The last couple of days I have had birds on the brain. This is what turned up on the clay table.
The larger one has some feather issues. I used scupley III for the cane, forgetting that it is a very brittle clay when cured and should not be used for thin projects. I am going to figure out a way to “re-inforce” the feathers and turn him into a barrette holder for personal use.
The smaller one is going to land on a pin back for some one, and then fly away to a new home.
I have had fun making them. I now have fisheys swimming in my brain.
Last night I put a batch of bead in the tumbler to buff. I rinsed them well after the last sanding “session” and but them in the tumbler with some denim scraps. This morning when I took them out, they where kind of cloudy. I think that either I had them to wet or had to many in the tumbler. When I hand buff them, it does not take long to get them to shine nicely. I think that I will try to split the beads up and do smaller batches on buffing. I have over one hundred beads in this batch ranging of different sizes. I think that the dampness of the beads and the amount of denim did not give the beads enough room to move around.
I, personally, don’t want to buff everything by hand. It sounds like it would take a lot of time. I do like the beads when they have been sanded and buff. They have a nice shine to them. Some of the new beads I do plan on finishing them with varathane. The colors would really sparkle then. Those I really don’t have to buff but I want to fix the cloudiness issue so that I do not have this problem again.
I just got the beads out of the tumbler. They look really nice. What I did was divide the batch in half and used both tumblers. I lined the barrels with flannel and used fkannel scraps in with the beads. I made sure that all the beads and the barrels where totally dry. The next time that I have beads to buff, I will make sure that they are dry before I put them in the tumbler.
I have found that using a light box to take pictures of my polymer clay pieces create a more true-to-life picture. My husband made me a wonderful one. He used plywood, a pipe, three light sockets, and a light switch and wire. Here are pictures of it with out the shade and color background.
The lights are placed in a circle around where the piece will be placed. I have use full-spectrum light bulbs.
Here is the light box with the “shade”. To make the shape I used clear velum that I found in the scrap booking area at the local craft store. It diffuses the light so that the objects don’t have large shadows. I used a gray piece of paper for the background. I tried many different shapes of gray to figure out which one worked the best with the majority of my pieces. The only one that I have had problems with is my Purple Dragonfly Barrette. The clear purple beads show up looking tanish.
To take pictures I mount the camera to the swing arm and place the piece in the center of the circle. I use the auto-focus but not the flash. The flash on the camera tends to change the color of the background and the piece.
A new bead store opened in the area today. I just had to go see what they have. It is ran by beaders and they have high quality stuff. I enjoyed looking and everything. Even found accent beads for some of my clay one that I have been inspired with. I finally am and well string them in a day or two.
Today, I have been turning failed canes into beads and workable canes. I am very happy with the beads and the canes are looking nice. All of the canes are very unique and I like the colors. I have some cooling in a bath of ice water to help clarify the translucent clay. I am working on making some barrettes out of the reworked canes. I also am going to do some experimenting with some of my new finds, like the alcohol inks.
Well I am off to play some more!
I got two more sets done using my beads that I made. I wore one of them to work today and got great comments on them. I still have the earrings to make for the one set. (I have to get more eye pins to put them on.)
This is actually a three piece set with necklace, bracelet, and earrings. It is made with the scraps of the faux paua shell.
This set is from the scraps of a damascus ladder cane that I made and used what I could on barrettes. I really like how it looks.