Constance Pelkey Designs

Friday, May 08, 2009

Conditioning and show prep

P1040388

Ok, ok! This post isn’t ALL about the title! I HATE coming up with cute or all encompassing blog post titles!!

Here’s a sneak peek at my latest effort in sculpting. I still have to make and add the wee folk who live in this shoe, other than the cat and dog peeking out the window! I also need to add all the nitpicky stitches all over the shoe, where you see the little circle indentations! Whew! That’ll be time consuming!  

On other clay fronts, I found out about the Hallowell, ME Riverfront Art fair and decided it was time to do another show! Plus, it was FREE! No space cost!! It’s been a while since I did a show.. probably three years now?

I’m excited and I have plenty of stock! I did find myself looking through my supplies earlier this week and decided I could make a few new items for this show!  So I got busy making a few pens and some key chains and a few clip-style business card holders! All of these need some serious tumble time over the weekend, I asked for this weekend off due to Nancy’s birthday and Mom’s day. Since all my electrical tools are in the basement, I don’t like to leave things running unless I’m here at the house and paying attention. P1040382Tumbling is so time consuming! I’m hoping to be able to finish these items up on Monday, aka; buffing and final assembly. I work until 2 on Monday due to having the weekend off, so my web cam time will be as soon as I get home and can set it up! Come watch!

P1040384 While conditioning the purple clay for my rainbow cane I was webcaming the other day, I discovered that using Studio by Sculpey clay and old formula Kato, just wasn't cutting it! I purchased some of the SBS clay to try it out when it first arrived at my local A. C. Moore's and it just wasn’t for me! So, I’ve been adding small amounts of it to projects to just use it up.  I LOVED the shade of the purple I had and wanted to tone down the violet Kato, Uh huh!! The two just weren’t blending! So I added tiny amounts of liquid Kato clear medium to them as I was running the clay through the pasta machine and slowly they became one! Still, it was a much softer clay that resulted and it could have been disastrous had the violet been placed anywhere else the cane make up. P1040386It ended up on the outside, before I kaleidoscoped it so the distortion of the different hardness's of the clays in the cane was very minimal. Moral? DON’T cane with different hardness clay colors in the same cane! I KNOW better! LOL!!

I really like the way the cane ended up! I have yet to actually make anything with it, though! I used up the scrap ends first, and made some swirly lentils and Natasha slices. Kinda neat! I LOVE the contrast in colors!!

So, when I finish up these little items, I’ll get back to my shoe sculpt, finish it up, and I also want to make one more marionette for this upcoming show!

3 comments:

MoeArt said...

This is adorable! I love it!

Tammy said...

That square cane is one of the most beautiful canes I have ever seen. I wish canes didn't intimidate me so much.

Connie (The Purple Princess) said...

Thanks Moe! It is kinda cute isn't it?

Tammy! Thanks! I like this cane too! Canes aren't that hard... search around for tutes!