Never Ending Card - Take 1

Hi Everyone,

I finally attempted the Never Ending Card that Leslie was kind enough to teach us at Morrisburg. She was inspired to try this in clay after receiving a paper version in the mail. If you're interested in making a paper copy - check out the instructions here. I was excited about this project because I've always enjoyed these types of play things.

The blue side is side 1.

For my project I used scrap clay and covered it with PearlEx. Even though I'm an engineer, when it comes to rotating things in my mind I become a complete and utter moron so I thought I'd keep my first pattern simple. The one texture is obviously the shower curtain texture that I've written about previously. The other texture is another one of Bev's stamps that I bought.

On a side note on the stamp - it's printed diagonally but it can be sliced so that the pattern goes horizontal. It's just perfect for the lips of tins as a decorative border.

When you flip open the card you get side 2. As Leslie pointed out several times, this is where the planning becomes important. I wasn't patient enough to do a mock assembly and my side 2 ended up having the pink and silver in it. I was originally going for a solid silver look. But, it's pretty and it's a good lesson for me for when I attempt a second one.

Flip it open again and you get side 3. There are multiple bakings involved in this project. I found it a real chore to keep the clay clean - mica and old clay and other things kept getting onto the surface. I found I was constantly brushing it off.

To finish it I covered it with Future floor polish. It then had to be baked a couple of more times and I found the Future would get sticky during the baking and pick up anything that was on the tiles or the papers on top of the tiles.

I also used WeldBond glue to hold it together - I'm lazy and used my finger to spread the glue which meant that I had a bit of sticky stuff on my fingers. This didn't come off easily but sure left a mess on the clay card.

I haven't trimmed the card to make it look neat. I learned that it's not enough to start with shapes that make a square. I've got to allow some room for the fabric holding the clay together. You can see that in this image which is the back side where the silver clay overhangs the yellow clay.

But, all in all, great fun and thanks very much to Leslie for teaching us this. I'm looking forward to doing one of these for my Dad as a Father's Day present.

Cheers all. It's a beautiful sunny day here and we've got guild meeting this afternoon.

Sandy