Wednesday 30 June 2010

Failed experiments

Failure

What I've been up to for the past few weeks: lots of clay experimentation failure :P

From the left: Over cooked lemon canes, a failed attempt at making a bowl (I had made a few more, but I threw those away) an over cooked cake, something that was supposed to be a plate and a pie crust I can't get out of the bottle cap mold.The over baking is due to a misconception of what thickness meant.

Me: Bake for 10mins per cm of thickness. Well, long = same as thick! :D *burns clay and feels dumb*

I've since managed to cook my canes right, and I now know how to slice them without distorting the cane XD I just have to cook it first and then slice it before it cools down completely. Some people refrigerate or freeze their canes, but I've found that it doesn't work for me.

Clay is such a time consuming hobby. And a money consuming one. -_- Always seems to need some other kind of tool to achieve desired effect. Ball tools, brushes, chalk pastels, paint, acrylic texture paste, syringes, pasta machine, molding silicone, two part resin, miniature dishes, etc etc. I ain't rich enough to get all of that! My hands are sore from rolling clay that has become hard due to the cold weather. Ugh, I want a pasta machine...

I've also been working on painting my other dollhouse. It's coming along, slowly!

Friday 4 June 2010

Toys, toys, toys!

I remember liking miniatures even as a little kid. I remember one birthday, my ma bought me this awesome present. I picked it out myself from 1st Emporium--it was this pink shelf with little alcoves in it and within them were various miniature grocery store products: a box of Ritz crackers, a blue detergent bottle, cans of food, a couple of hamburgers. It came with a shopping basket and a cash register too. I used to have so much fun with that, back when I was still young enough to play pretend and enjoy it. It felt really good. For a space of time, I was transported to another world, a world where pretty dolls had wonderful adventures on the landscape of the carpet, where rumpled blankets were mountains with caves and little Polly Pocket fairies danced and lived in the flowers in the vase. Oi, so nostalgic ar...

I still love toys, but I can't do the whole pretend thing anymore. One of the sad things about being an adult, I guess. In a way, that felt rather like how reading feels, the total absorption into another world that a really good book gives you. Maybe that's why I like reading so much haha. Mrs Manik (sec school teacher) did say I tended to live in the clouds. Being adult does have its perks though: I can now make my own toys and have them not really suck! (well, that's relative) As a child, the things I made or drew never really looked quite like what I had in mind. At least now I have the ability to take it a step closer to that perfect mental image. Maybe one day I'll reach it. But for now I need to practise, practise, practise! (Why is blogger saying 'practise' is wrong?)

Anyway what am I rambling about all this for? I'm not even sure it makes any sense -_-;

Bah, some pictures:

Willow Cottontail's apples

Willow Cottontail spilling a basket of apples. I made the apples. This picture was taken for the sole reason of showing off my apples. They were originally green, but I brushed the outside with some red chalk pastel powder.


Snack time
Looks like Bikkie Bear doesn't have to eat Waffle anymore.

This is not a really good picture for the apples, but you can see what they'll look like under the skin. Willow's holding an apple with the skin peeled away. You can take any one of the apples I made and cut them and it'll be white underneath. I've always thought that technique of making polymer clay fruit as being really neat.


bread

Finally, some experimental bread I made. I made the 'dough' too yellow so Thomas says it looks like pumpkin bread his mum used to make. On the left side, the bread's been given a dusting of talc powder to simulate flour. Didn't come out too well, maybe I need to use less powder next time? Overall, not perfect but a far cry from my first bread attempts:

Bread comparison

The yellow thing at the top is my very first and the one next to it was my second and the ones below, my third.

Polymer clay is awesome.