Making stuff

Squirrel!
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

I've been making stuff, art stuff, jewelry stuff, clay stuff. Im really enjoying the process.

I know quite a few polymer artists work in the same processes, but I thought I might share anyway.

I love the bright colors of clay, and they mix all together and make other colors

Sometimes I leave the colors alone, like I did with these cute little squirrel and acorn charms

I really do fall in love with the colors. Sometimes I have a hard time determining if I should keep the straight colors or if I should take them to the next level.

polymer pens out of the oven
Originally uploaded by Zoeowyn

These pens were just yummy combinations of color when they came out of the oven. One of the things that was so fun about these, they all worked out so well, and they were all made from my scrap cup collections. I have a few yogurt cups that I toss small left over bits of clay into. Sometimes I blend those scraps together to make other colors, sometimes they are just that blended bits. The pens are sitting in an accordion of folded paper board I use to support them while curing in the oven.

Well after staring at the pens for a few days I decided they needed to go to the next level. Im always a little nervous taking my work here. Especially if I fall in love with it in straight colors. Once of the reasons I think its nerve inducing is I take those wonderful colors and completely cover them in paint. I use acrylic paint. Sometimes I use black, like I did here, and sometimes I use brown or purple, or rust. Ive even tried white, but those never seem to work the way i think they should. SO I cover them completely before I go back and wipe off the exces paint. I really only want it in the crevices. I use a combination of paper towels and magic erasers to do the job.

They really start to begin to almost glow after cleaning the pain toff. The colors are framed and begin to pop! If I want brighter colors I will scrub over them again with the magic eraser some more.

After the paint dries I buff the work over with gilders paste. Sometimes I use more than one color. There used to be only a few metallic colors available at the craft stores, but now there are a wide selection of colors available online. So these final pens have been buffed up with the metallic paste and coated in polyurethane to seal it all in.

And once this entire process has been done Im always glad I did it.