Cranes in support of Ponsawan and Ada

Hi Everyone,

Today's blog is full of links.

Tracy Holmes and Dan Cormier were kind enough to post information on Ada and Ponsawan and how Ponsawan is decorating Ada's room with cranes that are being sent to her.

Judy Dunn has provided a couple of videos showing how to make origami cranes out of clay. You can see the link to Judy's blog which links to the crane videos here. I didn't really know about Judy and definitely got sidetracked on her blog for a few minutes. I've put her blog in my links on the left side of the page.

Before you watch Judy's video, you should really print out instructions on how to make an origami crane so you can scribble notes in as Judy's going through the exercise. I like the one here since it prints so nicely on a page.

I couldn't wait to try them and I've made three in the space of about an hour. I started using scrap clay (just in case they didn't come out OK) and, of course, my favourite Daniel Smith metallic pigments which you can buy here by doing a search on metallic watercolours. It looks like they no longer have the 1 oz set. Unless you're sure of the colour, don't buy the 4 oz set. I've had the 1 oz for years and haven't come anywhere close to going through them. I also used Pearlex powders in the samples that I've made.


The only square that I had readily available as a template was a 5 inch mirror and I was too lazy to create something else. It turns out that this is a good beginner size and having the hard edges of the mirror made cutting super simple. These turn into cranes with a five inch wing span and about two inches high.

My first attempt was simply using scrap clay coated with the metallic powders. You don't need cornstarch if you're using Pearlex or other powders. Since I didn't have a muffin tin that I was willing to sacrifice, I improvised and used a cookie cutter as support. Lessons learned on this one:
- I could have gone thinner on the clay setting
- I should have cut my fingernails before doing it as there are all sorts of nicks and dents
- I should have flattned everything that needed flattening before baking.
- The wings sagged beyond the cookie cutter during baking. When I took it out of the oven I propped the wings up with small bottles on their side and let it cool that way. But, after it cooled there were cracks in the wings from doing that so I had to glue the cracks together.

While the first one was baking I tried another one using a thinner pasta setting. This one I stamped after I had rolled it out on the thickest setting. Applied Pearlex liberally into the stamp indentations and surroundings and on the inside side. Then added Daniel Smith on the relief to make a nice pattern. It was beautiful. But by the time I ran it through the pasta machine a few more times I lost the pattern and instead ended up with a washy type mixture of colours. The crane folding went much easier on the thinner setting. I also propped up the wings with the bottles as the crane was baking.

For the third one I didn't stamp until I was down to the second to thinnest setting that I used. Some of you may recognize Bev's stamp on the pattern. By this time I could fold the thing in about five minutes. The wonderful thing about the Daniel Smith powders is that they go right on top of the PearlEx. But, the only drawback is that they should be varnished if they're items that are going to be handled at all.

So here are the three that I made this morning, you can see how I propped the wings up with the bottles. I'm meeting with Janice and Karen tomorrow and we may play a bit more. And we've got Morrisburg (a clayers weekend with clayers from Ontario and Quebec) and we might make some more there, too.



I just have to figure out the best place to drill holes (and hope I don't break them while doing it) so that these can fly.

Of course, after having done all this, it never occurred to me to try to do them first in paper. Vio suggested that it might be better to start with that step first. Duh!

Cheers,

Sandy