Thing-a-day

Im still working on this,just barely. I have to admit this week I have been really doing an amazing job in phlegm production. The cold I have been refusing to succumb to has zapped my creative energy. Oh heck its zapped all of my energy!

I have made sure I sat down and did at least something. I mostly call them clay doodles. Putting together little assemblages of color. unfortunately they really are not that interesting.

I finished the medusa --she is now a pendant. I made another squid.
Wednesday I sat and played with making ear cuffs. Experimenting with how to actually make them. Wednesday was probably the longest day I actually gave over to crafting.
Ive made some molds and molded a whole bunch of components. Components to what exactly I don't know.

I would like to compose a bigger project, and not just a bunch of little things, just to say look I made something. I have some shoulder dragons I would like to work on, and several mermaid ideas I would like to sculpt.

Cephalopod Medusa

Ever since we saw Percy Jackson on Monday I have been thinking of a Medusa, but instead of snake with tentacles. I just happen to have the face already molded and cured. So I played with the clay that was out and made todays cover model.

My Thing-a-day is continuing well. I'm not posting every day, but thats ok.
Friday I made a piratical hair clip, skulls and scrolls. Its black and purple and midnight blue-green. Lets just say it does not photograph well at all.
I *get* why they discourage all black collections on Project Runway: you can't see the details in black.
Friday I also completed most of the frames with little pictures--mostly fairies and vintage belly dancers--and little art bits and RESIN!
I'm having a lot of fun with the resin. I also learned with the frames its best to start with a picture in mind, and/or create the frame using a removable piece of thick paper that can be used as the image template.
Also I need to stick with traditional based frame shapes. The paisley one looks more like a craft fail more than anything else.

Worlds cutest squid

Well maybe not, but that was the goal. I was going for major awww factor.
It just barely passed with my 7 year old.

Last month at a craft fair my vending neighbor saw my cute octopus and asked if I could do a squid.

Since vending at Two Roads Cafe in Lebanon (next to Sherlocks Book Emporium) is happening again this weekend, I figured I had better get working on cute squid.

Here it is, looks like a she, don't you think?

Lent Thing-a-day

In a discussion about Lent with a group on non-Catholics one lady determined anyone participating (in this specific group) was really using Lent as an excuse to better themselves for a healthier lifestyle. Nothing wrong with that. She also wondered since it wasn't for religious reasons why deprive yourself, why not add something for improvement: like smile at your neighbor who is a %^&, or add an apple a day. And then in the world of Universal Manifestation you want to use positive phrase-ology.
Since I do pay more attention to Universal Manifestation than I do to Lent I will be adopting actions for lent:

I am embracing positive and empowering beliefs, exercising regularly, and creating something creatively every day.

I missed Thing-a-day for February, so I have created my own thing-a-day for lent.

Day One

I recently fell in love with resin. I absolutely needed it for one specific project. never used it before but needed it. So I braved forth into the resin world, and boy-oh-boy is it easy, and the results cool beens.
I started toying with what to fill, and started to make frames for use with resin. Last night I wanted to use up this lump of leather brown clay. I played with frame shapes. And single color (to be enhanced after curing) versus multi color.

Im gonna do it!

I have wanted to make a shrine for a long time now, so, this looks like as good of a reason as any to finally do it!

CRAFT and iLoveToCreate.com have teamed up to present to you the Crafty Chica Challenge: Love Shrine!

Kathy Cano-Murillo, the Crafty Chica, has been making love shrines for the past 15 years. Using everything from mint tins to cigar boxes to even kitchen drawers, she transforms them into colorful art assemblages filled with objects, trinkets, mementos and phrases she loves. Her themes range from exotic lands to her kids to her Mexican culture. But her favorite love shrines to make are themed around romance!

In Kathy's new crafty-themed novel, Waking Up in the Land of Glitter, her main character, Star Esteban, makes a magical, glittery love shrine for her ex-boyfriend, Theo as a way to woo him back. Readers will not only have a peek at how Star made her love shrine in the story, but at the back of the book there are directions to make your own. You can also try one of Kathy's Love Shrine workshops in a Box - or start from scratch!

Here are her tips:

Let your heart guide you. Think of all the things that give you goosebumps (or that you want to give you goosebumps!) and make you happy! Your shrine can be exploding with sparkle and shine, or it can be soft and subdued. Start by laying down a foundation and background, and then adding a focal point, and then add accents to round it off. While Kathy likes to use creative containers for her love shrines, you can use what ever you want - anything is fair game! Kathy believes by setting out your love shrine in a place where you will see it everyday is a great way to bring happiness into your life!

Enter in this Crafty Chica Challenge for a chance to win crafty prizes. This challenge will run for 5 weeks, and the deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. PST on March 11, 2010. The Prize winners will be announced on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. Because Kathy feels that love shrines are oh-so-very personal, the winners will be drawn at random. There will be one (1) grandprize winner, and three (3) runners-up. For more information and official rules, visit the Crafty Chica Challenge: Love Shrine contest page.

• The Grand Prize is a Crafty Chica gift basket, a copy of the Crafty Chica's first novel Waking Up in the Land of Glitter and a $50 gift certificate to the Maker Shed.
• The Runner-up Prize is a Crafty Chica gift basket as well as a Crafty Chica bobblehead.

To enter this Crafty Chica Challenge, please submit photos of your love shrine to the Crafty Chica Challenge Flickr Group, and include a description of your project, inspiration, and materials were used in the process. (250 words or less please).

Golden Dragonet

Golden Dragonet
Originally uploaded by Angry Angel

I stumbled upon this darling via some random linking. She is by Angry Angel, and who ever you are AA this is WONDERFUL!

I want one. I love firelizards!

Crochet, hmmm, maybe I should pick up some hooks and see if I can make anything more that a granny square!

I found her etsy site

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lucyravenscar

this stuff is adorable!

Starting of the year right!

Thought for the New Year ... if you are not living your passion ... Use the Blue Moon energy to help you with a new beginning.... "Find your passion. Look into the volcano-the fire, the lava of your Soul. The part that burns insistently and urges you to look at it. It is there that you find your answers and your true joy."

I can hardly believe I haven't had any artistic worthy posts since September--ouch.

Well I am starting off 2010 with the mojo focused in the right direction. I began this year prototyping!

Back in May I had these Easter egg ornaments and had no idea what to do with them. Stumble and trip and I ended up turning them into acorns.

Of course I thought these were the bees knees as it were. I ended up converting all of my glass egg shaped ornaments into acorns. I then took a back of styrofoam Easter egg shapes and turned all of them into  acorns. My colors began to deviate from "natural" acorn colors into fun fantasy colors, purples and pinks.

During the curing process I discovered that the styrofoam shrank. And caused the acorns with this as a base to crack. Hubby too k a purple cracked acorn and began to play with it, mostly trying to get the styrofoam out at first, then he thought this would make a great fairy house.

I have mentally been trying to figure out a good acorn base to make houses. You see the styrofoam really wasn't a smart thing to cook in the oven, and I only learned about that after the fact. That and I didn't want to constantly have to fix cracked acorns, because I used the wrong materials.

The first acorn fairy house, 

this one had the styrofoam base.

I thought about using that potato starch packing material, after all its potato starch it should be ok to cook, and it dissolves. 

I tried to mold and egg shape by hand. Ok that was a mess. Then I tried to use a plastic easter egg as a mold. It took a lot more of the packing material than I thought it would, it was very dense and heavy. And it did not keep its shape. In the end it required too much polymer clay, and the acorn turned out distorted and too heavy. And yes it does dissolve, but not before creating a gooey mess.

potato starch base acorn

Then I thought well, if I can used the plastic egg as a mold why not use the plastic egg as base. After all I use it as the base for other projects. So I tried that. and it worked beautifully. It actually cut easier that the thick wall of polymer I had created for the the potato starch based acorn.

The next step is to develop a tutorial for the fairy houses. I have worked one up for the plain acorn. Debating if I should submit it to Polymer Cafe, or go direct to online tutorial down load with claylessons.com.