polymer clay, particularly with using molds, you should check out A Little of This and That.  They have monthly giveaways as well, and this month's is epic! 

More charms!

I'm continuing my quest to learn now to make/get better at making clay charms and figures.  I'm running into a few problems: Controlling the dust that keeps getting into the clay, keeping my fingernails from puncturing everything, keeping colors from mixing, attempting to not be so ham fisted, etc. etc. etc.

Still, here are my latest attempts!

She's supposed to be Ponyo. I haven't decided whether to draw a mouth and/or a nose for her yet.  It might make or break the look, but if I do it and it fails, it's a lot of wasted effort.  So right now she's just like this.

This is a centerpiece for a clip, shown below.

 

Dreamcicle!

Probably my favorite thing so far.

S'mores!

Freehanding these have been a headache.  I'm going to keep trying to make them so that I can eventually make molds.