by Steve | Jan 31, 2010 | Workshops |
Day three was a productive day as everyone worked on their projects, there were a few demos but overall people had their attention focused on finishing up their stuff.
Andrew’s Steampunk Journal looked great. He created it using an old clock spring, some watch parts and Ice Resin. I thought the texture he used on the surface of the clay was very nice and was surprised to find out he used some metal corset boning to create it. Andrew is a fashion designer and apparently, he carries some around with him.
Keeley spent the time working on her creatures. Their faces were so perfect that I assumed that they were made from a mold. But as Keeley talked about the work she told me that’s not the case, each one is individually sculpted. Her material of choice is PaperClay and that that I’ve seen a good example of what you can create with it, I may have to reevaluate it as a creative tool.
At least two polymer clay heart boxes were under construction but I know there were more.
by Steve | Jan 30, 2010 | Sculpture, Workshops |
Most people settled into the routine of just making things today or journaling today. Several people who had started polymer clay books yesterday finished them today by completing the baking process and painting them. A few people, myself included continued working with the polymer clay and made boxes that were shaped around organic forms. Some molded forms like a heart out of foil, I used a rock.
Some of the other PLAY participants were admiring my tiny jade book and The Books of the Jade Skulls. They asked about the technique I use to create the faux jade with polymer clay so I set up a demonstration and taught them how to make it. The demonstration left me with a piece of faux jade clay, I thought about making another small pocket book with it but instead I decided to make a box. I covered a rock with a layer of gold clay, then covered the first layer with the faux jade.
by Steve | Jan 29, 2010 | Workshops |
Day one of PLAY was all about polymer clay. Tracy Moore taught his Relic Journal and demonstrated how to make journal covers using polymer clay and jewelers resin to build. This is a similar technique I used for The Book of Jade Faces, but the surfaces are painted instead of composed using colored clays. Several people were new to polymer so there were lots of questions of questions and some trial and error. There was a wide variety of styles from completely organic forms to some highly structured compositions. I’d have to give the “Eye for Detail” prize to Matt who created a forest of mushrooms on his cover complete with the gills on the underside of each mushroom.
Here are a few more examples of what people were working on in various stage of completion.
by Steve | Jan 23, 2010 | Recently Bound |
In the process of preparing to go to PLAY for a few days I’ve bound two books, the leather wrap and The Book of Jade Faces. I’ve very satisfied with the way they both turned out but something still wasn’t right, I needed more. I wanted something… a little… beefier? I rummaging through my supplies trying to get an idea of what I wanted and then I found a piece of walnut burl, the grain and striations in the wood were fantastic. I only had one piece of walnut but I was able to squeeze two 8 1/2″ X 5 1/2″ pieces out of it. To do that however, I had to cut it so the grain was running horizontally across the cover instead of from top to bottom. Visually I think it works, the burl hides the direction of the grain well and from structural standpoint this is a fairly hard wood so there shouldn’t be any problem with wear or breakage.
The beauty of the wood called for a very simple treatment so after easing the edges and slightly rounding the corners to avoid “pokeage” a couple of coats of Tung Oil were applied, followed by a couple of coats of Carnuba Wax. The book block is 300 gm (140 Lb.) Fabriano Artistico and sewn to a leather spine with waxed polyester thread using a modified long-stitch. As the stitches go down the spine they get progressively longer and a friend commented that it creates an illusion that each series of Xs is fatter than the one above. Here are the photos:
by Steve | Jan 20, 2010 | Recently Bound |
I put the last detail onto The Book of Jade Faces and as stood there looking at it there was a problem. Fabriano Artistico paper comes in 22″ X 30″ sheets and because of the size of these journals, when I tear the pages down from the sheet I’m left with a 3″ x 22″ strip of paper. Normally, I’d just toss them into my scrap bin and use them down the road but this time, the scraps lay there on the counter mocking me. What the scraps didn’t realize is the the polymer clay and all the tools were still out on the counter. They weren’t scraps for long.
This small pocket journal is 3″ X 3″. Both the front and back covers are made from polymer clay. The front cover is made from the faux jade that was used to make The Book of Jade Faces, I added some inlay just to make it a little more interesting. The inlay is gold polymer clay, the design in the inlay was created with a fairly standard mica shift technique. The back cover is the gold clay which I cut the inlay from. I’m not completely satisfied with the way it turned out and I’ll probably replace it, but it’s not bad for a few minutes work.
