Tuesday, May 24, 2011

What Inspires You?

Where do you find your inspiration? Have you ever thought about the different types of inspiration? What about that sometimes elusive muse? I find that for myself, there are two main types of inspiration. There are the kinds that come from things seen or heard or even just glimpsed from the corner of the eye. Then there are people that inspire you.

The first kind, seen or heard, is usually pretty easy for me to come by. Maybe it comes from a song that evokes an emotional response or a conjures up a particularly strong visual image in my mind, or both. For instance, I once made a book based on the song Ruby Tuesday, but in that case it wasn't inspired by the Rolling Stones version, although that is one my favourite songs. No, what inspired me in that instance was the actress Katey Sagal's version on the TV show Sons of Anarchy.

There was such raw, powerful emotion in her voice that went along with what had happened to her character. Sometimes though, it can be as simple as something like the shape and colours of these oxygen tanks all filled up and ready to go.

I saw these at the dive center where my daughter and husband were taking scuba lessons and thought they had their own unique beauty. And sometimes I feel inspired by the written word, poetry or books. Robert Frost, Neil Gaiman, and T. S. Eliot come immediately to mind. I am often inspired by the work of other artists, too numerous to mention here, and it makes me want to work harder and raise the calibre of my own work.

There is another way, however, that people sometimes inspire me, and that is by their actions. For instance, back in 2004 I had nearly given up on polymer clay altogether. I would see the work of polymer clay artists and really love the things that could be done with the medium. I would see artists on TV demonstrating various projects and techniques. One such artist was Donna Kato, I saw her on The Carol Duvall Show. She made it look so easy that I had to try it. Well, it wasn't hard for me to make things, but my things kept breaking or getting air bubbles in them or otherwise going wrong! All that work just for nothing it seemed! Then in October of 2004 my daughter and I were at the St. James Court Art Show in Louisville; Leslie Blackford was one of the exhibitors.

We got to talking and when she found out that I liked to work in polymer clay, but was was feeling discouraged, she suggested that I come to the first ever Clay Carnival in Las Vegas. She told me about the instructors and classes that would be taught. She was one of the instructors, as was Donna Kato. Leslie was so encouraging and so generous with her time and advice ("I think you should try a different brand of clay.", "Come to Clay Carnival, you'll learn so much and have so much fun!" "You should join our guild.") that she inspired me to not give up. Of course Leslie isn't the only person who has inspired me, but I mention her here because I feel that sort of inspiration is important. I mention Donna also because she inspired me to to try polymer clay in the first place, even though it was via TV. So what inspires you?

Note: The lovely bird sculpture above is one of Leslie's works that I purchased from her at that initial meeting at St.James Court. I have affectionately dubbed him "The Jackdaw."

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Bead Table Wednesday, for the First Time

Inspired by Claire Maunsell's "Bead Table Wednesday" post last week, I decided to check further into what Bead Table Wednesday was all about. I had seen it referenced before, but without really looking into it. I like the idea of showing what's on your table beadwise. I never feel like I have enough beads on hand when I need them. The result is that I'm slowed down when I need a bead or beads and have to stop and make some, or worse yet, go buy some. So I decided to join the group. Maybe this will encourage me to make beads more often or buy them when I'm buying other supplies.


These are some beads I made awhile back. I made a prototype of the big focal bead first, then refined it with this version. Then I thought if I made it into a pendant, I should have some beads for earrings. Then I just made a few more, But now I can't decide exactly how I want to use them. In a configuration like this, with some of the small red and black beads between?


Or do I want to drill them vertically and dangle them? Or use the the focal bead by itself with some of the smaller beads on a bracelet?

Oh, decisions, decisions!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Bedraggled Little Owl

Oh dear. Look what flew out of my studio today, or I should say, tried to fly out. Grimwald caught him pretty handily. I mean look at him, spindly little wings, stubby tail. He has a button for one eye for pete's sake, and I'm not too sure he can see very well out of the other! He's about a whopping inch and a half tall, but I'm telling you, those talons are sharp! I think he'll have to be kept in captivity for his own good.


I think we did take a bit of a risk taking him outside long enough to photograph him, but Grimwald did seem to have him well under control by that time. Thank goodness.

Now, what to call him?

Monday, May 16, 2011

Brass, Copper, Bone (and a short rant)

This past weekend I didn't really do a lot in my studio. I still had a lot of pain from my treatment on Wednesday, particularly in my hands. So mostly just busywork, but I did make this. I imagine this to be a small collection of little trinkets a world traveller might have collected in his or her wanderings, a lucky number 13, an ancient brass pyramid of uncertain origin, and a carved and inlaid bone heart.


I had fun experimenting with faux treatments/looks and patinas. However, I can't seem to get a decent photo of this piece. I'll have to try again tomorrow with the good camera (the battery's dead today), they are a bit better if you click on them though.


Now for the rant. You don't have to read this part if you don't want. I'll keep it short. This is how much it cost to fill my car with gas the other day. This makes me angry. Oil prices are down, but gas prices keep going up! Grrrr! And that's all I'm saying 'cause this isn't that kind of blog.


Happy creating!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Where I Spent My Day

Note: After reflection, I thought this was a pretty depressing post and I wanted to delete it, but I decided to leave it up. However, I did edit it slightly.

So this is where I spent my day (on Wednesday, this went up after midnight). Do you recognize what it is?


You can probably tell, that's an IV drip. I spent the day hooked up to that. Ugh. I have a blood disorder that requires several treatments a year.  Good times. :/ And they pretty much take all day long. But enough about that. When I got home, look what was waiting! A package in the mail that contained these! A complete set of all 55 Kemper cutters!


They were a Mothers' Day gift from my family. Of course they weren't loose in the box like that, I did that. The only Kemper cutters I had previously was a partial set of the circle cutters which went missing on a trip a year or so ago. So I'm pretty excited about getting these.

I also got a Dremel workstation :) Yay for no more vibrating hands!

Monday, May 9, 2011

The Heartbreak (sometimes) of Polymer Clay

This past weekend I was working on some more faerie houses. Some were teeny-tiny, like this one. Which strangely enough was purple before baking, but it's coloured with alcohol ink which sometimes changes in the oven. But wow, hot pink?!


I photographed it with my awesome new glasses to show the scale. Ok, so you're thinking an unexpected colour change is not that upsetting, and you're right.

Here's the upset. After the tiny ones, I started work on another, larger faerie house, it's in scale with with the earlier houses on this blog. It started life as a night light bulb thoughtfully modelled here by my assistant, Grimwald.


This is what it looked like after the first layer of clay was applied. Oh, and aluminium foil was wrapped around the base of the bulb first.


After more work and another layer or two, (that Grimwald is such an attention hog!) it looked like this from the back.


Do you ever have those days in the studio when it seems like nothing is coming easy? Things are working and coming together, but with difficulty? And taking longer than they normally would? That's what I was experiencing this past weekend. So finally after more work and detailing, etc., here it is, oven ready.


I popped it in the oven, set the timer on my phone, and walked away to take a break, very happy to finally be done with that part of that house!

I'm always excited to see my stuff come out of the oven. It's a rewarding moment, a "Yes, I did it!" moment. Of course sometimes it doesn't go as planned, but even that is helpful because I figure out what doesn't work. This time though, was neither of those things. I took it out of the oven to discover a great big crack running vertically most of the length of the roof! And I hadn't even done anything wrong. I didn't have the oven temperature wrong or the clay too thick or anything that I could think of, but sometimes cracks happen. I was so bummed. It was too big to easy fix so I waited for it to cool and back-filled and re-textured and re-baked, only to drop it taking it out of the oven. And of course the clay being still soft from the heat, you can guess what happened. I wanted to cry! So to shorten what's becoming a long post, I recovered the entire roof, adding filigree 'cause I wasn't happy with the swirl on top. And it still has a little flaw. *sigh* It's a good thing I don't want perfection.

Anyway, here it is, finished.