Everwild » polymer clay

Wireless Woes and I’m on the Road

Diann — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:30:16 +0000

Whoa? I just spent an hour on the phone with my father trying to troubleshoot the wireless access on his laptop, only to have Windows suddenly decide to resolve the issue by itself. I so love technology. I really do.

So, for those of you who own a Dell Inspiron 1545 model laptop, if you can’t get connected automatically to open-access wi-fi, try your F2 key first — it’s the one with the radio tower looking icon, which should be white in color, which means you don’t need to use the function key with it. If you own a Sony Vaio (VPCCW), like me, your wireless access switch is on the front edge and thankfully, it has lights on either side to tell you whether your wireless is on or off.

Last February during Cabin Fever, Teri and I met up and got to hang out with some really cool clay ladies. Since then, we’ve had opportunity to travel to the Richmond area to hang out for marathon clay fests. You know the kind where you stay up extremely late, eat very little (or really bad!) and do project after project in a room full of other polymer clay nuts. It’s a blast. We’ve had opportunity now to spend time with people in Stuart, in Glen Alen, and of course, in Floyd. We spend a lot of time in Floyd. With so many people busy for the summer, the official guild meetings have been postponed, canceled, and even filled in with impromptu “unofficial” and casual meetings.

Tomorrow our teeny little clay club of 3 gets to meet in Floyd for a while. And then this weekend I get to drive up and hang out with the Richmond poly-clay addicts again. My traveling buddy doesn’t get to go (boo); duty calls. But she and I look forward to new adventures when I get back, as we try out working her booth together for a few of the nearby shows. The first being this September at Olde Salem Days.

Namaste.

Ornamental Christmas

Diann — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:07:38 +0000

Each new project is another lesson learned. I appreciate the challenges this ornament project brought; they pushed me far beyond my comfort zone. I learned I can work under the pressure of unexpected deadlines, though I need to be more efficient with my time. I need to hone my skills for sculpting teeny faces. Practicing on 3 inches of clay is not the same as a 3/4 inch ball. Same goes for teeny hands — ow. Magnifying glasses are required. And smoothing? Egads, polymer clay is fussy!

Still, I hope her new owner enjoys her.

Creating Stamps with Amazing Mold Putty

Diann — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:23:59 +0000

I’ve often longed for a simple way to create my own rubber stamps. There’s always Linocut, and large pink erasers, but I haven’t mastered the thin-cut line yet (as is evidenced by the “scars” in the hand-carved shamrock in the lower left of image), and would like, at times, to have an image outline I can then color in.

I found this box of Amazing Mold Putty (Michaels) in July and wanted to try making molds for polymer clay projects. I love it; it’s fun, flexible, and, as I’ve discovered, versatile. Using the same shamrock stamp I blogged about back in July, I mixed equal parts of putty into a small ball (work quickly, it activates immediately and cures in approximately 20 minutes), squished it into the stamp, inverted the stamp, and flattened it against the ceramic tile I use for clay. I trimmed off the excess and then let it set.

The results were great. Not only does it stamp well with pigment and dye inks (I haven’t tried solvent-based yet), but, as the lower image indicates, it’s self-sticking and adheres beautifully to acrylic blocks (so far, to anything with a shiny surface, including the sticker face of a wood-mounted stamp).

I suspect if one didn’t want to carve linoleum or rubber, one could also use polymer clay to make master plates (er, matrix boards?). Clay plates might even afford deeper, more consistent lines. I suppose we’ll just have to give it a try.

If you use linoleum, carve deeper than I have here. Although it works, the stamp shown is too shallow and requires cleanup around the outer edges. But, as you can see, it still produces a clear, consistent line. Happy stampin’!