The Secret Life of Biscuits (A Tutorial of Sorts), Stone Pelicans and an Interesting New Glue. . .

Wood or Polymer clay?

Well, I've been horribly busy with a long discussed and procrastinated over DIY project - vis, Putting up false wood panelling in the hall of our house. False, because I am using MDF to make a series of 'frames', the inside of which is the plain wall. Paint it all and you wouldn't know that it wasn't all wood, and if you are careful, you can make it look like it's been there a long time. . .

You see, our house dates from circa 1780, but you wouldn't really know to see it on the inside apart from the proportions, nice high ceilings etc. It was messed about with a fair bit over the years, including being, what our local builder calls, 'farmerised', which is a process of covering over or ripping out old clay tile floors, likewise with old inglenook fireplaces, bannisters etc and generally getting rid of rustic charm or Georgian detail wherever it can be found and replacing with lino, plasterboard, york stone and strange wallpaper ;-) Something farmers seem to have got the blame for. Well, it was a farmhouse so I guess in this case farmers were the culprits. . . We are lucky in that the house wasn't totally trashed, and that the previous owner uncovered a nice tile floor and a previously boxed in inglenook fireplace when they bought the place forty years ago.

Our task, as we see it, is to pretend that none of the farmerising happened, and reconstruct a kind of faux Georgian-ish interior. Not making it a slavish restoration project as such, but more of a creative injection of charm and interest in line with our ideas of what might have been there before and what we would like to see, and all in line with a low budget too!

Work in progress, plus kitten

Anyway, the reason I am wittering on about it is that I am finding that my DIY excursions often have a the side effect of giving my ideas for beads etc. 

The MDF 'frames' I am making are joined together using something called a 'biscuit joiner'. This tool makes a groove in the piece of MDF or other wood you wish to join to another piece of same, in which you made a similar groove. Using the same tool set up the same means that your grooves should line up perfectly and be in exactly the right place for the two pieces to join up seamlessly by using a 'biscuit' which fits nicely in the two grooves. It works well, once you know what you are doing (I'm getting there. . .) These 'biscuits are like small, flat ovals of plywood, and are of a size and shape that to my mind could make a good template for a polymer clay bead/charm. (15mm by 19mm by 4mm)

size 10 biscuit - 15 x 19 x 4mm

Above is what they look like. You could view the following as a sort of tutorial or at least something to try if you come across a biscuit or two, (100 for about ten pounds online) follow along. . .

They are made of three layers, like plywood, and are maybe a bit thick, so I tried carefully splitting one down the middle with a craft knife/tissue blade. 

Split in half to expose nice wood texture and reduce thickness

I liked the splintered wood texture that resulted, so firstly I tried pressing that into a piece of raw polymer clay as a texture stamp, then cutting round it with a craft knife and baking the resulting shape. 

Once it was baked I decided to use the wooden half biscuit as a backing piece for it, so I stuck it, splintered texture side out, onto the back. Actually, I used the other half of the biscuit I split earlier as it had a slightly different texture pattern but the principle is the same. 

Then I had some fun treating the surface with alcohol inks, sanding it off, etc. It turned out looking cool, but a lot like wood. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not, or if it was what I wanted, as if it looked like wood I might as well not have used polymer clay at all ;-)

I painted the back too. I used acrylic inks this time, the coverage was better on wood than alc inks I found.

The real wood back of the faux wood bead

Following on from that my next experiment was to use a different texture instead of splintered wood, so I reached for my stack of digital photopolymer texture sheets and tried one of those. I used the same technique as before and the same half biscuit backing concept. It looked promising, and  after a bit of painting and distressing etc it looked really interesting. So I reckon there is quite a lot of scope for polymer clay experimentation here. . . 

Textured and treated surface

Talking of which, I had another idea and tried cutting the half biscuit in half again across the width, which gave me another nice couple of shapes which could be more of a manageable size for earring charms maybe. 

I tried another of my texture sheets, a simple, bold one this time, combined it lightly with the splintered wood texture on top of it, and then, after baking,  kind of wiped the two pieces gently across a blue stazon ink pad. I was pleased with how they came out too. I'll definitely try some more of those. . . And get a couple of different colour ink pads.

Half biscuits - textured and coloured

This post has been a bit long so I will keep the rest of this missive brief. . .

We found a pair of stone pelicans at our local antiques street fair at the weekend. They fit in nicely with our front door area and add a bit of eccentricity, not to mention a slightly gothic vibe too. Fun. They can keep a careful eye on any visitors ;-)

Stone pelicans in place above the door

As for the interesting new glue. The adhesive I was using to attach bits of moulding and dado rail to the fake panelling was new to me. It's a kind of two part epoxy stuff, but part one is a spray. You spray one surface, let it evaporate, then apply glue to the other surface, when pressed together they form a very strong, superglue type bond in about ten seconds. Brilliant. It may have polymer clay and jewellery uses. Not sure yet but I will keep it in mind.

Well, until next time,

Jon x

Dummy adorned. . .

I've been feeling a touch discouraged of late. I haven't sold much in the last month or so, and haven't had much response from the World concerning my work. Which is not all that surprising as the World probably hasn't seen much of it anyway, me being a reluctant self publicist and all. But I have put it on Pinterest, and on FB from time to time, but obviously not with enough conviction and not often enough.
I have been making stuff still, but I find the downside of having had a good response in the past, is that when the good response isn't sustained, you miss it, which can detract from the enjoyment you get from the process of making stuff. Ironic really, as if you hadn't had the good response in the first place, you would probably have just chugged along, doing your own thing, not feeling particularly disappointed or particularly elated. . .
So I have the dilemma of wanting to make stuff, but wanting that little bit of affirmation on top. But feeling reluctant to make anything if it isn't going to be noticed and the affirmation not be forthcoming.

Fragile artist ego stuff I'm afraid. Get over yerself etc.

Anyway, each time I make and list a necklace, I drape it over this rather wonderful old, 1960s (?) black plastic 1/4 size approx, display bust my ex was going to throw out, but that I rescued. I have sold several necklaces over the months, but there are good few still on there.
I always thought it looked pretty cool but had never got round to photographing it, until now. I'm intending to use these images on my website, when I actually construct it, but you get to see them first, lucky you ;-)

Who's that old git with a camera?

Surface treatment - When does 'Distressed' become 'Messed up'?

Is there actually a dividing line? I am really enjoying seeing how close to total irreparable messed-up-ness I can take my image transfer bead 'ageing' process. It's a learning curve, and once you have taken a process too far, you can take a more informed view on how far to take it the next time.

Here's how things start out. Images transferred onto poly clay squares, in this case, using dye sub paper and kato trans liquid. This shot is after baking, obviously. You get a slightly fuzzy, out of focus effect, and some randomly dodgy edges. All of which is fine, as it all adds to the finished look. Neatness can be achieved with more care, if neatness is your thing.

Here's a shot of my desk with some of the above as finished beads, after the 'distressing' or 'messing up', (whichever it is deemed to be) process.

A closer view of the greeny brown ones. Sanded quite hard, as scratching Kato clear is not as easy as plain baked clay. Also, the scratches aren't visible until some darker ink/paint/whatever is applied and encouraged to sink into them.

This is what happens when the process is taken a bit further. These beads are slightly different in that the image trans process was the more usual one using a laser copy/print and water on plain white clay, or a 10% kato trans, 90% white poly clay mix. (Images 'stick' better with a bit of trans clay in the mix).

As there is no liquid clay involved, the surface scratches and distresses more easily. The image comes out sharper than the dye sub ones too. The other thing that happens with this method is that when Renaissance Wax is used at the end of the process, and rubbed in, it starts to dissolve the image. If you apply it carefully and leave it to dry for half an hour or so, it will buff up without too much of the image disappearing, but if you rub it in hard and buff up after a couple of minutes a fair bit of the image is removed. I like both effects. The top left bead has almost entirely lost the image, but looks cool all the same. imho.

These next ones are where it gets close to or over the dividing line between 'distressed' and 'messed up' that I am wittering on about. I like the kind of 'ghost image' of the pattern in red that gets left on the two on the right. This technique does make me wonder whether I should make some beads with no image on them at all, just madly messed up surfaces. I like the look, and losing the image, as in the bottom left bead, doesn't detract from it's coolness all that much. But overall, the ones where the image is still reasonably discernible are my favourites. How 'bout you?

Clayhem, no more. . .

BEFORE - working with a bit of MDF sat on top of an open drawer as a work surface, with all the random boxes of stuff strewn around. Not to mention the tatty curtains, bits of 80's recording gear, guitar cases and boxes of blank tiles and coasters etc etc etc etc etc etc in the background. . .

AFTER - makeover time. . . I put this spare washstand/writing desk in the corner (top left in the clayhem pic), put a bit of foamboard on top to protect it, stuck a big tile I rescued from the dump on top to work on and arranged all the things I use most around that. The best thing is that I can leave them all there and come back to them as and when I have time/motivation. The shelving on the left is where the beads, clay, texture sheets and wire etc live, in various "Wham boxes" (which seem to be in shops everywhere these days). I'm addicted to storage boxes with compartments now. . . Pliers and other tools are in the drawer on the right, printed images in the drawer on the left.

The fast food container that seems to contain a urine like liquid is actually full of water that was used to clean yellow acrylic ink off a brush in case you were worried, or thought I had a secret ingredient in my work. . . I also use it to cool beads out of the halogen oven (floor, bottom left)

Notice the new curtains (OK, not new, charity shop, six full length velvet curtains for £25. Result!) and notice that I painted the wall, whoo! . . .

This is all part of getting the house in order so we can sell it in a month or two, but whatever the motivation it's nice to have a dedicated workspace for claying and jewellery work.

The interesting and unexpected knock on effect of all this order imposing activity is phychological. I feel calmer, and more in control now that I occupy a more ordered space. I wasn't aware of feeling particularly stressed or depressed before but I am aware of not feeling that way so can only assume that I must have been feeling that way to some extent. Well well. . .

cheers,

Jon x