365 Days of Lip Service

Just Ducky

           

These are a few of my favorite things! Today's lid represents shades of my back yard. It's really not much of a yard; just enough room for a pool and water features that my husband built with the help of our son Nick. We have a small waterfall that flows into a tiny stream, that continues into a Koi pond. Occasionally, pairs of Mallard ducks will fly into the pool from nearby neighborhood ponds. I think they would like to nest in our lush, miniature eden, one problem - our dog. Although he's a hunting breed (Weimaraner), he adores small animals and guards the koi with a surprising intensity. If you ask him where his "fishies" are, he'll get incredibly excited and won't leave you alone until you follow him to see his fish. Nose to the water, he checks to see that they're all there. Recently, we saw him going bonkers at night, watching into the pool, only to discover that there is a frog in our yard (unusual for Las Vegas). He's adopted that too and now all you have to do is ask where his "Froggie" is. He'll rush to the pool and circle it, animatedly searching along the perimeter for his new friend. This momma duck and her babies swim in their own little clay world as a curious koi peeks out to check out the action, while a frog lazes in the sun on it's lilly pad. This scene was all sculpted using polymer clay.    

Pencil Me In

     

I still feel a thrill when I see a new box of colored pencils or crayons. It reminds me of the best part of "back to school" and some of my happiest childhood memories, as hours whizzed by I was lost in a world of color. I sawed full size and miniature colored pencils, attaching them to today's lid creation using Crystal Clay (two-part epoxy clay). Doesn't it make you want to color your world?

Fanfare

     

Millefiori cane slices are arranged in a fan formation atop a textured, black clay background. A SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS crystal chaton adorns the center in a frame of turquoise polymer clay. Complimentary cane slices are arranged in an alternating up and down pattern over textured sandstone colored clay and accented with flatback crystals. 

June in Repose

     

A miniature version of one of my favorite paintings ("Flaming June" by Frederick Leighton) adorns today's lid. The image transfer is applied over crackled, silver leaf followed by a layer of Pearlidescent foil for a holographic effect. The dome formed by two layers of Magic Glos (tm)  UV resin enhance the overall illusion of holography. A stripped snake from scrap clay wraps around the image as a frame. The focal point sits atop textured red clay. The rim is covered with a scrap clay cane that was made from compressing leftover millefiori ends into a loaf. This is but one of the ways I have used my clay scraps for many years. Alice Stroppel created a formal tutorial for this concept and introduced the idea of distinguing these layers by first introducing sheets of solid color clay in between. This is now referred to as the "Stropple Cane." I have to credit Alice for her genious as I began to do this with my compressed scrap canes with much better results (as seen above).  

Of Rust and Relics

     

I love creating rust and patina's on baked polymer clay. My friend and incredibly talented artist/author, Christi Friesen, is making the materials that product real rust and other metallic patinas on clay available to the masses with her new line of surface treatments called "Swellegant!" I was lucky enough to be the recipient of her new product and here is but one example of the delicious creativity that you can achieve. I find that I can get this finish very quickly. Heating the product after every coating in the oven (at the same temperature I am curing my clay at), creates the effects in a few hours or less, rather than days. The rust finish was applied to the face. I continued to add the two components until I was satisfied with the result. I set the face onto a mokume gane base layer of clay and pressed a snake of black clay all around to conceal the gaps and frame it. The sides are simple, texture clay with Tierracast elements and copper nail heads pressed into evenly spaced intervals. 

Peacock-i-ness

                                                                  

Perhaps it's the scrap millefiori cane that reminds me of a peacock's feathers, but this is what came to mind when deciding on what to name today's lid. Some names are just obvious, other's a very tongue in check, and a few may be a stretch, but naming the lids is almost as much fun and sometimes nearly as challenging as creating them! Today's lid also showcases a textured clay base that is highlighted with Pearl Ex powdered pigments. a SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS 20mm Cosmic crystal ring filled with crystal chatons. These were set in DeCoRé, two-part epoxy clay. The centerpiece is frames with a Tierracast hammered ring in copper. 

Peeling Back the Layers

     

When viewed from the side, the millefiori cane slices of this flowered lid almost appear as if they had been peeled back, much like a banana would. The bright, vivid colors are the perfect pick-me-up. Scrap millefiori canes were used to create the border that has a watercolor-like effect. The "cherry on top" is the SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS rivoli crystal (in Volcano). 

Surfin' Safari

     

What happens when you mix a favorite millefiori cane with cool components? I'd have to say, magic. Earlier this year, at the To Bead True Blue Show (Tucson Gem and MIneral Show), I came across a great booth with amazing "Sea Glass" beads. I spoke at length with the owner of ZNET Shows , an amazing young man by the name of Rob, who told me how this fair trade company employs craftpeople from his birthplace in China to recreate the effect of glass worn down by the ocean over years and years. All the beads come from recycled glass. They had an unbelievable assortment of sizes, shapes, and colors. While I did purchase quite a few goodies, he was kind enough to donate some beads to my blog project. I plan on creating at least one or more lids using some of the other beads I have. These dagger beads remind me of surf boards. I attached these around the lid to frame the leopard spot millefiori background. In the center I placed a SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS rivoli crystal. This is held in place by wrapping into a metal base using Parawire, copper wire. I first saw this concept by the amazingly talented Lisa Niven Kelly through a class listing in the Bead and Button Show catalog. She teaches sawing technique in metal to use as the wire-wrapping background. Being inspired by Lisa, I found a way to recreate something similar with already notched components. This focal point was glued down over the center of the lid. 

 

True Blue

     

I'm working again with one of my favorite SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS components, the 20mm Cosmic Crystal Square ring. This serves as the focal point over a striated clay background. I filled the center with a millefiori cane slice flower set with a flatback crystal. The centerpiece is anchored the corners with more cane slices. A textured, cobalt blue border adorns the rim. 

 

Weathered

A serene face peers out from a fractured background of gradient blended polymer clay. The crackle effect is the first technique featured in my Faux Raku method (as seen in "The Complete Book of Polymer Clay Techniques"). The image transfer from my pre-printed transfers (Fine Arts Collection) was sealed with two coats of Magic Glos UV resin after baking and before glueing to the clay lid. Often when clay is being rolled through a pasta machine during the conditioning stage, the edges come out with a lovely cracked edge that reminds me of deckled paper. I used black polymer clay for the rim gently rolling the crackled edge over the edges to form a frame for the lid.