Carved Pendant #2

Carving this pendant while still warm was like cutting through butter.  After carving, I poured white Kato Liquid Polyclay over the entire piece.  I took a paper towel and wiped the excess liquid clay off the bottom area while leaving the upper area alone.  After baking, I took a couple of photos and am pleased with it.  I really like working with the Kato Liquid Polyclay.  While at Clay Carnival, I purchased two bottles of white, clear, purple, blue, orange and yellow, so I better get busy.

Finishing Your Carved Piece

The photos at the end of this post show my original thought of beaded dangles, lots of beads, disks and fibers. However, these two photos show my final decision. Simple black cording, sliver closure, a few fibers and that's it.

Below: I was really trying to make it work. I thought if I used my polymer river rocks it would help it. Nope, still didn't like it.

It was just too busy.

Too much going on and the pendant got lost. It was a fun process finding my way to "keeping it simple". So, give carving a try. You will love having your own stamp, your own design from polymer.

I have made several over the years and they have held up beautifully. Have to say I like the disk beads a lot and will have to figure out how I can use them in another piece.

Carving Your Own Stamp Continued

You are going to "stamp" your carving into conditioned clay. I chose a dark scrap clay because I knew I was going to paint it, but you could choose whatever color or blends of color you want. I sprayed my carving with a mist of water and then laid it on my conditioned clay and gently pressed down.

Lift your rectangle off and there's your raised carving! Use your cutting blade to cut your pendant shape or use an aluminum cutter. I preheated my oven and baked my piece at 250 degrees for 45 minutes.

I made a bunch of disks and circles to match-just in case I wanted to use them in my necklace. I used a yellow ochre to highlight the high spots and decided I did not like it.

Then I rubbed Titan Buff all over it and wiped it off. I painted the face darker using Payne's Gray acrylic paint and water. Yeah, I was liking it much better; my little ancient primitive pendant. Continued tomorrow.

Carving Your Own Stamp

I did a couple of sketches (below) and got out my polymer. Conditioned it and ran it through on the thickest setting on the pasta machine.

Cut a rectangle. Preheated my oven, baked my rectangle for 45 minutes and gave it an ice bath when it came out of the oven. You can use a pencil to sketch on your polymer or you can free-hand it. I used my linoleum cutter (polymer handle) to gently carve on the lines. Move your piece as you turn corners, not the lino cutter.

I wanted a primitive piece. Ancient, no modern.

Continued tomorrow.

Poinsettia & Button Pins

This is the workspace lately. A Poinsettia pin almost done and another couple started. I still have to add the framing or backing to the above, glue and insert the crystals, sign it and bake it.

I love "shield" shapes for pins and pendants. You can use a template or just a flexible tissue blade to make the shape.

The above sheet is just started. I will build the background and flowers until I like them, cut out the shapes, back, embellish, sign and bake them.

These are some of the old canes I have and used slices from almost all of them.

Just made the skinner blend plug on the left because I thought I would make a background piece from it, but didn't.

Had a bit of scrap clay left over so blended it to a marbled stone grey and made handles for my Speedball lino cutter set.

Molded them to fit my fingers. I use the cutter in the handle the most, so left that as it was. I decided to make the handles smaller on the others as I only use them periodically.

I molded an old button and started these two pins.

Pretty productive day.