Kentucky’s Ron Lehocky happily received a bin full of other artists’ scrap clay recently. He’s begun turning those discarded canes, experiments and leftovers – our “lemons” into “lemonade” for the KIDS project.
Take a look at what Ron can do with failures and leftovers! In some of the photographs he’s inserted the original cane to illustrate the transformation.
Ron first separated the donated clay into two piles -definitely scrap and scrap with potential for reworking. All will end up as part of the project, either on the surface or inside the heart pins. Transforming canes is an enjoyable challenge for Ron as he cranks out heart number 15,945!
At $10 each, it’s easy to calculate how much he’s raised for the childrens’ center. Ron wants to pass along a big thank you. Read previous posts about the project here and contact Ron here. He would love feedback from anyone who recognizes their scrap.
Christine Damm reveals a bit about her Solstice Necklace in current and upcoming posts on her blog.
Her concepts have coalesed into a teachable format that she’ll debut at ArtBLISS in Washington, D.C. in late September. Her class is called Whimsical Blooms.
Christine makes molds of her favorite found items but that’s just the start. “The part of me that enters into the mix then is in how I color these copies and antique them and arrange them into wearable art. They are transformed by what I add to their history and their story becomes part of my story,” she says.
Today’s important tip, “You don’t have to use the whole image. You can use a mold you’ve made of an antique button but use a piece of polymer clay that’s larger than the impression so you have a “relic”– an irregular shape that looks like it has disintegrated somewhat in the aging process. You can flatten edges or texture them with a tool or a texture sheet. I like to thin the edges out to create the illusion of disintegration even more.” See this necklace and her experiments up close on her Flickr site. Thanks to Margit Böhmer for the link!
Roberta Mohar’s garden is full of polymer vegetables – including pumpkins!
In an earlier PCD post we admired her Hokkaido pumpkin-shaped beads and she’s just uploaded a beautiful tutorial (in English and Slovenian) for you to enjoy. It’s worth the wait for the download.
The shape reminded me of Moroccan pouf ottomans and I promptly tried it for my own new beads below. Lucky for us we can now pick up the finer points in her free tutorial.
Her latest crop of garden flowers is most easily viewed on her Flickr page.
Roberta’s story about how her husband fabricated a motor for her pasta machine will make you appreciate thoughtful husbands and the easy access some of us have to equipment. Got a motor (or a thoughtful spouse)? Go hug it.
Conni Filip’s unpainted polymer brooches present a blank canvas, a clean slate for a new week. Without having to consider color, she is free to explore shape. The results sprout in unusual ways and explode in unpredictable directions. These exercises in composition are both playful and productive.
Once a strong design is established, Conni adds paints and other surface treatments to give the brooches color and interest. You can see her finished work on Flickr and on her Facebook photo page. Could your work benefit from this approach?
