Custom made rubber stamps, anyone?

To work with metal clay usually I use my own designed/carved texture plates. Depending on design it could be from polymer clay, 2 parts molding silicone or simple eraser piece. Polymer clay and silicone you can put on some natural or made texture, also polymer can be carved, so can be carved eraser. Plus of polymer - you can dry metal clay "in situ" on warmer, eraser - no no. Believe me I know, I tried:o) that means, I simple forgot that plate was on and I was dealing with rubber. Rubber melted, texture plate was ruined. One little problem with carving is that you need to draw by hand on the plate (or I thought so). 

Recently I was looking for rubber stamp for my wool slippers, for the size and idea that I wanted, prices were astronomical or maybe  I looked at the wrong places?! Then I remembered about lino cutting during university times and decided to try on big rubber eraser (I was too lazy to go out to look for linoleum). One problem though - the picture transfer. Mighty  google did find the solution here . I found piece of parchment and followed step by step instructions. It worked perfect. One adjustment though, after first long "play" with Irfanview I decided to go easy way-just printed draft mode, and had perfect results. One problem with rubber eraser - it's too soft ,  hard to carve small fonts. But here are my attempts, almost readable:o) 

Next will try the linoleum, but foresee the problem- lack of rubber's flexibility if you want the stamp right on the carton box. Will see....

Hands full

So I have tested my new mangle board - it's perfect!! If you do heavy-duty felting, don't even think, make it or buy it. It really helps to shorten the process and helps a lot to get that sturdy felt texture/consistency.

I also tried a few new things. Well ... never thought I would get into girly stuff as flower's or ball's felting:o) it just not me:o) but sometimes the

structure or let's say form of the slipper ask for something like that ,so you do what you need to do:o) also tried to make and glue -out soles. Not sure if I'll do more, don't see exactly the reason... but I needed to try.

Plus still "fighting" my threaded construction mix with hardware locket. But at least I can see "the  light at the end of the tunnel". And that is encouraging:o) That is my positive thinking part:o)

Meanwhile "doggie tip" ... today I have been reminded, that my pup is still a pup and not all commands are "must do" from his point of view. And erased another myth - the pups after neutering became calm and more obedient. Ha..... today  at the dog park Archie stole a  glove from one of the dog owners and no way he was ready to give it back ( no treats worked to lure the glove from him) even more, he decided it was good to eat, so.. he ate it:o(  I was soooooo mad when at the end I've caught him I even wasn't scared about possible bad/expensive consequences of this. Took him home right away as a punishment - "no more play time", but on my way home my head apparently worked right direction,  thinking what  should I do?! Actually there were two possibilities: olive oil (a lot of it) or salt water with peroxide. It sounds strange but these are two ways to get the glove out of the dog (forwards or backwards:o))) dog people will understand me:o) To tell the truth I didn't have big expectations with salt water and peroxide, but to my surprise after a half cup of that mixture (poured into unhappy Archie's throat) and a few minutes late, Archie's gag reflex worked wonders and glove came out (forwards :o) Happy ending!!

Tools and accessories for felting

Felting is a big workout, but old masters have a lot of right tools to help the process to make it shorter and easier. When surfing internet and watching youtube videos a few times I'd seen a very useful tool that I remembered from ethnographic museums and my childhood - mangle board for "ironing" bed sheets. In  my childhood that tool you could find just in rural villages, but any way I remembered that tool and the process itself. So a few weeks I had an idea in my head to purchase or to make myself the mangle board. I checked ebay and understood that this is out of my reach, so hey .. I'm handywoman I can do that:o))) What you need? Home depot near you and mitre saw or other handy power tool:o) Of course would be nice to have handles as in original version, but for now it will do;o)

Also I tried to use or let's say accessorize one pair of slippers. Some hole puncher, eyelets, coarse thread. Here you go... before and after. It looks more finished, doesn't it?

Non ending experiments

As I had said a few posts below - "it's my way, or.. clays ways". Well.. almost, this time the experiment with hardware and not thinking forward interfered greatly. Who would think (I should, but I didn't) that some forms are soldered. And before going to kiln piece looked nice and strong.

 

 

But ... after kiln.... not so much.

 

 

 I'm trying to be here positive and look for good things, the clay part came out nice, but the hardware.... the bottom part apparently were soldered to get that shape and all solder just ran down and bottom practically separated from cylinder. The bad part is - that all this process documented and was suppose to be tutorial with already 70 pictures ready to use. I told myself- think positive -  and remembered nice saying -“There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them.” Tom Krause quotes ( motivational speaker, Teacher and Coach, b.1934). So I decided, this tutorial will be with troubleshooting part:o) and I'll show the result (hopefully) in the next post:o)

 

Meanwhile... experiments with felting continue and this time I've tried another form and more possibilities for decor. This time the piece of coarse canvas was suppose to look like mending, but looked like worn out or that my dog tasted the slipper:o) but I liked that shabby look and decided to leave as it is:o)