Squashed cane technique

Hello Everyone,

I thought I'd take some time to play with the Vice-Versa or Squashed Cane Technique that I mentioned earlier from Domicreative.

You can view her tutorial here:



I think I can easily fall in love with this technique. It's dead easy and it doesn't use up a lot of clay to try it. It is a version of mokume gane but you don't end up with very much left over to turn into scrap.

My first attempt was a blue pallette. I wanted to be reminded of the Caribbean. I'll start with the back first since I was hoping to use it as the front. I used my new stamp that I had Bev create which uses words from our wedding ceremony in Costa Rica.

When I skimmed this side, I really didn't like it. The stamp was too small and the colours really seemed to clash. I don't think the silver was a good choice to add to the plug.


I used a different Bev stamp for the front and I liked this one very much. I think a bold stamp is required.

I'll turn these into earrings but I don't know how yet since I haven't mastered the art of wiring to my satisfaction.



My next attempt involved a jewel tone pallette. I have a stamp block of different leaf patterns that I love and I thought these would be perfect for this stamp. I'm extremely happy with these but I found the pinky cream colour that shows on the back (which is why it became the back) really didn't go with the rest of the colours. I like a bit of contrast when I do things but I'm finding with this technique it has to be the right contrast.

Other things that I noticed while doing this is that you can't cut too deep, otherwise you lose the effect of the pattern. And, if you're particularly fond of a colour, make that a thicker first plug and it should slide through most of the extrusion and be the colour of the outside of the extrusion. That'll stay as the colour that doesn't get cut away.



Don't forget to take the scrapings and put them on another piece of clay (very much like the mokume gane technique). You can end up with some interesting patterns with those as well.




I had an idea that the colour chips that come from paint stores might provide some inspiration. Here's a sample of some of the chips that we've got at home. I think four or five colours that look nice on a colour chip would look nice for this technique and would avoid the oops that sometimes happens.


I want to play some more. I always love earrings and this might be a neat way to create them.

Cheers,

Sandy

Christmas ornaments past and present

Hello Everyone,

I thought I'd post photos of the ornaments that I made for the Clayamies Ornament Exchange.

This first ornament is one that I made for last year's swap. The swap theme was whimsy. I made all of the canes and then put them onto the ornament.


The small black oval that you see in the middle is actually a piece of the Holiday Specs 3D glasses. These are pretty cool and they look like the image below. I simply cut out small pieces and put them into the ornament. Surprisingly they baked really well.



When you looked through the ornament at Christmas lights, you saw something like the image below.




This year's ornament used up a lot of my Santa cane that I made earlier. If you click on the photo you can see the detail of how I combined the Christmas carol stamp with the cane work.



For the back I used Lisa Pavelka's waterslide transfer paper. Overall I'm happy with the results but I did have a few problems with it. In some cases the water smeared the ink and I had to re-print the label or decide that it was close enough. In other cases there was a lot of bubbling after baking even though the piece went into the oven looking perfect. I think it might be due to the clay shrinking but not the transfer.


I have to admit that I didn't follow instructions exactly because I didn't cover the transfer with a bit of TLS before baking. I don't remember why I didn't do this but I think next time I would because I had a couple of cases where the label simply popped off after a couple of coats of Future floor polish.

I'll play with the transfers some more at some point.



And that's the posting for this week. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

Sandy

Uh oh - a possibly addictive technique to try...

Hello Everyone,

One of the people that commented on my blog suggested that I look at other Francophone websites. Today's post is from DomiCreative and it's a tutorial on the "Vice Versa" Technique using an extruder gun. I was initially drawn to the photos of the earrings - they're fun and remind me of the Caribbean for some reason.




Anyhow, this is something that I'd like to try when I get done with the Christmas stuff.

The series links are:

The technique
The results
The earrings


For those that don't read French, she says that it's easier to texture one side, slice off layers, then turn over and texture the other side to slice off layers.
The rest of her website has some very nice shots as well so do browse.

Cheers,

Sandy

New Translator Button!

Hello Everyone,

By looking at my site statistics I know that I get visitors from all over the world. I noticed on Bounette's blog that she's got a translator button so I decided to add one of my own. It's on the left.

I took a quick look at the French and Spanish translation and, while not perfect, at least give a sense on what I'm trying to say. I would imagine that the translator errors are as interesting in other languages as they are when I play with the translators from other languages into English.

Anyhow, if anyone is interested in adding their own Google Translator Button, you can go here:

http://translate.google.com/translate_tools?hl=en

For people that use blogger.com, you have to go into "Template" and then add a page element and choose the correct page element.

Enjoy!

Sandy

Christmas Swap Teasers

Hello Everyone,



I discovered a nifty feature on my Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo image software. It's called "kaleidoscope" reflection.



I thought I'd play with the Christmas ornaments that I've received so far from the swap and post the images.



These images are photos of ornmanents from: Iris, Gera, Gail, Pat, and me. I won't say whose are whose.



But, they're fun to look at and a huge time waster because of all the settings that can be tweaked.

Hope you enjoy the images,

Sandy

Scrap Clay and Dollar Store Candy Tins

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to finish up Christmas stuff so that I can move onto other things. I love covering containers and it's nice to put an ornament or something into the container to give as a gift.

Our dollar store sells candy in tins that are just perfect for covering. The one trick is that there is a slight indent in the lid and bottom. I fill that in either with scrap clay or with liquid clay prior to covering - it just gives it a nicer shape.


I tend to generate a lot of scrap clay and I'm not disciplined enough to separate it into nice neat colour piles when I generate it. At some point I like to use it up.

So here are a few samples.

I've used Bev's stamps for texture and PearlEx pigments along with the Daniel Smith powders for highlights. For the silver and gold container I only used the Daniel Smith powders. I then finish them with spray on satin Flecto Interior Varathane (Thanks to Helen Breil who gave a demo on texture sheets at our guild and showed us this magical solution to setting the powders).



Our dollar store near by is selling little glass ornaments - they're perfect for covering with clay. The hardest trick was figuring out how to do it smoothly.

I love how these have come out.

A beautiful face cane

Hello Everyone,

I'm in the middle of finishing my Christmas ornaments for our Clayamies swap and haven't been posting very much. I decided to take a break and visit some of the sites that I've got linked on my blog. One of my first clicks was on Bounette's site.

I'm a caner and love to see other people's cane work. This is Bounette's first attempt at making a face cane and I'm simply in awe. I love the majesty of the face and how she's incorporated it into the finished piece.




You can visit her blog here: Le Blog de Bounette


Sandy