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Yeah, one month done, eleven more to go. I'm itching to try out so many ideas. Today I head to Tucson for the Gem and Mineral shows, where I'll be demonstrating and offering my wares at the SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS event. Natually, today's creation has to involve crystals. The sparkling center cluster made using pointed-back chaton crystals is ringed by millefiori patterned petals that gently curve over a holographic foil surface. A striped border finishes off the rim.
While a lot of graffiti is just noise, there is some pretty amazing artwork that can be seen around the world by taggers. As I head into the second day of CHA (see yesterday's post) I offer up this lid as a tribute to creativity. It started with creating a brick background in polymer clay. After blending brick colored clay, I incised the recessed lines and spots using a needle tool. After baking, the surface was antiqued with black acrylic paint. I added a simple black clay border on the rim. I initially was going to leave the "brick wall" as is, but then I was hit by the idea to add "graffiti." I hand-painted this using Plaid Folk Art acrylic paints.
This was the thought behind the creation of this millefiori cane. I took a bit a license with his style, but I feel it captures the feel of Cubism. The side was created by impressing thermographic powder in clay and then baking. Today is the start of the CHA show in Anaheim, California (the Craft and Hobby Association); the largest trade show for the creative industry. oLook for me there today and tomorrow, then it's on to the Tucson Gem and Mineral show in Arizona.
By simply cutting two gradient bull's eye canes into quarters and reassembling them together, an optical illusion effect is created. The effect's drama isn't as apparent in a photo, but it's a simple and easy cane design that packs a lot of power. The sides are textured clay with a foil overlay.
I fell in love with mosaic artistry on a trip to the Middle East as a teenager. It was around this time that I learned about Pointillism (the art of creating realistic imagery with small dots of paint). These are similarly related concepts I have explored often in my work. While most of my mosaics are created with hand-made tiles, I love the idea of working with non-tradtional materials for the same purpose. This bead mosaic was created by decorative jump rings, buggle and crimp beads into an epoxy clay base. The rim is textured black clay that rises up over the surface of the lid's surface to create a bezel. This allowed me to pour my Magic Glos UV resin over a surface with varying heights for a cabochon effect. Speaking of beads, today is the first of two days of classes I am teaching at one of my favorite venues: Brea Beadworks in Southern California. This store is a true destination center for creativity.
Oh Happy Day! My dear friend Lisa Lambright and I are going to be in the audience of the Ellen DeGeneres show, and on her birthday. I made today's lid in tribute to her love and commitment to animals. As an animal lover myself, it's a theme that's bound to appear in my blog entries at least a few time this year. The background of the lid was made using blended scrap clay. The paw setting is a rough prototype of a new bezel for my line that was misinterpreted by the factory (back to the drawing board!). I was glad to find a use for it. I mixed teeny tiny glass beads with my Magic Glos UV resin and packed them in the recesses. The dog and heart charms are Tierracast findings with the jump loops clipped and filed off. I printed the rim's clay border with black ink, using a paw print stamp. I've had a lot of experience with designing pet motifs since last year. I was commissioned to design for A Keepsake Company, makers of a wonderful pet product devoted to preserving memories of beloved pets.
My love of imagery on clay was the impetus for creating a fool-proof line of image transfer papers (blank and pre-printed). I cut out this pre=printed image using a scrapbook punch that mimics the look of a postage stamp border. After applying it to white clay, I stamped the postal cancelation marked using my "Going Places" stamp. The corners were accented with striped borders and raised millefiori leaf slices. The rim is textured, black clay. After baking, a domed cabochon effect was achieve with a few thin layers of my Magic Glos, UV resin. You can find the stamp, transfers, and resin on my website: www.lisapavelka.com
Many of my jars will have simple sides but today's jar took on a life of it's own with a different new kind of striping. Two different widths of clay strips were added around the rim for a highly dimensional effect that reminded me of a cog wheel. The center is an array of distorted bull's eye cane circles embedded into a pink clay base. After rolling these smoother, I stippled the pink clay background to cause the slices to standout in relief. Randomly placed SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS flatback crystals were pressed into the centers for a touch of bling.
Happy Chinese New Year!I created this lid using Fine Silver metal clay (Art Clay Silver). I used an antique glass finding as a mold, torch fired the clay and then hand finished and patinated to bring out the details. Gradient polymer clay in sunset tones was used to create "flames" along the rim and coming out of the dragon's mouth. These were cut into slivers with a craft knife and then shaped and textured with a needle tool The background was created by running stiff white clay over softer gray clay in a dedicated pasta machine until the fractured effect began to emerge. If you are not familiar with metal clays, visit the link above to Art Clay World to learn more or check out the premier publication for the metal clay: Metal Clay Artist, created by Jeanette LeBlanc. It was a tremendous honor to be invited by Jeanette to write a regular feature for this beautiful magazine. I dedicate this day's jar to my very talented, dear friend Lilian Chen. She is a fellow SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS Ambassador and one of the most amazing wire artists I have ever known. Lilian has been a featured instructor on one of my Crystal Chix cruises.
This jar of course! Canes were made using black white and translucent clays. They were placed randomly over a base of white clay and rolled until seamless and flat. Translucent striping adorns the rim. Minimum color, maximum impact!
