A Day Full of Playful Clay!

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Dear Readers,

As I mentioned in past blogs, I've reorganized my studio so that I have room to create healing jewelry and also to do other arts and crafts at a different space.

Today was the first day that I really got to use the room the way it was meant to be used. After quite a lovely bath, I proceeded to the part of our basement suite that is my studio. John and I are the only basement residents in our family, except of course Joey, our cat, who favors the basement when kids aren't home. So we see lots of Joeyo in the basement!

I think that I have done a good job of organizing my various art materials for painting, drawing and such, for decoupaging and collage making/scrapbooking now, and for using polymer clay. I've set myself up well for the clay. I think it is both an artform for me to learn of itself, and also sort of a cheaper dry run for having an in-studio kiln for working with silver, copper and gold clay. (This is clay that when you bake it, in a kiln, unlike the polymer clay that is baked in a dedicated toaster oven (eBay:$18 - free shipping), becomes pure silver or the other metals. It makes for elegant jewelry.) But so does polymer clay when you know how to use it. Which I am only just learning. I've done due diligence. Read good books, my favorite is the one above for beginners like me, but there are hundreds to choose from at Amazon.com. Be sure you get one book or info on line about conditioning the clay. I found myself laughing truly heartily at my attempts with a pasta machine rolling clay through it and sometimes getting just the texture I wanted, sometimes little scrabbles of clay! It worked out fine in the end, and was worth it for the fun I had. It was playing for me. I am learning the ropes, so to speak, so that I can make quite sophisticated jewelry, but for now, I'm doing projects with different skills required to learn how to really create wildly in this modality. Today, along with learning to condition three blocks of clay (Kato, and there are other kinds, most run about $1.30+/- a bit. So, I made a small box. I used red and black clay to make quite a cute side cover for the box. You keep making the clay thinner using the pasta machine, then cut it into strips carefully. Then you pile one strip of in this case black upon red, then black, then red. These are literally razor thin strips of clay, then once you even up the sides, you carve them very thin, place them so the lines are vertical, side by side on another strip, an additional long strip of red clay, then you run the whole strip through the pasta roller at a thin setting (5th from the largest), and voila, I had this very amazing black and red striped border for my box.

While the strip baked in my amazing toaster oven which soon will have a name I am sure, with my trusty internal oven thermometer helping me regulate the not so specific toaster oven, I prepared the sheet of Pearl color Kato clay for the top and the various things I would incorporate into this piece. I was going to try a couple of small transfers, a metal earring without its back prong (there is a special de-pronger tool!), a small piece of turquoise, rhodocroside, and several metal pieces to see how they fared in the oven (all went perfectly). I made black borders, very small, which proved more tricky than I thought, as I was laughing pretty hard tears were coming down! I even rolled some of the clay into pretty black and red striped or wavy beads to see how they turned out. (Good again.) So, during the 10 minute first baking, and the 20 minute cooling down, I cleaned up a bit and got all my decorations ready. So it was fun. The final baking took 30 minutes at 275degreesF. During that time I cleaned up and then got off of my aching feet!

It came out well. For a beginner anyway. I have some more things to do like polishing it and perhaps some other things, I have to read about the possibilities. But it was great to get to know about 8 new tools, and a medium that I had never used previously.

I feel really happy. I hope your day was wonderful too.

My agenda for tomorrow is to take my daughter Sarah, at her request to purchase a dress for her homecoming dance, then I hope to start the Wii Fit that we moved from the Living Room where it wasn't being used to our room where we will use it... And I'll probably do some beading and work with my little piece...and do more work on our website which will really be an asset for people with interest in healing, making healing jewelry, healing gemstones, and much more. Can't wait until it is ready! Quite an ambitious day planned for me, since most days I have to stay in bed pretty much all the time these days. I hope I end up being able to do some or even all of this, but if I need to take it easy, as Scarlett once said, "Tomorrow is another day." I'm hoping the day after is another day too.

Blessings and Joy to you Each and All,

Laurie
drlauriesherman@opus-arts.com
Vienna, VA