| Thimbles for Caroline | Premo Collar | Seaside Ornament | ||||||
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 FormerSDPCG
President syndee holt brought a collar in to a guild meeting to share.
I liked, so I made my own version, mixing pearl and black Pearl Ex to make
silver. As I played with the proportions, I came up with a hematite that
I really liked. Then I started mixing blues, purples and magentas and came
up with three complimentary colors and did a blend. Almost a Skinner blend,
but I stopped at about 10 turns.
I had index cards on top of bristol board. The lines on the index cards helped guide me. Then I had to decide how I wanted it to curve, so I looked around the kitchen for some round shapes. I found a luncheon plate from my place settings and laid it against the clay and luckily it was just right. I laid the plate gently on top of the sheet, watching both sides so it was laying evenly on the clay. Using DK's nublade, I cut around the edge. With the blunt edge. Then I turned the blade over, wiped it off and made a cleaner slice. Using a ruler, I marked off 1/4 increments, touching the blade lightly to he clay. I did the same thing on the other edge of the clay. Then I figured I'd need about 3/4" of clay to turn under to form a tube on the other side, so I only cut the strips up to that point. Once all the strips were cut, I turned the sheet over carefully and laid a bamboo skewer halfway between the edge of the clay and the beginning of the cut strips and folded the clay over the skewer. I used my fingertips to lightly press the clay to itself then used the blunt side of the blade to make a smoother seam. I rotated the skewer gently and removed it. I flipped the collar back over and got my luncheon plate again. I curved the tube side around the plate and fanned out the strips in a way I liked, trying to keep them all straight, not stretching them and keeping an even distance between the strips. It's not perfect, but I like it. |
 1st
step:
Covering a glass ornament with a thin sheet of clay. First, I mixed four colors of translucent clay; a blue, a turquoise, a green and plain. These were leftovers from mixes I already had, so I can't give you color numbers. I ran it through the pasta machine a couple of times on the #3 setting. Then I squared it up and stuck the scraps randomly on the clay and ran it through again. Folded it and ran it through on #4, then ran it unfolded on #5 and began to put it on the ornament. |
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One of my best buddies in the whole world. I made these for her graduation from San Diego State University. Girl Power! |
I took the ornament and centered
it on the clay, bringing up the side closest to me and smoothing the center
part. I noticed how much clay was hanging off the top and bottom so I started
taking tiny slices out and easing it as I went. Once I had done the entire
side, I continued to roll the clay onto the ornament, lining up the ends
and slicing it off.
With the clay being so thin, (and me getting ahead of myself), there were parts that stuck together that I just couldn't pry apart without tearing it, so I smoothed out the air bubbles (you need to do this often) and used my blade to slice off thin layers of the bump until I had taken off enough to make it even with the rest of the clay. After I had made all the slits and covered the entire ornaments, ( and patched the booboos), I began to smooth the whole thing by gently rolling it in my hands, then using the handle of a paintbrush. So far, I've gotten along by the seat of my pants. I've taken one hour from conditioning the clay to scanning it. *note to self...don't leave uncured pieces on the scanner too long...that little light bulb puts out more heat than you'd think. |
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