Ch-Ch-Ch-Cherries

My friend Amy (aka Alogue) wants me to make some more Christmas cookies. Only this time she requested a specific KIND. They're a shortbread or sugar cookies with a bit of maraschino cherry on it. Well in order to do that I felt I had to make some cherries. This is a first for me, but the mechanics of it seemed simple enough!

Since I wasn't sure if my translucent red would make a sufficiently 'cherry' color, I decided to experiment. I mixed some cherry red with some translucent red, and some cherry red with some translucent white.

And got virtually the same result.

To get an evenly sized thickness, I pushed the clay through a metal nozzle tip from a cake decorating set and slices to roughly uniform sizes.

I did about a dozen of the tiny ones before I decided I'd make some larger ones too. I rolled them and poked them with my ball-ended needle to get the right look to them.

I think this was after they came out of the oven. There's some thin green clay strips for the stems (and for sprinkles for other projects). I also rolled a cherry just from translucent red clay (which, incidentally, is pretty much the color of glazed cherries... V_V) and some from purple and red clay... and then a plum - which turned out pretty good! - from the leftovers.

I think the end result was pretty good, don't you? I didn't stem them all, but I did do a few...

Just a little gloss and those cherries will be perfect.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

You would think I have that song stuck in my head right now, but you'd be wrong. Instead I've got Shots by LMFAO stuck in there, because my Canucks rocked it in Rogers Arena tonight. Puts me in such a good mood!

But you can't ignore the fact that Christmas is approaching! Some places even have snow! (But not Vancouver, which is fine with me!) Normally my Mom would've started her Christmas baking by now. Since I'm no longer living at home, I decided I needed to do some Christmas baking of my own.

Sugar cookies have to be my all-time favorite cookie. When made properly they practically melt on the tongue. And you can put all sorts of decorations on top, like icing and mini ball bearings.

I followed another tutorial, this one from DeviantArt. In the picture above you can see my new (and overpriced) Sculpey mat that I bought from Michaels the other day. Thus far it seems to be worth the cost, and it's nice to have a little spot beside me to work from. These were cut out using some mini-sized clay cutters. I found it much easier to apply the pastel to the cookies while they were resting on the blade.

I mixed brown, yellow and orange pastel to get the brown color, but next time I'll add a little white to lighten it up. The cookies look burnt! But no less tasty.

My Fairyland Littlefee Leah agrees!

A picture showing scale was requested. I think these would be best for Littlefee/YOSD or Minifee/MSD sized dolls, but what Pukifee doesn't love a giant cookie?

With my clay station set up beside my desk, it should be easier for me to work on projects on a more regular basis. I actually worked on the sugar cookies with a small audience in the Minifee TinyChat. I'll probably do this more often, and if people are interested enough in watching maybe I'll set a specific day or time to work.

<3 Saryn

Silicone Mold (Part 1)

Since I don't really have the space set up to do normal clay work, I figured I'd finally break out the silicone mold for it's first test run. This was the stuff I from my long-awaited clay order. There is no brand on the containers, and only the simplest of instructions. I'm not sure if this is normal or not.

Between the plate and the pop tart, I went with the latter for my first test, though in hindsight I probably should've used the blank base I made expressly for this purpose. Oh well. I needed something that, on the off chance things went sideways, I wouldn't mind throwing out.

Note to self: stop using P&S camera. The silicone comes in two parts which set up when mixed together. The substance has an oddly oily texture, and no discernible scent. Reminds me of the goo jars I used to buy as a kid. I mixed the two together as instructed, but with 'oily' fingers, wasn't about to touch my camera.

I popped my object into the goo, and went off to work on this post.

Yay for iPhone camera! I probably should've used a bit more silicone, or not pushed down so hard since it wound up being a bit thin. :\

I think I'm gonna stop by the local Michaels and see what they have for molding material, just for comparison's sake, but my next blog post will be Part 2, where I actually use clay in the mold! GASP!

Moving

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to be moving in the next week or so. Since my clay stuff is already safely packed away for the drive to Vancouver, I'm afraid I'm going to have to put the blog on a two-week hiatus!

Updates will resume November 29th.

Order Get!

The much delayed order has arrived! New colors, my silicone mold material, a chunk of white and WAY too many translucent white! XD

I honestly don't recommend dealing with Polymer Clay Central in Damascus, MD. This order was placed September 29th. I didn't get any replies to the two emails I sent in early October, was told October 20th that my order would ship the same day (they had apparently been waiting on the Translucent White), and when I emailed them from my second account the other day.

They told me my order was shipped Oct 28th and gave me a tracking number that I doubt is for me, since it's most recent update was just the other day and it was in Jamaica, NY. Fortunately I'll be moving to Vancouver soon and will be able to get supplies much easier!

Fat Penguin

Sorry for the lack of updates last week. I kept hoping that package would arrive so I could make some molds of my poptarts but once again nothing! I emailed them yesterday and it turns out it was shipped on Oct 28th. At least now I have a tracking number for it.

But it looks like it won't arrive until after I move to Vancouver! Which I'll be doing in the next two weeks. I'm quite excited, for various reasons... but clay-related? I shouldn't need to order my clay from unreliable online stores! YAY!

I wanted to make something tonight but I didn't really feel like making any mini-food. I decided to make a little charm instead! I found yet another tutorial on DeviantArt. I seriously love penguins, so this was right up my alley. All of the following pictures are taken with my iPhone, which is less fussy than my Nikon in the low-light of my room!

I have two blue Fimo, Pacific Blue and Brilliant Blue. I chose the former, since it seemed a bit bolder.

I chopped off a fair-sized chunk, larger than I tend to work with for my miniatures.

And then shaped it as instructed. I thought about going WILD AND CRAZY, but that would mess with the Penguinuity (which is now a word) of it.

I don't recall my hand being this blue...

After a bit of scrubbing, my hand returned to it's normal, not Na'vi color. Translucent white.

You can see the little flecks of STUFF (probably blue Fimo.) in the white, unfortunately. That stuff is disturbingly difficult to keep clean. I swear that just looking at it funny makes it all speckley. This was before I gave him his beak, feet and eyes. I didn't have any black beads on hand so I had to improvise with a bit of black Fimo.

And just before the little man spent his time in the oven! I can see why they recommend beads.

I'll have to glaze him later since he's still a bit warm. But my fat little Penguin is complete!

Delayed Post is!

Bit of a delay on this post, I know. X_x I've had a bit of a stressful week and have had to figure a few things out before I could make an adult-ish decision.

I will most likely be relocating in the next couple weeks, moving from my small town to the big city. I'm not sure how much of an impact this will have on my clay work, but there are craft stores galore down there and I'll be able to get the supplies I need without a 3-4 week shipping wait!

In the meantime, I should have a few stress-free days amidst the packing to do some clay work. If you have any easy-ish ideas of what I can try to make, please let me know!

┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Tired of waiting, I just phoned the online store I put my clay order in at.

They haven't shipped it yet.

Apparently they were waiting on the... 10 2oz blocks of Translucent I ordered (I guess I know why they didn't have single ones available).

*head-desk*

Anyone have any ideas for what to do with 20oz of translucent Fimo?

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie

My order still hasn't arrived, much to my frustration. Neither, incidentally, have I received the plates I ordered from Etsy on the same day. Did CanadaPost go on strike again and no one told me? Le-sigh.

Knowing my luck, it'll all come in tomorrow.

I was searching Deviant Art for tutorials, and came across this Mini-Cookies tutorial by MarieMonAmour so I decided to give it a shot.

This was my... second attempt? I think so. I was having an issue getting the bobby pin to form edges I liked so I kept scrapping them. When I got down to the last of the trio I decided to try texturing it just for the heck of it.

 

I really liked what I had! But it really didn't look all that cookie-like to me. Bread, maybe? I couldn't figure out what to do with it, so I scrapped it and moved on. I had found another tutorial, this time one for clay Hershey Kisses. So using a bit of Caramel Fimo mixed with Chocolate - straight chocolate seemed too dark - I made myself some itty bitty kisses.

Bleh. The lighting isn't very good, but I felt bad using Levels on it in Photoshop.

Then I got an idea for making cookies using my tiny chips. I'd given up on the scalloped edges, and just textured the heck out of the 'cookie'. Then I applied a little pastel.

 

Which is when I learned it's a better idea to MIX the pastel on the wax paper and THEN apply it. -___-;; The bottom two are the results of that mistake, the top right is me learning, and the top left is un-pasteled. I've learned to keep one as a template. I baked the chips first, and then used a tiny tiny bit of Sculpey Bake & Bond on the chocolate to bond it to the unbaked cookie, pushing down lightly.

 

The end result! I'm nitpicky, so the cookies are a little thick and if the 'chocolates' had been baked, they should be a little meltier... I might put a little bit of gloss on the chocolate. Assuming my Pukifee, Laura, doesn't eat them first!

All Work And No Play

I'm finally over my cold, but I haven't had a chance to work with my clay.

And I'm /still/ waiting for that order. :\

BUT I'm reasonably caught up on my other projects so I should be able to get some time in the next few days!

Blah.

Not feeling well today and despite knocking back a couple DayQuil, I'm not sure I'll be able to do any clay-play today. :( That rhymed. I had planned to make more poptarts tonight, and make an attempt on chocolate ones. If anyone has any suggestions on what else I should try and make, feel free to comment!

I think I'm going to try and make Tuesday-Wednesday regular update days.

I also haven't heard whether or not the order for supplies/clay I put in last week has shipped. But hopefully I'll get a reply tomorrow. Chances are I'll be waiting 1-2 weeks for it once it DOES ship, since I had to order from the States.

Polymer Poptart (Round Two)

I decided to take another stab at making the poptarts. I had a LOT of interest from people, which surprised the hell out of me. I still don't think I'm good enough to sell them yet, but if people are that into it... maybe?

It took me about a half hour to mix the colors. I used quite a bit of white and I kept having to add a little more caramel, and I still don't think I got it dark enough. Lesson for next time, I suppose! I also forgot to brush pastel on them before baking. -___- But, using the first one as a rough template, I made 4. One I left un-iced, but I might ice it later.

This time I tried texturizing the bitemarks, which turned out really well. I also improved the color of the poptart 'filling'. Now it's less blood-like and more jam-like? I guess. ^___^

I think it took me... two hours to make these, start to finish? It should be easier once my silicone molding compound arrives. Once I get a prototype that I'm happy with, I can cut most of the work out of the process. And make more, faster. I also want to try making chocolate ones...

Here's a comparison of one of the new poptarts with the first one (new on the left, old on the right).

Polymer Poptart

So I decided to try my own thing this time. With the dango and the bowl, I was following a tutorial. This time I winged it and made a Poptart. The results were not quite what I hoped, but I wanted to try a bunch of different things, like texturing, applying pastel, using liquid clay and inclusions. So I think I accomplished at least that much! What I didn't accomplish was taking pictures of my progress. ( -___-)

I did, however, take a second shot at making a bowl, using a marble-like combination of metallic gold and white. It turned out much better, but needs some sanding and buffing!

To make the pastry color, which on a regular poptart is a fleshy tan color, I mixed some Caramel Fimo with White and then rolled it out.

I think I scrapped the pastry three or four times before I got something I thought was worth brushing with chalk pastels. I used small amounts of yellow, orange and a touch of brown. I tried the brown first and realized it was too dark, but it wasn't really noticeable after baking.

I also made some sprinkle 'canes' using small amounts of Cherry Red with Translucent and rolling it into a long thin snake, baking it and chopping it into little bits. I repeated the process using Tropical Green. And then I mixed the sprinkles into a TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) and Fimo mixture, which I then applied to the pasty. I put that in the oven for a few minutes while I mixed some red chalk pastel with a little bit of Liquid Fimo, for the filling. It didn't turn out QUITE as filling-like as I'd hoped but it looks good regardless!

And this is when I realized I had made the bite mark on the wrong side! CURSES!

Oh well.

Second Verse, Same As The First

First of all; I HAVE FOLLOWERS! *dorkface* Yay, I am luved!

Secondly; since it's my day off I decided to make a second attempt at the Dango and it went pretty well! Except I forgot to adjust the temperature of the toaster oven for the Fimo (which bakes at a lower temp.) which resulted in tiny cracks through my Dango. Sadface.

This time I nailed the colors. They actually look like the proper shades for Dango. The pink might be a little bright but, personally, I like it.

I made smaller ones this time, though I'm still not really working in an intentional scale size. They seem about right for Pukifees. I probably should've made the sticks bigger. They poke into the green, rather than run through all three colors. Might affect their structural integrity, but so far it's doing fine!

I'm not really sure what to do with them now. I could probably put some headpins (at least I think that's what the ones with the screws are called) in and turn them into earrings. I definitely want to keep two for my Pukifees, but I also want to make a not-cracked batch...

Shiny

Yesterday was an 'off' day for clay, but today I decided to try making Dango, following this tutorial. It's quick and easy, but didn't turn out quite the way I expected.

I took pictures, but none of them turned out. I have a feeling that if I'm going to be working in my room a lot I'll have to either change my bulbs to something a bit less yellow (been meaning to do this for awhile, actually) or get a desk lamp of some kind.

This was pre-glossing. The green turned out quite nice, though I may use a slightly darker color next time. Definitely going darker with the pink, too. I used SculpeyIII's Apple Green and Ballerina, with Primo for the Translucent. It took a bit of work to condition, and kept losing it's pliability when I switched to rolling/blending another ball. The 'white' balls (top) are not the color I thought they would be when baked. I was definitely expecting something less fleshtone. I will probably use Fimo's Translucent White next time.

The construction of the Dango was easy. Put round balls on stick. I'll have to work on being able to keep round clay actually round. I put a eyepin through because if they'd turned out well enough I was going to give them to my friend Michelle. But they didn't, so I decided to test my glazes.

 Left: Gloss ------------ Right: Satin

There isn't much visible difference between the two, but texture-wise the Gloss is definitely smoother.

Lesson One - Bowls

Ta-da!

I meant to take pictures as I worked, but I forgot! Next time!

I followed Talty's Polymer Clay Bowl Tutorial, and the results were pretty good. The bowl is a bit lopsided, has an uneven rim and some air bubbles on the inside. I'll have to remember to make sure the clay is flush against the marble, next time.

My first time working with clay was pretty fun. I used Primo Accents. I don't have a point of reference to work from, but it seemed easy enough to condition. I had to start over, though, once I realized there was no way I would be able to get the marble out and the bottom had been squished. This was my second attempt.

I hadn't assembled everything I needed initially, and I had to snag some cardboard pieces to make sure the clay had an even thickness. I also forgot to lotion my hands and dig out some sandpaper. ^__^;;

Baking the clay was easy. I purchased a new toaster oven for my mom and abducted the old one. Since the Kitchen is a pretty well ventilated area, and I was worried about fumes if I overbaked, I just set it up on the stove. Primo bakes at 275F for 30 minutes per 1/4th inch thickness, so I baked the bowl first for 10 minutes, and then when I realized it was still a bit soft I gave it another 5.

I used the Gloss Glaze, which air dries. It's instructions were more detailed than the Satin Glaze. When the bowl was cool I quickly sanded it and applied one layer. I'm not sure what I'll use it for, yet, but it's the perfect size for my Pukifees!

Starting Equipment - Tools

 

The following is a list of what I'm starting out with! It seems like kind of a lot, right now, but with the considerable shipping delay I experience when ordering from the internet I figured it couldn't hurt. Plus, Michaels (craft store) had an awesome 2 for $3 deal on polymer clay.

As a bonus it all fits in one container... except the pastels. Oh well.

The Clays:

FIMO
My dominant choice for clay is Fimo, as you can clearly see. I did research, and for the most part Fimo seems to be generally preferred. I think I've got all my bases covered as far as colors go. (If you're curious, I list the colors on my Flickr.) But it's not the only brand I purchased...

Sculpey Primo Accents
I only really snagged the Transparent so I could compare it to Fimo's, but I got the Grey Granite so I could possibly try making one or two plates/bowls. It would give me a chance to test the two glazes I bought...

SculpeyIII
 I chose colors that seemed somewhat unrepresented amongst my Fimo clays, like a lighter green and a solid yellow. And white, for comparison with Fimo's white. They feel a bit smooshy in the packaging, so we'll see how well they work. (Color List on my Flickr)

The Liquids:

Clay Softener
I don't imagine I'll need too much of this, especially at first, since I don't plan on letting my clay dry out! I'm sure it has other uses, and it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it!

Gloss Glaze & Satin Glaze
I know I'll be using the gloss, especially if I attempt Snowfern Clover's Eclair tutorial. As mentioned previously, I'll probably make something especially unimpressive using a bit of the Grey Granite clay and use that to compare the results of the two glazes.

Translucent Liquid Sculpey
I actually have the Fimo DecoGel fighing it's way through Canada Post but, again, I wanted to compare the results of Sculpey and Fimo. I read somewhere that the Sculpey is slightly less translucent than it's Fimo cousin.

Bake & Bond
From what I understand, this works much in the same way as the TLS/DecoGel does. I bought it anyway.

The Tools:

Brushes
Predominantly for the application of glazes, but also to add color texture using pastels! Two seemed like enough to start with and paint brushes are one of the few things I can buy where I live.

Tissue Blade
So glad I got the last one! I don't relish the thought of having to search Nanaimo for one. This flexible blade should come in useful for even slicing and dicing. If not, I've got a few razor blades and...

Xacto Knife
Useful for pretty much every craft I can think of. Seems like it'd be good for precision cutting.

Sculpey Tool Set
These are the black items at the bottom of the picture. Various double-ended tools for cutting, poking, texturing and smoothing. Nice little set, but I'm curious about how well they'll work with the clay.

Embossing Pointer
Not something I initially intended on getting, but the narrow ball-tipped points struck me as something that could be extremely useful if I ever get ambitious and try to make blueberries or something. It looks like a tool that could add very fine detail without being all needle-pointed.

The Miscellaneous:

Soft Pastels
These should come in handy for adding a bit of color to the TLS/DecoGel or adding texture detail.

Roller
Ah, so important. Gotta get that clay smooth and flat SOMEHOW!