HeArtfully Creating: 2016 polymer clay challenge

Showing posts with label 2016 polymer clay challenge. Show all posts

Monday, July 18, 2016

HOWARD THE TURTLE IS COMPLETE!- DIY Polymer Clay Unplugged: The Movie. From His Beginning To The End of Part 1 of 2

Creating HeArtfully
For the past 4-5 weeks, I have been working on my first Turtle, that is meant to be a Doo-Dad Holder or trinket box. Click here to see the first article when I first introduced him and here for the second article when he was a work in progress. He didn't become Howard until I decided that the sea turtle I started out making for a young friend's special event, just wasn't turning out how I wanted it to be. So when my husband expressed his enjoyment of my turtle thus far, calling him "Howard the Turtle." I decided I would make him just for my Hunny Bunny. That meant turning him from sea to a land or four legged turtle. Turns out his friend use to call him Howard the Turtle and Howard was a puppet turtle character on an old 50-60s kid show called RAZZLE DAZZLE on our national television station called the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). It was really neat to discover that he was an actual character!
Click The image below or here to see The Video I just completed on mt YouTube channel all about Howard's early beginnings :o)

Lessons Learned...

Howard has gone through a lot, I mean a lot! You will see more when I get part two of Howard's video done. I can tell you that it took about two weeks of trying to perfect his shell, to be a lid for the Art Safety is always important. doo-dad box part... no matter how much I carved away from his shell and his cheek, I could not get his shell to fit under his cheek. Yes, you can easily carve away baked polymer clay. If you are young, don't use sharp craft knives on your own.
So my BIGGEST lesson learned, I should have made his neck longer or left his head straight, no looking back. I know he wouldn't have looked so cute looking straight ahead right?! Or make sure the shell stays thin enough to fit.

Needless to say, I had to recreate a brand new shell and it doesn't look like an oval real turtle shell. He has a heart like shell. But hey, this is HeArtfully creating, so that is appropriate!
I tried to add magnets but, I will share more in part two next week.

Finishing Touches
Acrylic paint was used to change his green mouth and tongue to pink. As well, to add some depth, I painted indigo over the places where there were crevasses like his shell. Then using a damp rag or wipe, I rubbed off the paint, leaving some in the deepest parts.Instead of a glossy varnish, I sanded Howard's head and other areas somewhat. Always use water and varying grits of wet/dry sand paper. Dry sanding is too dangerous because you can breathe in the particles. Then I put Renaissance Wax, let it dry for fifteen or so minutes and I rubbed him down with a piece of cotton denim type cloth.

Polymer clay is definitely, my newest favourite medium! Making my first critter or creature has been such a great adventure, Wanting to show you guys all the stages he went through, and make a video with the steps from the beginning to the end. Hundreds of photos were taken, edited and compiled in the video below. No, I didn't capture every exact step but, I have given hopefully enough information to help inspire someone out here to create their own critter or figurine.
So please enjoy and if you have any questions, thoughts or ideas, please leave them in the comments area below.
I took a tonne of photos to document the stages. Wanting to inspire others interested in all things creative, this is part one of two - all about Howard's creation. He is about the size of a hand, my adult female hand, that is!

Comments? Thoughts? Ideas? Insight? or Questions !
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HeArtfully Creating!
Anita

Friday, June 24, 2016

FINALL FRIDAY....2016 POLYMER CLAY CHALLENGE : Personalized Polymer Clay FAUX KNITTED HEART KEY CHAIN

Here is my Polymer Clay Challenge 2016 Challenge for this week.
I made my first faux knitted polymer clay heart piece. It took a lot of tries to make the twisted clay ropes line up to look like knitting. I don't think I succeeded. But, I liked it enough to give it to a friend. So i coated it with Dimensional Magic by Plaid, about three layers. Oh yes, and a few layers of glitter on the back. Then I used a silver sharpie marker in metallic, wrote Nicole on it, let it dry and added more coats of the dimensional magic coating. It does almost equal to a layer of epoxy resin. So much fun!
Hope you like the pictures.
HeArtfully Creating,
Anita

FAUX KNITTING, POLYMER CLAY Key Chain Heart by Anita Berglund of A Bergie Creation

PCChallenge 2016 - Thanks to Katers Acres

FAUX KNITTING, POLYMER CLAY Key Chain Heart by Anita Berglund of A Bergie Creatio

FAUX KNITTING, POLYMER CLAY Key Chain Heart by Anita Berglund of A Bergie Creation

Sunday, June 5, 2016

STUDIO LIFE: What I've Been Creating This Week....Week 22 Polymer Clay Challenge

Had a visit from little Humphrey in my studio/house
this week....too bad I am allergic :o(

Good day! Summer is almost officially here and in our Northwestern Ontario City, summer weather is lagging behind. I hope wherever you are that the weather is just the way you like it. For me it is

Polymer Clay Puffy Hearts and Jewelry by me! Anita Berglund

basically the only time of year when I find it warm enough to go outside. It doesn't really matter to me anyway because I am always creating in my studio. I tried working outside before and the winds, dust and all that fun stuff, interferes with my art making too much. Polymer clay especially picks up dust and dirt really easy. Below I have share some clean clay tips as well as some of the pieces I worked on this week! Have fun!!
Click HERE if you want to see my A Bergie Creation Shop Blog

Keeping It Clean
If you are working in polymer clay you may already know this, if not, now you will! Something I have learned over time, especially from the many great online polyclay artists. If you want your clay pieces to be professional enough to sell or just because you want them to look their best, you must keep the clay clean. This means....
1. Make sure your work area, hands and surface as well as tools are all wiped super clean. I use rubbing alcohol or baby wipes. Be cautious because some wipes have fibres that can come off and end up on any of these items.
2. Work in a pet free zone. Animal hair can float anywhere including right onto your clay working area. Unless you want to incorporate it, try to keep your area a pet free zone. If not, make sure you wipe it all down prior to working.
3. After your piece is assembled, you can clean off your unbaked clay with a cotton swab or clean cotton/soft cloth and rubbing alcohol prior to baking/firing in the oven.
4. If you baked the piece and missed a speck of dirt (this can be particularly annoying with white clay!), I have learned that you can use nail polish remover. I have never tried it. If you do, let me know how it went. It isn't something I want to depend on so I try to keep everything clean before baking.
Hope that helps a little.
Keep it Clean!
HeArtfully Creating,
Anita :o)

Join the 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge! Thanks to Katers Acres!