365 Days of Lip Service

Leaping Lizards...

...err I mean Stags! In honor of it being a Leap Year, l will actually be creating 366 artworks on Carmex jar lids. Somehow the number 366 doesn't bring the period of one year to mind, thus the blog's name: "365 Days of Lip Service." I knew that whatever I made this day had to convey a sense of leaping. The stag silhouette was made from black polymer clay and affixed it to a small spring. This was mounted in a mokume gane base supported by millefiori cane slices. The rim is silver foiled clay impresses with vertical lines. I could share with you the delight of people who have had chance to handle this lid and how they respond when they pull the stag back and let it launch into "leaping" motion. I'm very fond of any artwork that is kinetic. Lid creations with moving components will be showing up throughout the year. May today's jar remind you to always look forward and spring into creative action whenever you get the chance. 

 

 

Pop!

 Today's lid is another cane made from little orphan canes. The effect didn't come out as symmetrical as I had intended, but I actually love the bit of twist that the yellow focal points create. This just reminds of of a pop art patterns from a dress I had in the 1960's. The bursting effect of the yellow sections also remind me of popcorn, my beloved's husband's drug of choice! The center is accented with a cat's eye hotfix nailhead. A textured blue border covers the rim. 

Retro Chic

     

 

This lid features a photographic cabochon. This was made using a hand-tinted toner photocopy of a vintage photo. The transfer was applied to white polymer clay and pressed into a dome shape before curing. A second baking was completed with the addition of a brown, clay border (made using my Ropes and Braids border mold). Finally, a third baking was completed with the gluing of simple millefiori leaf cane slices around the edge in an over-lapping scallop pattern.   

Roll Out the Red Carpet!

     

Welcome to "Super Bowl" night at the Pavelka's. The Academy Awards show is the Holy Grail of TV viewing in our house. The "Do Not Disturb" sign is on the door and phone ringers are off. If you call, no one will answer. We'll be hunkered down with a few friends for our traditional coffee table picnic. Here's to three hours of playing fashion police rating dresses and hairdos. We revel in seeing who can get the most correct predictions on Oscar winners! I'm so excited to see Bill Crystal back to host the event. He's the best they've ever had. Allen and I were lucky enough to have dinner with him and his wife several years ago while they were in Las Vegas filming America's Sweethearts. I have even had the thrill of holding an Oscar when a member of a marketing group I belong to was a speaker at one of our meetings. She brought one of her father's five Oscars and let it pass around the room, brave girl. There was no other theme that would suffice for today's project but an homage to one of my favorite days of the year. The popcorn on the lid is polymer clay. The bucket, tickets and film strips are image transfers over polymer clay that were created on my blank Waterslide Transfer paper on an inkjet printer. To make the tickets and popcorn bucket standout, I applied a thin coat of Magic Glos quick cure resin to them. The film reel is my silver crafting foil over clay that has been punched out and then glued to the surface with Poly Bonder high-temp adhesive, as are the stars.  

Mokume Gane

 

This wonderful technique is adapted from metal to polymer clay and literally can be done dozens of ways to achieve wonderful random and pattern-specific designs. First developed in Japan in the 17th Century by sword maker, Denbei Shoami. This art form is still popular with modern silver and goldsmiths in the making of high-end jewelry. The metal process is incredibly labor intensive. Fortunately with polymer clay, the various methods are much simpler and faster to achieve. I love working with metallic and deep colors, especially when creating gifts and accessories for men. The top was finished with a layer of Magic Glos resin to create the look of glass. I devote an entire chapter to some of the methods for creating Mokume Gane in my last book - "The Complete Book of Polymer Clay."  Friend, polymer clay artist and Mokume Gane innovator, Julie Picarello, will be teaching one of her techniques on the upcoming "Clayditarod Cruise" to Alaska. She will be joining Katie Baum (President of the Art Clay Society), Christi Friesen (all around clay phenom), Jackie Truty (President of Art Clay World), and myself aboard a 7 day Mixed Clay cruise to Alaska, August 14 - 21, 2012. Visit: www.artacrosstheoceans.com for more information.  

All Aflutter

     

This lid watered with a sassy red, white and purple millefiori cane. I was playing with the end of a purple and white bull's eye cane and smooshed it into a strip. I then rolled this into a "ribbon" rose and glued it to the center. I added fuchsia clay for the rim and decided to give the edge around the lid's cane slice a textured, purple border. Just before trimming off the excess clay, I noticed one edge was delicately ruffled. It was then I decided to bend the rest of the edges to see what it would look like. I was so pleased with the effect, that I left it intact. Let this be a lesson to all the budding artists out there or those who recognize your inner artist, but suffer from pangs of doubt about your work. As much as I'd like to say that everything I do is the result of a vision followed by careful execution, that is seldom the case when I sit to create. While there are occasionally pieces that fall under this concept, much of what I do starts out with a color, shape, or texture in mind. I let the work take me where it will. As an artist, it's not uncommon to dislike or even loath something I made. However, I find the pieces I am most pleased with upon their completion are the unexpected ones. The works that didn't come out like I had envisioned or the projects that I started with no preconceived expectations, but tackled with an attitude of playfulness. Know that's it's okay to veer from a path and even make mistakes. Sometimes those become the pieces you love the most! 

How Big???

I've heard from several people following the blog that they wanted to know more about February 14th's chocolate box including a better perspective of it's size. We'll due to popular demand, here are more details. The open box of chocolates measures 7/8" inches high (23 mm) and 3/4" inches wide (19mm). All the chocolates were made with polymer clay including the foil covered one. I've taken this picture with real chocolate truffles to give a sense of scale. If only all chocolates were guilt free!

Renaissance Rapture

This collage was made using my pre-printed Waterslide Transfers (from the Fine Arts and Tiny Tats collection). White polymer clay was used as the background along with the addition of millefiori flower and leaf slices for a dimensional quality. The "Tiny Tats" butterfly was hand-tinted with permanent markers before being applied.Two, thin  layers of Magic Glos UV resin were applied (curing between each layer) for a glass-like finish with a cabochon effect. The rim is textured, black clay.   

 

 

So Bright, I Have to Wear Shades!

     

 

This was a cane I made by combining other cane odds and ends. I love the vibrancy that the yellow adds to the orange and pink tones. I feel that yellow is probably the most under-appreciated and under-utilzed color in creativity. Yellow does wonders for making light and bright colors pop, while softening darker tones. The center is accented with a SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS Hotfix flatback in Crystal Volcano (#001 VOL). Atomic Orange strips of lined clay were trimmed with a deckled edge and place along the top and bottom of the rim after lining it with fucshia clay for an edgy effect (pun not intended!). 

 

 

 

Crystal Pyramids

 

A few days back, when digging in my SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS treasure trove, I also found another type of triangular component, the Pyramid Fancy Stone #4842. These complimented a triangular millefiori cane design I had in my clay drawers. Separating the simple, lined black clay border is a single strand of SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS single row #50 002 plastic banding in Topaz (#203). Polymer clay bakes at a low enough temperature that the banding won't melt in the oven! The pyramid stones were removed after baking and reattached with two-part epoxy.