Samstag, 30. Januar 2016

"Winter Solstice" - Ornament swap



Some of the rare few pieces that turned out as I imagined it! But... and there is a huge "but" involved, there were a lot of times I nearly threw it away! There were a lot of new ideas, material and methods I tried for the first time and way too much went wrong during the creation process!


Kimberly Rogers started the "Winter solstice ornament swap". What a great idea and I joined! My swap partner was Karin Grosset Grange. How perfect since I love her work! Maybe not as perfect for her... since my ornament arrived way too late at her... *sniff* I will show you the gorgeous ornament she send me as soon as I get the right light! I already tried but didn't like the results. So... will try again soon :)


First thing going wrong: My material order didn't arrive in time. I waited... and waited... oh... and I waited!  

The back is actually a postcard from the Grassi museum (just around the corner where we live). It is an old arabic pattern and the heavy car board was impressed as well as gilded with gold effects. To make the first cut was really hard but the pattern reminded me so much of the rays of the sun!


I also bought the sculpey face mold. Yes, a commercial mold but I wanted to have the mold for years! All these little moon faces are so lovely! I used super sculpey firm now one my absolute favorite polymer clays ever. It holds even the tiniest details so perfect and really firm even unbaked. Sadly only available in grey but grey was perfect for this ornament. The baked face was antiqued using acrylic paint and I added the gold details complementing the background pattern with gold (coloured) leaf.


The back is also covered with gold leaf. Both sides are then covered with resin. I added some purple powder in the back but the effect is a little but too subtle to really see it ;)

Some chains and czech glass beads to add some dangling because every ornament and jewellery piece gets better with "dangling"! The etched yellow drop just seems to glow.


I don't want to go to all difficult parts nearly going wrong. Just the worst (the one I wanted to start crying and throw it away): Putting resin on the back side it started dropping to the front (the piece was put on a little stand) and I didn't notice it. I saw it just the next day when it was hardened: A big purple drop around the nose. All the work that went into this piece, for nothing? But I remembered reading something about this resin cold glaze (it is only for adding a surface layer, not for big pieces): That is adheres to paper and metal and wood and... and... and... but not on plastic. So what is polymer clay in the end? Plastic! I carefully started to try to rip the resin blob off... then with a little bit more force and it worked! 

Now I just love this piece, my version of "Winter solstice" and if I am honest, I think I love it even more because of all the difficulties I had to overcome :)

2 Kommentare:

  1. Well it was worth all your trouble, I love it and it is now a permanent ornament in my living room. It is absolutely perfect and gorgeous! Thank you Claire.

    AntwortenLöschen

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails