Polymer Clay on Sale

If you've always wanted to try Polymer clay, now is the time. It's on sale at Michaels Crafts. Premo, sculpey and I believe, fimo are all on sale for $1.00 a package. Premo normally runs around $2.59 or more, so this is the time to stock up. I used to go to a wholesaler and buy $200.00 worth at a time, but in the last few years Michaels has been running these incredible sales. Sometimes the clay is $.99, sometimes, $.89. I personally will load up on as much as I can afford right now.

In 1982, I was at a craft show and saw someone who made things from white polymer clay. I was very interested in it and she was wonderful to tell me the name of it. I then did some research, got a sales tax number and sent away for a big box of clay. I think I got 8 each of 12 colors. I don't think I moved away from the table for days (just enough to take care of the family) . Later on, in 1987, I opened a small shop and sold crafts and packages of clay. My customers used to wait for the UPS man to deliver it. Then they would wipe out the order in minutes. The availability of polymer clay sure has come a long way since then.

While you are buying some for yourself, I suggest getting some for the kids in your family. They can make Halloween and Christmas ornaments, their own designer beads, clay tiles to use in mosaics, book markers, jewelry and more. They can even make game pieces (every house in America probably has a game with pieces missing). (You would think that I'm a spokeswoman for the clay industry....I'm not, I just love it so much!)

Happy Claying!

Incentive

I don't know if I'm crazy or bored or jealous, but I just printed out ebay feedback for two polymer clay artists. I added up the amount of sales they had to inspire myself. One girl's sales figure was $2600 for the month of July (and it's not even over yet.) The other's was around $700 for one account and $1600 for another. This is pretty inspiring to me and I think to myself, if they can do it, so can I.

Sometimes I think I waste time looking at other people's work, and that I should just be focusing on my own art. But I can't help it. I want to know what other artists are creating and what the public is buying. I wonder, if you are an artist, are you checking up on your competition?

It's not about copying. I wouldn't do that, at least not intentionally. I have so many of my own ideas, I don't need to copy. But, I wonder if my ideas are any good. I try to keep up with trends, as I think most people do.

It's funny because I really admire a fellow class mate's talent. Her name is Jill and she makes graphics and sells buttons. (Here's her blog...http://jnhkgraphicdesign.blogspot.com/).
I was telling my friend, Mary Ann, about Jill's work and how her designs are so "today". Jill really seems to have a style that is unique, yet current. My style is very whimsical and silly and I wonder if it is old and out of fashion. Mary Ann told me to stay true to myself (in the midst of my re-inventing). Later on, after Jill visited my website, she mentioned to me how cute my clay is. She showed my site to her co-workers and they loved my pigs and monkeys. Sometimes when we doubt ourselves, it's nice to be complemented by our peers.

What's new?

I've been listening to motivational tapes and time management tapes daily as I create my clay babies. I decided to "kick it up" a notch and add more details and whimsy to my designs.

Right now I'm working on an art doll witch along with little minis and lots of Halloween.

I'm still working on making a decent video tutorial. I do have a tripod as someone suggested so I think I'll try again Sunday.

Thanks for visiting!

New Topper

I recently made this polymer clay wedding cake topper. It is a bride and groom sitting in a bathtub toasting with champagne. This was fun to make; however, I had to order a complete bathroom set in order to get the tub, so now I have a toilet and a sink. Maybe I can sell them on Ebay.

I finally got my video camera and am in the process of trying to learn how to video tape myself making clay, so that I can do tutorials. It's a trial and error process and I'm not doing too well. In the meantime, I've been making lots of clay figurines and toppers, so I need to figure it out because I could be video taping all this work I've been doing.

One final thought, I sold this crazy looking witch on ebay. My buyer is from
Australia. It's very exciting to ship my clay babies around the world.
I just sent a topper to Denmark! Hooray for the internet.

New toppers

I haven't blogged in awhile due to some health concerns and a busy schedule. I really want to make this work and fortunately, summer is coming, and I'll have more time.

I just bought a camcorder and will be doing quickie tutorials. I'm expecting it to arrive in a few days and can't wait to sit down and video tape myself making something.


Until then, here are a few toppers I recently finished.

Wedding Cake Toppers!!

Bride in Satin ** Groom in Dress Marines



Every since I joined Etsy and put some of my toppers in my store there, I've been getting orders like crazy. I have been so busy doing homework, doing clay and working that I've neglected my blog for the past two weeks. As much as I like blogging, first things come first, but tonight I thought I would take a few minutes and show some of the toppers I've been doing.

A woman sent me a picture of a cat graphic that her sister had drawn for her. I did the cats almost exactly as the graphic looked. It's a simple design and it is glued on a mirror base, but it looks pretty nice.








I added roses to the base of this topper, drawing all the reds in the tie and bouquet together. I really like how this looks.






This topper is Mr. and Mrs. Sock Monkey
sitting among purple and white flowers.
The bride is holding matching roses. This wasn't for a special order
but something I put on Etsy to sell as is.



The topper to the right, with the lion, rhino, and monkey was a special order for a bride and groom who are getting married at the zoo. That's a unique place to tie the knot! Bride was super happy!!


I have a hippie topper, fishing topper, camping topper and army topper to make this week. If you know of anyone who is looking for a unique cake topper, remember me.

Van Gogh Meets Jackson Pollock

My boss asked me to do her a great favor last week. She had a bulletin board around 3 feet by 3 feet that she wanted me to paint. "Something nice and colorful" she told me.

I primed the board (which felt like melted cork) with off white latex paint. I used yellow acrylic paint and began to make a "Swirled" sun, radiating pinks, reds, oranges, and whites. Then I flicked paint in greens, pinks, whites, & blue against the board. I just loaded the brush with a color and flicked it with my finger. The final process was yarn dipped in paint that I "splatted" against the board.

I absolutely love this painting. It is colorful and warm. It has inspired me to make a few more variations of it.

Things I'm working on

I'm taking a Color and Design class at Madonna University and our next project is making a mobile. I have never thought of mobiles as an art form, but boy was I wrong. An artist named Alexander Calder ( (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) invented the mobile. Here's a quote from wikipedia...

"The Cirque Calder can be seen as the start of Calder's interest in both wire sculpture and kinetic art. He maintained a sharp eye with respect to the engineering balance of the sculptures and utilized these to develope the kinetic sculptures Duchamp would ultimately dub as "'mobiles". He designed some of the characters in the circus to perform suspended from a thread. However, it was the mixture of his experiments to develop purely abstract sculpture following his visit with Mondrian that lead to his first truly kinetic sculptures, manipulated by means of cranks and pulleys.

By the end of 1931, he had quickly moved on to more delicate sculptures which derived their motion from the air currents in the room. From this, Calder's true "mobiles" were born. At the same time, Calder was also experimenting with self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed "stabiles" by Arp to differentiate them from mobiles."

I have an idea for a mobile for my class. I'm going to use liquid polymer clay and mix it with pigments. Then I'm going to spread the liquid on a cookie sheet and bake it. When it cools it will be colorful, flexible polymer. I'll then cut out the shapes for the mobile. I plan on doing this Saturday, so I'll be posting the phases of that process.

Here's a cool site that has all kinds of mobiles (and no doubt will inspire me)!

Mobiles

Quicky Tutorial

Here is a very quick tutorial on how to make a gingerbread girl holding a cupcake. If you have any experience working with clay this will be very easy. If you have any questions, please email me. I'll be happy to help you out.


Gingerbread Girl...

Form the body and the legs first...




Drape with pink clay....

Form two apron
straps and attach to front of body...



Flatter darker pink



and then pleat it....

Attach apron to front of body...flattened gently....make two tubes for arms and attach to body....
Roll a brown ball and attach to top for the head. Make two small brown balls for the hands....











Add light brown for the base of the cupcake and top it off with frosting. Add white clay to feet and head to give appearance of the gingerbread girl being frosted. Top cupcake with cherry...bake at 275 for 30 minutes..let cool.