Adventures in Creativity

New bezel - Turtle

2011-12-11T19:03:00.000-08:00

We have a granddaughter who is of Kiowa and Iroquois descent.

While she was visiting recently we talked about her heritage and then Googled Kiowa and Iroquois 'symbols' in Google Images.

Some Kiowa images were of eagle feathers and stepped patterns. As we talked we made some quick sketches of designs with eagle feathers.

The Iroquois were forest people and their images were filled with forest dwellers, trees and birds. One of the images we liked was a turtle.

With a little playing around we came up with a design that included both peoples. A turtle with the Kiowa eagle feathers and stepped patterns on it's back. See picture above left. At the top is the rough shape of the turtle with a cabochon shell on the sheet of paper on which we drew the original designs.

I made the eagle feather cane right away. She got the first pair of earrings.
The turtle bezel took longer but finally came together yesterday evening.

This first, large turtle bezel shown will hold a 30 mm by 40 mm standard cabochon. I'm thinking three or four sizes in the mold. I love the idea of a 'scattering' of turtle pins and maybe some tiny turtle earrings.

Right is the bezel with the cabochon removed. The bezel has no texture, details or finishing touches but it should not take long.

Penni Jo

Playtime! Eagle Feather Cane

2011-12-03T09:45:00.000-08:00

Today was play day! After all of the Thanksgiving holiday hustle and bustle, I was just bursting to make a cane I'd had in mind for weeks. An Eagle feather cane.

I do not do a lot of caning but this cane would have a two fold application.

1. One half of the cane would be used to mold feathers.

2. One half of the cane would have details added to make a stylized feather that would not require molding for the details. This detailed Eagle Feather cane technique will be the base of my newest class.

Shown upper right is the initial cane. It is a Skinner blend of four colors. It has no veins or details at this point. This large cane was next cut in half dividing it into two pieces of the same shape.

One half of the initial cane was reduced to a small feather shape. From the small feather shape cane slices were cut about the thickness of a tooth pick. See A Right.

The slices were pressed into the small feather opening in Best Flexible Mold PJ006 Thunderbird Medium. See B. Right.

The end of the feather with the vein was over-filled and 'clubbed' after de-molding to make a thickened end in which a hole could be pierced before baking.

The baked feathers were dropped into cold water after baking and allowed to cool. After cooling and drying the jump rings were threaded through the holes and closed in preparation for threading onto a bracelet or neck cord. These molded Eagle feathers were created for the members of my TOPS group as awards.

To see the 'clubbed' end, see the topmost feather in the pic to the left. It shows the back of a molded feather.

Detailed Eagle Feather Cane

Shown right is the secondary cane created using the initial Skinner blend design.

Thin, partial angled veins were added.

Then a long center vein was added for realism. This cane is not designed for use with a mold but as stand-alone design.

After the cane was completed it was reduced. The ends were reduced slightly and the center was reduced more. By tapering the reduction to the center, feathers of many different sizes can be cut from one cane.

Left is a photo of eagle feather slices cut from the secondary cane. They are about 1 3/4 inches long.

Eye pins were inserted into the top and down the center vein before the feathers were put on a satin textured ceramic tile. By holding the feathers on the vein, you can guide the eye pin through the feather and prevent the end of the eye pin from going through the feather instead of along the vein.

After placing the feathers with eye pins onto the tile the edges were pressed down onto the tile creating a slight 'doming' of the feather. Natural feathers have a subtle 'domed' curve on the front of them.

The feathers were baked and allowed to cool in the oven. After cooling, the eye pins were removed and glued in with Cyanoacrylate glue.

The feathers were strung with a silver metal bead, coral and black glass beads and strung onto an eye pin. The excess was formed into a second eye pin on the other end and linked to hypoallergenic ear wires to make a simple pair of Eagle feather earrings.

Here's hoping that you have recently had a play day too!

Penni Jo

BTW, you can purchase the mold shown above PJ006 Thunderbird Medium along with about 50 other molds here at Best Flexible Molds.

A Thanksgiving gift for you.

2011-11-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Because we are very thankful for our customers and friends we have a special for each of you!

Best Flexible Molds has a
Free shipping event

until Friday November 25th 2011 for our USA customers!

& $5.00 USD off shipping for overseas customers!

If you have not visited our website lately, we have some new molds.

PJ044 Egyptian Symbols I – Scarabs (Parts shown left.)

PJ045 Cameos (parts shown right).

http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com

Please feel free to share this special with your friends. To go to the webpage with larger photos, click on the pictures.

Have a wonderful holiday time with those that you love and those that love you.

Cameo mold is finished!

2011-11-16T14:33:00.001-08:00

After weeks of work, sculpting, shaping, and planning the cameo mold is finally ready to ship.

There are five cameos and one cameo ring.

Four of the designs are old cameos that were molded then more clay flowers, ribbons and leaves were added to give them a fresh, rich look. The large cameo in Victorian style with a young woman wearing a big hat is an original sculpture based on a photo of my daughter at 17.

The cameo ring band is 3 ¼ by 5/8 inches and goes up to size 17 1/2. A ring sizing chart is included in the mold. Great for metal clay!

Here are the Sizes of the Cameos

C-1 = 1 9/16 by 1 15/16 inches - (40mm x 49mm)
C-2 = 1 3/8 by 1 13/16 inches.(36mm x 52mm)
C-3 = 7/8 by 1 3/16 inches.(23mm x 32mm)
C-4 = 7/16 by 13/16 inch. (12mm x 21mm)
C-5 = 1/2 by 11/16 inch.(13mm x 18mm)

The project included with the mold is how to mold the cameo with the bezel in three colors of clay. Shown right.

While trying out different styles of cameos, these two designs were created using translucent and milky white clay for the images allowing the dark background colors to show through.

It took some tests to figure the translucent to white mix, then how to mold just the images using it. There was no way to see if the technique would work except to add a dark background. They both turned out very well it seems.

A small bar pin is planned for the center of the ring. The band will be cut from it along the edges of the leaves. It will have a larger cameo hanging from it with two eye pins for a lavalier pin when finished.

The mold is approx. 3.25 inches by 4 inches by 5/8 inch thick. Made of tough, long lasting urethane rubber it flexes efficiently to allow easy release of the molded parts.

It's good to have it finished and now it is time to play with it!

Penni Jo

Still working on Cameos

2011-11-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

Sometimes things sound easy to do when the idea is in my head. How hard could it be to mold an old cameo. Press clay into the mold, add a few leaves, flowers and swirls to bring a richer texture and more detail to a rather plain cameo? Sounds easy.

Yeah, right. I should have considered the fact that I've lost the vision in the center of one eye and that micro sculpting might take me a lot longer than it used to!

The larger cameo on the left was the first and went ok, not easy but OK. It now has a border. This photo is colored in Photoshop. Can't wait to try it in clay!!

The ring sculpture, right, with the very tiny face, flowers and leaves was, to say the least .... not easy. The photo of the ring shown here was taken of the brown clay sculpture. When a mold is made of this sculpture it can be used to make rings using a variety of clay and color. The next picture of the ring will be much prettier.

The ring was a challenge to make but, not that it is finished, I am really liking it and may try making it up in silver clay. We'll see.

If so, I'll post a picture.

Penni Jo

Finished COPCG Guild Project

2011-10-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I taught a Faux Embroidery class at the Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild in Moore Oklahoma. Since I'm a member of the group I teach whenever I can and enjoy the many lessons brought by our members. What a great group! We meet the second Saturday of the month at the Hobby Lobby store in Moore, OK. It faces I-35 and is pretty easy to get to.

This 'embroidery' lesson teaches how scraps of Skinner blends can be used to make 'threads' and 'ribbons' that are variegated, going from light to dark or from one color to another and was demonstrated at the start of the lesson.

Sometimes when demonstrating a stitch or technique I get just enough finished to hit the highlights. I took the unfinished project home with only a vine with a brown to rose flower on it with a few leaves.

When we have a month with five Saturdays, if possible, we will have a play day. I hosted the one today and pulled out the started project and finished the design. Jane and Myra joined in on the fun. Myra working on her project for next meeting... Pandora Beads. Jane brought her unfinished embroidery and we were soon happily working away.

The piece I used for the demo started with a sheet of black clay (I chose a very dark background for the greatest contrast so everyone could see clearly.) textured the clay with burlap and cut into a heart shape. On the black project heart shape I showed how to create a number of stitches, the stem stitch #4, simple leaf stitch #5, large flower stitch #10, french knot #13, tendrils #1 and the border using scraps from all the colors twisted into a colorful rope #14.

Starting with a stem stitch vine on the left, I added leaves and curls. Buds were added to the end of the curls using three #10 Large flower petals. The calyx were added using step #5, the simple leaf stitch.

It was nearly finished but felt... hmmm, a bit boring. Jane had a beautiful blend of orange to yellow orange that she thought 'needed something'. We lightened one end with a light yellow and darkened the other end with burgundy. The resulting loaf was fabulous.

A slice was cut from Jane's orangey loaf and four butterfly wings were created. Black clay added the dots and swirls for a final effect.

Myra finished her tutorial and Jane made a bead as per the instructions while Myra took the step by step photos. It is so very exciting to see how the beautiful Pandora beads take shape and how they can be embellished.

I like my finished project very much but have no idea what to do with it. It seems to be too large for jewelry, 2 3/4 inches wide and 3 inches tall. Maybe a tiny wall hanging? Embellishment on the front of a handbag?

Hummm, gotta think about this a bit more. Any ideas?

Hope you find time to play this week!
Penni Jo

Happy Surprise

2011-10-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

There is a program that tells us when there is a mention of our site on the web. This morning it took me to this blog, Oh Schwiet Scrap .

It has wonderful pages and I dearly love the look and the Victorian theme of Stacey's blog.

As for the pages, the interwoven elements and decorative accents are rich and varied using more than just paper. It was a joy to spend time looking at the various elements and how they were woven into the design of the page.

Imaging my surprise after looking at the photos several times this one just 'popped' out. The key and keyhole are from one of our molds PJ024 Key to My Heart.

Thank you Stacey. Your work is wonderful and we are tickled pink to be included.

Penni Jo

More re-sculpted cameos

2011-10-24T21:30:00.001-07:00

Four more pretties for the mold! only a ring is left to be made.

The upper left is a tiny one with a bezel. Very sweet.

The two on the right are the same cameo but the lower one was reduced in size using Reducit II. A very touchy material that, when properly mixed, strained then mixed with part A does a fab job of reducing an item with complete clarity.

The lower left is a cameo sculpted from a photo taken of daughter Viktoria when she was just 15. Her photo went into the Fancy Frames, a United Design photo frame line. I'll scan it someday and post it later.

I'll start on the ring tomorrow.

More later. Goodnight all.

Something old is new again!

2011-10-19T21:04:00.001-07:00

Like many women, I love cameos. Old ones, unusual ones, face ones, even bird or flower ones.

As a sculptor, they all have one outstanding draw for me.... they are sculptural. Some slightly sculpted and some deeply sculpted.

One of the vintage cameos in my collection was made of Bakelite, a material from the 40's, an early form of durable 'plastic'. The cameo upper left is a part created using a mold that was pulled from the original cameo. The problem, over the years, the original cameo detail has 'blurred'.

Wanting to remedy this and bring greater detail to the design it seemed that the best thing to do would be to try to determine the underlying design and try to restore it.

It has been a long time since I've done much micro sculpting and my eyes are not what they used to be however, this would not keep me from trying. The picture, above right, shows the uber-restored details and the slightly enlarged background.

Next, the cameo will receive an appropriate bezel (setting) that will be part of the finished design and it will become part of a new mold of re-sculpted cameos in a variety of sizes.

Left is an image colorized in Photo Shop showing how the finished cameo might look if the details were molded of white polymer clay and the mold then filled with a soft purple background.

Now, back to work!

Snowman project

2011-10-16T15:58:00.001-07:00

Here's a cute idea for a winter project.

Materials needed:
• Best Flexible Mold #017 Let It Snow!!
• Wooden Bird house available at hobby and discount stores. (The one shown cost $ 2.27.)
• Polymer Clay: Red and white.
• Acrylic paint; dark blue, medium blue, black, red, orange and green (or any colors you prefer for the snowman’s hat, mittens and scarf).
• Brushes: 1/2” brush to paint house, smaller brush to paint the hat, scarf and mittens. Small detail brushes to paint snowman’s eyes and buttons and bird’s eye and beak.
• Strong glue like E-6000®.
• Varnish recommended by clay manufacturer.
• Optional: Paper clay may be used instead of polymer clay.
• Optional: Eye screw and 6” of light weight chain or wire for a hanger.
• Free tutorial available on our Free Tutorials Page.

If desired, you can build a light weight birdhouse from foam core board for a center piece or just for fun. Foam core board is not for use outdoors or with birds or animals. Click on the image to see full size pattern.

Have Fun!

More and More Holiday Fun, Elegant Poinsettias!

2011-10-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

Holiday time can be beautiful as well as fun.

If you are looking for elegant and beautifully sculpted poinsettias, leaves, holly and winter birds, this is the mold for you. Also included in the mold are holly berries, a poinsettia, leaves and loops corner piece, and a ribbon loop. Shown Left are molded parts from this lovely mold.

There are, in this mold:

Two poinsettias with two leaves.
One poinsettia corner piece
Three holly leaves and a cluster of three berries and a single berry.
Two perching birds in two sizes
A single ribbon loop.

All of the parts can be molded in multiples to make larger designs.

The corner piece can be used flat as in this little magnet frame idea, right. This little frame was created by Miss Martha's daughter. The corner was molded in colors. Leaves green, flower centers yellow and the flowers of red clay. A sweet winter bird perches in the flowers and leaves. The parts were attached to a tiny frame, just big enough for a sweet school picture.

If you do not have a tiny frame one can be cut of clay, embellished and baked. After it is cool, a piece of thin plastic can be cut and glued to the back of the finished frame and a favorite holiday photo can be glued to the frame. Add a magnet or two to the back of the frame and you have a wonderful holiday memory magnet.

Each mold comes with the measurements of the amount of clay needed to fill each mold opening and a measuring chart. No need to guess, just measure and press.

Also included is a free tutorial to make the project shown on the right. The elegant footed box project instructions show how to cover a paper mache box with clay and embellished. Also included are instructions on how the corner piece can be bent and wrapped around the corners of the box to form 'feet'. The instructions also Below right is a simpler version of the project that comes with the mold.

The poinsettias, leaves and birds can be used to make a number of jewelry designs etc.

Our flexible molds are made of tough, urethane rubber and are approx. 4 inches by 3.25 inches by 5/8 inch thick. All the parts are from my own original designs and sculptures.

Our Angel Policy: With the purchase of our molds you have permission to make one-of-a-kind pieces in any quantity to sell at fairs, bazaars and craft shows; However, you may not hire employees to make items from the molds or sell through commercial accounts without permission.

Just imagine how many delightful ways you can use the molded parts.

Think jewelry, serving pieces, greeting cards, name tags, Welcome sign, scrapbooking, guest soaps, decorative votives (the polymer clay must be on the outside of the glass and not come in contact with the flame), metal clay, etc.

This mold is available at Best Flexible Molds.

More Holiday Fun! Here Comes Santa Claus

2011-10-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

This fun mold will have you humming "Here comes Santa Claus".

Shown left are brightly colored parts from the mold. Santa was cast in a variety of colors of clay as were the Christmas trees, stockings and present. Only Santa's eyes and belt buckle were painted. His cheeks and nose were blushed for that 'rosy glow'. Glitter was added to the balls, swags, tree stand and star on the Christmas tree for that fun, holiday sparkle.

Both the Santa and Tree can be used alone for festive Christmas jewelry. The wrapped present, lights, tiny tree, yummy gingerbread man, stockings and bow make cute holiday charms and earrings. Some of the parts, like the light, tiny tree and stockings can be molded and put back to back for two sided designs.

Each mold comes with the measurements of the amount of clay needed to fill each mold opening and a measuring chart. No need to guess, just measure and press.

Also included is a free tutorial to make the project shown on the right. The Santa project instructions show how to make a note holder magnet. The instructions also Below right is a simpler version of the project that comes with the mold.

The Santa alone can be used a a pin, pendant, added to the top of a candy box, etc.

Our flexible molds are made of tough, urethane rubber and are approx. 4 inches by 3.25 inches by 5/8 inch thick. All the parts are from my own original designs and sculptures.

Our Angel Policy: With the purchase of our molds you have permission to make one-of-a-kind pieces in any quantity to sell at fairs, bazaars and craft shows; However, you may not hire employees to make items from the molds or sell through commercial accounts without permission.
Below are two pairs of earring created using this mold.

Think how well these Cute Wrapped packages
and the sassy Bell and Bow earrings below would sell at a show!.

This mold and other Holiday molds are available on our website Best Flexible Molds. Check us out!

If you are looking for jewelry molds, we have those too!

Holidays are on the way! Let's Play in Snow!

2011-09-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, summer has flown by and it is finally cool again here in Oklahoma. By cool, I mean under 95 degrees F. Cooler fall weather is a harbinger of the coming holidays and a wintery project might just be what the doctor ordered.

This fun mold (parts shown left)

PJ017 Let it Snow!

has a sweet snowman complete with 'knitted' scarf, mittens, coal eyes and buttons, carrot nose and a top hat. This iconic winter figure could grace your home in many ways. Also in the mold with the snowman are a puppy wearing a stocking hat, a pair of 'knitted' mittens, three holly leaves, two snowflakes, two hearts and a favorite winter time bird, the Cardinal. (Mold shown below)

Each mold comes with the measurements of the amount of clay needed to fill each mold opening and a measuring chart. No need to guess, just measure and press.

Also included is a free tutorial to make the project shown on the right.

The flexible mold is made of tough, urethane rubber and is approx. 4 inches by 3.25 inches by 5/8 inch thick. All the parts are from my own original sculptures.

Our Angel Policy: With the purchase of our molds you have permission to make one-of-a-kind pieces in any quantity to sell at fairs, bazaars and craft shows; However, you may not hire employees to make items from the molds or sell through commercial accounts without permission.

Mold is available at Best Flexible Molds website.

With our molds, you can
"Push in Clay ~ Pull out Art!

Nothing says winter fun like snowflake earrings with 'knitted' mittens!

State Fair Results

2011-09-25T22:35:00.001-07:00

The Oklahoma State Fair is about the biggest thing that happens each year! The events, food, fairway, grandstand, music and of course the contests are always well attended.

On Sunday the 18th a group of our polymer clay guild members demonstrated polymer clay playing from 2 to 6 pm. We've done this since the first year that our guild began sponsoring the Polymer Clay Division.

There are four categories.

Sculptural
Jewelry
Beads or Buttons
Functional

This year we were in a slightly different spot where it was a bit cooler with more tables. Also, the traffic in the area was heavier, so there were lots more watchers and question askers. There is a large, colorful banner with information about our hobby, our non-profit guild - Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild and the International Polymer Clay Association that we hang up at public events.In addition to our banner and since our guild will be putting on a retreat next April and Christi Friesen will be teaching, Myra created a poster for the retreat and also half page handouts for the public.

Jane took care of all the printing including our quarter page handout with info about meetings on the front and some basic items you might like to have if you are interested in polymer clay. Many of the people who stopped by and visited with us picked up the handouts and some signed up for more information.

The opening picture above is a section of the window with a lot of the polymer clay items and winners mixed in with non clay items. There were entries from guild members as well as other folks from around Oklahoma. Guild members enter as many of the categories as possible to have a good showing of many ideas, techniques, and styles and this year was no different. So many beautiful things were on display.

To my surprise my bell doll angel took best of show and a blue ribbon in the sculpture category.

I'd been betting that Jane's drunken giraffe on the margarita glass would be the winner. He makes me smile every time I see him there.

Other prizes were a blue ribbon for the Green Woman pendant and earring set in the jewelry category.

The scarab beetle beads got a pink ribbon.

A blue in the Functional category, a tiny heart shaped jewelry box with roses and polymer clay 'lace'. The photo is not so good because it was shot through the glass of the case.

After the demonstrations, some of us stood around, visiting and packing up to go home. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and as we slowly walked back to the parking lot we could still smell the cotton candy and hot dogs.

Yep, the fair is a wonderful time.

State Fair time again!

2011-09-17T17:23:00.001-07:00

Each year our guild, Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild, sponsors a division at the annual Oklahoma State Fair. There are four divisions.

Sculpture
Jewelry & Accessories
Beads and Buttons
Household and Functional

Most of our guild members participate and often we will see each other when we take our artworks to the fairgrounds a week ahead of time to be judged.

Since we began sponsoring the division a few years ago, many in our group will participate in demonstrating polymer clay use for three or four hours the afternoon of the first Sunday of the fair. We each bring a few of the things we have made with clay, our clay, tools etc and work on the tables while answering questions from passersby, demonstrating a technique etc. Tomorrow is show time! We will be introducing folks to polymer clay play.

It is great fun for me and the people who stop to watch seem to be surprised at what can be made from polymer. This bell doll angel is one of my entries this year in the category of sculpting.

For beads I molded eight scarab beetles (from my own original mold) and put them back to back to make a scarab beetle bead and put them on wire bead pins. I used mica powders to create the rich, brilliant colors of ancient Egypt. I strung them on an elastic bead cord with gold beads between each beetle bead. No pics of these yet.

The jewelry entry is a Green Woman earring and pendant set and household and functional was a small, red, heart shaped jewelry box with faux lace, tufted top and gathered lace edge.

Tomorrow we'll all get to see how our various items scored but more than that, we will have another chance to share our hobby with folks and play in clay together.

Penni Jo

Pretties at Twisted and Stitched

2011-09-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

When Tina H was visiting recently, she shared a link to her sister's Etsy site, "Twisted and Stitched". It is a delightful collection of re-purposed jewelry, sea shells and wirework.

This seashell filled with 'faux' jewels has a wonderfully romantic feeling. It is good to see bits and pieces from old or broken jewelry live again in a beautiful new design.

Also the colors are ones that I love.

Ancient Egypt In A Best Flexible Mold

2011-09-15T11:35:00.001-07:00

Another new mold!! The wall art and jewelry of ancient comes to life in this new mold containing exotic Egyptian symbols.

Scarabs, 2 in flight, 4 at rest
Water lilies, blooms & leaf
A Pyramid with the eye&
1 Sacred cat
Lily Blossom Ring

These designs will bring the feeling of ancient Egypt to your polymer clay or metal clay jewelry, charms and embellishments.

The included ring band has a lily design in the center but most of the smaller pieces can be applied to the center of the ring, over the lily before firing/baking.
The ring band goes up to size 17 ½ and a ring sizing chart is included in the mold. Great for metal clay!

The large scarab in flight is 1 7/8” x 1 3/4” (46x44mm),

The lily spray is 2 5/16” x 1 1/2” (40x58mm);To make the sample pieces above I chose black clay, a 50/50 mix of Pardo and Kato clays to mold the parts.

Pearlex powders were used on the black clay to simulate the brilliant coloring and gleam of the original jewelry pieces that I found on line.

Free instructions are included to make the exotic Key chain charm that could also be a pendant if desired.

The deepest part of this 5/8” thick mold is the large scarab about 5/16” deep. Made of strong urethane rubber the mold can be flexed for easy release.

As one of the extras that you get with a Best Flexible Mold is that we have measured the clay for you and provide measuring circles on the cover sheet. No need to guess, just measure and press!

Here is a design idea for a pendant using the large Scarab in flight mold.

The Large Scarab in Flight was molded of black clay. Three eye pins were insert in the lower half ball as shown.

Balls of red clay, one large, one smaller and two even smaller were rolled and dusted with red mica powder. The smaller ones were put onto bead pins and all were baked. When cool, the larger ball was glued into the 'gold' ring above the scarab.

Dangles: The smaller red balls were threaded onto head pins with metallic blue long beads (can be made from black clay) and small gold tone metal beads and linked to the eye pins in the lower part of the design.

Many of the original ancient Egypt jewelry designs had rows of dangles feature reds, greens, blues and gold colors.

Some of the ancient designs are of silver and gold. Metal clays can be used in our molds with very good results!

Visiting Clayer Tina

2011-09-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

Above, Tina and I at the computer in my studio. Joe took the pic while we were talking to him on Skype in his office in the far corner of the house.

At the San Antonio guild meeting in February of this year I met a really cool lady named Tina. She also attended my class the next day and we had the pleasure of sitting next to each other at a small restaurant near the meeting place after class. The food was great but the company of the gals of San Antonio guild was even better.

When we found out that she was traveling through Moore on her way to San Antonio from Missouri we invited her to stop by and sit a spell. She did and we had a great time.

Shortly after her arrival Joe gave her a tour of the mold room and showed her how we make our molds, from the measuring of the raw materials, mixing pouring and vacuuming a three up of the newest Egyptian Symbols mold. Later in the evening she got to watch the cured rubber molds being pulled from the mold. Joe announced that she was now an 'official' mold maker.

After supper we spent time in the studio where we finished a leaf cane and talked about how it can be reduced with no packing, modifying the cane etc. There was some oohing and ahhing as she looked at some of the many items in the studio.

Later in the evening we popped popcorn in an old fashioned popcorn popper and watched the 'The Closer'.

Next morning after breakfast there was more ooing and ahhhing as Tina showed me her jewelry, cell phone charms and other pretties. Her wirework is lovely. Some of the items were stashed in a lovely tin covered in lavender and purple cane slices. Tina said that the tin had cost her a quarter at a garage sale two days ago. She is a claying gal for sure. I have a tin that has been sitting here for at least a year, still no clay on it. (blushing a bit here)

It was such a good time. I hope she will be staying here again on the way home later this week!

Catching Up with Awareness Ribbons

2011-09-12T21:49:00.001-07:00

We've been busy here lately.

After the Key mold I decided to do make an awareness ribbon mold as we've had requests. Because cancer cuts deeply through most American families including mine, it was time to make the mold. After a few false starts the ideas for the designs in the mold began to come together.

Since it was finished I’ve been making ribbon charms in memory of those that have already gone home on angel’s wings and as a reminder to pray for those that are here, fighting daily. The ribbon encircles their birthstones because their lives matter to those that they love and those that love them. The charm to the right is a red ribbon for lymphoma, a blood born cancer. The bead in the ribbon is a Peridot, an August birthstone. (Since writing this, I saw somewhere that the lymphoma ribbon is greenish, does anyone know which?)

Four of the designs would be cameo style, an oval cabochon with a ribbon on the front. Five would be just ribbons. Enter the new mold: PJ043 Awareness Ribbons.

With this mold, you can make awareness ribbons to remember ,or be reminded to pray for, a loved one struggling with cancer, for one deployed and for other life struggles. There are 9 openings in a variety of sizes.

Four Ribbon Cabochons that will fit standard sized bezels,

1 1/8 x 1 ½ inches (30x40mm),
7/8” x 1 3/16” (22x30mm);
13/16” x 15/16” (18x25mm);
1/2” x 7/16” x 7/16” (13x18mm).

Five Awareness Ribbons in a variety of sizes – largest to smallest;
1 1/4” - 1” - 7/8” - 5/8” & 1/2”

Free instructions are included to make a Ribbon Cameo and a Ribbon Charm.

The deepest part of this 5/8” thick mold is the large and next to largest ribbon cameos, about 7/16” deep. The rest of the cameos and ribbons are thinner. Made of strong urethane rubber that can be flexed for easy release.

The mold is available now at our website Best Flexible Molds.

Thanks for stopping by.

Penni Jo

Another new mold and then another!

2011-07-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

TYPEWRITER KEYS AND AWARENESS RIBBON MOLDS!

Sometimes a mold or even two just seem to materialize. Never mind that for a year or more I'd be thinking about it, drawing ideas, creating something that will be used to make the new design. They often come about in tandem.

1. The typewriter key mold was conceived over three years ago. I created the 'keys', a tif file, on the computer and there it sat. A few months later, photo polymer resin stamps caught my eye so I purchased the materials and got busy making negatives for the stamps. and the 'keys' got a negative.

However, the layout of the negative did not fit the standard mold setup or the set up for the medium photopolymer packet. It waited again.

Again it sat for a while when a friend recommended Boxcar photopolymer sheets. It was a large sheet from which any shape could be cut. I made the stamp. Only problem, the letters were right reading outies. Not good.

Again, a wait. One day I found the stamp, made a mold, but the resulting mold did not fit the standard size/shape. We can't make dozens of sizes as packaging becomes a nightmare. It waited some more.

Recently passing the counter with the boxcar stamp on it, I stopped and looked at it again and that little light bulb that goes off over your head when you have an idea lit up! Picking up a tiny ball of clay I and pressed it onto one of the keys in the boxcar stamp. It worked! The clay ball that tipped out of the stamp was a perfect little typewriter style key.

Make more, lots more. Figure out how to make each ball exactly the same size, make many more. After baking them and choosing the best of the bunch, a grid was drafted in the standard mold form and the tiny keys glued in place. Adding five punctuations and one blank key, the job was finally in the oven!

These pretty colored keys a re samples showing the details of the keys.(no the K is not wrong, it is upside down). Within two days we had a mold for old style typewriter keys, a project with step by step pics, photos and ready for the web! Ya gotta love it when everything comes together so ... easily?

Oh well, it's a great mold and fun to play with.

If you'd like to play with this mold, check us out at bestflexiblemolds.com the mold is online and waiting for a new home.

Signed,

2. The second mold? it happened right alongside of the key mold but it came with only a few months of thinking, sketching and planning.

Some of our customers began to write and ask about a mold for Awareness ribbons early this year. While the typewriter keys baked, sculpting started on the ribbons.

Cancer has cut a wide swath through our families through the years. I've never been much for wearing a ribbon, but thought it might be time to create something more permanent.

I wanted to make memory and or prayer charms in the cancer colors. Each charm will have the birthstone of the victim/survivor/fighter incorporated into the design.

The instructions to make this charm comes with each mold. The red ribbon is for Lymphoma, a blood borne cancer. The glass bead is a faux Peridot, the birthstone for August. The wire through the charm strengthens the clay.

It is best to use strong clay like Pardo, Fimo Classic, Kato or Premo to make the ribbons.

Four Ribbon Cabochons that will fit standard sized bezels,

1 1/8 x 1 ½ inches (30x40mm),
7/8” x 1 3/16” (22x30mm);
13/16” x 15/16” (18x25mm);
1/2” x 7/16” x 7/16” (13x18mm).

Five Awareness Ribbons in a variety of sizes – largest to smallest; 1 1/4” - 1” - 7/8” - 5/8” & 1/2”

The four cameos with ribbons can be molded in two colors and can be used alone or glued into a standard setting (bezel).

Left are samples after molding.

Right are samples glued into standard settings from Fire Mountain Gems.

This mold will be available on our website in a week or so. If you would like one now, contact me directly. The info is on our website. BestFlexibleMolds

PJ

Fandango!!

2011-05-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

We are home from the Orlando Clay Fandango Retreat and still basking in the glow of the great fun, fellowship and learning.

Shown left is a picture of the beautiful Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center grounds where Fandango is annually held. Right is the office building where we checked in after arriving in our motor home. Behind it is a beautiful pond with a waterfall and fountain. RV's can camp on the grounds along with the motels and meeting hall.

This year was the 6th all inclusive Lake Yale 3 day/4 night retreat. Meals and lodging were included. It was great fun to spend time together and get much better acquainted over meals in the big dining hall. The RV spots were under ancient Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss gracefully drifting in the breezes. Check out the view from our front window.

The instructors were: (drum roll here) Christi Friesen, Maureen Carlson and, yours truly, Penni Jo Couch.

Christi Friesen, as fun and energetic as usual, taught a delightful tree, created over an armature, dripping with beautiful beads and overhanging a pond with fish and turtles. The tiny clear resin pond is fed with a clear resin waterfall. (Can you hear the music of the breezes blowing through the beaded branches?)

Maureen Carlson taught Narrative Beads: Beads that are created to tell a story that can bring the maker's memories back when worn or when hung to be easily seen. Memories like the smiles of friends, the sounds of laughter, the joys of working and playing with a group of like-minded friends. The necklace was made of polymer clay, miscellaneous fibers, alcohol inks, acrylic paint, embossing powder, and the texture of found items as well as words and numbers. (humming the "Memories" tune here. )

Y ours truly was the third teacher. For the last two and a half years I've been playing with the idea of creating Faux Ribbon Embroidery. The first half of the tutorial went well and I taught "Sliver Flowers and Leaves" class at Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild, Corpus Christi Polymer Clay Guild, and San Antonio Polymer Clay Guild. Sliver flowers are made using 'stitches' 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. Left are some pieces created using this technique. The tutorial used in the 'Sliver Flowers and leaves' class was the heart pendant, far left.

The sliver technique was used in a large format to make this open filigree ornament. The Poinsettias and leaves were made using the same technique taught in the "Sliver Class".

Student Allyson in Corpus Christi Guild created these beautiful earrings and a matching pendant.

Over the next few months, I developed a way to emulate some of the stitches of Ribbon Embroidery. The new tutorial slowly took shape and the photos of the step by step pictures kept increasing. By the time the tutorial was finished it had over 190 photos in it.

Just for fun, I used my sewing machine to sew the tutorials using variegated thread as the tutorial teaches how to make variegated ribbons using Skinner Blend clay.
I 'stitched' a sampler using all 15 of the 'stitches' in the tutorial.

The classes were so much fun and it was a delight to see how each person's personality came through in their choices of color and styles chosen.

In addition to the classes, demos were provided by Linda Hess, Kathy Davis and Nancy Welch. These very talented gals provided great demonstrations during the day and during classroom breaks and had me wishing that I could spend more time watching the demos!!

We were first time vendors this year. Joe manned the table during breaks and before and after meals and until the show 'officially' closed for the day. Since the vendor tables are in the assembly room where everyone could see them, we left order blanks on the table with a little sign, 'Pick the molds you want, write a ticket. Come back and pay later.' The honor system seemed to work. We sold a lot of molds and were not even in the booth! :-)

Other events were the Brown Bag exchange, Treasure matchboxes swap, Silent Auction, Raffles, Bottles of Hope large and small, and a Hidden Treasure contest.

Tired and worn out we spent an extra day in the lovely RV campsite, napping and packing up and filling outstanding orders from our inventory. We did not push ourselves coming home, but relaxed as much as possible.

'Can't wait 'till next time!

Penni Jo

The 2011 Retreat is over, but the glow lingers on.

2011-04-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

Our first retreat was a mini retreat, just one day long but fulled with 13 hours of fun, fellowship, food and CLAYING!

Eight of the Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay guild were in attendance as well as clayers from out of state. As with any event there was a great deal of planning and work ahead of time.

Penni Jo and Jane L gathered the goody bag donations from Makin's, Lisa Pavelka, Canes by Sandi Sandilla, donated by Jim Sandilla and shipped to us by Moe T, Best Flexible Molds, small bottle of MinWax Polycrylic varnish from Jane Linn and several tiny bottles to cover for bottles of hope. Door prize items were donated by Angela M, Jane L, Penni Jo & canes by Sandi Sandilla. Our thanks to everyone for their very generous donations. We used the bed in the guest room as a staging area for all the retreat related items.

Jane's DH Bob did an initial "Twister" design for the name tags. From his design, PJ and Jane also designed and printed both name tags and bag art. Jane prepared the name tags and affixed the bag art to the Goody bags.

PJ and Jane worked up a Program for the retreat and used Bob's "Twister" design on the cover.

The evening before the retreat Jane, Ruth and PJ prepared the living room floor with heavy duty plastic, covered the tables with paper, and put out the heavy duty extensions for motors and lights, taping the cords to the floor for safety. We would be using the studio oven for baking as well as the convection microwave in the kitchen.

Ruth did a great job of getting my studio clean and ready for the demos and baking. She found an old sculpture of a green man that I had forgotten and set it out on the work station.

Jane was invaluable, helping me in so many ways, from cutting out the bag art, buying and bringing double stick tape, filling and organizing the goody bags, laying out the program, helping me clean and even brought lunch to us on Friday.

So, on Friday night after weeks of planning and working, Penni Jo, Jane L and Ruth L had everything ready for early Saturday morning.

(I have a damaged ligament in my knee and have been on crutches for 5 weeks and am so very, very grateful for both Jane and Ruth's kind help and Jane's frequent trips here and there for needed items and to help me with the preparations.)

During the retreat Joyce found the green man on the studio work station and excitedly asked if this had been made into a mold. No, it had not. She really loved it and wanted a mold so I asked her to take it to Joe in the mold room and see if he would set and mold it. He said OK. The green man was finally going to be a product.

Saturday April 9, 2011 -- Our retreat started right after 8 in the morning with bagels & cream cheese (from Joyce), coffee (from Ruth) and lots of visiting while setting up to begin a 9 am. The attendees brought snacks, drinks and ice for the snack area.

Upon arrival, everyone received goody bags, a door prize ticket, name tags and a program.

The fun began at 9 with sounds of chatter, clinks of knives and blades on cutting boards, the roar of pm motors along with the grindy-grind sound of the hand cranked pm mixed with laughs and "how did you do that?" until our first demonstration.

First demo!! Sue M showed her fabulous ways with swirly lentils by demonstrating how to make them. After that we were treated to a number of different ways to re-shape the lentils for beautiful swirly lentil square beads, oval beads and hearts. After the demo she helped others to learn the technique.

Claying and playing continued until noon when we stopped for a nice lunch provided by Ruth, Jane and PJ. There was a sandwich bar with three kinds of meats, four cheeses, three breads, pickles, olives, chips etc, & brownies for dessert.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with more playing and claying.

The afternoon demo was by April G. She showed us how she makes her petal canes and how she cuts and adds wires to the petals before baking. It was enlightening to see her technique at work and the many layers of her uniquely airy designs. Her color choices for her skinner blends are unique, rich and lovely. Everyone got a slice of it.

Dinner was pizza from Pizza Hut, then back to more learning and laughing.

By the evening clay time many designs were coming out of the ovens with lots of ooing and ahhing over them and "How do you do that?" heard again.

One of the popular designs was a leopard cane made by Linda that she learned on the web. By the end of the day she was out of some of the colors but was willing to teach the cane to the group using pearl, silver, black and white. It was a beautiful cane and everyone got a slice of it.

The claying continued right up until 9 o'clock where clayers slowly gathered tools, clay and finished pieces to go home. All were smiling and saying what a great time we'd had and I was sad to see them go. All were excited with the idea of a two or three day event next year!!

Below: Thank You's from the Program

Our sincere appreciation and gratitude to the following people and or contributors for their contributions to our retreat.

Angela Mabray: for door prizes and tickets.

Jane Linn for small bottles of Min Wax PolyCrylic, polymer clay friendly Clear Satin varnish. -Goody bags and door prizes.

Bob and Jane for their work in the trenches to make this retreat fun and beautiful. Bob, thanks for the artwork.

Ruth for her help in donating meats for lunch, and Friday set up and studio preparations.

Lisa Pavelka for Magic Glos, metallic Foils and Water Slide Transfers. Also a catalog filled with ideas and post cards. -- Goody bags and door prizes.

Makin’s -- Tote bag, clay, mold & lots of info.-Goody bags.

A special thank you to Jim Sandilla for Sandi's hand made millefiori canes, donated after her passing to be shared with guild members and polymer clay users. -- Goody Bags & Door prizes.

Best Flexible Molds -- Tiny rubber molds -- Goody Bags and molds for door prizes.

A special thanks to Penni Jo for founding, organizing, opening her home, financing and doing the lion’s share of the work to make this retreat possible. Thanks to Joe for suggesting their home for a one day retreat.

Left to right:
Jane, Myra, Shirley's back, Nance & Ruth.

No foolin'! We are having a Retreat!

2011-04-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild
is having it's very first Retreat.

The OK Poly Clay Twisters will be claying away on April the 9th!!

After attending Sandy Camp and Fandango I just knew that we, Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild, needed to have a retreat. The group said yes, we need a retreat! We had two potential sites lined up with big rooms and great lighting, both free.

Site one: Huge church gymnasium with great lighting, kitchen, classrooms, heat and air etc. They were willing to allow us to use the facility but, they had just finished refinishing the gym floor and did not want anything on it that could damage the new floor. After much thought, I realized that polymer clay definitely would damage the new floor and that no matter what we did to cover it, some crumbs might escape. So, called the pastor, thanked him for his generosity and told him we did not want to hurt the new floor. He was grateful.

Site two: I attend a meeting weekly in this facility, also a church building, great lights, heat and air, kitchen, classrooms etc. When I finally connected with the lady in charge of the building she told me if were up to her we would be welcome, but the church was closing the week before our retreat. Very sad when a church closes. I called TOPS group to tell them we were losing our meeting place.

It seemed that every door had closed. We really NEED a retreat here in the sunbelt.

DH asks, are we going to need to have it in our home? Well, we entertain 30 to 40 folks for thanksgiving dinner so 12 people playing in clay might be do-able. But, only one day. OK, one day is better than no retreat so our mini Retreat was born.

We will have three retreat-ers per table. Two tables in the living room, one table in the dining room for nine folks. There are two tall counter work stations and a 4 foot table in the studio. Makes an even dozen or 13 if two people sit at the 4 foot table.

We've had goodies donated for the goodie bag. We, BestFlexibleMolds will be donating tiny sample molds and some molds for the raffle and door prizes. Jane will be donating 1 ounce containers of MinWax Polycrylic Satin Varnish. Thank you Makin's for goodies and a bag!

There is no charge for the retreat but we are asking folks to chip in on the lunch sandwich bar.

If you would like to join us, we have two openings left. You can contact me through our website bestflexiblemolds.com.

Every year at the Oklahoma State Fair, we sponsor the polymer clay division. Prizes are awarded. Our guild donates to the "Best of Show" polymer clay division award. Here are a few pics of this year's State Fair offering.

The pics show many of the entries with ribbons. The beautiful credit card holder is by past President Jane.

Some more pretties!

Corpus Christi Guild Class ~ Sliver Flowers & Leaves

2011-02-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

In the regularly scheduled guild meeting the members have "show and tell". I brought a number of items made using a technique I called Sliver (not silver) Flowers & Leaves. The members really liked the items I'd made and asked if I could teach the technique to them.

Last year I developed this technique, wanting to use the pretty scraps of my skinner blends and wrote and photographed the tutorial in order to teach a class at Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild. The guild members loved the tutorial and some even emailed me the next day to say again how much fun the class had been.

Cutting slivers of skinner blend ropes, flowers and leaves could be created in graduated colors from light to dark or from one color to another. Since the tutorial was complete, it was easy to send a materials list and plan for a class two weeks later, the last Saturday of January.

Students receive a full color step by step tutorial and instructions to make this heart shaped pendant. In no time, we had a full class and a date to teach.

Allyson a polymer clay artist nearby would be able to go and to attend the class so we could ride together. This time the trip to Corpus would be a time to catch up with Allyson, a sign language teacher, who also designed lovely polymer clay projects.

The class was in the home of guild member Lynn, a gracious lady who greeted us with lunch and refreshing drinks after our long drive.

The ladies had a great time, learning the techniques of making the slivers, how to pick them up and place them where desired.

The technique can be used in a number of ways. On soft, unbaked clay, applied to baked clay, cut larger and added to glass ornaments. Shown right, an ivory pendant, soft pearl cabochons and a colored pencil portrait on polymer clay that had been baked and varnished.

I'll be teaching in San Antonio Sunday the 27th of February at the Chandler Senior Center 137 W. French Place San Antonio, Tx. If you are in San Antonio, come on by. Class starts at 1:00.

For more info, feel free to contact me.

Guild meeting in Corpus Christi

2011-02-20T08:21:00.000-08:00

While traveling I like to stay in touch with fellow clayers. Here in Mission Texas, Corpus Christi is the closest guild. It is a three hour drive to guild meetings but with a book on CD, the drive goes quickly.

Their meeting is the 3rd Saturday of the month at the Joann's store. The meeting was very informative. This guild has a hands-on project that members learn how to do during the meeting. The teacher brings the lesson and helps the members learn the techniques.

Teacher Patty taught a lesson on how to make molds using three different mold making materials. The members busily made molds from a variety of items and the time flew by.

I made molds of some of the rubber stamps that I designed for PMCsupply.com using scrap clay. A mold like this can have clay pressed into very firmly, making a molded part that can be used to make faux enamel items. A similar class was taught in the Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay guild by Angela Mabray.

You can use molds like these to make a faux enamel pin or pendant, faux Cloisonne, etc. The rose pin to the left was made using a polymer clay scrap mold.

Black clay was pressed into the mold. After de-molding, the clay was coated with gold PearlEx powder and baked. The cells were then filled with liquid clay that had been colored with alcohol ink and baked again. The cells were then coated with clear liquid clay and clarified with a heat gun giving a lovely shine to the 'enamel'.

These molds have beautiful detail but must be misted with water or dusted with cornstarch to allow clay that is pressed into them to be removed.

We also used a two part silicone rubber material to make a flexible mold. Some of the things molded were old jewelry, coral from the sea, buttons, and things that I had sculpted. I wanted a deep teddy bear mold for buttons and sculpted one the night before the meeting so there would be something to mold.

As an experiment, the heart pin on the left was covered with the Amazing Mold material. It turned out beautifully. I had no idea that the details could be molded without breaking.

When I got back to the RV, I sculpted some tiny tassels, flowers and leaves for a new mold project.

Patty showed a polymer clay material that is flexible from which molds can be made. However, after a few years, this material will harden. This flexible clay can be used as a softener for hard clays.

The ladies of the guild have become friends and it was a delight to spend time with them, learning, laughing and catching up on each other's lives.

My thanks to all the ladies of Corpus Christi Polymer Clay Guild for making me welcome.

January Polymer Clay Guild meeting in Corpus Christi

2011-02-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

Oops, I started the blog and accidentally lost it in a power outage. See the post above.

Going South for Summer in the Winter

2011-02-09T12:01:00.000-08:00

We are back in the southern part of Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, trying to escape winter in Oklahoma. We came here last year after hearing all about the warm, even hot, days and an abundance of sunshine. The first ten days were the coldest in history. :-0

So this year, being assured that the last year's weather was a fluke we once again packed up the rig and headed south. While loading the food etc, I somehow injured my knee and then caught that icky, takes three weeks before the explosive coughing fits slow down, cold/flu thingy.

Upon arrival, the weather was balmy, sunny, warm and ... perfect. I however, barely left the RV, except to sit in the sunshine for 5 or 10 minutes while whining, moaning and hoping that I would not cough. After a doctor visit, antibiotic shot and pills for the bronchial infection and pneumonia, health returned.

Then it turned cold. Record breaking cold! Again.

Life is good though, we have some good, sunny days and some cold, rotten days. Kind of like life in general.

On the good days we are out on our bike and trike. Joe bikes, I trike. When we walk the dogs, the trike works great. Our young doggie, Sophie, a LassaPoo, wants to run. We don't want to run. On the trike it is easy to go slow enough to walk them and then speed up when they want to run.

When Sophie sees one of us waiting down the road, she will take off at a dead run.

It may be cold, icky weather for the Rio Grande Valley, but, it beats the heck out of the sub zero weather in the north. Oklahoma is having record breaking snow and storms this year.

We have to wear a jacket.

Hummm..... it's not so bad here after all. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

May the blessings of Christmas sweeten your Life.

May the joys of Christmas continue to bless and keep you.

May the happiness of Christmas stay with you throughout the year.

May the light of Christmas illuminate your path, direct your ways and bring you peace.

Penni Jo

This artwork is my gift to you.

You may use these angel pictures for you own personal use as image transfers, page decorations, etc.

The angel alone is on a transparent background.

Another New Caboshapes mold # II

2010-12-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

December has been a very, very busy month. I sculpted caboshapes for another new mold. PJ039 Caboshapes II - Divas!

DH made the initial mold. From there we jumped right into sales and marketing. Whew!

The new mold is designed with a feminine feeling with 12 openings featuring three stylized female figures, one large figure is 4 3/8 long by 1 1/8 inches wide. The two smaller female figures measure 2 1/8 X 9/16 inches and 1 1/2 X 1/2 inches.

Also included is a stylized tiny baby that is small enough to be held in 'arms' or to be applied to the larger figure to represent a “child within”.

From “mother nature” to the popular 'goddess' look , these figures can be used to embellish and decorate jewelry and many other things. As always, free instructions are included with the mold. The project instructions with PJ039 makes a “Mother Nature” pin or pendant.

Three stylized female forms.
A small face that can be used on the larger form.
A tiny stylized baby.
Two stylized shapes that can be used as 'hands' or 'wings' or feathers.
One elongated teardrop shape.
One Collar that can be thin for an application or thick to form a bead etc.
One Crown, doesn't every diva need one?
Two tiny accent parts, a heart and a diamond shaped jewel.

Most of the parts have flat fronts and are about ¼” deep. Some of the parts are curved. The depth of the smaller parts is from 3/16” to ¼ inch deep.

The projects instructions are to make a Mother Nature pin or pendant and uses only a few colors. A Skinner blend sheet is pressed into the mold then the mold is filled with solid color clay. The excess is trimmed away and the lovely feminine shape is easily de-molded. The figure of gently blended colors can now be embellished with vines and leaves. A tiny molded heart adds to the feminine beauty of the pin/pendant.

To make the Child Within, mold the large figure in choice of color. Mold the tiny baby in choice of color. Maybe pink or blue? Press the baby onto the front of the figure. Bake and finish as desired.

The finished figure could perhaps embellish a baby album cover, or a table favor at a baby shower?

We hope that you enjoy our molds and would love to see what you do with them.

Penni Jo.

And Yet another NEW Mold!!!!

2010-11-20T21:42:00.000-08:00

On the way home from Sandy Camp, we reviewed our sales and the notes of people's requests for future molds. It became clear that folks really liked the cabochons. There are five of them in our line but they are all common shapes, circles, ovals, squares/rectangles and one odd shape. All of them are asymmetrical.

Little sketches were drawn on a number of pieces of paper, sketches for possible new designs but what could we call an odd, distorted or asymmetrical cabochon?

A CaboSHAPE!

Similar in depth, style and size, these Caboshapes could be used in any mix or singly.

For instance, you can mold a caboshape using about 2/3's of the clay called for. De-mold it and set it aside. Now cut a thin slice of your favorite Mokume Gane. Line the mold, press in the thin, molded caboshape. Press firmly to bond, trim the excess and demold a beautiful, smooth shape, ready to bake and use.

The same can be done using a slice of a Kali cane, or a group of small cane slices. etc, etc.

The first Caboshape mold is fairly simple with eleven unique, hand sculpted Caboshapes.

Three Shield-like shapes,

Four Triangle-like shapes,

One Cube / square,

Four Curved shapes.

Most of the parts have flat fronts and are about ¼” deep. Some of the parts are curved. The depth of the smaller parts is from 3/16” to ¼ inch deep.

For the project, I used two different shapes, the curved shield and a narrow football shape. After baking the shapes, a faux Bali Silver Bezel is constructed around the two shapes.

The response to this new format has been great. Thank you all.

Stay tuned, there are sketches and plans for five more caboshapes.

Sandy Camp Review

2010-11-20T21:16:00.000-08:00

Sandy Camp was absolutely delightful. There were four and a half days of fun, fellowship and clay play. It was truly a retreat. Except for watching a 30 minute demonstration two or three times a day, all our time was spent making things of clay. With each demonstrator, we learned something new that we could take back into the tent to try out.

The store was only open a couple of hours a day. This allowed the vendors and staff to play along with everyone else. Left is a photo inside of the store. In the background, left a gentleman is standing in front of our booth.

At school we learned to give a "book report" a most dreaded task to say the least. However as the years have gone by I have learned to enjoy book reports and will often share with our guild the goodies I have gleaned from one book or another.

This is not a book report, just an overview of the wonderful demonstrators at Sandy Camp. (OK, I may not be so wonderful, but I loved doing the demo. )

Sandy Camp Demonstrators & Demo Notes:

1. Jill Kollmann: Jewelry, pendant with wirework.
Excellent demonstration with a handout. Her demo was, what she calls, “Fusion of Wire and Polymer Clay”. A clay cabochon is captured in wirework with swirling wires, beads and tiny sculpted details. You can see some of her work on her Etsy site.
http://www.jkollmann.etsy.com

2. Victoria Hepfner: Boxes made using cookie cutters.
This was NOT what I expected. It was so much more!! The lids on her boxes went all the way to the bottom of the inside, bottom box. Like a candy box. The long lids allowed for both a nice, snug fit and the ability to have beautifully decorative sides. The Technique was developed accidentally by Brenda Urquhart and demonstrated by Victoria.

3. Penni Jo Couch. I showed how to make clean molded parts that are ready to use immediately after molding, how to de-mold, ideas for using molded parts in a project and how to make cabochons with embedded slices of millifiori canes. Everyone got a copy of the cabochon project. Left: a sample cabochon.

NOTE: A video of molding an de-molding is on our website's home page .

I also demonstrated how to sculpt a calla lily and gave everyone a pattern.
http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com

4. Patty McElhiney: Wow, Incredible hollow beads! This demo was loaded with all kinds of info, from all sizes of lentil beads, styles of hollow beads, to hollow spool shaped beads. She showed some of the home items that could be used to make the lentils and how to treat a dowel rod to make a form for the spool beads. Lastly, she showed how to make a filigree bead over cornstarch packing peanuts squished into a bead shape. Wonderful demo, filled with info and fun.

5. Dawn Schiller: Fun faces in bezels.
She had a super layout of the shapes needed to make a face. She also had a simple way of putting the shapes into the bezel and then blending them together to make a face without a nose. The nose was last and added great character to the face. A most amazing demonstration. -- She only used a nail tool to do all the sculpting. cool. She was amazing.
http://www.oddfae.com

The clay was a polymer clay from Brazil called bozzi. It evidently is super to use and easy to condition, and strong and is available here. http://www.clayalley.com/dollclays.htm

6. Marie Segal: Extruder Fun:
This was also unexpected. It always amazes me at how much I don't know. She showed how many of the shapes we might never use go together to make fabulous patterns. Also, if loading more than one color into the barrel, the last color that goes into the extruder will be on the outside of the extrusion until it is all gone. The potential of the stacking is really exciting as are the patterns that can be formed using the extruder.
Ideas- plaids, quilt blocks, etc. Lots of ideas a-brewing in my brain and a few notes.
http://www.mariesegal.com

7. Christi Friesen: fun and a great demo, a koi pond.
This project was done as a stand alone tiny artwork or as a pin or pendant. The project was a tiny “pond” with lily pads, stones, a koi fish and resin water. She does not spend much time conditioning clay, just using it as it comes from the block. I'm guessing it is premo but could not see the brand from where I sat. She is a fabulous teacher and such fun. 'Can't wait to try this one.
http://www.cforiginals.com

8. syndee holt (no caps on purpose) Mosaics using polymer clay and glass drops. A very, very informative demonstration from preparing the background, creating the clay tiles, gluing the parts, grout tips from choosing the color to mixing and spreading it into the spaces, and finishing the piece. Polyform supplied a frame and tiny cutters to make clay tiles and decorate the frame for a contest.
http://www.synspage.com

9. Tony Aquisto, creator of Kato Clay. Fun, tongue in cheek history of polymer clay, a 40 minute power point presentation. Very clever and informative :-).

The retreat was relaxing, encouraging and I came home rarin' to get clayin'!!!

Dr. Laura's show 11-1-10

2010-11-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend Oct. 30-31,2010, an order for some of our molds came in from a customer named Dr. Laura Schlessenger. As I read the name on the order my mouth dropped open. I have listened to a Dr. Laura on radio for nearly two decades! Could this be that Dr. Laura? After a bit of research, we discovered that, indeed, it was THE Dr. Laura.

Joe normally picks the molds for orders, but, knowing that I had been a fan of hers for years, he handed me the bin and read off the numbers so that I could pick the order. So many of them were my favorites, molds I continually go back to over and over again.

I started to write a 'thank you for your order' note to her when I remembered that the reason I started sculpting in the first place was so that I could continue to stay at home with my children. We had been transferred to Oklahoma in 1981. Our financial circumstance had changed greatly but I had been a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) since the birth of our first son in 1963 and wanted to continue to do so.

The first email I wrote was the "War and Peace" version. Too long and WAY too much detail. During the day I would pop back into the studio and pick away at the email, trying for the best "Reader's Digest" version possible.

Someone once said about writing: "Don't use too many words, but, use all the words needed to tell the story." or something close to that.

After much typing, retyping and thinking, I finally sent a thank you letter to Dr. Laura. She wrote back and asked permission to read it on her show and I said yes. Here it is below.

"Dear Dr. Laura,

Thank you so much for your order. Our little mold business started in '81 because I wanted to continue to be a stay-at-home-mom. I just had to write to tell you how tickled I am that you have ordered our products. How they came about is right up your alley.

In 1981 we were transferred to Oklahoma. In our previous home, I had been a stay at home mom since 1963, raising our kids and loving it.

My mother had to work from the time I was 3 as our father and mother had divorced. Times were extremely tough in the 40's and 50's. My mom had to work. Dad, a physician, lived 1700 miles away, remarried and raising his new wife's son. Mom struggled to keep us fed and warm. Fortunately, her parents and her maiden aunt helped to raise my sister and myself. As you can tell, so many of the stories I hear on your radio show (I've been listening since the mid 90's) and in your weekly emails ring true to me. My heart goes out to the children of the self centered crazies.

From the time I became a mom I was determined to stay home with my kids.

When we moved to Oklahoma, it was a tough time for the economy. Houses were expensive, loans had double digit interest and my husband had to take a cut in pay to keep his job. We did all we could to allow me to stay home.

In a miniature club meeting in the winter of 1981 I found polymer clay and fell in love with it. Turns out, I could sculpt, who knew?

A few months later, I signed up for a small local craft show, to try to sell my hand crafted miniatures to earn enough for new winter coats. To my surprise, I made $700.00!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather. The kids had warm coats and we paid some bills. It seemed that I was in business.

For the next seven years I stayed at home with my kids while making miniatures, sculpting doll house dolls and eventually ended up with a little signature line of tiny teddy bears called PenniBears.

I taught polymer clay classes in my home, at conventions, (the kids went with us) local stores and eventually had a few dealers who sold my miniatures and PenniBears all over the country. Soon our kids were back in Christian School and I had a decent car.

In '89, my skill as a miniaturist came to the attention of Gary Clinton, owner of United Design in Noble OK. and I was offered a position of designer/sculptor with their company. Since my husband worked nights and I would be working days, there would always be someone home with the kids were home from school for the next two years until they were grown and gone. For the next 15 years I was a master sculptor designing giftware, angels, home decor, and animal figurines for home and garden. Eventually the company was sold and moved out of Oklahoma so I started a design studio in my home.

After retiring we decided to market our line of rubber molds. I sculpt, design the project, write the tutorials, measure the clay and take the pictures. Hubby Joe makes the molds, creates and maintains the website and ships the orders. We are having a great time, staying busy and enjoying life.

And, it all started with me trying to find a way to stay home with my children. Ain't life grand???

**************
Most Sincerely,
Penni Jo Couch

Designer - Sculptor - Writer"

Dr. Laura read my email on Monday Nov. 1 2010 that I had written to her on her show. I mentioned this on facebook and have been asked "What did your email say?" from those who did not hear the show.

She mentioned our website before reading the email and our server lit up, stuttered a bit but did not crash!

We've gotten some nice emails and are encouraged by the response.

If you are reading this and are a SAHM or want to be, I encourage you to keep trying. Budget both your time and $$, plan meals around items on sale, start cooking from 'scratch' rather than buying pre-made meals. Most neighborhoods have free sale fliers, check out the weekly sales and coupons.

Look around and try to see what skills may be needed and wanted that you could do while home with the kids. I have a friend who irons for people. It's amazing how many people would like to have their clothes ironed and are are willing to pay.

Check out websites for all kinds of recipes and helps for stay at home moms.

My DIL's favorite laundry soap recipe is on this page: http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html  -- I still make my own laundry detergent. I guess that thriftiness gets to be a habit.


Left: PJ037 Settings (bezels) for standard oval cabochon.


Thanks for stopping by and have a most wonderful day.

Oh, and if you would like some molds, please visit us here at
bestflexiblemolds.com

Another brand new mold!!

2010-09-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Joe asked if I had finished the settings project re-do. It was a simple idea. Make a mold that makes a setting. Not simple to engineer though, the molded part kept sticking in the mold. Pulling a ring (or oval) is a lot, lot harder than pulling a solid cabochon from a mold.
A setting stretches if any part hangs up anytime during the de-molding. After several different tries, I was ready to call it quits.

However, we persisted and after one more modification and new de-molding technique, the ring (oval setting) pulled out of the mold. It was a combo of loosening and pressing the clay to a slick surface before de-molding. Ta-da! The design worked and more goodies were sculpted to fill up the mold.

This pretty mold has 10 openings. Four settings are for these standard oval cabochon sizes: 40x30; 30x22’ 18x13 (will also work with 16x12); & a 12x10 oval connector/setting. For best results you should have a cabochon in one of these sizes ready to use before molding the setting. A bale mold is also provided. There also are two rose and ribbon swags with tiny tassels, a right and left along with two full blown roses and a leaf. All are in a richly embellished style.

The instructions have step by step molding and de-molding instructions, including how to add a bale and how to set an oval cabochon.

Before baking the setting can be modified, stretched, reshaped from an oval to other shapes. This heart setting was made by cutting a "V" shape from the oval opposite the rose at the bottom, then pressing the two cut ends together to form a heart shape. A bit of tweaking was done before baking to shape the heart setting. If desired, this setting could be used for a tiny frame.

As always, we have measured the clay for you and provided a circle measuring chart along with a list of the size of the ball of clay needed to fill each opening.

Overall mold dimensions for this mold is approx. 3.25" by 4" by .25 to .5 inches thick. Materials up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit (F) can be used in our molds.

All of the originals have been sculpted, an initial mold made and perfected, and now we are ready to begin casting the new mold when Joe discovers that we are out of the blue rubber! This is usually not a problem, I call the company from which we buy the rubber only to be told that we can not get the blue rubber until the first week of October!!! Big problem, we need the blue rubber NOW.

No blue available. We have to use a different color rubber to make the first run of our new mold. The rubber is tan, not blue, but since its' a pretty mold and we expect folks to like it, we made 20 of them for the show.

Here are some more pics of the molded parts. Rt. Oval setting with hanger or bale depending on orientation of the setting.

Setting with Bale

Round Setting

Below left: holes were made in the unbaked settings. After baking, head pins were threaded through the holes enabling the smaller setting to act as a connector and the larger one to have bead work.

This mold, PJ037 will be available on our website at
bestflexiblemolds.com
After the second week of October.

Penni Jo 9-25-10

Sandy Camp, here we come!

2010-09-10T21:04:00.000-07:00

For the last month we have been preparing for Sandy Camp. A retreat in the hills outside of San Diego where polymer clay lovers come together for fun, play and learning.

We will be vendors so Joe is working hard to get enough molds made up for the show.

I am working hard too, preparing projects and new molds to demonstrate at the event as I will be one of nine demonstrators. We are honored to be chosen.

I'll be showing how to make these calla lilies, left, and will have simple patterns for attendees. They are made of, what I call, duplex clay. Skinner blend on one side, translucent and cream on the other side. A ribbon or bow can be added to the stem of the pin to complement the wearer's clothing.

Cabochons with embedded canes will be the focus of my demonstrations as we have several molds now that can be used to make these pretty designs.

Our primary purpose is to introduce our molds to people, show the quality and ease of use and then to demonstrate different ways this can be achieved and how they can get perfectly molded, ready to use parts every time.

I've continued to develop this technique for several weeks with continuing good results and satisfaction.

This set, Pin, earrings and bracelet, left, was inspired by antique Italian Pietra Dura.

The canes were constructed to look like mother of pearl. They did not quite make it, but the designs are appealing and give a good idea of what can be done with these colors and a dark background.

The larger pin below shows the detail.

So, what's next, buttons! This time the background is a skinner blend log cut into 1/4 inch slices and packed into a cabochon mold with the design in the bottom.

The shanks are made of colored paper clips, cut and tiny flared wire pieces sticking out at the bottom. These are stitched to a cardstock backing, just like in the 40's and 50's.

This is my work table showing the skinner blend log, tiny, borderless canes (the outside of each cane is dusted with Perfect Pearls Perfect Bronze powder to give a slight, metallic edge to the slices), pre-made cane clusters laid out ready to go into the mold, cut paper clips, a razor blade for cutting and lifting the clusters, and a mold with a cluster in the one opening, ready for the background to be pressed in firmly, forcing the cluster into the face of the cabochon. The paper clip shank is pressed into a cut in the back, clay is smoothed over the two 'legs' and pressed flat. A couple of flexes and a button pops out, ready to go into the manila folder tray for baking.

Maybe I'll see you at Sandy Camp and we can play with this technique together.

Penni Jo

This Challenge nudged me out of my comfort zone.

2010-08-04T15:10:00.001-07:00

A while back I joined Christie Fresian's fun forum group and have enjoyed seeing member's work and reading posts. Recently she had a challenge, a circular reasoning challenge for a PolymerCafe article. Her description of the challenge of circular things were clever, fun and inventive including ripples on water. Hummm. (thinking happening here)

Suddenly a rippling idea popped into my head. (Imagine a light bulb suddenly shining over my head here) The design could be a pin with round waterlily pads, rippling water and circling Koi fish in a pond.

As I've been working in my comfort zone for far too long, this was just what the doctor ordered! Not one to shirk a challenge I jumped in with both feet.

First were the little sketches and then, thinking about how to make the fish, the background, the water, lily pads (first cane did not work, had to make a second cane) & flowers, background details, and finally the ripples. Slowly I began to get all my ducks in a row. (my apologies to readers from other lands for using this bit of American colloquialism.)

The circular background was easy, Skinner blend in watery colors. Made blend, rolled into a big cane, cut a slice, flattened on a tile. Also made a translucent and white jelly roll cane from which to cut ripples.

Now, for the fish. Uh-Oh, they need to be flat or the water will be way too thick. Humm, can't sculpt flat fish. (new light bulb over head needed again.) Finally an idea sets off the light. I'll color the fish onto the background. Uh-Oh, the colored pencils will not color over dark, light or medium blue. Another idea! Make very, very thin light gold fish on the background.

A sheet of gold was rolled through on the thinnest setting and then stretched even thinner. Three curvy fish were cut from the sheet and placed on the background and rolled smooth.

Done and baked. When cool, I sanded the goldfish down with 320 grit sand paper to add tooth to the fish so that the colored pencils will stick to the clay. Using my most favorite pencils for coloring on clay, Walnut Hollow Oil Pencils, the koi came to life with bright, rich colors. A coat of Liquid Kato was smeared over the fish and background and then baked again.

Next several slices were cut from the ripple cane, put through the pasta machine at the thinnest setting then applied over the fish and background and baked.

When cool the ripples were sanded until thin enough to be able to see the fish as clearly as possible.

Next a brown border was added, canes for the lily pads and flower petals created and applied. Tiny tendrils crawled across the brown 'earth' surrounding the pond and a final baking.

When cool, several coats of varnish was brushed over the water, allowed to dry and a pin back was added to Version 1.

Unsatisfied with version 1, version 2 was started.

This time the fish are white pearl rolled into the background clay. After baking and sanding the background the oil pencil colors were much brighter and richer. The border was added then came the lily pads, flowers, and tendrils with leaves. The lily pads were elevated above the background to let the 'water' run under them and appear to float.

When it went back into the oven, the center was filled with clear UTEE. As the pin baked, the UTEE melted and flowed into a smooth, glassy finish.

I rolled very, very tiny ropes of clay, formed them into curves and applied them to the top of the baked, solid UTEE and heated the UTEE with a heat gun until it began to melt and the cooked ripples bonded to the surface.

I hope you are able to find a challenge that will bring you as much fun and learning as this one has for me.

Thanks for the nudge Christie!!

BTW, the first person who saw the pin asked if I had used transfers for the fish. (slapping forehead with palm of the hand here) It never occurred to me until that very moment!!

Oh well, live and learn. :-)

Orlando Clay Fandango

2010-07-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's official, I will be teaching at the 2011 Orlando Clay Fandango. We are excited to have our lesson chosen and for the opportunity to teach a new project that I've been working on for about two years.

Like so many ideas, this one came when I only had a very small scrap of a beautifully colored skinner blend, warm pink to ivory to warm blue and wished there were something I could do to use it up. I began wondering how I might use this small piece of a favorite blend.

Hummmm..(thinking happening here)... maybe I could use slivers, little angled slices from the skinner blend scraps to make a pretty flower with colors blended from light to dark. So I compressed the scrap into a small Skinner loaf, cut off a thin slice, cut the slice into slivers and rolled them into ropes.

The first one was this necklace and earring set using the pink to ivory part of the scrap of Skinner blend. The leaves and vines were made from a green to translucent failed cane. The gypsy in me came out as I was finishing the design with iron on Swarovski flat back jewels inserted into flower centers and other design elements.

I began calling the technique "Sliver Flowers & Leaves" and created some more designs, some with wirework.

On another one, the background was textured to resemble fabric and the resulting design was the inspiration to convert the slivers into verigated silk ribbon for embroidery.

For years I'd tinkered with clay embroidery designs but was unsatisfied with the results. Certainly nothing to write home about. The slices from the Skinner blend scrap reminded me of Ombre or Variegated ribbon so the focus changed from thread embroidery to ribbon embroidery and experiments began.

After testing and developing ways to make the various stitches with ribbon embroidery shapes and movement, I created a clay "Sampler". My favorite stitch is the running stitch with variegated ribbon. The effect is so much fun!

I'll be teaching this faux Embroidery class at Fandango May 19-23, 2011. Students will make a sampler and a pendant/pin project. I'll sculpt a new mold with tiny buttons, borders and other embroidery goodies for this class. Here is a link to more info on Orlando Clay Fandango Retreat.

The pendant to the left is 'stitched' around the edges. The ornament below right is made from the same technique only the ends of the flowers stitches are not 'tucked' in.

More pictures to follow: maybe we'll see you there.

NEW!! Woodland Spirts mold is on the web!

2010-07-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

It is an exciting day for me, the Woodland Spirit mold is finished and up on our web site. After a year of remodeling, moving and getting our mold company up and running, we finally have a new mold finished and ready to sell.

There is a lot of work involved after picking the theme for the mold. Sizes, how many parts in the mold, how to lay out the parts for easy de-molding, etc.

This Woodland Spirit mold came about after I sculpted two leafy lady designs, one large and one small, for a challenge. It was a great deal of work and the quiet feeling of the pieces inspired some designs to go with it. They had to be modified to work as molded parts. After modifications, they were laid out in the mold size diagram and sketches were drawn to fit more woodsy designs into the mold with them. We try to get as many parts in a mold as possible.

The two "Carved" wood spirits were sculpted as old men with beards and wise faces. The owl just seemed to be a good choice to go with the group. The little knot hole can be a bead. Mold two of them and place them back to back on a bead pin or wire. Press gently to bond and bake and you've got a bead that is a knot hole.

Each of our molds come with instructions to make a project from a molded part. This one is no different. Clay buddy Jane and I worked out this beaded brooch. It is simple but very showy. The colors are mica powders but acrylic paint could be dry brushed onto the baked part before antiquing the piece with burnt umber acrylic paint.

Here is the before pic.

Announcing -- a brand new flexible rubber mold by Penni Jo!!

This lovely mold has six openings. Four are pleasant woodland spirits including two leafy ladies, one large and one small; and a "carved wood" old man's face in two sizes.

Also in the mold are a wise, kind owl and a little knot hole. The molded parts can be used to grace your jewelry, fairy doors, and home decor.

Included in the mold are instructions to make this lovely beaded brooch.
http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com/faces.htm

****July 4th Special -- Free Shipping****

Order from July 4 through July 6, 2010 and include PJ034 Woodland Spirits mold in your order and the shipping will be refunded through Paypal.

Anytime is Clay Time!
Penni Jo AKA Claylady43

http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com - Our Website with flexible rubber molds.
http://tinyurl.com/2akah3 - Flickr Polymer Clay Pics
http://claylady43.blogspot.com/ Penni Jo's Creative Blog
http://www.etsy.com/shop/claylady43 - Our Etsy Store

Another day, another project or two

2010-06-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

After discussing with Arlene about the mats (see previous post), we decided it would be easy and meet more artist's needs to offer the mats in two formats.

One texture mat style will leave the design imprinted INTO the clay; AKA "Innies".

The second texture mat style will create the design sticking OUT of the clay; AKA "Outies".

Tonight I prepared the materials for casting Outies and we will pour them tomorrow.

Also tonight another project has finally been finished.

Our newest mold, PJ034 Woodland Spirits, will be cast tomorrow. I've been sculpting for weeks on the parts for this new mold.

It has six openings including the following: an extra large Green Lady, a small Green Lady, a medium sized Old Man of the Woods and a smaller Old Man of the Woods. Just for fun there is an Owl Face and a Knothole Bead.

The project will be a necklace featuring the larger Old Man of the Woods and the Knot Hole bead.

We will be posting the final sales date soon.

Many Changes and New Product

2010-06-27T16:05:00.001-07:00

So much to do.... So little time.... A favorite quote that is often used by folks like me and others who find their lives filled to the brim. However, with careful management, I've managed to squeeze out enough time to try a new 'mold-ie' idea.

For a long time the thought of making original Texture Mats from my own drawings has intrigued me. Our current mold rubber is a bit too soft for pressing a design into polymer clay without 'blurring' so researching a properly stiff rubber that will give an imprint and also be flexible enough to bend easily became our first priority. When there was a bit of time, I contacted the rubber company that we have worked with for years, requested samples and found one that is "Just Right".

Next we needed to create an original mat from which a mold maker could be cast. More time provided the research and solution as to what we would need for this step.

There was finally time available to make our first mats. We started with a design called Branches, a sheet of simple interlocking branches on a plain background.

The second is Swirling Ginko Leaves, ginko leaves in a variety of sizes on a background of swirling dots.

On both mats the images are "outies".

Each mat is 6 by 4.5 inches. I'm not sure if I like them this way or if we ought to remake them with the images as "Innies".

When these mats are rolled onto a clay sheet misted with water, the images are embedded into the clay. ( "Innies" ).

However, if we make a new rubber mat by molding the opposite way, when the mat is rolled into a sheet of clay, the line art images will be sticking out ( "outies" ).

Hummm...... Lots to think about. Maybe we should try "outie" texture mats tomorrow.

So much to do..... So little time....

Website work and free Tutorials

2010-05-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

We have worked very hard to build a website for our little business. After looking at other sites and assessing the time taken to build our little site, I am in awe of the amount of work required.

Our first attempt did not seem to show our molds to the best advantage. So, we made a few changes. We took new photographs of all of our molds and reviewed the pages with tutorials and stamps.

Our most recent molds, PJ001 through PJ009 were a different format from the molds created for Sweetbrier Studio and needed work. They were used in my classes and none of them had any project included with the purchase of the mold since the students used them in a class with a lesson.

It was obvious that projects and tutorials needed to be written for each of these. 'Much easier said than done.

Starting with our top selling PJ009 Wild Flights micro mold, the choice was to make an embellished focal bead. The body of the bead was made of translucent clay with micro glitter worked into the clay. The tutorial shows two finishes. Varnish only and antiqued with heavy body acrylic paint, then varnished. Since many folks got this mold in a class but not the Focal Bead Tutorial, we have posted it on our Free Tutorials (Tutorial #6) page of our website. BEST FLEXIBLE MOLDS..

With that done, both of the Thunderbird molds needed projects. Since they are so much alike except for size, the tutorials are basically the same. A variety of color combinations and a photo of a wooden cigar box embellished with a colorful eagle.

The PJ008 Roses and Butterfly micro mold was next. Again, a project was needed. This time I went for old fashioned and feminine. A heart pin with roses seemed just the thing. (It also matches my peach jacket.) The tutorial for this mold is also available in the Free Tutorials page (tutorial #5) page of our website. BEST FLEXIBLE MOLDS..

Next we needed a project for the cabochon molds, PJ001 Almond Cabs & More and PJ002 Cabs & More have a tutorial for Faux Abalone.

While making parts for PJ003 and PJ004, I began playing around with slices of canes in the bottom of the cabochon mold. Beginning with PJ004 Dominoes and more mold, I started with a simple design. After this design, I got a bit bolder and began to do more in the cabochon mold before adding clay. The results were way beyond my wildest expectations.

Begin the project by filling the mold with less clay than needed to fill it. Push the clay all the way to the edges making in a shallow cabochon. Remove the shallow cabochon and set it aside.

Next arrange very thin slices of flowers, leaves, fun canes and loopy ribbons in the bottom of the cabochon mold. When satisfied with the design put the shallow cabochon put back into the mold, on top of the cane slices, and very, very firmly press in place.

If you have the PJ003 Egg shapes and More mold but not the tutorial, it's your lucky day. If not, the technique should work in any solid, flexible mold with a flat bottom. This cabochon is made with some of my favorite canes, especially the rose cane. The leaves are Illusion Leaves, one of my classes. They look rounded even though they are flat. The translucent and white ribbons are really striking on the dark background. Add a little ultra fine micro glitter and the effect is wonderful. (Matches my black outfit.) :-) You can download this tutorial, also for free, on our Free Tutorials (Tutorial #4) page of our website. BEST FLEXIBLE MOLDS.

The designs continue to grow and develop.

The tutorial to make this lovely cabochon on a skinner background comes with PJ004 Dominoes & More mold. I'll try to get it up on the Free Tutorial page soon. The oval cabochon in this mold is 30 by 40mm, and fits a standard setting.

Clay buddy Jane came over yesterday and I showed her how simple these pretty pieces are to make. Shown here is the result of cane slices in the PJ028 Symbols of Faith mold. A flat cross designed for patterned clay. I did it very quickly but was again, delightfully surprised at the results. The bright colors and pearly green background are a beautiful mix.

Feel free to visit our Free Tutorials page of our website. BEST FLEXIBLE MOLDS.

Have fun!
Penni Jo

Today was an Adventure in Video taping

2010-04-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today DH and I successfully filmed and uploaded our first video onto YouTube. We wanted to show how easy it is to mold and de-mold clean ready-to-use sculpted parts. After all, with our molds you "Push in Clay ~ Pull out Art".

DH would be the camera man and I would be making the molded part and narrating the video. Sounds easy enough, right??? Wrong!

After four un-usuable attempts, we finally achieved a video that was OK. We uploaded it to YouTube, but you can watch it right here if you like.

What fun! 'Can't wait to do this again. What's next?

Big Changes

2010-04-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

I guess it is no secret that I have designed and sculpted flexible push molds for Sweetbrier Studio, a subsidiary of Miss Martha Originals. She approached me in late 2004 asking if she could license our rubber mold designs. From that early conversation, Sweetbrier Studio was formed. Miss Martha and I attended several CHA shows and one NAMTA show with mixed success. Hobby Lobby picked up the line at our first show and carried it until this year. A number of smaller craft stores and web stores are also selling the line.

In February we were surprised to hear that Sweetbrier Studio was no longer taking orders. It seemed that the company is closing so my licensed designs were restored to us. When we got home the first of March, we jumped right back into the mold business. Since we recently moved and molds were low on the list of things to do, it was a HUGE job. The mold room is housed in the fourth bedroom and nothing had been unpacked before our trip to south Texas.

We had to have a work bench, shelves and lighting. Oh, and mold rubber, now where are the containers of mold rubber??? Big items like the compressor, vacuum chamber and vacuum pump were easy to find. The rest, not so easy. In the first week of March, I unpacked, cataloged and put in place over 15 boxes of the parts and pieces of mold production and shipping. It is amazing how many things are needed for productive mold manufacturing.

Joe had several computer jobs to catch up when we got home so I inventoried what few molds we had then began planning how to make the molds we needed for the orders that we had received in the last few weeks. Good news, we had mold making master for all but two of them. Next, make mold making masters for those then serious casting began.

After years of working with the United Design mold room, it was like riding a bike, only messier. In a few days, we had a shelf full of finished, trimmed molds, ready for..... the inserts!! Egad, where are those? I original wrote the projects and took the pictures but everything was sent to Sweetbrier Studio for printing.

A LOT of time was spent on my computer, searching for the elusive project inserts, color pics of the finished projects and measuring circles. Finally everything was found, printed, cut and folded and put into the plastic bags with the molds. Boxes were sealed, and weighed, postage was bought online, labels glued on, then off to the post office.

People talk about mom and pop businesses. I wonder if anyone realizes how hard mom and pop work. :-D

The last part of the job was building a website for the molds, tutorials and original rubber stamps. Our website is BestFlexibleMolds.com DH and I have spent nearly every spare minute on it over the last few weeks and tonight, it went live!!! The home page of the website with little pictures of all the molds can be found here: Molds. Our tutorials are here: Tutorials. Free Tutorials are Free Tutorials. If you love stamps, you might want to take a look at our Stamps.

It's amazing how very many pictures are on a website. Good thing Photoshop is around. The artwork and photos had to be sized, cropped, resized, re-cropped until everything fit. It was a bit scientific looking here.
DH has a PC desktop in his office next to the mold room.
I have a Mac desktop in the studio in the opposite corner of the house.
We each have a laptop, his PC, mine a Mac that were set side by side on the dining room table.
All the computers were linked.
I could create an image on the desktop and send it to the shared folder on his desktop.
Using his PC laptop, I could open the website and work on any page that he was not working on.
If I needed an already made image on the desktop, I could pull it from the Mac Desktop with my laptop and put it in the image folder on the PC desktop machine and use it on the PC laptop to insert onto a page.
Hmmm sounds a bit odd but it worked great. Ain't technology grand???

This is a sample of a pic for the site, showing flexing and removing a perfectly molded part.

Since we are not pros at website construction, if you have a chance to look it over and find something, please feel free to send me and email. We'd greatly appreciate it.

Here's hoping you all are having a wonderful spring. Weather is finally nice here in Oklahoma and we are back on the bikes. It's good to be blogging again.

Biking in Mexico!

2010-02-26T18:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we did it and survived!!!!!! What, you may ask, did you do??? We signed up for a very physical trip. We would drive to the hand drawn ferry in the US and take the ferry into Mexico and bike to the nearest town. 22 of us gathered at the rec. center for the trip. The morning had been overcast and chilly but the forecast for the day was for warm and sunny weather.

People and bikes were loaded into pickup trucks. Half of the group would be riding bikes, the other half would ride to the ferry and cross with us and take a cab to town. We were headed to Los Ebanos ferry, located at the obscure Texas border crossing of Los Ebanos, a tiny town in Texas on the Rio Grande river. It is also a historical site.
The pickups were parked at the ferry and the bikes were unloaded. Leaving the pickups in the parking lot, we walked down the ramp onto the ferry after paying our fee. Fifty cents for a person, fifty cents for a bike. One dollar each for Joe and I to ride a ferry. Just before we got to the ferry, the clouds disappeared giving way to a beautiful, summery day.

This is such a small, little traveled link to Mexico that there is only a tiny customs station. It is the smallest of eight official ports of entry into southeast Texas from Mexico. On the United States side of the river there is one lane for the three cars that come off the ferry each trip and, on the other side of the tiny kiosk, a window for the people who are on foot coming into the US. No commercialism, just this little station and some old buildings. On the Mexican side there is a building and customs station, also very small. One serious warning sign, If you bring a gun, you will go to prison!! There is no town at the landing in Mexico. The first town is over a mile from the border.

The ferry is tiny and the river is not wide, only about 90 feet, where it crosses. There is no motor on the boat, just a heavy rope stretched from shore to shore with a metal circle guide on each end of the ferry. Six men pull the heavy rope, drawing the ferry from one side to the other. A second rope was stretched about 10 feet up stream with two pulleys with ropes that were fastened to the boat and preventing it from sliding downstream while crossing. This method is hundreds of years old but amazingly efficient. There's been a ferry here since the 1700's. There is room for three vehicles. The sides are filled with riders and bikers. Before we knew it, the boat had left so smoothly, we never noticed it was moving until, glancing at the rope, we noticed it was moving! Joe grabbed it and started pulling too. I pulled too but I imagine it made no difference at all. In less than a minute, there was a bump. We were in Mexico.

On the Mexican side of the river there was a very steep ramp going up the hill. I was pushing the trike up the hill but it was a real chore as it's heavy. Joe left his bike halfway to the top and rushed back to roll the trike the rest of the way up. At the top, we bikers took off down the road to town and the rest of them got into cabs. We were off and pedaling to Diaz Ordaz.

I figured I might have trouble biking that far but six weeks of serious biking here in the park paid off big time. Believe it or not, I was not at the tail end, but in the middle of the pack all the way. True, I had to pedal constantly as I only have one speed, but it was, by and large, an easy ride. The road is paved and relatively flat. It went by so quickly that I was surprised when, all of a sudden, we were entering the outskirts of town. There was one big hill entering town where I had to get off and walk the trike up the top. After that, the town was as flat as the surrounding land and riding was easy.

All the bikers stopped at a tiny park just inside of town to take a short break. One of the bikers had been there before and led the way to a restaurant where the travelers from our park always eat. When we got there, the small parking lot was half full of bikes. We were not the only American's enjoying the fabulous weather and good food. I'd forgotten my newly purchased bike lock but parked next to the building and went inside encouraged by the fact that only a few of the bikes in the lot were locked.

The tables had bowls of fresh pico de guillo and fresh chips. The menu was simple. A single sheet of paper with a brief description of the food in English and a number. You order by number and pointing as the staff does not speak English. This town is NOT a tourist town. The citizens are friendly and helpful, the food was great.

After lunch we spent about two hours biking around town collecting adventures and memories pedaling down the street to city center where the group broke up into couples or individuals wishing to find something or take photos. It is a nice Mexican town. There were statues and obelisks in the median strips honoring people. The benches in the park were inscribed too.

Cars, trucks and buses were everywhere. There seemed to be a sort of unplanned chaos that worked to keep traffic and Americans on bikes and trike flowing with no injury to anyone in spite of the fact that the traffic was CRAZY!! Cars would roar around us, but always missing us. Children hung out of car windows smiling and waving to us. Everyone was helpful and kind. Men in big trucks would slow down and wave me across the road when I would be waiting to cross. Maybe the sight of an old fat gal, the color of mayonnaise, on a big trike was just too good to pass up. Joe and I made sure to stop at every stop sign and obeyed all traffic directions so as not to end up in the hoosegow.

As I had not bought enough bottles of cooking Vanilla for friends and family, Joe and I went on a hunt for Vanilla. While Joe waited at the curb, I went into a number of stores, putting on a big smile and asking for "Vanilla Por favor". One non english speaking sales person after another looked distressed and did not understand but smiled back. Finally I took to showing my spanish to english book to them to which they all said no, no Vanillia. Because I took their time and they were always so nice, I bought a little something in each store like a Pepsi or cleaning supplies.

Back out on the main street we were looking again when a young man asked in broken English if they could help. I showed him the book and pointed to the word Vanilla. Ah.. YES! Vaneeila and both of them began talk to each other then began to point down the street in the direction we were headed. We started down the street but it was obvious we did not know for what we were looking. Finally they signaled to follow them and we all went down the street for three or four blocks. Finally they gestured and pointed to a small store across the street. It was an ice cream store. With vanilla ice cream. In order to avoid being an ugly American we thanked them profusely with many smiles. I went inside and bought a vanilla ice cream cone.

We biked a bit more and headed back to the road to the park in time to meet the rest of the bikers. When we got to the corner to turn, the two young men who walked us to the ice cream store were just rounding the corner, walking up the same road we would be going! They had walked BLOCKS out of the way to help some American lady on a trike buy a vanilla ice cream cone. What nice guys!!!!!

Arriving at the park early, we loafed few minutes, then three of us took off again, looking for the elusive vanilla. Two grocery stores later, still no vanilla but a good bar of laundry soap and some scrubbing pads.

On one street corner we met an elderly gentleman who wanted to speak English with us. He grinned and shook our hands over and over telling us all "I like you!" in nearly perfect English. I'm sure he used all of his English with us and both of us walked away smiling at his enthusiasm for Americans and the English language. What a great city with many kind citizens.

The ride back to the ferry was harder. After nearly two hours of biking around town meeting the citizens and searching for vanilla we headed back down the highway to the ferry. However, it was slightly up hill the whole way. Tired and thirsty, I stopped once for a big drink of water then back on the trike and took off down the highway to the border. "I think I can", "I think I can", "I think I can", "I think I can", "I think I can", ran through my mind like the Little Engine that Could. I just HAD to succeed under my own steam. Once again I was surprised when the customs building was there before I expected it.

Note to self: next time, rest at the park a bit before start pedaling back to the ferry.

The ferry ride back was as much fun as the first time only this time someone saw Joe pulling the rope and then everyone was pulling the rope and one guy started singing the song "Michel Row the Boat Ashore". What fun.

Joe wrestled the trike up the ramp on the US side while I pushed his bike. We stood in line at the entry and presented our passports to the man in the kiosk. He ran them through the scanner, asked if we had any liquor (no) and gave them back and welcomed us to America.

All in all, this trip was one of the most memorable in my life. When we got back to the rig we both took a much needed two hour nap.

We had a great time and are more fit than we knew.

Check out my big grin at the end of the ride.

Can't wait to go back again.

Another Guild Class

2010-02-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

The second Saturday of February Allyson and I traveled from south Texas to Corpus Christi for the regular guild meeting. Allyson taught a darling Mushroom house for tiny occupants. Everyone's house looked different when finished and all were charming.

Back in '81 I found Fimo at a miniature meeting and immediately fell in love with the clay. For seven years I sculpted tiny doll house scale items and loved every minute of it. After nearly twenty years of commercial design and sculpting, it was such fun to be sculpting so small again.

Thanks Allyson!! The class was great fun and we all had a good time.

Art Studiette in a motor home

2010-02-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

Motor Home Studiette
(Tiny Studio)

Recently I was asked how a sculptor/designer, like myself, travels with paints, clay and enough other art stuff to be able to comfortably sculpt, paint or draw in a motor home. When I began to describe where and how the things were stored and used it was obvious that words were not enough. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s how this old artist does it. Even if one doesn't have an RV, this layout might help an artist with very little space organize a tiny bit of a room for clay play, etc.

Photo one - left: looking toward the windshield, on the right is the passenger seat in the rig. It swivels all the way around.

Photo two - left: was taken from above the driver’s chair.

When driving, the seats face forward. After parking, both the passenger and driver seats rotate into the room, creating a cozy ‘living room’. When traveling, nearly all of the boxes, totes, and lighting is stowed in the basement and all clay goes in a bedroom cabinet as heat can cure the clay.

Our diesel rig is one of those that has the rig entry door in the center of the side, like a gas rig, leaving a large, unused space in front of the passenger seat. Normally this space is where the stairs and the entry are located. Instead, there is a nice open area for a work table and storage.

The photos have little numbers on them to identify the contents.

Photo three - below: is the lower center console.

1. Laptop on a pull out table. To the right is the electric pencil sharpener.
2. Makin’s Pasta Machine Motor
3. Makin’s Pasta Machine
4. 60-watt gooseneck lamp on a PVC pipe extension.
5. 18 watt Ott lamp
6. Three tin cans taped together to hold tools, pencils, pens, brushes, etc.
7. Craft Space Desktop with work in progress all over it.
8. Table Mate at lowest setting.
9. White, wood top of desk.
10. Cardboard box to carry class supplies back and forth to the Art Class that I teach in the park. In it are some inexpensive watercolors and polymer clay for students to try out before investing in expensive materials.
11. Books, notebooks, packet with printouts for classes, etc.
12. Jewelry making box one, wire, head pins, and pierced ear wires, embossing powders, holeless beads etc.
13. Jewelry making box two: settings of all sizes, clamps, chains, jewels, spacers, etc.
14. Tote with tiny cutters and small bottles of hope ready to cover.
15. Larger cutters for boxes, cabochons, etc.
16. Baby wipes with alcohol for cleaning hands between colors.
17. Tiny box with liner for trash.
18. “Finish Me!” tote with partly finished projects along with supplies, beads, trays and whatever else is needed to finish them.
19. Box of finished jewelry and settings.
20. Box of finished larger items like inros and cookie cutter boxes.
21. Original urethane rubber push-molds.
22. Box of skinner blend blocks and small to tiny millefiori canes for embellishing jewelry and other items.
23. Hot press Watercolor block. 20 heavy watercolor sheets bound on all four sides with an open, unbound area preventing the paper from buckling when wet. When finished, the topmost page can be removed by sliding a dull blade into the unbound spot. The blade is slid around the block, releasing the page.
24. Tiny leather tote with Windsor Newton Water Color self contained kit with flask. An assortment of brushes including a mop, paper towels, small sea sponge, mechanical pencil, sepia pencil, kneaded eraser and Frisket are in a side pocket. (This tote and the watercolor block fit in my handbag and travel with me on airplane flights to stave off boredom and provide an opportunity to practice.)
25. Gallon freezer bag full of black wet or dry sand paper in three grits.
26. Uh-oh, goof up here: White number 26 on a black item - Laptop carry bag. Black number 26 on white – Paper towels
27. Motherboard box with baking surfaces, tiles, cardboard and cardstock.
28. Motherboard box with Mica powders, both PearlEx and LuminArte. Fimo Pulver in five colors, brushes, and Ranger markers for mica powder.
29. Motherboard box marked Faces. Cabochons with stamped portraits ready to color. Pitt pens, 36 color set of Walnut Hollow Oil Colors, Exacto knife, step-by-step colored cabochons showing the steps to coloring portraits on polymer clay cabochons. To the right of this mother board box are 1, a mother board box of original rubber stamps; 2, mother board box with a variety of Stewart Superior stamp inks in lots of colors.
30. Box of cheap, fold over sandwich bags. The edges are cut away to leave a long strip of plastic used to store and secure sheets of conditioned clay. All clay is conditioned and run through on the widest setting, laid between two sheets of plastic for storage.
31. This is the corner of the tote that holds conditioned clay divided into five categories. Regular colored clay, Translucent clay both plain and tinted, Metallic and Pearl clays, Neutral colors such as ivory, ecru, tan, brown, etc, and Black and White. To use I simply pull the desired color from the tote, remove the plastic and put it through a pasta machine to ‘wake it up’. Since the starting sheets are already thin, there is rarely any crumbling or difficulty using the preconditioned clay.
32. Big front windshield on the passenger side.
33. Side window. Usually, in a diesel rig, this is the entry with a door.
34. Dashboard
35. Box is shown near the bottom, out of order. This little box holds the extruder with disks, light bulb forms (used to make the tiny mushroom house) large roll of tape, glass drops for magnifying refrigerator magnets.
36. Photographic background. I can shoot pics on the black velvet square or on the dash. The lighting at this place on the dash is most excellent during the day as it is on the north side of the rig.
37. Most important work box. Contains duplicates of nearly every important polymer clay tool. Acrylic roller, scissors, jewelry pliers, blades, sculpting tools, ruler, fiber fill, water mister, container of corn starch, tiny container of Kato liquid, brushes for both paints and liquid clay, 18 K gold Krylon marker, Varnish, rubber finger tips to avoid hurting fingers while sanding, sand paper in three grits, clamps, tip drill with assortment of drill bits, Exacto knives with fancy handles, new blades, razor blades, etc, etc. This box goes to all classes and guild meetings.
38. Colored pencils. One set of Walnut Hollow and one set of Lyra Rembrandt oil pencils. Behind them is a card with envelope.
39. Black numbers 9 by 12 pads. Two are drawing. One is a watercolor pad. White numbers: small 8.5 inch by 5.5 inch pad. This smaller one goes in my handbag. Behind them are completed drawings ready to be transferred to watercolor or drawing paper.
40. Hand pencil sharpener.

It’s a delight to be able to travel with so many tools, clay and extras. The work lights are a great help. As is the laptop with wifi so I can search google images, stay in contact with friends and family, and post from just about anywhere.

A Rainy Day in south Texas

2010-02-03T21:04:00.004-08:00

When we were kids, a rainy day was not to be whined about, but one to enjoy indoor activities. One of my favorites was coloring or painting. Today, it rained most of the day but was so warm that the door was open all day. It was a pleasant, calm rain that drummed lightly on the rig and made ripples in the puddles. What a day to break out the colors!!

We have a once a week art class here in Oleander Acres. Somehow I've ended up being the 'teacher'. Mostly just helping where I can and encouraging folks to branch out and spread their wings a bit.

Today some of the students colored with brightly colored oil pencils from Walnut Hollow that are designed to be used to color on wood. We drew snow scenes, outdoor scenes and flowers.

The soft, rich colored leads blend beautifully on baked polymer clay. I started a pendant with pansies on it in class. In addition to coloring on clay, we also colored on paper.

After class, I spent most of the rest of the day finishing the artwork on the pendant I'd started in class, adding more layers of color, building depth and shape to the pansies on the pendant.

Tiny ovals of clay were cut, baked and sanded to fit standard settings and each one received it's very own tiny pansy.

After finishing the drawings, a layer of liquid Kato clay was spread over the images and baked. Three coats of high gloss varnish was brushed over the cabochons with drying time allowed between coats.

The dry cabochons were glued into the Fire Mountian settings and allowed to dry. Next the little prongs were squeezed up against the cabochons for extra security. Add a pair of hypo-allergenic ear wires and viola!! a set of jewelry in the old fashioned china painting style.

Tomorrow, a jump ring and chain will finish the necklace.

Sweet dreams all.....
PJ

January 2010 Corpus Christi Guild Meeting

2010-01-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

We recently traveled to south Texas to spend some time in the sunshine, relax a little and play a little. While we were driving south, I contacted Patty, the list owner of clay-polymer yahoo forum. Patty lives near a highway on which we would be traveling. We made plans to meet at a truck stop and visited over two hours while Joe took a much needed break from driving. She is a teacher and former president of the International Polymer Clay Association.

During our conversation, she mentioned that the Polymer Clay Guild in Corpus Christi would be having their meeting on Saturday the 9th. When we got to McAllen, the park we planned to stay could not take any more travelers with dogs so we called Oleander Acres, a "nice park with friendly folks" recommended to us by people we visited with on the way.

Turns out the guild meeting was only 160 miles from our campground in Mission, Texas. So, of course, I had to go. The meeting was in the home of a member, Margaret. She was a most excellent hostess with seating for everyone and room for our clay "stuff". Thank you Margaret.

There was a business meeting with Ruphia, the president leading the group. She does marvelous work and is very talented. The newest book on color was shown and a project from the book, a fabulous necklace with subtle color changes from one end to the other.

I saw a lot of the member's work and was totally blown away. Not only are they a great group of people, there is an abundance of talent, imagination and friendliness. I wish it were possible to thank each of them individually by name however, my senior moments are denying me good recall of all of their names.

Patty was the project teacher, bringing a great lesson on making a rose cane. If you are a clayer (a person who plays in polymer clay as often as possible), you know what this is. A cane of colored clay that no matter where cut, a beautiful rose goes through the slice. The technique is ancient, called millefiori, or "thousand flowers" in Italian. Thin rods of colored glass formed patterns that, when cut across the length of the rod, were used to make dishes, jewelry, etc. Another example is Christmas candy with a tree, bow or bell through the center of the candy.

This particular cane was designed by Leigh Ross and used with permission.

We all made the rose cane then Patty demonstrated how to make a leaf and 'pack' the cane with background color, completing the total project. She also provided printed copies of the lesson so that we could finish at home if need be. While working the room was filled with happy chatter. It was a most wonderful time.

I made a pair of earrings with the cane using a lace cane with an ivy border taught to me by Mary of the Dallas area guild and a leaf cane. Here they are on a tile, ready to bake.

Thanks again Patty, Mary and all you wonderful folks in the Corpus Christi Guild!!

The Blizzard Of '09

2009-12-25T20:28:00.001-08:00

We had a white Christmas this year. The snow was lovely, if a bit deep. This is what we found when opening the front door about 4 :00 Christmas Eve. The snow was still falling and had blown up onto the front door and drifted in the entry way.

We hope that you have enjoyed your holidays with the ones that you love and the ones that love you.

Tonight I'm playing in clay, developing some new techniques for classes and wondering "What if????".

Inspired by hand made jewelry on the web and the beauty of ribbon embroidery, the next project will either be called "Sliver flowers" or "Faux Ribbon Embroidery". Note the first name is SLIVER, as in a sliver of pie; not SILVER, as in silver and gold.

The flowers and leaves are tiny slivers of clay that are gently rolled to shape. When finished, it reminded me of silk ribbon embroidery where many of the shapes are tiny slivers of ribbon, shaped by the stitchery. We'll see. You will hear it here.

The first pendant was done in pastels and posted on my flickr site. It was posted on Etsy, but was lost in the huge pool of lovely products.

The pendant reminded me of the slightly puffy look of ribbon embroidery.

The next attempt was to make another pendant with a different feeling.

I learned more about beading at a guild field trip to a beading store. This pendant has a jade necklace with tiny gold tone seed beads, AB glass beads, two lavender beads whose names I have forgotten and gold tone spacers.

The background is faux ivory, but looks more like faux wood. Maybe not a good choice. Also used are iron on crystals and some wire work.

I'm still learning something about jewelry every day it seems. This necklace is a favorite so far. It took four attempts to get a pattern in the beadwork that I liked. First it was too dull, then the lavender beads were too far from the pendant, then it needed spacers, still to dull out came the sparkly AB glass beads. Finally! a necklace I was proud of.

The earrings are in progress.

Just for fun, I experimented on different bits of clay, like ribbons to make this little wisteria pendant.

The clays used are both translucent and opaque. The tiny eye pins along the bottom are from Rio Grande. They have tiny ridges that allow them to be inserted before baking, and when gently pressed from the front or back, will not come out after baking.

The pendant is only about 3/4" tall without the eye pins and pale pink drops.

Have fun and I hope you have lots of time to create and play.

A Gift for you ~ the 2009 Christmas Angel artwork

2009-12-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

* Christmas is a time for, well, lots of things, but one of the biggest for me is a new angel drawing for the annual Christmas card / newsletter.
* This year's Christmas angel is designed to reflect a prayerful attitude and a sweet spirit.
* Peacock feathers intermingle with her feathers and circle the border of her robe. The title of this illustration is: "A Christmas Prayer"

* There are two images, the jpg, has a romantic, Victorian background. See right. The .png image below is the angel alone on a transparent background. Feel free to download either or both.

* We hope that your holidays are especially good for you this year, that you and your loved ones are well and pursuing happiness.
We have had a very busy year. Last November we began the remodeling of the house that I inherited.
* Note: Old people who plan a total and complete remodel of a house should think twice or even three times. It’s a LOT of hard work but the results were well worth the effort. We were blessed to have many, many hands helping us with the work. I thank God for our helpful family and friends.

* Vince Jonas was our most excellent and creative carpenter. He’s been blessed with a marvelous talent. New baseboards, casings, cabinets and built-in's make this house both uber-functional and beautiful.
* By the time the house was finished, Joe and I were more fit than we had been in years and both of us lost weight. We moved in on my birthday in August.
* In September I started teaching again, once a week, at Southern Oaks Rec center. We will be posting both a freebie tutorial and a tutorial for sale each month from the classes that are taught each fall.
* Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year! May you be blessed by the eternal gift of the Babe of Bethlehem, Emanuel, God with Us and may God richly bless you, the ones that you love, and the ones that love you.

* If you would like to use either or both of these images for your personal, non- commercial use, or for making one of a kind's for selling at craft shows, you may download either or both sizes.

New Venture ~ Tutorials

2009-12-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

Each year I create eight to ten new polymer clay tutorials for the classes that I teach in the fall. It's a lot of work for just one class. Recently hubby Joe suggested we post the more involved classes for sale and have a "Freebie of the Month" tutorial along with the tutorial for sale. After a bit of planning, we have chosen the first two class tutorials to post and created an index page with clickable links.

HERE is the link to the index of the currently available Pdf files.

The first is titled, 'OrnamentCover.pdf'. When you click this link a single page will open up with information about the tutorial, a materials list and photos of the finished ornament. The full tutorial will be sent to you by email after payment.

The second link, the "Freebie of the Month", is titled, 'SnowmanSwitchplateTutorial.pdf'. Just in time for winter fun or to bring a fun, snowy, wintry feeling to a warm southern home.

This is a tutorial that I have posted a couple of times over the years. It's one of my early guild classes; a switch plate cover with a snowy winter scene. The project shown uses Fimo glitter blue and glitter white, but any blue and white clay should work. The clay is baked on the switch plate.

A switch plate cover note: to avoid the embellishments from breaking off, be sure that the parts are firmly pressed into the background and are thin, sort of like the artwork on a coin. The snowman's nose appears to be sticking out, but it is actually flat across his face.

The second page of this switchplate tutorial contains a second, mini tutorial, "Faux Knit", a technique for making 'knit' clay fabric as shown in the scarves. I've made tiny stocking caps and socks using this technique and would love to see what you might make using this 'knit' clay fabric.

If you can't download the files or would like printed copies, please write to me.

Have fun!

It's been FAR too long but we are home at last!!

2009-11-28T20:12:00.001-08:00

After working for nearly a year and the last five weeks at a fever pitch, it was time to MOVE! We had completed a total remodel, taking the house back to the studs in some areas, adding a skylight, replacing all of the baseboards and casings, removing all of the old paneling, expanding the master bathroom, adding built-ins, bumping the back half of the huge refrigerator out into a closet in the garage freeing up a lot of floor space in the kitchen, walls were finished with a new sheet rock texture in a stucco finish with bullnose corners, all woodwork was painted high gloss white, new flooring laid throughout, walls were opened with arch ways to improve the flow and repeat the arched windows, new appliances installed, granite kitchen counter tops, new bathroom counter tops, sinks with faucets, furnace, air conditioner, garage door with opener, roof, turbins, gutters, sidewalk, etc, etc......

Except for a few handles and some touch up paint, everything was finally finished enough to move. We even had a renter for the old house. When we began the move on my birthday, August 23rd, we were moving out as they were moving in.

After we got into the house, and my studio was still full of boxes, I realized my first Polymer Clay Technique class was less than two weeks away. With no computer until three days before class and all my tools and clay in boxes, there was a serious temptation to panic. For each class, I create a project, write a tutorial, taking step by step pictures and, if needed, prepare a kit. The only thing to do was jump right in and do the best that could be done. Armed with a box cutter, I attacked the 18 boxes in the studio, determined to find everything I needed for the first class. The efforts were blessed with success and we started on time with clay, instructions, everything except the sample. I could only find a photo of the project, but the students were able to start and finish with what we had.

The classes run in three - 4 week series each fall on Thursday nights at Southern Oaks Recreational Center in Oklahoma City. The last class of the third series ends the Thursday before Thanksgiving. I post a list of each four week series, including pics of the projects and a materials list. It was a monumental task to have the project list out in three days, pictures to follow.

The first lesson of the first four weeks we started with translucent canes, a bullseye, leaf and flower canes that would be used to cover a votive. I chose this lesson as the effect of candlelight behind the translucent designs is so cool. The lesson included information on using a very thin white layer between the translucent and colored clay to prevent any possible staining from the darker colors used around the translucent clay.

For the second lesson we continued with caning creating a feather cane using a chevron pattern and a variety of colors. The lesson included ways to change the effects by using a variety of colors. Student Annette used the end pieces of her cane to create a beautiful pendant that, because of her color choices, resembles a peacock feather! On one feather cane, I used gold tone foil in the mix, bringing a sparkle to the feather.

Week three we were supposed to cover pens, but the teacher was unable to find the pens purchased for class so we ended up covering the handles of our Exacto knives and tip drills with beautiful feathers on skinner backgrounds. The lesson included step by step instructions on how to make the pen. While we were baking the handles, I showed them how to make some jewelry, actually earrings from the same cane. We made a set of earrings with two feathers and a showier set with three feathers each.

Once again Annette made a fabulous set of not only earrings, but a series of sized feathers that would become part of a necklace set to go with the pendant created from the scraps and the earrings. Very creative and beautiful work!

The last week of the series we used slices from the same feather cane to make wings for an angel switch plate. This was a lesson on both molding clay, covering a switch plate and stamping on clay. Inspiring and spiritual word stamps were created using photopolymer to be used on the garment. It was a challenging lesson both to develop, photograph, write and teach. New students have seen the project and would like for it to be repeated.

The week after the last class we were expecting 30 guests for Thanksgiving requiring more work to finish hanging the artworks and other little chores that had to wait until classes were over. It's now the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it's really good to be back blogging again.

Remodeling: Not for the Faint of Heart

2009-08-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

DH Joe and I have been remodeling a house since last November. It's about 3 miles from our current home and we drive over there every day to work on it. We plan to move into it when finished. There are about a gazillion things to do when completely remodeling a house. Cabinet hardware is just one of them.

To try to save some money and not add to the landfills, we decided to use the existing hardware in the home we are remodeling. The knobs and backplates currently are dark brass, and have very pretty with molded designs. The dark knobs do not look nice on the high gloss white cabinets. Too much contrast.

We had a plan. I would clean them, and paint them the same decorator color as the walls. When the paint dries, the enamel is scrubbed off of the high spots to reveal the beautiful pattern in the knobs, back plates and pulls. A light dry-brushing of gold and bronze would be used to bring out the lovely designs.

After a quick coat of lacquer is applied and allowed to dry in the bright sunlight the knobs, handles, and back plates would be reinstalled on the white woodwork.

Since we have added so many doors and drawers, We've had to scrounge up some additional knobs and drawer pulls. We found used ones at the Habitat Renovation Station from the same time frame as our home was built, late 70's. They are not the same pattern, but complimentary when done the same painted technique. Since the new knobs and pulls will only be in the two rooms, the whole thing works!

The hanging lamps in both bathrooms were also the dark brass with glass globes. They were dis-assembled, cleaned, painted, etc. Even the chains were painted and sponged with bronze and gold to brighten them and bring out the decorator colors we've chosen. All the finished parts were going home to be re-assembled using new wire and the part into which you screw the light bulb. We will re-hang the lights on Saturday.

After working all day in the remodel house, I loaded all of the metal lamp parts and cabinet hardware, handles, knobs, tools, scrubbers etc and can of High Gloss Enamel Paint into a shallow box. (we had been painting and prepping them at the remodel house when we needed to sit down a bit.) I put tools and hardware in another box, and there were two shallow boxes of finished hardware with lids. So there was a stack of two shallow boxes with lids, an open box with tools and hardware; and the open shallow box with the quart of paint and hardware on the top of the stack. This went into the back seat of the Saturn (my 12 year old SL2) to bring home to work on over the weekend. Hubby Joe took grandson Jacob home in the Saturn while I drove the other car home. We met back at our current house where we had supper and a bit of relaxing.

When I went out to the garage to bring the boxes into the house a couple of hours later, the can was still sitting upright, it appeared to be sealed, but the paint was running out of the shallow box on top. The wet paint had collapsed the side of the box and the entire quart of paint had run down into the back of the seat, into the seat, the seat belt holder, the seat belts; EVERYWHERE on the back seat behind the driver, as well as into and onto all the other boxes! It appears that the lid had not hammered tightly back onto the can of paint. Somehow the paint had leaked out of it during the ride home and while sitting in the garage.

I started grabbing the boxes, dragging them out of the car in the garage and onto the floor. Next came the hose to hose down the stuff in the boxes as the paint was drying on everything.

I grabbed two towels to try to clean up the mess in the back seat. No luck, the paint was too thick. Next, we used the hose to try to flush some of the paint out of the back seat. Using a scrub brush and 409, Joe and I started hosing and scrubbing the seat until most of the paint was out of it. However, the paint had dried at the edges leaving an ivory ribbon of paint across the back of the seat and around the edges of the pool of paint in the seat that will NOT come out!

During the activity of scrubbing, hosing and mopping, watery paint is splashed all over the interior, door insides, and even outside where it drooled while removing the boxes.

Finally we began to wonder where is the water was going!? It was not running out of the car or back into the trunk. We found the water, it was under the CARPET! the carpet began floating like a water-bed in both front seat and back on the drivers side!

Out comes the wet/dry vac! Half an hour later most of the water is sucked out of the seat and floor, the mess is everywhere. Even the courtyard needed to be rinsed down to get rid of the paint residue after we dumped the wet/dry vac tank contents down the drain!

Then I used the 409 and a clean towel to try to get the paint splashes off of the interior and exterior of the car. There was even paint drools on the trunk and hood!

Another hour was needed to clean up the painted pieces, unpainted pieces, chains, light fixture tops, connectors, tools, and bucket in the kitchen sink.

Went outside to bring in the dirty towels to wash and noticed the boxes were still sitting on the floor, with paint still oozing out of them! Get out the hose again, raise the garage door, hose out the garage, trying not to splash painty water all over the outside of the car again. The oozing boxes were trashed. The mess is mostly gone.

I'm wet, cold and really, really tired. Gonna climb into the tub and warm up before going to bed. So much for a relaxing weekend, let's hope that things get a little better and that finishing up the house goes more smoothly.

Next weekend, we move.

Oh, BTW, The top of one of the bathroom lights is missing. Maybe I'll find it tomorrow when I go out to check out the garage in the daylight. If it's not there, it's probably still in the remodel house.

DH Joe worked hard to save the back seat, clean up the spills and encourage me. Thanks so much Joe!!

Pietre Dure, just for fun

2009-07-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since there was time to post here. We continue to work on the home we are remodeling and are to the painting stage. All the new woodwork is primed including the 70+ cabinet doors. Now we clean, clean & clean to prepare for the high gloss finish coat.

Recently, needing a break from the work, my fingers succumbed to the lure of Pietre Dure, an art-historical term for the technique of using small, exquisitely cut and fitted, highly-polished colored stones to create what amounts to a painting in stone. It is considered a decorative art, a type of mosaic without grout. The pieces are all cut to fit together tightly.. It literally means Rock Hard.

In polymer clay, the unbaked clay is cut and inserted into an unbaked clay background. I learned about the polymer clay technique in Encyclopedia of Polymer Clay Techniques; a book by Sue Heaser.

The technique is fairly straightforward. Make a background. Cut a shape in the background, fill the shape with a piece of clay exactly the same shape. Like anything new, I just HAD to try it. After two false starts, I settled on a sailing ship. It's an old fashioned theme for an old fashioned technique.

The billowing sails of the ship seemed to beg for a circular skinner blend. In the 70's I did a large painting of a ship in full sail for my father who has since passed. I have no knowledge where the painting is now but loved the feel of the wind and waves. Googling ship under full sail, I pulled references, put them on one page and began sketching a simplifed design.

After printing out the line art, I made the background using Skinner blends and traced the line art onto the background. The drawing showed all of the cut lines as overlapping pieces would cut away the background pieces if necessary.

A skinner blend was created to reflect the billowing sails and pinched into a rectangle. The sails were slices from the cane then cut to the shape needed.

One by one each piece was cut out of the background and replaced with a matching shape in the proper color and ordination.

The mast was first, then the sails. Everything was cut and fit from the background to the foreground.

It turned out ok, after sanding it is amazingly smooth. At first glance, most people think it's a painting.

I plan to try it again. This time with blends for the water, canes of translucent and pearl swirls for the white water, bits of gold for bright sunlight flashes on the ship....... etc, etc. There are so many things I would do differently, but the work itself was invigorating.

What a delightful respite from the tedium of long hours sanding, cleaning, weeding, and all that is necessary to make our new home lovely.

Thanks for dropping by. If you want to use the drawing for your own attempt, feel free. I would love to see how you do. Be sure to see Sue's book for an excellent description of how to do this challenging technique since there is much more to making Pietre Dure than my simple description.

Thanks so much Sue!!

A bit of This and That

2009-06-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

We are back from the lake where we attended the annual Couch family reunion. DH Joe has three sisters and two brothers. I have one sister who has homes in Idaho and Iowa. A very long way from Oklahoma. We see each other very rarely but Joe's delightful siblings have more than filled the gap. All three sisters, Patsy, Barb and Judy, are unique and a ball to spend time with. The brothers, Jerry and Joe are equally friendly and good natured. (Yes, my husband Joe has a brother named Joe, but that's another post.)

In my last post, I was making polymer clay covered pens. I made more pens and took them to the reunion for the sisters and sisters-in-laws.
The next pen I made was a very different style. The barrel color was deeper and more subtle. It just cried for a simple five petal flower. Eager to try a new leaf cane, I created a subtle, shaded leaf. This pen quickly became a favorite.

The next two are completely different. Both started with a skinner blend, one bright and one delicate in coloring. It soon became evident that fancy roses and leaves were not going to go well on this brightly colored pen. Another cane was necessary. For a long time I've wanted to do the black and white stripes and that strong pattern would show up better on the bright colors.

Tiny hearts and twisty black and white threads and pin wheels decorated the bright blend pen.

The delicate pen called for even another cane, a blended bullseye from left over skinner blend, wrapped in black and white stripes. In addition to the bulls eyes, the simple flower fit into the design beautifully.

The results were ooohhhed and ahhhhhed over by the sisters as they got to choose their pens.

After returning home, we once again hit the remodel house hard and heavy, working daily to finish the job. Since we will be moving, I am cleaning out my studio to down size it a bit and prepare for the move.

I ran across an old photograph album from the mid 80's with photos of many of the miniatures that I made using fimo.This one is a picture of a real penny. Yes, an actual US penny. In front of the penny are two tiny bears that I made for doll houses. Note the millefiori patterns in the tiny bears. The one on the left is a quilt pattern, you can still see the tiny swirls in the block with the roses in it. The bear on the right has a printed "fabric" with tiny teddy faces with red bows. Even at that amount of reduction, the fimo details are clear.

During the late evenings at the lake, when everyone is tired out and headed to bed, there is always an opportunity to play with clay. This trip was no different. This fall I plan to teach sculpting flowers. The first choice was an orchid. I am not happy with the too dark color of purple, but other than that, they turned out OK.

My grandparents were early settlers in Miami, Florida. My grandmother loved orchids and, over the decades, built up a wonderful orchid collection. Some of them took thirty years to grow from seeds before they bloomed. Whenever there was an orchid blooming, she would bring them into the dining room and hang them from the chandelier over the table. I've eaten many a meal with a most fantastic spray of brilliantly colored orchids embellishing the table. When she was in her 80's she sold her home and donated the collection to a museum.

The project will teach the basics of flower construction. These orchids are 'growing' on an old piece of wood and will make nice pendants or pens. The bright throats are colored using oil pencils.

Help, I've been bitten by the pen bug

2009-05-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

When our guild president, Angela, taught how to cover a pen, I was out of town and did not get to go to the lesson. However, she gave me the print out and, needing another use for my feather cane, pulled out the lesson and gave it a whirl.

WHAT FUN! and.... you can write with it! or even draw with it!

It started with a practice pen (the one on the left). Sister in law Judy put us up on our trip to Florida, not an easy thing when you're driving a 36 foot diesel motor home. But, she had a lovely long, new double wide concrete driveway. What a great parking spot and dinner to boot with Judy and her family. Thank you again Judy!!

Oh, back to the pen. Judy loves roses and her home is redolent with them. Especially pink roses. So, since I had a peachy pink rose cane and a round bic pen, it just seemed like the thing to make.

Here are some things I have discovered about making pens. Those of you who are pen-sters probably know all of this.

1. Don't make the base layer too thick. The resulting pen will be chubby, especially after adding cane slices, and a bit awkward in your hand.

2. Don't make the base layer too thin. When rolling the slices onto the base layer, bubbles can form from stretching the base layer.

3. A tip from Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg at Fandango, roll the slices into the base layer until they are level with the base and you can't feel the edges. Her work is even more impressive in person than in photographs. It's like magic caught in clay.

Pen two, on the right. OK, the roses look great, how about a pearl skinner blend for the base clay with roses and translucent and white tiny flowers??? It also turned out very nicely and the base layer was just right.

Pen three, using the feather cane. The base layer was one setting thicker and since I added a lot of canes, it is just a bit thick, but OK. (Note to myself, add a step 4. If using lots of slices, make the base layer one setting thinner than normal as the slices add to the thickness. )

Back to feather cane, the problem being, what can be done with feathers to decorate a long thin item?????? Hummmmmm. I reduced the cane and cut a bunch of slices, then laid them out in various patterns on the work surface. The serpentine effect of the feathers laid out in a soft "S" shape was lovely.

Another happy accident. The pen turned out elegant and the feathers became a repeating pattern. Just because I like sparkle, iron on glass AB crystals were pressed into the clay before baking. A hole was put in the end of the pen and a short eye pin inserted. Then a large AB iron on crystal was pressed over the hole, sealing the end of the pen.

Two feathers with crystals on the veins were shaped and baked with holes in the shaft ends. A short length of chain was cut, one feather was linked to the chain end with a jump ring and the second feather linked to the middle of the chain. The chain was attached to the eye pin and secured in the hole in the end of the pen using Cyanoacrylate glue.

I've just finished another one and will post when I find the camera. It's got two new canes on it. Can someone help me??? I'm caning, and pen-ing and I just can't stop!!!!

New Projects for Fall 09 Polymer Clay Technique Classes

2009-05-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

September will be here before we know it and since both Hobby Lobby and Michael's have polymer clay on sale this week it seemed to be a good time to let my former students know that I'll be teaching classes again this fall and that polymer clay is on sale now.

The students that attended classes last fall were talented and had very different styles and interests. Classes in a specific thing were not as popular as classes that taught a technique with samples as to how that technique could be used. I expect that this year's students will be no different.

The first class will be making canes using translucent clay. The canes will be simple and, if there is time, we will cover a votive, but the same canes can be easily used as jewelry, where light shining through is effective. This photo shows slices of canes made using white and translucent, black and translucent, a leaf cane using a skinner blend of black and translucent with black veins and a bulls eye and leaf cane using deep gold and translucent clay. We will start with the more simple canes and progress from there.

Since some students like jewelry and others are fans of different designs or styles, each class will have a dual application. The cane on the left is an Ivy cane taught to me by Mary. She also gave me instructions to make the veil cane, top center right. All the canes except the dragon fly wings are made using Kato translucent. The wings are made using Premo translucent.

The second week we will be making a chevron based feather cane. This is a simple cane was made using a covered, cut and stacked Skinner blend, similar to a leaf cane, but with a lot more layers.

The photos shown, the angel light switch plate (the angel's wings are made of feather cane slices) and the feather cane and earrings are for weeks two and three.

The lesson, "how to make the feather cane" will be the lesson in week two and the students will make either project in week three. Each student will be able to use the canes to make the project that suits them the most.

I'll have molds for faces and hands available for use in class.

Sometimes the things that go wrong create a path to a beautiful result

2009-05-14T21:46:00.001-07:00

Cloisonne has always been a favorite of mine, the tiny cells filled with gleaming enamel captured by fine gold wires create some of the prettiest jewelry I've ever seen.

I will be teaching polymer clay classes again this fall and while planning projects, the idea of making faux cloisonne using polymer clay came to the top of my list. A matchbox pendant also seemed to be just the thing to make. It's pretty, functional and the students could learn the technique by making a bead first then, with an understanding of the technique, they could go on to create a tiny scene. ( I will provide a number of tiny drawings for the students.) So, with pencil in hand I did a few rough sketches and laid out a design for a matchbox pendant with a cloisonne face and matching bead. (you may have noticed that the drawing showing how the matchbox pendant opens is flawed. I'll change the workings of the design in the final drawing.)

Since a tutorial will be written for class, pictures were taken of each step. After adding the drawing to the matchbox, 'wires' of finely extruded gold polyclay were laid along the lines. The cells were then textured using a stylus. To make the drawing visible on the black, I photoshoped the design to bring out the details.

After securing the gold 'wires', I textured each cell and filled each cell with pearl ex powder in the colors called for in the design. This pic shows the pearl ex powders in the cells before adding any Liquid Kato.

After dusting each cell with Pearl Ex powders the matchbox was baked. After cooling, Kato liquid was drooled over the cells and I used my finger to spread the liquid clay over the entire design. HOWEVER, I failed to blow away the excess powders left in the cells. The liquid Kato lifted the loose colors and distributed them over adjacent cells. The result was that many of the cell colors were muddied after baking. (It was very disappointing when I pulled the hot matchbox out of the oven, hit the liquid clay with the heat gun to clear it up and saw the muddied colors.)

In an effort to fix the mess, I filled the the cells again with liquid, heated and cleared the liquid clay.

Then I put several drops of Polycrylic gloss varnish on a tile and added tiny amounts of pearl ex color to the drops of varnish and painted the muddied cells with the proper colors and allowed the varnish to dry. As you can see from the color pictures, the repaired design is brighter than the original.

I then filled the cells with liquid Kato, baked, and hit the artwork with the heat gun to clear. It worked. To deepen the finish, I repeated the fill, bake and clear with heat gun.

The bead (shown above, front and both sides) has not yet been modified to match the matchbox.

I believe the term for this is serendipity. Something unexpectedly good coming from a disappointment.

Video of "Drawing on Polymer Clay with Oil Pencils" is up and running

2009-05-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

The idea of Stamping and Coloring on Polymer Clay was inspired by a “That’s Clever” TV show featuring artist Karen Lorraine. She showed how to make a pendant with Mokume Gane on one side and, after baking, she drew a face on the other side of the pendant using oil pencils. Fascinated with the ability to draw on clay, I was challenged to try to create fine art and portraits using oil pencils on a baked polymer clay cabochon. To view the entire demonstration, click this Link:
Full Oil Pencil on Clay Demo.

In addition to the full demonstration on Polymer Clay Productions, the first half of the video is on YouTube. The reason for this is that the full demo is 21 minutes long and YouTube only allows a 10 minute video to be uploaded.

Making the video with Ilysa and Kira at Fandango was easy and a lot of fun.

What a great hobby, playing in clay and coloring!

The cameo shown here was made using the "Thoughtful" medium stamp, Walnut Hollow Oil Pencils, Pitt Artist Pen and Kato Clay.

The "Faux China Paint" cabochon was made using the "Rose Spray" small stamp, Walnut Hollow Oil Pencils, Pitt Artist Pen and Kato Clay.

Step By Step How to Video to air this Friday

2009-05-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

At the Fandango in March, Ilysa and Kira of Polymer Clay Productions filmed a step by step demo as I created a portrait cameo, coloring on a baked clay cabochon with oil pencils. Polymer Clay Productions is an on line source for polymer clay information, tips, techniques, and expertise with resources including Polymer clay Podcast, Polymer Clay TV, Polymer Clay Classroom, The Polymer Clay Network and Craft Ed Online.

Originally, the video was over 20 minutes long at filming, but has been edited to fit a shorter format. The demo starts with a blank cabochon and goes through eight basic steps from applying the image to the finished face and hair. When coloring on clay, any drawing or stamp can be used.

In addition to the video, I have donated ten portrait stamps with instructions to be given away to viewers.

In addition to portraits, any type image would be lovely on a cabochon. The Victorians enjoyed tiny landscapes or sea scenes in addition to still life and tiny portraits.

This apple cabochon became the center piece of a pendant. By using curved strokes and following the rounded shapes the applied colors build the rounded apples and flatter leaves. When the artwork is satisfactory, dark elements are accented using the Pitt Artist Pen.

These two flowers will also find homes in a piece of jewelry or on the front of a bottle of hope, or a decorative element in a home decor item like a frame or box. All of the cabochons were colored using the same techniques as shown in the video. Working from dark to light, the colors are built up, one atop the other until the desired effect is achieved.

If you have time, come, join me in extending your creativity to including coloring on clay cabochons.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

2009-04-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that it has been so long since the last post. I would like to say I'm home and relaxing from the trip, but we have hit the remodel hard to try to get it done by June. I'm sanding cabinet doors, removing hardware, running out for the guys to buy this or that or the other, and lunch. Plus, since returning from Fandango, I have been busy every evening working on a website. Lot's of folks have asked for my website address, so I figured it's about time I got on the ball and put one together. It's a lot more work than I had imagined.

Our days go something like this, (read it like you are out of breath, short, choppy sentences.)
Today, tile and flooring.
Borrowed truck,
Had to remove 5th wheel device from truck bed,
Drive to tile place, on the far north side of OKC
Look at bathroom countertops,
Measure nearly every one of them
Buy tile, head out the door to get truck,
Set off alarm on borrowed truck
Truck won't start
Work for over half hour to get truck to start
Get it started,
Drive to door
Load 27 boxes of tile!!!!!!!!!!! (helped by men at store)
Wonder, how we going to do this when we get home?????????
Drive toward house,
Get call from brother "meet us for lunch"
Eat lunch at favorite mexican restaurant.
Again, drive toward house
Back into driveway.
Set up boards for ramps.
Have to remove some shelf holders so hand truck will roll smoothly.
Sweep floor where tile will go.
Joe loads hand truck while I hold it,
Rolls inside, unloads hand truck,
Repeat five more times
I hold hand truck while he unloads.

Now drive to Norman OK to look at flooring at Habitat for Humanity store.
Look at all the counter tops,
Look at light fixtures
Buy 175 feet of flooring for new studio.
Buy 200 feet of underfloor stuff
Take it to house
Again with the hand truck
And again.
And again
Take truck back to brothers house.
He not there,
Work for half an hour to put the 5th wheel device back into truck.
Come home,
Flop into chair!!!!
Friend sends a chat,
Then a video
After talking flop into chair again, but NOOOOOOOOO
It's supper time!

I made this single pic of the living room in progress by putting three pics together in Photoshop. We found the windows behind the bookcases on either side of the fire place when we tore out the old dark paneling and bookshelves. Joe created arched openings to match the rest of the house. The openings will have "Autumn Leaves" clear glass in them, allowing light to pass through to brighten the living room however, the heavy patterns of falling leaves will give complete privacy.

The plan for the house is a Mediterranean Style. The house had several arched windows and three arched doorways. We have repeated the arches through out the house and added a skylight in the master bedroom. The colors chosen are warm, with turquoise touches. All woodwork will be high gloss white, walls buttery buff with darker focal walls. The accent colors will be used through out the house. I'm even thinking of a tuscany village scene mural in the dining room. We used to eat in a restaurant with a village scene that was sooo charming. However one of the big tornados that frequent our state, destroyed the restaurant and the lovely scene.

On Thursday, clay buddy Jane called and asked if we could play. Since the tile guy is now putting tile on hall, kitchen, dining room and Florida room, we can't get in to work, so we took the day off and I played. We made faux granite and faux marble. Here's the earrings I made. Two matching hair combs are in the works.

However, not all was great on Thursday. Wednesday evening, when the dishwasher in the house we live in emptied, most of the water went onto the floor and fortunately, I was close by and caught the mess. I threw lots of towels down to prevent it from running onto the wood floor in our work room, right next to the kitchen.

All afternoon, while we were claying, we had to walk around the stuff from under the sink and the fan blowing into the open cabinets to dry the space.

Joe had to replace the drain pipes, one had corroded through. The
house is over 30 so I guess it's no surprise. There is still a tiny
leak under the sink. One part needs tightening but (wouldn't you know) the wrench we need is at the remodel house. You can bet there was another trip to the hardware store!

What a great two weeks~

2009-03-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

Joe and I are headed back to Oklahoma from St. Augustine where the Orlando Polymer Clay Guild held their fourth annual "Orlando Clay Fandango Retreat". Don't you just love the title??? It's fun just to say it out loud. ""Fan-DANG-go""!!!!!! (A little snap of the fingers and a sexy tossing of the head here!!)

Last year17 artists submitted a syllabus of a class that they would like to teach at the Fandango. My submission for an inro class, a wearable vessel, was selected. After weeks of preparation and a five day drive, four days driving with one day in the middle to relax, I found myself at the front of the class, introducing both myself and the inro to a fabulous group of students. The retreat was a delightful success and the campground Bryn Mawr, located on the ocean, was wonderfully relaxing.

The drive down included two days driving through Texas and into Louisiana, for a quick, overnight visit with Joe's sister Judy, then camping for two nights in Magic River Mississippi. During the day there I made this oak leaf inro. I think it might be my favorite so far.

Everyone needed to have a name tag and many would be making their own, decorative, beach theme tag. There was not enough time to make a beach themed tag so I chose to use the project pin that went with the Dollie Dangles Sweetbrier Studio mold and add a banner with my name on it. However as it was laying on the table in the rig, Joe looked at it and suggested 'word balloons', like in a cartoon. He has lots of great ideas so I used his idea and added the 'introductory' balloons. Sure enough, the little balloons were clear, easy to read and were cuter 'n all git out! (That's Okie for "very cute and clever!".)

Since I was an inro teacher, it seemed as though my perky name tag gal should have one too. Finding a 16 penny bent nail in the parking lot, I washed it, wrapped it in paper and made an inro over it. The outer, decorative layer is made of a slice from a micro millefiori patterned loaf that was created back in '85 using original Fimo. I cut a thin slice and gently squeezed it to restore the flexibility and softness of it. Note that the flowers and leaves are still crisp and highly visible. It opens like all inro and has a 'gold' liner.

Next I needed a tiny cord from which to hang the inro. In the rig was a sewing kit with a number of colored threads. Hooray, raw material for a tiny cord. Choosing two threads of white, one of pink and one of red, cutting them to the same lengths, twice as long as I wanted the finished cord to be I tied one end of the four threads to the latch in my art table, and began twisting the threads until they were tight enough to form a rope. Grabbing the twisted cord in the center, and pulling up, while still holding the twisted end, I moved the it near to the tied end. The twist in the threads caused the two halves of the cord to wrap around themselves, making a tiny rope. I used this rope to string the inro then tied it around the neck of the name tag.

We stayed at Bryn Mayr, a campground on the beach in St. Augustine, about two miles south of the hotel where the retreat was held. Two other retreat goers, Nita and Sandy, along with their husbands, were also camping there. Both had signed up to take my class and I 'met' Nita via the web a few weeks before the retreat.

The event, which started on Thursday and went through Sunday, was a great four days, Three of the days I taught the inro class from 9 to 6. Happily, nearly everyone went back to their rooms with a finished inro hanging around their necks. There lots of thank you's and very generous praise from many of the students. I met so many, many wonderful people who love polymer clay as much as I do. It was an invigorating three days.

To top it all off there was a shuttle launch at 7:47 PM from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, the last day of the retreat. I taught at the hotel until 6 but Joe drove to the cape earlier in the afternoon to watch the launch up close. Just after 7:30 the students and I went out to the beach, along with a score or so of other people, right behind the hotel, and watched the shuttle launch The launch sight is 94 miles south of St. Augustine, but you can watch the flames and smoky trail of take off as it rises slowly and then shoots across the sky. It was so thrilling that I was ankle deep in ocean water before I noticed that my feet were cold and wet! My heart was soaring with that heaven bound rocket that started out as a thick smoky plume, then slimmed down to a contrail and lastly became a bright star rising ever higher. When the two booster rockets were jettisoned, there were, for a brief moment, three stars. One continuing to rise and two falling.

Nita and husband Ken drove me home from the hotel after the launch. Joe rolled in just after midnight, still excited and filled with the wonder and awe of the event. What a fabulous week.

We spent Monday at Bryn Mayr doing laundry and a bit of R&R. We are in the rig now and are headed home.

There is a house that we have been remodeling ready and waiting for our return to be finished. Joe is very eager to get the job finished as we plan to move into it as soon as possible.

Life goes on and we have a couple more days of travel and relaxing, then home again.

The Rig is in the Driveway

2009-03-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

The RV is in the driveway. It's always exciting to bring it home to pack as it means that adventure is just around the corner, but first, it will need to be prepared and provisioned.

Tomorrow morning we will start the job of loading it for a three to four week trip. The rig has been winterized for the last four months and has to have all the winterizing fluids drained and replaced with fresh water, and other such necessary jobs.

There is so much we take for granted in our homes. When I want to wash a load of clothes, it's down the hall to the laundry room, sort the clothes and load the washer. When traveling I have to remember to bring laundry soap, enough for at least 6 loads of clothes, plan where and when to wash, and pack enough clothes to get us through till laundry day.

There will be a number of things to load tomorrow and, from the looks of my studio, most of my tools, clay, etc will be tucked in anywhere there is space in the rig.

Next will be food, drink and a bottle of wine. Can't wait to get started.

I have finished the last inro before leaving. This one looks like flame stitched fabric, sort of. It turned out much better than I thought it might while designing it. I hope that I have prepared enough different styles for my students to see the versatility of polymer clay.

Time is a-fleeting and calla lilies are blooming the in studio

2009-02-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

The days are flying by! Fandango is coming up fast and the remodel on the house on Lincoln is moving even faster. The sheet rock is up, taped and textured. The trim carpenter (son Vincent) has started the built-ins. Whew!

The inro to the left is another one that will hold a credit card and money. It is more useful than smaller ones and was a great deal more involved to make. This was the first time I tried a transfer on an inro and I accidently blurred the artwork while assembling it so after baking, I used oil pencils and a Pitt pen to restore the depth and detail of the artwork. I like it better than the transfer alone. The Calla Lily is a favorite of mine so repeating the calla lily theme through out the inro was more fun than work.

As fast as the remodel is going, the days to Fandango are going even faster! All of the molds for the kits are complete, as well as the molds for the auction donations and tutorials. Tiny paper clay forms are drying on my desk; when dry, they will need a bit of finishing.
For now, I am making more pretties for the boutique. These two projects were finished today. I love them both and would rather keep them than sell them. :-)

The calla lily jewelry/hair set is my favorite I think. It's amazing how strong the clay is. I use Kato mostly, sometimes mixed with Premo. After baking, it has a nice sheen to it.

This last week at home will be busy and exciting. Soon we will be loading up the rig and heading south for a time of teaching and some R&R.

Gettin' ready for the Fandango!

2009-02-22T22:31:00.000-08:00

For the last few days, my focus has been divided between two important projects. The first is the Fandango Retreat starting on March 12th. I will be teaching an inro class at this event. In preparation for the class, I've been focusing on inro designs. This is the one I made yesterday afternoon. I found a finished gold liner just begging for a beautiful outer shell. Here it is. Inros are a bit like peanuts, in that one is just not enough.

To make the design interesting, the back is plain and the heart bead has a different heart pattern on it. This photo of the open design shows the bright liner that inspired the piece.

Inro designs are only limited by imagination. They can look like any thing, any style, plain, fancy, outrageous or reverent. Tomorrow, I plan to try to emulate an ancient design that I found on the web, a leaf covered inro with tiny frogs and ivory acorns.

The second project that we are involved in is a complete remodel of a house that we will be moving into after returning from Florida. It is a huge and demanding task that will result in a lovely, Mediterranean style home with graceful arches and the warm, inviting colors of Tuscany.

A deeply sad event in our family's life

2009-02-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

One week ago, all our children were here to visit their father Don Jonas Sr. who was dying of lung cancer. He had hung on for over 7 months after the cancer was discovered, he had fought a good fight, but the struggle had worn him out. He could no longer respond easily to his visitors, including Don's only sister Anne and husband Dennis from Kansas City, but let us know he knew we were there.

Don and I were married for nearly 34 years. We had a peaceful divorce and he remained a friend. After my marriage to Joe, he was a frequent visitor in our home for whenever we hosted a family event, he was included, either for birthdays, holidays or other events when our children would be in town.

On Wednesday morning, he quietly went home to his eternal rest. The family came again from Kansas City, Yale Oklahoma and other parts to say good bye. The funeral was Saturday at 6:00 PM. A light meal was served for the many travelers. His ashes will be interred in the family plot in Pittsburg Kansas in the near future.

This yellow rose is a photograph of one of the many yellow roses that were in an arrangement from his children, Don Jonas Jr, Philip Vincent Jonas and Angela Viktoria Hart.

He was a good and gentle man who touched the lives of all who knew him. He will be sorely missed.

Filigree lesson at Guild Jan. 09

2009-01-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

The Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild meets the second Saturday of the month at the Hobby Lobby store in Norman OK. We start at 1:00 and end around 4:00. This monthly meeting of the polymer clay guild has become one of the bright spots in my life. Sometimes I teach, but most of the time I learn something new or a new twist on an old idea.

When I heard that Lee Ann would be teaching how to make "filigree" the immediate thought was open and airy designs. However, in polymer clay, filigree is very different. The clay designs can completely cover an object with swirling, curving designs. Since I love curvy, flourishing swirls my brain went into high gear, revving up for the lesson. (You can't have too many swirls or flourishes in your life, you know.)

The next thing to think about was "What will I make?" Since our group is making a large number of Bottles Of Hope to give away at an upcoming event, (date to be determined ) it just seemed to be the right thing to make, a filigree bottle of hope. So clay buddy Jane and I arrived early, bottles covered with a thin layer of clay, ready to make filigree bottles of hope.

We used an extruder to make the ropes for swirling so I stacked gold, green, ivory, copper, and a thin layer of white clay to make the ropes for my project, then extruded several feet of variegated ropes. I used the Makin's brand extruder as it's the easiest extruder for me to use.

The designs were created free hand and I learned a great deal while making the patterns. In the future, instead of filling in a shape, I'll make the shape first then cut it to fit the angle of the design, then press the filled element in place. Once the pattern was established, looping the ropes in and around the pattern became almost therapeutic, to the point that I missed out on some reports because the work was so engrossing!

To further embellish the design we used a coffee stirrer to make circles along selected parts of the design and then used a pointy tool to make dots along other parts of the design.

As a finishing touch, I tried to loop the word hope onto the side of the lid. It's there, but a bit hard to read as the cursive letter "p" has a descender.

After baking and cooling, I varnished the bottle using clear, gloss Minwax Polycrylic in which both black and dark brown acrylic had been added in very small amounts, creating an antiquing effect. When the varnish was dry, I used the Krylon Pale Gold pen to color some dots, then used my finger to rub the pale gold onto some areas to accent them and give them a shimmer.

Lee Ann had several ornaments and a box covered in filigree, very beautiful Lee Ann! And thank you so much for a great lesson!!

One more Pendant

2009-01-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today I finished a new portrait cameo pendant design and wore it to the "Crafts in America" show at the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. It seemed to be just the right thing to do, wear hand made, hand colored jewelry to a craft show of handmade items from the last two centuries.

Jane and I drove to the show together and, on the way, stopped at the smART art show in the Paseo. And what a surprise, as we arrived, April came in at the same time! We all went through the show reveling in the luxury of so much good art. Nothing was over 10 inches, all the art was small, but wonderful. It was especially fun for Jane and I because we each had art that had been accepted by the jurors for the show and finally got to see our art displayed.

The Craft show at the Hall of Fame was all we had heard that it was. There were six or seven rooms of crafts dating from the mid 1800's through 2007. Names we had heard of for years were listed on fabulous items like tables, chairs, pottery etc.

The weather outside was only in the 20's, colder than all get out, but the warmth of centuries of creativity warmed us from the inside out.

What a great day.

Fandango Inro Class coming in March

2009-01-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

Penni Jo's Flickr Site Flickr is my favorite place to store photos and scans on line. It also allows me to create sets, making it easy for students to view a collection of similar works. The website is clean, and the personal pages are free of flashing, annoying ads and easy to use. Plus my friends, forum buddies and others also have flickr sites so once there, I can see their work too.

Getting ready for Fandango, I've created two new photo sets in my Flickr account showing designs that I plan to teach this coming summer starting with the Inro Class at Fandango. These two new polymer clay sets, Inros and Portrait Cameos will allow students to see examples of the kinds of projects I'll be teaching.

The first class will be in March at the Orlando Clay Fandango.

The class will be on how to make an inro. The students will learn how to make "faux jade" clay and assemble an inro over a form.

The inro will be embellished with tiny dragonflies using a micro mold that I have sculpted and created for this specific class. The students will get to keep the mold along with the rest of the kit. My experience tells me that many students contribute fantastic creativity to the class and a wide variety of unique styles will be portrayed. It is a joy as a teacher to be a part of their individuality within the project. One very nice note, the weather should be gorgeous in St. Augustine in March.

In addition to the inro class, during baking time, the students will learn how to make paper clay forms for future inros using a variety of shapes.

Later on, I plan to write a tutorial for this most recent project, a flower inro built over a paper clay sculpted flower form, and teach the class in my home studio. For more views of this flower inro, go here.

Inro's are wearable vessels, but more than that, they are charming and delightful, surprising viewers when open, and a place in which you may keep a special item close to your heart.

The next set of classes that I am planning to teach are classes using oil pencils to draw and color portraits or landscapes on polymer clay cabochons. So.... a set was needed on Flickr in which to put oil pencil art. This pendant is one of three that were selected by the jurors of the smART show in the Paseo, in Oklahoma City. It is a juried show of small art.

This drawing / coloring class will also have lessons on designing and finishing the back of the artwork to make a pendant. We may even make some canes using colors from the oil pencil art for embellishments. The oil pencil art can also be framed if the student prefers.

More later on class times and places.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-17T14:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas is a time for, well, lots of things, but one of the biggest for me is a new angel drawing for the annual Christmas card / newsletter.
2008's Christmas angel is holding a tiny manger with a baby in it. She stands in starlight, looking to the earth, hanging in space. The title of this illustration is:

"The first Christmas gift to Earth - A Babe in a Manger".

Lately, after reading long, newsy letters from long time friends and family, I've come to realize that what people would like to know mostly is, are we still alive and kicking?
And, the answer is, drum roll here, Yes, we are alive and kicking!! (that's Okie for we are both doing very well, thank you.) Yeah!!!!!!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May you be blessed by the eternal gift of the Babe of Bethlehem, Emanuel, God with Us.

If you would like to use this image for your personal, non commercial use, you may download either or both sizes.

Continuing adventures in Ceramics

2008-03-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

Two more color designs were attempted over the last few days. One of the color designs, Antiqued Sponged Paint is very effective. It is done using a soft taupe color lightly sponged over the background using a torn sea sponge. Very, very thin green is sponged very lightly over the leaves both at the top and bottom and the bird's body. Very thin red is sponged over the flowers, top and bottom and the throat of the bird. These colors are so thin that the result is a subtle, old finish. After bisque firing, the detail is scrubbed with thinned French Brown paint that is wiped away after drying, leaving color only in the detail. The other, Full Color - Light design is achieved using soft, lifelike colors. Green and yellow green on the leaves, deeper green on the bird, and neon red for the throat and flowers. It is a bit.... Hum... not exactly weak, just maybe a bit uninspiring or ordinary. All of the vases are glazed with clear, high gloss, food safe glaze.

Trying to come up with excellent designs that will fit into the variety of homes and personal taste is a bit daunting. However, have paint, will continue to try until satisfied.

A couple of days ago I sent an email to friends and family asking for their input on the colors. So far the Monochromatic Antiqued Purple, Snow White vase (with or without mother of pearl) and the Decorator Deep Tone colored vase with deep green/black background vases are the favorites. It has been fun hearing from all of them. They are very helpful, sharing what they liked or didn't like. Some even have sent ideas for the products that they would like to see. What started as a simple design before tackling the big design (6" flower pot with bunnies) has turned into a list for an entire line of hummingbird products.
It's funny how a small idea like a bud vase can grow into a large line of products.

Some of the ideas are - handles for serving pieces, kitchen cabinet door knobs and pulls; teacup or bowl; teapot; a lidded box and or jars; picture frames; light switch covers; bath accessories etc. And, of course, all of these ideas will start with sculptures made of polymer clay.

Having successfully cast a number of bud vases, we made a master mold of the bud vase mold so that we can easily make molds in the future. It's made of urethane rubber and will flex to release the molded parts.

We have been very busy in all parts of the creation of original ceramic molds, from the original sculpture, mold box, plaster casting, drying and cleaning the mold, pouring the part, cleaning and firing and finally, color and glaze finishing.

The molds are made of a special pottery plaster that needs to be smooth when poured. No matter how hard you try to get the bubbles out, the mold needs to be tapped or shaken to cause any air bubbles in the mix to rise to the top. After banging molds on the kitchen counter, making an unbelievable mess, Joe decided to build a shaker table. Using eight big bolts, sixteen big nuts and washers, four really, really big springs, an old vibrator motor and scrap lumber, he put together a shaker table. So far, he thinks it needs a bigger motor. (How very guy like.) It is helping to make smoother, bubble free casts.

If you have never made a ceramic mold, here is a Reader's Digest description.

To make a two or three part mold, the originals have to be buried in solid clay that is built up to the parting line. The hardest part of the entire thing for me is finding the parting line. It is the most frustrating part and takes the most time. Joe makes our mold boxes of wood. They are screwed together so that they can be easily taken apart and put back together easily. I clay up the baked polymer clay parts using ceramic sculpting clay, the kind used on a pottery wheel. The cracks in the wooden mold box are sealed with this same clay and the whole thing is given a spray of Original Pam.

The pottery plaster is mixed and poured into the mold, then the mold is taken to the shaker table to remove air bubbles. Then it is set aside to allow the plaster to set. This takes about an hour.

After the first part of the mold is set, the mold box is taken apart, the pottery clay is carefully removed from the polymer clay original parts that are now partly buried in the solid plaster. The parts and plaster are cleaned, and the box is put together again around the mold, corners sealed, sprayed with pam and plaster is mixed and poured again. Whew!!

The picture to the right shows three views of the vase, showing the three dimensional designs on the vase.

Adventures in Ceramics

2008-03-12T23:08:00.001-07:00

Since the purchase of our 'new' 1999 motor home, we have wanted to see the USA and do craft and art shows to subsidize our travels. To build an inventory large enough to support the cost of diesel fuel, we needed to be able to make a fairly large inventory of assorted products. Thinking that ceramics might be a good idea, that's where we started.

I love OOAK's (One Of A Kind), but it also very satisfying to be able to produce a line of products. For this first original ceramic project, we chose to make a hummingbird bud vase with leaves and trumpet blossoms.

To make this bud vase, Joe cut the top of a glass champagne flute from it's stem, leaving only the slender glass top. Using Super Sculpey and Sweetbrier Studio™ mold #1011 "Hummingbird Lane" that I sculpted and designed in 2006, I added a clay base of leaves and flowers; a hummingbird in flight to the side and a spray of flowers at the top using super glue. Some of the parts are molded but the rest of the design is sculpted in and around the molded parts. After baking and sealing the polymer clay, we made a ceramic mold.

From this first mold we have cast 15 bud vases. Currently we are working on a variety of color designs. Above are the first four color schemes. The colors in the first two designs were painted onto the greenware (unfired clay). The next two designs were fired to bisque and then the color added. The last design has no color at all.

The first design is a watercolor effect, the colors being thinned to allow the white bisque to show through, with a deep, Hunter Green background. The second color design is full cover paint in lifelike colors.

The second two designs are monochromatic; one color on the white bisque background. The color is painted onto the bisque, allowed to dry and then most of the color is wiped away with a damp cloth. The color left in the detail reveals the sculpted design. It's a very effective finish called "antiquing". Of the two colors, our family and friends like the purple best.

The last design is pure white bisque. The all white vase is rather plain and may get a fired coat of mother of pearl.

After the colors are dry, three coats of high gloss glaze is painted onto all of the bisque designs, including the vase with no color, and fired in the kiln to seal and protect the finishes. Food safe glaze is used on all of our ceramics.

We are continuing to design color for the vases and will post the new pictures soon.

Heart's Melody Explosion Album

2007-08-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

Heart's Melody Explosion Album:

An explosion album is so named because, when opened, the pages burst out like pages in a pop up book. This one is 5.35 inches square with black pages. They are fun to make and to embellish with pictures or as a journal or combination of both. The first one was made in preparation for a guild class. Since then I've made two more, learning something with each one. I think they may be as addictive as caning.

The front cover is made of polymer clay in two layers, a backing and a 'frame' layer. The frame is formed by cutting a shape in layer two, like a heart, square or oval shape then placing layer two on layer one. A raised edge around the opening increases the depth of the 'frame'. The back cover is similar to the front in style and embellishments, but made of a single sheet of clay with no opening.

After rolling the clay through the pasta machine, the covers were imprinted with a small round doily. Embellishments are added as desired. This album is decorated with cut out hearts, molded roses, and butterflies that were first stamped and then cut out using a tiny Makin's butterfly cutter. The butterfly rubber stamp is "Penni Jo Pattern Stamp - Butterflies, offered for sale by PMCsuppy.com .

The entire cover embellishments and background details were highlighted using Pearl Ex powders; Macro Pearl, Russet Red, Spring Green, Interference Gold, Interference Violet and True Blue. The textured background in the center of the heart was brushed with Micro Pearl.

The tiny molded parts in the heart window were molded, brushed with Pearl Ex Powder and baked before putting them into the framed opening. The sentiment was printed on a laser printer, the back of the paper painted white and the sentiment torn out after the paint was throughly dry.

Baking: The framed opening was filled with molded charms and filled with clear UTEE. The UTEE melts as the polymer clay bakes. Sadly, bubbles remained on the surface after baking. When cool, I used a heat gun to gently melt the surface, being careful not to damage the surrounding clay. The result is a nice, glass like finish.

I sculpted the tiny molded key and keyhole parts, made a mold and wrote the printed sentiment. The roses are small versions of the flowers in the Sweetbrier Studio mold #1008 "A Rose for You". I am the designer and sculptor of this mold also.

Detail of album cover. Molded parts are embedded in melted UTEE. White 'spots' in the window are pearl Ex micro pearl on the background. The album ties shut with two sets of ribbons.

Sentiment in the heart: 'When one heart strikes a chord in the heart of another the resulting melody will last a lifetime.'

Another July Challenge

2007-08-15T18:09:00.001-07:00

Also during the month of July, the moderator of the clay-polymer group at yahoo.com, Patty Barnes, announced the first challenge for our forum. A light switch cover with the theme "Summer". Boy this would be hard. There are so many excellent artists in that group. Then Twisted Papers offered to supply the prizes. I was hooked.

Trying to imagine what a "Summer" light switch cover would look like one warm evening outdoors, a firefly caught my eye and imagination as it flew into the rosebush in the corner of the yard. I had a design! This switch plate represents a summer evening with the lightening bugs flickering in the grass and sky turning from light to dark as the stars come out.

I tried hard to keep the switch plate thin enough for actual use. The sky is a dark metallic skinner blend that was highlighted with Pearl Ex powder. The leaves of grass are three layers in three shades of dark green, cut and laid one on top of the other. The tips and sides of the grass leaves are accented with green Pearl Ex powder. The lighting bugs were shown in flight, their gossamer wings of through the center cane, and outer wings of gold and black cane.

Glow in the dark clay was used for the stars and the bodies of the lightening bugs. The same clay was added to the sides of the leaves near the bugs to look like the light is reflected on the leaves of grass. After the lights are turned out, the effect is really cool. And, I got it done on time to enter.

I took two pictures, one a full color scan, the other shot in a dark laundry room using the night vision of the camera. Not a good pic as the camera could not focus well but it shows the glowing bugs and stars.

Second Poly Clay Play Challenge.

2007-08-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

With one challenge under my belt, I tackled another one. In July, Poly Clay Play announced a challenge to make a frame using polymer clay. No other instructions, just "a frame". After thinking about it and caught in the grip of 'caning', I decided to make a baby quilt frame using through the center cane. Lines of 'stitching' separate the 'blocks' of color in the quilt.

I bought Kato and Fimo Classic for the cane as I wanted clean lines as the colors would be soft. Using a ring from the top of a tin can, I built the 'quilt' frame work, used the scraps to make ribbons and molded two sweet teddy bears using Sweetbrier Studio™ mold 1015 "Teddy Bear Picnic".

I used a circle of acetate for the 'window' and foam core board holds the picture in place.

The best part, I got to put a picture of one of our grandbabies in the frame. A sweet frame for an even sweeter baby.

First Poly Clay Play Challenge!

2007-08-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

Poly Clay Play website had a challenge in the month of June, decorate a switch plate using polymer clay. The plate should have flowers on it and there was a lesson how to make them. I tried to get mine done in time, but missed the deadline. I had a good excuse, I was helping someone, but I really should have started sooner.

Anyway, here is the switch plate. I finished it and in my book, that was a challenge that I won.

Challenges

2007-07-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

I have discovered challenges. For an late middle aged, type A woman, this turned out to be a bit frustrating. I love to WIN! Often I find myself tempeted to spend the month planning, drawing, scheming, and trying to figure out what I can do to win. But, all I really need to do, is to create something that I love.
After this insight, I made this Bottle of Hope for the AMACO challenge. Surprisingly, the satisfaction of seeing the finished bottle and knowing a cancer victim would receive it, was all the prize needed.

'Hope Blooms Eternal' Bottle of Hope.
The red in the roses is for victims of blood borne cancers like Lymphoma and Lukemia. The green leaves are for growing strength, the tiny crystals are visual fragrances. The skinner blend background goes from dark to light - from despair to victory. The three roses on the base represent Faith, Hope, and Endurance.

Bottle Of Hope

2007-07-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

When a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer, we all felt hopeless and sad. After seeing the bottles of hope at CHA, I decided to make one for her. We continue to pray for healing and hope that the little bottle brightens a dark moment.
The "Ministering Spirit" Bottle of Hope features a praying angel in flight, in a starry sky shining with hope. A tiny, starlit cross hung from her praying hands is a reminder of the Savior, the great Physician. It is our constant prayer for her recovery.

Made using the Sweetbrier Studio molds 'Angelic Presence' and the tiny cross from 'Renaissance Cross' molds. (I am the sculptor for these molds). The angel was molded using colored FIMO. After applying the molded angel and baking the bottle, I sculpted the back of the head and wings, adding the halo.

Genesis oil paints were used to paint the features and bring out the detail on the wings as well as add the word 'Hope' to one star.

Glue stick

2007-07-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

It seems that every company has to have a new "twist" to their glue stick, some make the tops large, others make the tops small. If you accidently twist the wrong end of the stick and break the twistie end of glue stick off, the glue stick will not screw up and come out the top.

You will have to push the stick of glue up using a pointy screwdriver. It will come out all the way. :(

Note. using a glue stick while holding the stick by the gluey sides is not pleasant. Avoid this.

The mass produced earring test

2007-07-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

My friend and I have decided to try selling at a local craft show this fall. Loving polymer clay, I did a test run to see how long it would take to make some dragonfly earrings to sell at the show. If you have never done this, it is an adventure in itself.
After 3 and one half hours of actual work, molding the polymer clay dragonflies (most of them had through the center wings), making holes in each dragonfly for eye pins, dusting with Pearl Ex Powders (on both sides of the bodies), baking, making eye pins for the designs while they were baking, glueing the eye pins into the cooled parts, varnishing, (creating a drying rack for 18 wet, dripping dragonflies, selecting the beads, creating two matching double ended eye pins with the beads on them for each pair of earrings, then linking the dry, varnished earrings to the double ended beaded eye pins which were then linked to the hypoallergenic french ear wires, I managed to create nine pairs of earrings. I then hooked each pair of earrings onto a cardstock back card for hanging or displaying. Whew.
The time it took for each was 23.4 minutes, (about 2.56 pairs of earrings an hour) and the cost of materials was$0.58.
I've discovered that I am not very good at this. Better keep thinking of things with which to stock the booth.
The earrings shown are made with cane wings. Pearl Ex makes the bodies shimmery and shiny. The eyes are heat set Crystals.