Silhouette at Sunset - TADA 365, December 9, #350 - Carved Earrings-Tutorial in a Photo

Silhouette at Sunset - TADA 365, December 9, #350 - Carved Earrings- Tutorial in a Photo, originally uploaded by Jill Palumbo.

Earrings for Kristin –

It is nearing the end of the year, and I have had no time to get ready for the holidays.  Preparing for a Spanish test on December 16 kept me buried in verb tenses and vocabulary, and there was no time left for picking out presents; so, here is a quick tutorial for all of my claying friends.  

One of my former students asked me to make some earrings similar in style to this pendant:  The original piece was inspired by a Flickr friend of mine, a photographer and retired teacher, FreeSpirit5.  

This tiny tutorial shows how I came up with much smaller versions of Gary's silhouetted robin.  

            1)  Sketched – about the right size and shape

            2)  Created a skinner blend of sunset/sunrise colors in clay

            3)  Cut and placed trapezoid shaped clay on another much darker skinner blend    

            4)  Cut out dark clay "frames"

            5)  Carved robins on a branch – I like to spray clay with water and impress an image on uncured clay.  The water makes the clay move better.  My tool of choice is usually a tiny knitting needle.    

            6)  Inserted (sandwiched between clay) figure 8 shaped wire on back for hanging the earrings

            7)  Added some cutouts of birds on backs along with my signature.

            8)  Cured, painted with black acrylic, sanded and buffed.  

            9)  Added earring wires

Now the project is finished and I have accomplished my first holiday gift.  This is for you, my claying friends and readers. 

Wishing you a warm and safe season with time for yourselves and time to be with loved ones too,

Jill

Los abalorios "de arte", un reto mensual, y un edificio elegante... DECABS, TADA 365

Los abalorios "de arte", un reto mensual, y un edificio elegante... DEC ABS, TADA 365, originally uploaded by Jill Palumbo.

Este collar, creado por mi, estuvo inspirado para un edificio. Sí, yo no bromeo.
Me gusta mucho el blog que se llama "Art Bead Scene", el ámbito de los abalorios hechos por artistas. Como me encanta crear los abalorios y me interese aprender muchas cosas (las técnicas, usar nuevas combinaciones de colores, escribir artículos en idiomas que no entender bien ;) y más) el reto mensual de Art Bead Scene es perfecto para mi.
Pero... ¿un collar inspirado para un edificio? Por favor, miren aquí y pueden comprender lo que quiero decir.  Y mi método de crear mis abalorios del principio al fin:
1) Mezclé los colores para corresponder a la gama aquí

 2) Fundí la parafina (en mi orno – ¡¡¡Ojo!!! – estaba muy peligroso y casi ardí nuestra casa – sin broma) y después de limpiar el orno (durante tres horas!) tallé en la parafina enfriada.
Aprendí la técnica de tallar en parafina para leer un articulo "Wax Impressions" escrito para Sage Bray en The Polymer Arts Magazine, Issue #2. 

3) Con la arcilla hice un vaciado y con eso hice un molde.

4) Pinté un poco de la arcilla en todos los colores de la gama con la pintura acrílica.

5) Hice "mokume gane" con la arcilla en sobra. 

Y por fin
6) Después de leer un articulo fascinante "An Introduction to Basic Principals of Design" escrito por Jan Geisen en la revista que se llama PolymerCAFÉ (diciembre 2011) practiqué ejercicios de partes principales del diseño como Jan sugerido.

ABS June Challenge- TADA 365 #156 June 6, 2011

ABS June Challenge- TADA 365 #156 June 6, 2011, originally uploaded by Jill Palumbo.

Here is my entry for this month's Art Bead Scene Blog challenge.  This challenge is actually based on the artwork of a French artist, Odilon Redon.  I just love the colors of his piece titled Ophelia. 

Ophelia by Odilon Redon

c. 1900-05; Pastel on paper mounted on board, 19 7/8 x 26 1/2 in; The Woodner Collection

I took the color palette of this piece and adapted it to a series of jewelry pieces of my own.  As you may already know, I have been exploring the art of Frida Kahlo every since I started learning Spanish about a year ago.  The more I learn about her art and her life story, the more intersting she becomes to me.  I felt compelled to do a face cane this last week, and after three tries I feel like I like this one turned out well enough.  Here is a photo of my cane (originally 4"x5"x4")... 

 I'm dressing her up with some "tricks" from Julie Picarello's new book that was reviewed here on one of my favorite websites, Polymer Clay Daily.  Her book takes the mokumegane effect to a whole new level.  

 

Gara's "Monky" - Peeper Keeper "Kollage"

Gara's "Monky" - Peeper Keeper "Kollage", originally uploaded by Jill Palumbo.

My next-door neighbor, Gara, recently ordered her first pair of glasses.  She wasn't very thrilled about it at first.  She decided that she would be okay if she had a glasses holder for her new glasses.  She wanted a monkey.  Well this was a bit difficult to find, so her mommy, Gina, asked me if I could make a monkey glasses holder.  I am always up for a challenge, so I said I'd try.  I found my inspiration for a cute monkey from a photographer on Flickr.  Thank you so much, Xie xie, TailYY. 

Here is the process I used ...She began as a little vase that I filled with glass globs and beads to keep her from becoming top heavy.

 Trying to follow Maureen Carlson's method of building faces as I remember from her presentation at the last International Polyemer Clay Association retreat and also from two of her books I am lucky enough to have in my library Family and Friends in Polymer Clay and Fairies, Gnomes & Trolls: Create a Fantasy World in Polymer Clay ...

 I needed to make the monkey's face big enough to hold Gara's glasses on it's nose, so my monkey became more and more of a caricature.  Also,  I left a little channel for the earpieces. 

 Trying to make my monkey smile :)

 Here is my monkey with TailYY's wonderful photo. 

After I tried an actual pair of children's glasses on my monkey, I decided I needed to start over with the earpieces channel idea.  I cut away the back of the head and made new "x" shaped channels that worked much better. 

When I had the basic face and upper body done I asked Gara to tell me what sort of clothes her monkey should wear.  Here are Gara's notes and drawing: 

I think her handwriting is so precious. 

 I tried to make a pink with white polkadot cane, but it was just a bit goofy looking after I worked too much with it trying to save steps by sculpting the skirt at the same time as I was addng the "fabric" design. Here is my cane anyway... 

Today I finished her by fixing her polka dots with a second skirt, adding a couple feet and giving a sparkly pink wash to her dress and bow and shoes and a golden wash to her hair. 

 I made her feet from the petal cane for her bouquet and added a pink pair of maryjanes with almond-blossom buttons on each little one. 

  Here are a few more photos of Miss Gara's new glasses holder all finished ...

Meditations on Suh

Meditations on Suh, originally uploaded by Jill Palumbo.

At this year's IPCA "Hot Clay, Cool Friends" Retreat participants are encouraged to submit "cool" colored beads for bead strands and make "hot" colored beads for swaps. Searching for inspiration, the artwork of Suh, Kyoung-Ja, a Korean artist whose work was recently exhibited in New York, caught my eye. I was mesmerized by her series Meditation, a grouping of paintings nearly identical in design but total contradictions in color.
This piece of mine titled "Meditations on Suh" in honor of  the artist who inspired me is an upcycled aquarium stand which I refurbished with mosaic shelves. Each mosaic is acrylic on wood, covered with polymer clay tiles (leaves and flowers) and tempered glass.
If you would like to see some of Suh's artwork, please check out this link: SAATCHI online.  All of her work is just amazing to me.  I LOVE her colors and designs!  Her paintings are way out of my reach financially, but I am thinking of asking Santa for a print?  Here is a slideshow on SAATCHI of Suh's works of art that are for sale...  Slideshow of Kyoungja Suh's Artwork
Here is a slideshow of the process I used to make my mosaics:

Here is a video of how we broke the tempered glass I used in this project:

Star Pendant Slide Show

11 hoshi pendant finished, originally uploaded by Jill Palumbo.

One of my students volunteered to help with some data collection in exchange for a star pendant.  She is a Japanese student, and she loves stars, so this is her "hoshi" pendant.  I am trying out a slide program that my claying friend Ponsawan uses on her blog. It is so much fun to try out a new program and find that it actually works well and is easy to use. 

Art Bead Scene Blog: February Monthly Challenge

On Saturday I had a chance to try my hand at enameling on copper. Our community has a wonderful resource in the Minnetrista Cultural Center. They put together programs of interest to all ages in a wide variety of topics. You might see a canning class one day and a stained glass class the next. At our workshop there was a young girl around the age of eight who totally enjoyed making her work of art. Everyone there enjoyed our time exploring and discovering and creating together.

My piece for this month's Art Bead Scene Challenge is a necklace featuring the pendant I made during the Minnetrista copper enameling workshop. I tried to use colors that reminded me of the magical scene from John Singer Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.

Art Bead Scene Blog: February Monthly Challenge