birds of a feather

For a little bit now I've been putting my creative energies into learning some new Polymer clay techniques, I'm in love with the mokume gane technique the way it blend colors is just really darn cool, once I have made a sheet I like I have been using that to make origami cranes, and thus far I have a small flock of them..

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Conversly,  this is my husband's "flock". Last Sunday he went to Farm King for car parts and returned with 5 little black chicks. They have been named and they are not food. There are three females and two males. They are supposed to be good laying chickens. What role the males will be playing in our lives is unclear. the females are already more personable, if you put your hand in near them they hop on and settle down for a nap.

One of the females has two bald spots on her back, maybe from getting stuck to her shell while hatching, and sh'e a touch smaller than everyone else. She has been names Rachel, in honor of the pet house chicken that a crazy lady I worked for in Pennsylvania owned. (No chickens can't be house broken the darn bird deficated wherever she was, including sitting on the couch watching tv with you.)

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This Rachel chicky will be an outside Rachel chicky. But isn't she cute.... :)

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What I have so far...

These are the first ones I've tried,  the pictures aren't very good, and the little bugger is not glazed yet.

The one I think is the best, he does have a bubble in one wing and I couldn't get his body to puff out.

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And here is the group, all but the very first two.. they were cracked on all the fold lines so I mushed them back up rather than backing them.

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QotD: Totally Obsessed

What is your current obsession(s)?
Submitted by eijsr.

making origami cranes out of polymer clay

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Polymer Clay

When I was in high school, I made a rose out of a mud clay or play dough or something, and it impressed my Mom. My Mother went to an art store and came home with a box of Sculpey I really liked working with it.. I made quite a few roses, I was frustrated by the difficulty supporting the sculpey as it baked, so my flowers would not be squashed on one side. I was also frustrated by painting the sculpey, rather than having it colored somehow, the paint didnt look the way I wanted and frankly, I've never been good at painting...  (well I made one thing at camp look the way I envisioned it.. but I ruined it last year while we where moving. Tempera paint and a sink full of hot dirty dish water are not a good mix)

Before long homework, work and school plays took over all the time I had.. I didn't get to play with my clay and really learn, and when I had questions about it I didn't know where to go for the answers. This was long before we all had Internet at home. I only knew what internet was because my Dad had it at work. There was not the wealth on information out there that there is now. So my clay was pulled out once in a while.. I would fiddle with it and sometimes I would bake it sometimes it was only stress relief and I'd mush it all up again.

Fast Forward to married life  ...One day I went into our local art store and there, low and behold was colored polymer clay. Fimo to be exact. So I bought a few colors...  Only to learn later that I still didn't know the ins and outs of working with polymer clay, I didn't know how to blend two pinks to get he look I wanted, or how not to over blend, so I had swirls rather than mud. I made a few beads, but I could not get the pinks to blend in a natural way so I could make roses I was happy with. mostly the clay sat around. 

Forward again. I lost the hoof off of a model horse. after a few days of thought.. I decided to go buy some polymer clay to make a new one. My first polymer clay mold was of a model horse hoof.  this lead me to play with the clay a little more but mostly my time was consumed by the bigger of the little ones.. and creatively I was spending my energies on photography,  knitting,  sewing etc. (jack of all trades/crafts master of none)

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After J was born I started to get more into Photography;One day on a photography mb someone asked if anyone was making photo tiles from clay.  After reading some instructions, and seeing a few pictures I thought it looked like a fun craft to try. I made my Grandmothers little brass wire trees with picture tile ornaments for Christmas 2004. Then I began to refine the photo tiles,  and as people saw ones I had made as gifts I began to get requests to sell them. And so now I do.

I have recently been looking for a way to seal the tiles to make them sturdier, for people who might want to have them on keychains and such, And I have discovered a wealth on information out there from PC artists, plus some techniques I'm like to try, but what I found most inspiring was this.

Polymer Peace Cranes Origami Cranes, something I have been making since the Fourth Grade, made from Polymer Clay...  I never could figure out how to protect the paper cranes to use them as ornaments, and now.. I'm so inspired by the mix of the this medium with this one of my favorite crafts!! I have already made a couple.. and one of them looks pretty decent... now I just need to learn to make more exciting "papers" .

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