More Mixed Media Critters

I put polymer clay backs on the owl and the squirrel .  I made a marbled orange sheet with Pardo Art Clay to finish the owll and a marbled green for the squirrel.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

My muse likes owls so I made a couple more. The first one is multicolored, the frame is 18 gaurge wire and the weaving is done with 28 gauge wire.   I combined the new soft Kato Pearl with purple Pardo Art Clay for the backing. I used a texture stamp for the pattern and highlight the raised areas with Pearl Ex.  

Here's how it looks assembled. I use liquid Kato along the edges to secure the wire to the clay. 

The next owl is in shades of green with gold accents.  

I mixed green and yellow Pardo Art Clay with Kato Pearl and then created a crackle effect with gold leaf for the backing.  

This is the finished owl. 

I have been mixing the new Kato Pearl, which is soft and sticky,  with Pardo Art Clay.... 1 part Pardo with 3 parts Kato Pearl... So far I am very pleased with the consistency.  My next project is to cane with the new mixture.  I will let you know how it goes. 

Back to Pardo Art Clay

After my experience with the new Premo and the new Kato...... both brands were soft and sticky I found it very refreshing to work with Pardo Art Clay once again.  One pack of the white Pardo was a little dry and crumbly but I added a little translucent and after a few passes through the pasta machine it smoothed out nicely.  And there is no smell... I love that... the raw clay doesn't smell and it doesn't give off fumes when it is in the oven.

First I tinted translucent with a few drops of alcohol inks.  The cherry red beads are from a scrap that I had in my Pardo drawer. I think I colored it with Stewart Gill Byzantia paint.

Click on the photos for a closer look.

This is a two piece pendant made from the end piece of a cane and a round bead made from a striped cane. 

Pardo Art Clay Canes.  The lines are clean and  sharp and they reduce beautifully. They slice cleanly too.

The canes on the right and left are made from the center cane. 

This pendant is made from one of the striped canes above. 

The last necklace is an experiment. I over reduced a cane..... no big surprise, I just can't seem to stop myself.  So I cut off slices and ran each through the pasta machine to the number 5 setting.... fairly thin. I then baked the slices and joined them together with cute little brads that I found at Michaels.  I am going to wear it for a couple days and see how it holds up. The slices feel sturdy and they bend but do not break.  If they hold up well I will make more necklaces. 

This is the back of the necklace. 

I am going to take a couple days off from claying. The weather has improved, no rain or tornados the last couple days so I'm hoping to do a little yard work. Grandson Brandon moved the lawn today and Heather helped me pull weeds. I hope the weather says nice so I can start planting flowers. 

Polymer Clay Canes & Things

While waiting for my order of white Pardo Art Clay to arrive I made a few canes using a variety of colors. I got the colors for this one by adding a little brown to orange,  a touch of black to yellow to get the lime and a touch of brown to yellow for the mustard yellow.  

Click on the photos for a closer look. 

Until now I've found the Art Clay very easy to condition however I ran into a problem with the black clay. I opened a new package of black clay, cut slices a little wider than the #1 setting on the pasta machine.  When I ran it through the PM it was very crumbly and got more crumbly each time I put it though the PM.  I then put it in a plastic sandwich bag and tucked it in my bra to warm it up.  The warming up helped but the rollers on the PM were cold.... my craft room was a little chilly ( I'm being stubborn about turning on the furnace)  and once the clay cooled off it was crumbly again... weird huh? I finally coated it with a little Kato liquid clay, let it sit overnight, and tried again. Much better but still a little crumbly.  When I conditioned the rest of the block of black clay I added a slice of translucent and that made a big difference. Now I'm wondering about the shelf life of this clay or if it may have been partially cured in the mail.  I would love to know if anyone else has had any problems conditioning the Art Clay and if so, how you solved the problem. 

This is a pendant I made with the cane ends.  

For this cane I tinted translucent Art Clay with alcohol inks.  The cane is cool looking but when I baked a couple tiles the colors didn't show up very well, they were way to dark.... I forgot to take a photo of the dark tiles.

I cut a couple thick slices of the cane and ran it though the PM to the #6 setting to make the tiles for the earrings. Since they are thinner and the the pattern is bigger the colors are more pronounced.  For the pendant I backed the cane slices withe crackled silver leaf over black clay. 

This is how the earrings look with light behind them.

I got the colors for the  stripped cane by mixing left over clay from the other canes and then outlining in black.  The colors for the cane on the left are mixes of blue, magenta and violet added to beige.

These pieces are made with the cane ends and left over pieces from the striped cane.

I still had small amounts of the translucent clay that I tinted with the Pardo Metal paints. I made a small cane and used it to make these.  I like the shimmery shine.

I am very happy to announce my white clay has arrived... amazing how hard it is to work without white. 

Pardo Art Clay Necklace

I made this necklace to test the strength of Pardo Art Clay. I cut very thin slices from the previous Pardo cane and rolled two corners to the center to form the beads. I used a pin vise to make small holes in the other two corners for the O rings.  To make the pendant I cut a thicker slice from the cane, ran it through the pasta machine to the #9 setting and then rolled it into a cone.  

Click on the photos for a closer look. 

I used faceted crystal beads, copper bead caps and brown wire to make complimentary links to go with the curled cane beads. 

Close up of the curled beads.  

The pendant is filled with a crystal bead and brown wire with a lacy bell shaped bead cap on the top.

View of the back of the beads. 

The clay held up really well, no tearing or breaking. 

I have more pieces almost finished, just have to do a little sanding and buffing. I will show you tomorrow.  

Pardo Clay Again

I didn't get tp play with clay as much yesterday as I had planned. Heather came over and we cleaned out the closet where I was storing my fabric... I have lots of fabric. One of my past interests was pillow making, I made lots of pillow so I have lots of fabric, and ribbon and all kinds of trim.  I wanted it moved to cabinet in the basement where it would be more accessible. But first we had to move all the books out of the cabinet where I wanted to put the fabric. Fortunately there was an empty bookcase in the storage room, those books went to auction ... just so you'll know, book don't bring much at auction... but at least there are no longer cluttering the basement.  Anyway, now all my fabric is neatly arranged in the cabinet.

Since we were on a roll we also moved all the vintage linens that were stacked on the day bed in one of the little back rooms. Lots of doilies, embroidered  pillowcases, aprons and  tablecloths. Those went to the basement too but most will be sent to auction.... you do get good prices for vintage linens... and some will be listed on Etsy.

Corny was quite pleased with the cleaned off daybed and promptly settled down for a nap.  It was  bright in there so she covered her eyes.  I know just how she felt, by the time we finished I was worn to a frazzle and needed a nap too.

Okay, back to the clay.  I did finish a few examples.  The bracelet tiles are made from cane scraps. The swirlie tile and bead are from magenta Pardo and for the blue I tinted Pardo translucent with blue metal paint and then added glitter.  I had a hard time getting the Pardo clay to swirl, not sure if it is the clay or me, I was tired and may have given up to soon. I'll try again and let you know.  The tube bead is from scraps and thin sheets of Pardo translucent covered in glitter.... did I mention I like glitter?  The nuggets are Pardo translucent tinted with Ranger alcohol ink. The color is butterscotch and I added a few veins of chocolate with chocolate brown Fimo Classic. The large nugget has been sanded and buffed, the little ones are not sanded or buffed.

Click on the photo for a closer look.

Tomorrow my daughters (I have two daughters, Heather and as Moe calls her not-Heather, her real name is Pathena, we call her Patty)  and I, and any men folks who want to tag along, are going to the  Wire and Art Festival at Carlyle Lake.  I have been anxiously awaiting the festival because the artist I buy Southwestern Native American gourd art from is going to be there. I forgot to show you the pieces I bought from her at the Art on The Square Festival last month. Here are some of the pieces. On many of her pieces she decorates the inside as well as the outside and she finishes them beautifully.  I love her work and am excited to acquire more. 

Don't you love the spider? In Native American lore mother spider taught the women how to weave.

This is the outside of the bowls

This is one of my favorites, the lid is precision cut along the lines of the lizards that surround the bowl.

The inside of the lizard bowl is painted a pretty aqua blue.  

 I told her husband they should open a shop on Etsy, he'd never heard of Etsy but said he would look into it.

More Pardo Clay Projects

I went back to Hobby Lobby and purchased one of every color they had plus two whites and two translucent.  And as you can see, I purchased some of the paints too. 

Click on the photos for a closer look.

 I made these canes. The clay conditioned with ease and reduced wonderfully. So far I'm loving it.  Very little distortion and the canes are easy to slice.

 I used my extruder for this one, the one on the right is from left over clay.  The clay is expensive so I don't want to waste a single bit.

This was an experiment.  I rolled a sheet of translucent out to the #9 setting on my pasta machine. I laid it on a ceramic tile and painted some squiggles on the raw clay with the metal paints.  I cut the excess clay from around the images (again because of the cost I didn't want to waste clay) and popped it in the oven.

 The cured pieces are very strong and flexible. I tried bending it every which way and it didn't break.

Next I am going to try it with the colored clay and see what happens. If the thin sheets are strong enough I would like to use them with wire.  I have a plan in my head, now we will see if it works.

Experimenting with Translucent Pardo Art Clay

A couple weeks ago when I was at Hobby LobbyI picked up a couple packages of Pardo Translucent Art Clay. I also purchased bronze, gold and silver metallic Pardo Jewellery Clay.  It's fairly expensive so I thought I would give these a try before I invested in a wider variety of colors.... though I was tempted to buy one of everything.  

 I started with the translucent.  It was easy to condition, I conditioned it the same as I do other brands, ran it through the pasta machine on the # 1 setting 20 times.  I divided it into 5 pieces and tinted with Ranger alcohol inks.  I let it sit until the ink dried and then used the pasta machine to blend in the colors.  I made a muted skinner blend with the blue, lavender and green with clear between the colors and a second skinner blend with the amber and red. 

Click on the photos for a closer look.

I then covered a sheet of Kato Pearl with silver leaf, ran it through the pasta machine on the 2 and 3 settings to get a crackled effect.  I ran a sheet of the tricolor translucent to the #8 setting and placed it over the Kato Pearl.  Next I cut thin slices of my Jackie flower canes and placed them on top of the translucent.  I smoothed the cane slices by placing a piece of parchment paper over the surface and burnished with the back of a spoon. I then cut a shape I liked and popped it in the oven for curing.  I dropped it into an ice bath right out of the oven...and I immediately saw the translucent begin to clear.  After sanding and buffing I used Pigma Micron pens to draw the curlicues. I found it difficult to draw on a slick surface with a permanent pen... it's obvious I need to practice, hopefully  I will do better next time.  I added micro glass balls in tiny drops of Kato liquid clay and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes to set the liquid clay and the ink.  The frame is black Kato clay painted with PearlEx silver.

 For the next one I used the 2nd Skinner blend, again running it through the pasta machine to the #8 setting. The background is crackled gold leaf over red and I used more of Jackie's red flower cane to decorate the top. I'm not through with this one. I may add more to the top or bead around it.  I love the way the flowers seem to be floating across the surface.

I was very pleased with the Pardo translucent. No problems at all, it was easy to condition, the inks mixed well and it went through the pasta machine to the thinnest setting without any wrinkling or sticking to the rollers. It sands and buffs to a high shine and it is clearer than the other brands of translucent.

Now I am off to try the metallics.