Watercolor/torn paper tutorial

Finally done and uploading.

I need to clean and package some stuff, after which I will be going out with my BFF - and another stop at Hobby Lobby to get more clay (using that 40% off coupon on 8 oz bars so we can use two coupons).

After I'm back, and rest a bit, if I feel good enough and I'm not too fatigued I will do the base pieces for the tiled bracelet for the private group. If I am too fatigued then I'll do it first thing in the morning tomorrow. I want to be able to finish the tutorial on applying the special cane on it and post it in the group by the latest Tuesday.

Will update later as usual.

video is up

I finally got home. I think I will take a short nap and then see if it's too hot to work in clay or not. If it is. I'll probably work on the narrated part of the "color choosing' tutorial.

Ain't that awesome when you got choices?

I'll also write more after the nap. Got stuff to say. Probably new post

Hot Friday

I got the tiled bracelet pattern posted for my Patreon patrons. Later today or tomorrow I will be starting to actually make the bracelet base. That will be the first part of the tutorial.

In about an hour I will be heading to Hobby Lobby to get some black clay (thank you, Elizabeth!) and I will be posting later today the first part of the watercolor/torn paper technique public tutorial, presenting different variants depending on the media used. Also with a bonus, how to create faux mosaic starting from the "torn paper" technique.

I will update this as the day goes by.

Update 10:00 am.

Got back from errands. Just in time. It's starting to get hot. I stopped to check Wednesday's new sales at Aldi's on my way home from Hobby Lobby - I did take the black clay with me inside, just to be on the safe side, didn't leave it in the car to get hot) and that was a good idea. They had the mangoes for 33 cents a piece. Huge, beautiful, ripe mangoes. I love mangoes. Got 10 of them so 3 days of mango eating. Of course I had to help 3 more people pick them. It always happens with mangoes and avocadoes. People see me feeling the fruit and picking some and putting some aside and they're "do you know how to pick these? Can you please show me?" Of course I do. Oh yes it also happens with watermelons and cantaloupes/honeydews.
But, anyway. Got the black clay. Took my pain pill - right on time as by the time I got home my shoulderblades and hands were starting to kill me - so within about 10-15 minutes I should be able to start on the tutorial and hopefully by noon have it uploading. Most likely there will be two parts.

Update 5:20. I'm still working at it. Everything went well with the first part, made the 4 (well 4 1/2 variants) alright, cut the pieces and made the beads for the final necklace, but by the time they were all baked and everything the heat got to top. I've been in a "clay for 5 minutes, put the clay in the fridge for 20" rut for the last 3 hours. The temperature in the house climbed to 78F and has stayed there. I work with the clay for a few minutes then it starts sticking to my fingers. Yes, I tried the finger cots. It's too soft.

So honestly at this point I am not entirely sure if I will be able to finish taping the tutorial until much later tonight. And honestly at that time I do not know how tired I will be or not.

I will take some pics though once the pieces are done and post them tonight even if the tutorial won't be up til tomorrow. Considering my wake-up time is usually between 4 and 5 am, I should have plenty of time to finish everything and have it uploaded (hopefully before noon).

Happy 4th and sorry for delays in uploading

Unfortunately due to weather I wasn't able to upload anything new yesterday. Heck, I wasn't even able to finish taping.
We had one of those storm systems that all of a sudden decided to get pissed off. So from a nice calm rain that we were expecting, we got slammed with the full extent of severe storms.

I tried. I swear, I tried. But when it got to the point that the power was flickering every minute and my desktop got restarted 4 times in a row, I decided that I'd rather have that desktop for a while and not let it get fried. Also, due to that, I wasn't able to bake either so couldn't go forward with stuff to have it at least ready for this morning.

I did the baking this morning, but unfortunately, I have to leave the house in about an hour. And I need to get ready. So there is no time for me to finish something properly. Honestly I even thought of shooting something live real quick, so I wouldn't have to bother with the editing part and it would be directly uploaded by youtube, but then I realized that 1. that would make me not be able to get ready properly for leaving the house and 2. that I would rather show you guys something pretty not done in a hurry.

Good news is that I finished the carnelian tests so I'm ready to go ahead and shoot the tutorial, hopefully today.

The one I was going to upload yesterday is about doing brocade effect using hidden magic technique. I am sure you will love it. I made a bangle as finished product but, again, due to storms, I still have one edge to put on it and bake, but that should be done while I'm editing the video about it. So hopefully that one should be posted tonight.

And I had such great hopes! I was even going to make a "4th of July" pendant, but that of course, went down the drain due to weather.

I did waste all morning yesterday because I had a memory blackout and couldn't find my pain pills for hours. By the time I got them, the storm was about an hour away.

So, have a happy 4th of July, and if you're not in the US, it doesn't matter. Just celebrate with us. It's a big world and if we all celebrate with everybody else we'll be in an eternal celebration!

No carnelian til Saturday

Ok so, I am very sorry no tutorial yet. Probably not today, it depends how long it will take me now to tape, edit and upload one of the other ones that I have in plan.

What happened? Well, Souffle happened.

I started doing my tests for the carnelian tutorial, and all my tests were coming back opaque. Tried first with Premo then with Pardo. Same.

Then I realized. Souffle. Souffle opacifies the translucent way more than Premo. Who would have thunk it. I don't have the colors I need in Premo. Only in Souffle.

The thing is, I can do the carnelian with just translucent and alcohol inks. But not everybody has alcohol inks. I want to do a carnelian tutorial that people can do by just going to the store and getting 1 package of this color of clay and 1 package of this and ... you get the idea.

As much as I like playing with the new toys, I am trying to have at least half of my tutorials, and especially the more basic ones, keeping in mind that most people don't have a load of money to spend on gimmicks, and especially the beginners did not blow several hundreds to get all kinds of expensive stuff they don't even know how to use. Heck, they might not even know it can be used with polymer clay, huh?

So I'll have to go get new clay for this, Premo clay, but I won't get to the store until Saturday. MAYBE Friday. But that's a maybe.

Wanted to do the malachite then realized that two of the greens I got for malachite are... Souffle, and I have some banding done with translucent, so... it will have to wait til I get Premo too.

So I will be pondering for the next 10 minutes. I'm inclining either for the feather cane or the turquoise.

Watercolor set

I spent all morning finishing a set, taking care of my other websites,  giving the kittehs their topical flea treatment, and cooking. I have to mow the lawn, and this puts into question if I will post a tutorial today or not. It all depends how messed up my hands are after I'm done mowing and if my pain level gets increased.

I guess we'll have to wait and see. The tutorial is about faux carnelian.

I'll update this later. Until then, here's the piece. It's a "watercolor" classic jewelry set, necklace and bracelet. Waiting for the glaze to dry so I can put the clasps on. I used alcohol inks on a subdued "torn paper" effect to get this. And I'm using "old gold" type findings and chain. The chain is actually baked in the clay, I did not use hidden bails or jump rings.

Tutorial tomorrow

I'm sorry. No tutorial posted today. I got so caught in making it, then got distracted and started doing something else, and ... well. This is the truth. To my shame.

So what happened was... (I sound like that kid on Judge Judy)... I was getting some scrap through the pasta machine. And what came out of the pasta machine triggered that crazy thing in my mind that started screaming and waving flags and all kinds of bright lights flashing and all that.
I saw only "RAKU RAKU RAKU"

So forgotten was the tutorial. And I started working on that side  job.

I tried real hard to get in pictures all the colors, but it's hard. Mostly because there's not just Pearl Ex mica involved, but a lot of iridescent and interference powders too, and that is so hard to get on a crappy phone. But I tried.


So.

First I got this

I kept kneading and brushing and painting and pasta machining, and folding and... you get the picture.

I got this

Fabulous looking, ain't it?

Now if you think I stopped at this, you don't know me and you're sorely mistaken.

No, I kept going. And going. And going.

And now I sit in front of a sheet of polymer clay with a pattern so beautiful that I can't stop looking at it.
It.
Is.
Raku.

It gives me the same feeling of "this is beauty. there is nothing to be said, all you do is look at it and lose yourself in it. forget about everything else. there is only beauty" as Raku does.

Have you ever made a pattern or texture so pretty that you can't bring yourself to cut it to make anything out of it? You don't want a pendant, a bracelet, nothing, you just want your pretty sheet to look at.

I might make a vase or bowl. This is too pretty to cut into pieces and deserves to sit on my table so I can look at it when I wake  up in the morning and come here and read the news.

It would make the world seem prettier. And the bad things less important.

What did you say?

Oh.

Yes, here it is.

Ocean and earth

I almost named this post "trials and tribulations".

So yesterday I worked quite a bit on the "Caribbean Dream" necklace. Which will end up as "Ocean" or something. Because I think it came up more as an underwater coral reef than a beach. And I need to make a mold for jellyfish. And corals. To finish it.

Anyway, this is how some of the pieces look (it's necklace and earrings)

Now you see why I say I need some jellyfish and corals? lol

So, anyway, as I was cleaning my cane drawer, I decided to mush a few - that obviously I'll never use. While I was joyfully mushing the clay through the pasta machine I got this:

Are you kidding me? I would have worked three days and two nights to get those effects on purpose.

OF COURSE I saved those.

I'm a scrap clay hoarder. There. I came right out and admitted it.

I even used a piece of that long strip that looks like a watercolor landscape to make a mokume gane using the remnants from the necklace sadwiched layers.

It looks like a geological formation.

So.... up in the "I might use this later" folder it went.

Sigh.

Hoarding.

Anyway, finally my "pebble" canes got cured enough so I could use them. I made a wavy delicate bangle. I need to finish sanding it and buffing it and all that. But I like it. I will make a big cane now that I know that my experiment brings in success and make something out of it. A stone jewelry set.

Nah. I got a Stargate in mind. You'll see.

Now this bangle is made up of slices of small canes, but the next cane will be big enough that I won't have to puzzle and quilt and patch. Also it will all be of one kind, these little canes were experiments with color of clay and interstitial color.

Ok getting ready to tape the tutorial. I decided to do a more extensive "watercolor torn paper technique" one. I might have to divide it in two parts as I presume it will be long, as there are all these variations I want to present to you.

When I'm done I need to go get some glue sticks. I have this awesome idea of a glue gun stamp for a type of controlled hidden magic/mokume gane. Yeah!

Will update later, as usual.