Christmas Shopping Night at the Lake House

 

North Shore Times - Tuesday 25 November 2014

 

Art & Craft Market at Mission Bay - Labour Day

 

This is my much smaller scaled down set up, without the gazebo, so I can do the market on my own. Here I am just trying to clear the Fashion Clips and PINZ I have left. Next time I hope to use the opportunity to be working on a larger mosaic work, more for publicity and so people can see what is involved.

I need to do what inspires me

We are well into the year now and, when I look back at the goals I set myself at the beginning of 2014, I do not feel I have spent that much time doing ‘what inspires me’. The first four months of the year were spent on my application to CreativeNZ, for a grant to attend the EuroSynergy Conference in Malta, which was successful; then organising for and attending the event at the end of April/beginning of May. This was a fantastic opportunity and was made even better by the fact that I won a ‘Best in Sculpture’ in the 2014 International Polymer Clay Awards, announced at the conference. Apart from teaching a short course of polymer clay evening classes, other polymer clay workshops have waned because of lack of participants, which is disappointing after the amount of time I spent last year preparing teaching material. Exploration of a few ideas (hollow lighting forms and PINZ) then crept in as well as the creation of a couple of sculptures (from long planned ideas) for exhibitions.

A few weeks ago I spent three solid days thoroughly cleaning, tidying and de-cluttering my tiny studio. I have a few events planned to try and clear old stock from my de-cluttering process. I now feel in a good frame of mind to work on something new and, for a while, to just ‘do what inspires me’ rather than creating work to sell. I posted recently about a new area of exploration that I am calling ‘dot mosaics’ for want of a better term. As I have said previously, my original reason for turning to polymer clay was so I could make my own mosaic tiles. I have searched extensively on Google and cannot really find anyone creating mosaics with round tiles, especially not hand made, which is good as I always want to do something different to everyone else.

I enjoy creating mosaic designs and laying out the tiles. I have not yet tried making a mosaic with round tiles but I am hoping that, if I keep the designs simple and use a range of different sized round tiles, there will be no need for cutting tiles. The round tiles should be able to be placed fairly quickly, butt jointed in a random fashion, just filling the larger interstices with smaller tiles. I will have to see if the design will still read but hopefully by varying the shades of different colours and maybe introducing different textures, as well as leaving a slightly wider grout joint between different elements in the design, it will work.

Apart from being a quicker method for creating mosaics (although I will have to make all the tiles from polymer clay), I hope it will create mosaics with a softer, more organic feel, rather than the normal square or angular cut tiles that are used. We seem to be naturally drawn to circles – it is a natural form, living things are made from cells and is it not said that “there are no straight lines in nature”? I would love to be able to create beautiful mosaics that people are naturally drawn to and want to touch. A very contemporary use of an old technique – both in tile shape (round) and material (polymer clay).

 

Fingers crossed for Heritage Day craft stall - EVENT CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER

The weather forecast is not looking good for this event, next Saturday. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will improve but a decision will be made on Friday and it will be cancelled if the weather is too bad.

A new idea - dot mosaics

I have been thinking for the last week or so about creating mosaics with round tiles of different sizes, which I would make from polymer clay. After all, my original reason for turning to polymer clay was so I could make my own mosaic tiles. Yesterday I discovered the ‘Percolator App’, which turns your photos into bubble mosaics. It is not a new app, as it came out several years ago, but it is a new discovery for me. It is fascinating, the way it makes beautiful mosaic designs with circles, I am sure I could use it as the basis for creating actual mosaics.

  

As the Percolator App only runs on Apple products, I have had to borrow my husband’s iPad, for my first experiment. The photo I used is of a cheap canvas print we had in our bedroom for a while; it has now been replaced with something else and the canvas has been sitting in my studio for a while. I thought I would use it as the base and create a polymer clay mosaic to go over it. Luckily I had not got round to it, as it is quite large measuring 70 cm x 50 cm (27.5 inches x 20 inches), so now it is perfect for my first trial for a large scale ‘dot’ mosaic.
 

Photo of flower print on canvas

 

My first go using the Percolator App

 

It may be a long time before I post the finished real mosaic; I may practice doing a couple of small scale ones first but I am really excited about this new idea.

Hollw form experiments - failed

After returning from the EurosSynergy Conference in Malta, I was excited to try creating a hollow sphere from polymer clay using a polystyrene ball as the form. Here is my first attempt.

 

To save wasting too much clay (if it didn’t work) I just covered about two thirds of the polystyrene ball and then baked it according to the directions. It was fascinating watching, through the glass oven door, the polystyrene ball slowly shrinking and at the end how small and compact the remaining polystyrene was.

 

 

I thought this was going to turn out well but at the very last few minutes of baking, the shape seemed to collapse a bit at the base, losing its spherical shape.

 

 

This was only a small sphere, creating a shape suitable to house an electric candle. I still want to be able to create larger spheres to use as lampshades for electric lamp bases. I am thinking that polymer clay is not structurally strong enough to support itself at the size I am thinking of, although I thought a sphere might be more self-supporting than other hollow shapes.

 

Next experiment – tissue papier mache base for polymer

I wondered if a few layers of tissue paper would still be translucent enough and strong enough to support a thin layer of polymer clay. So I covered a small inflated ball with several layers of tissue paper and glue ( I think I used PVA glue rather than wall paper paste but I can’t remember now). When it was totally dry, I pierced and removed the ball.

 

 

The papier mache shell was not very strong, it crushed with the slightest pressure from my fingers. I did not feel confident that it would support a layer of polymer clay and as I was rapidly running out of translucent clay, I did not want to waste it on another failed experiment.

I concluded that the only way to make the type of polymer clay lampshade that I have in mind is to find a glass shade to use as a permanent base. This might be difficult and I would require a whole lot more translucent polymer clay. Once again I think this idea will go on the back burner, for the time being.

The Great Art Sale 2014 at the Lake House

Tonight was the opening night of this annual event. I have three pieces in the sale, which runs until the end of August: Rainbow Cauldron, Coffee Time and "Life is like sailing" (clock).

Rainbow Cauldron

I have just about finished this sculpture, which contains over 900 hand rolled balls of polymer clay in the colours of the rainbow, hence the name 'Rainbow Cauldron'. It will be one of my three entries in the Great Art Sale at the Lake house Arts Centre in Takapuna. The sale runs from 31 July to 31 August 2014. Here are some photos taken from different angles:

Members and Students Exhibition at MAC

This evening was the opening night of this exhibition. Members were allowed to submit two pieces, so I entered my ‘Out of this World’ sculpture and a newly created wall-hanging titled ‘Colour Play’, pictured below, the later had been sold before I left.

 

Colour Play

 

I have also made some PINZ, in a circular design with the same colours, to coordinate with ‘Colour Play’. I like the idea of having small affordable pieces, reflecting the main exhibition piece, for sale in the gallery store. This will be my first public showing of PINZ by Claire, so I will be interested to see what reaction I get.

 

PINZ by Claire

 

PINZ designs ordered

Today I have ordered some small rubber stamps to be made, of my kiwiana designs that were first created for the Fashions Clips I was making previously. I will use these for creating the Souvenir PINZ. While I am waiting for these rubber stamps to arrive, I am busy making some Skinner Blend PINZ with circular designs to match the sculptural wall-hanging, Colour Play, I have just completed for the Members and Students Exhibition at Mairangi Art Centre. The hand in date is this Friday (18 July), although the exhibition does not run until 23 July – 16 August 2014. I hope the gallery will add some of these PINZ to my pendants and fashion clips that are in their sale cabinets during this exhibition.