learning

'i am always doing that which i cannot do,
in order that i may learn how to do it.'
- pablo picasso

my experiments with polymer clay are continuing... the first night i decided to try darker clays & was thinking i was going to have something called pearl-ex to use as a highlighter... however, at the two craft stores i went to, they didn't have it... from the depths of my mind was something whispering 'alcohol based ink'... i figure that had to have come from reading a post by heather at humblebeads or lynn at llyynn ... because they really are the pros... so i went back to the craft store and got some of them along with some lighter colored clays... i applied some different colored inks to some of the darker clay beads to see what would happen... the blue bead in the upper left corner has slate on it, the one under it has the meadow green on it...

when i applied the inks to a lighter clay bead, it put the light color into relief... the inks have a watercolor type finish the way i did it using a felt pad... some of the beads are just testers to see how the ink colors come out after baking... and what they look like on different base colors... they got much more subtle... so i am wondering if i should be applying them afterward sometimes... i am not sure if i like the green... & the different effects you can get... i like the way they bleed... my favorites are from the top two rows... zoa art today had a post showing a current mag containing an article on polymer clay, so i think i will try to grab that...
these beads happened when i applied ink to the rubber stamp itself... then i added some extra color to the one on the right... i do like the kind of distressed look they have... the middle one was a thought for the abs challenge this month - then i realized it's the 29th already!

re: a cube - that was trickier than i had realized as you have to push into the stamp to get the imprint... as you turn sides, it got sloppier - i was ok with how it was by 3 sides, sometimes... am going to keep at this... just to see what happens...

did you do anything different today?

this is what started it...

this unassuming intake valve that most people never see... it's all my brother's fault! he brought us pieces of his vw van's engine that he rebuilt/restored so that the kids could understand the engine hands on... yeah, he's pretty cool! i saw that original vw symbol and wanted to be able to make an imprint... it distracted me most of the day...
my stream of consciousness way of thinking led me to luthien and cindy pack... luthien has been posting about her work with polymer clay - i really love tutorials and appreciate the time it takes to put one up... she has even gotten to the point of opening another etsy shop for that work... good luck, luthien! cindy and i go back - thanks to blogger i now have the privilege of knowing her - i was a customer and really admired her work... the picture above is from my stash... don't you love that medusa head? i worked with the clay about 10 years ago or so, making stuff for my kids that they could play with, creating number pins for them to wear to school on their birthdays, teaching them how to use it for school projects...
but now... i admit, i am wanting to see what i can do for my designs... so, i went to a craft store last night 'just to see' ... and i found this awesome stamp that has so many different textures on it... i am envisioning making cubes with different patterns on each side - i don't know if this is going to work or not, but i will give it a try... of course, then there's the whole getting-the-right-color thing ... always the details! :o)

this is of course occurring during a visit from my brother who i haven't seen in a year... and also having to get ready for a show on the 12th (for which i want to do some work with silver like i have been with copper)... but, as leann's post was just about, perhaps the pressure will yield rich rewards...

thought this was a great quote regarding inspiration-

'the artist is a receptacle for emotions that come
from all over the place; from the sky,
from the earth, from a scrap of paper,
from a passing shape, from a spider's web.'
- pablo picasso