Felting abc update

The second pair in two days! But the good one:o) officially approved by pros from felting forum:o)))) so proud of myself:o)))

 Prepare sleighs in summer, and the cart in winter:o)))

Felting abc

Felting slippers is a very very hard work, don't fool yourself that the end product is soft and cozy. It's a good workout equal to a good gym work and not one hour, but 5 or 10 if you are a new as me in this practice:o) but if you have friends that do not wear earrings and you don't want overload them with necklaces, you need to think other direction to make personal, handmade gift:o) I've got into some internet studying, asked suggestions and feedback from Lithuanian felters (I think they are the best:o) on the felting forum. So far I've made two pairs of, let's say, suitable to give as a gift:o) and made four, that keeping as secret inside the family for durability tests:o))) But to tell the truth it's very addictive and if you fail with pair one, you get kind of into "I can do it" mode and begin with another pair:o) I decided to use a  nice summery weather, to ask my friends their feet sizes, put my table in the backyard and learn how to felt properly:o) I'll keep positive attitude-free workout! can't beat that:o)))

Experiments with polymer clay

Necessity... the mother of invention. It's too hot (this week we permanently have around +30°C and more)  to bake a polymer clay, no way I would use my stove, but I needed to do some polymer clay forms/stamps to use with meal clay. So I just thought ... cup warmer, that we use for metal clay drying, runs around 120-140 F? What we need for polymer clay? 135F? Yeah! Of course it's not the solution for polymer artist, but just for small stamps?! It's perfect! after a 20 min on cup warmer my stamp was very well hardened. No stove, no big heat, not even leaving the bench :o)!

Stay cool :o)!!!

Sealing kiln patina

I'd read about Everbrite Coating at Wanaree's blog of course I couldn't keep myself from trying:o) for me most important part was sealing kiln's patina. Will it stay or not? A few days ago got my Everbrite Coating sealer. So... here are the results of my experiments. All pieces made of homemade bronze clay with natural kiln patina. Homemade bronze (opposite to copper) clay pieces are pretty coarse and porous (clay particles are 325 mesh). And sealer goes into the surface as into sponge:o) but ... so far by results it's really the best sealer I've tried. Yes, colors get dull, but not so that you totally lose the coloring. So for high traffic pieces I definitely will  use it.

I unfortunately do not have original image for the pebble, bet even now you can see the coloring that left, it's not bad at all.  As I understand - the "bad" color for sealer is a blue, as usually it dulls/became black, others more or less keep on just dull a bit.  

Here some visual.

 after sealing

 before sealing

the small details weren't sealed, just the big rings

Doggy kindergarten

Today was a Big Day for Archie- first time at doggie kindergarten and away from mommy:o) the first half an hour was hard, he was sitting at the gate, not moving and crying:o( but the lady definitely knows the dogs well, she took everything in her capable hands and in no time he was playing with other dogs making himself familiar with the surroundings, learning how to bar jump, what is the tunnel and what to do with it:o) a really really useful day !!!

Patient, patient and more patient

I've finished today a pair of earrings. I think I'm officially very patient person :o) well ... let's say not very very literary. I was doing project that wanted to show construction that comes in two steps: one object, then another object connected with the first and get the end product, it's like 1+2=3  :o) It sound simple, but with metal clay not always working because not all metals are friendly to each other. For example bronze and silver - very unfriendly to each other and you need a lot of experiments to get right proportions or positions to have nice end product and not pile of junk. Well.. lucky us (all metal clay artist) Hadar Jacobson did that dirty job and explained in her blog and books. In short, I've got construction OK, but the patina...... it looked like it took forever!!!! I did a few times Verdigris patina on the metal clay, but this time.... probably because details were small and just localized application, but it took me probably a week to get the needed color. Every day I would put a few layers of patina, then wait 12 hours to see developing, curse that metal clay is too porous and again apply a few layers and so on and so on :o((( One more thing, don't dry piece with wet patina on heated surface (like cup warmer) the patina dries off quickly and reaction stops. No cutting corners in this process. How I know that? of course I did try:o)

Caged Silver Drop

Woofstock 2012 experience

Fun day at Woofstock -Dog festival at Toronto downtown. Our first visit. For Archie it was first subway ride and first such a big gathering of humans and dogs. A lot of fun for all. The beginning wasn't good, because my flip-flop just broke at the first step into subway. Well too late to turn back and not worth it. I thought that Toronto have seen many strange people so nobody will be surprised with somebody walking barefoot. Yep, no reaction whatsoever:o)

Then we plunged into big crowd of humans and dogs and forgot that we need to look for some shoe store -  too much fun around, sniffing strangers and having fun and cooling down at fountain. 

 

It was good thing that Archie didn't have his breakfast, because all these treats and samples definitely filled him up:o)))

 Met some fancy friends from our dog park:o)

 I was happy and surprised that no cheap dog food companies were around , but a lot of natural, homemade, holistic dog food. Yep, industry definitely going to the right direction.

Also one more very important observation - perfect behaviour of the dogs (and of course theirs mamas and papas:o) didn't hear one growling or angry barking. Such a well behaved crowd!!!