The answer to a good question

1. Why do you craft?

If this is what you looked at for 9 hours a day, wouldn't you find something else to do, too?

What I did this weekend.

End of last week, I saw the theme for Side Show Studios July 2nd Saturday Gallery show, Pop America. Pop America, what could that mean? I didn’t get it. I read the complete note for the call to artists on their Facebook page. I get it now…pop culture stuff. Well, as we know, I just play with my art and don’t imagine I will be hanging in a gallery any time soon, but I like a good challenge. So what is my favorite pop culture icon? Hmm, Wonder Woman, Betty Crocker, who knows. I was feeling kind of lost for an idea, when my coworker, Barb, said “Don’t worry about it, you’ll go to bed and ‘Pink!” it will just come to you.” I said, “You just hit it on the nose!” She said’ “Huh?” I said, “Pink! You know; pinkies. Pink Plastic Flamingos! OMG, what could be better?!?” She said, “Oh no, I’ve created a monster.” I said, “Oh no, you just let her out of the box.” So, that conversation led to this.

I know it’s not done yet, but I don’t know what it needs to finish it (aside from some glitter, that is.).

My road block on my Pinky collage led to these.

Trying to get out of my rut...

Okay, so for reasons too many to name, I have been feeling a little bit cranky-pants lately, which has thrown me into a rut. I craft for stress relief (every wondered how I made so much jewelry, now you now!), well anyway, I have been in such a funk I wasn't crafting AT ALL (horrible what with the nice fixed up workspace and all). So, today I decided "FUNK OVER" (well at least that was my goal.
I recently picked up a copy of "Collage Discovery Workshop" by Claudine Hellmuth and have been perusing it for ideas for my little tiny collages. Well, what with the "FUNK OVER" idea, I decided to stretch my self creatively (really give my brain something else to concentrate on entirely, as it where.). I stopped of at Michaels (you know, the craft grocery store), on the way home and picked up the worlds smallest (okay well maybe not the smallest...) stretched canvas (4x5 inches) and some cheap brushes (I wanted to stretch myself, but not go into hock to do it.). I had plenty of artsy-craftsy supplies at home to complete the rest. So please take a minute to look at the following pictures to see how I spent the last couple of hours. These are all new techniques to me, but I think I did okay.

Fun with Metal Clay-How it Turned Out

Well...here's how it all turned out.

This is the copper after 40 minutes in the tumbler with stainless steel shot.

This is the star after I used my rotary tool and the "scotch-brite" polisher. Shiny but still kind of dark.

This is how the star turned out after I used the .00 grit polishing pad and then hit it with the buffer one more time. Much shinier.

All in all, I like the CopprClay and will definitely be playing with it more and seeing what else I can do with it.

Fun with Metal Clay-Finishing up the firing

Wow...so it took two hours to fire the clay in the kiln and another three for the whole thing to cool down enough to take the firing container out and remove the copper pieces.

I could hear the carbon pieces hopping around in the container, they were still so hot.

The kiln was a bit of a mess inside, as some of the carbon escaped from the container, which is probably why the copper pieces are a bit dark. The high heat and air would oxidize the metal...No problem though, a little polishing will do wonders (plus antiqued metal is all the rage these days!)

Some of the larger pieces were still a bit hot when I took them out of the firing container, so I quenched them in a bowl of room temperature water, to finish the cooling process.

It was pretty late by the end of all this, so i just cleaned up my work room and put the copper pieces aside until monday.

Where Do You Work-Final

Okay...so I'm a day late, but I was actually done on time. The joy of computers is that sometimes they don't work. Mine kept freezing up on me yesterday.

So, drum roll please...my completed work room/studio/retreat is finally done and I am very pleased.

This picture is the Kiln Area, where my kiln, dehydrator and tumbler live. I have craft fair storage below that I will make a cover to hide, but I can live with it for now.

This is my Sewing Area. I gave myself plenty of space on the side for when I am working on my big patchwork quilts. As you can see, I have two in progress, stacked on the drawer unit to the right, between the sewing table and the little book case.

This is my Jewelry/Mixed media collage Area. This bookcase on the left is all my mixed media collage and paper crafts stuff, plus all my crafty books on the bottom shelf. The bookcase on the right is most of my jewelry making stuff. The desk in the middle is my primary workspace. My jewelry making findings and a caddy with all of my tools live on it full time. I have an Ott Light on each side for optimum lighting for my work.

This is a picture of the whole room from the door. Buddy the super dog doesn't know what to do with all the floor space.

The contest winner is Krissi, for showing me her work area. Thanks for sharing. Please let me know how you'd like to receive your collage domino necklace (snail mail or I can drop it off at Scary Craft if you don't mind waiting. Your choice.)

Happy crafting!

Fun with metal clay

I love silver metal clay. There, I said it. I really do. BUT, and yes, its a big but...silver metal clay is expensive! A 10 gram packet of Art Clay Silver costs a little over $15 at metalclaysupply.com, which is were I have found it for the least amount of money. Yes, that works out to be about $1.50 per gram. So...A couple months ago, the great and powerful "They" (in this instance They being Metal Adventure) came out with a new product, BronzClay (clay that fires into bronze). Well, way less expensive at 17.09 for a 100 gram packet (less than $.20 per gram), but you need "Stuff" and bronze, not really my medium. The happy folks at Metal Adventures, no slackers there, were brewing up a new batch of fun, one that I couldn't pass up trying at least once, to see how I like it. Yup, that's right, my second favorite metal to work with...COPPER! The following is my first adventure with CopprClay. I made a couple of flat projects that can be used as pendants, if they turn out.

Supply list for my CopprClay adventure
Coppr Clay (100 gram packet) - I only pinched off about a fifth of the lump, as this was my first try

A plastic roller

Mat board (like from a picture frame)
Olive oil
My non-stick sheet (I think its Teflon, but I've had it so long, I forgot)
Assorted cookie cutters
Rubber stamps
Clay drill
Emory board
My food dehydrator
My kiln (we call her Lilly)
A stainless steel firing container
Coconut Carbon
A wire brush

Ready? Here we go…

I rubbed a little olive oil on my hands and the roller, cutters and rubber stamp (just a little, like, a couple of drops).

I unwrapped the clay and pinch off a bit and rolled it around in my palms until it formed soft little ball. I put the ball on my work surface and put the mat board next to the ball of clay and used the roller to start rolling out the clay. Relieved the CopprClay is stickier than SIlver metal clay and got out the olive oil again. Continued rolling and turning the clay until it was an even thickness with the mat board. Used the rubber stamp to texture the clay and then used a large butterfly cutter to cut out the bulk of the pendant. I rolled up the scraps and repeated the process for 2 more smaller butterflys, a star with a small star cut out to hang as a charm, and a flat rectangle frame to put something into later.

I out all the pieces into the dehydrator and then cleaned up some of my work area and got ready for sanding. This is really important as something that is not too big a deal in the greenware (ceramic) stage will be sharp or slicy after firing. Smoothed all the edges and felt around for and bumpy bits (these equal sharp metal spikes after firing). Drilled holes for jump rings etc. then checked for dryness. The pieces must be bone dry before firing or they could crack.

When I decided the pieces were dry enough, I put an inch of the coconut carbon in the firing vessel, laid down the clay pieces (at least a 1/2 inch away from each other) and the filled the vessel to the top with the coconut carbon.

Now for the fun part, firing! I had to figure out how to program Lilly as I have only used her for firing silver metal clay and she is preprogrammed for that. Once I got her figured out though...I put the firing vessel into the kiln (making sure not to touch the sides ot the magic thing in the back that takes care of the heat), closed the door and hit start. Now I am waiting...The hold time is 2 hours, then I have to wait for the kiln to cool before I can see what I've got.

I'll let you know as soon as I can but for now, lets have some dinner, or something.