Making Magic!

Earlier this month one of my crafty friends sent pictures of some wands she created.
I was so inspired that I thought I'd try making my own wand with clay.

To make the wand you will need:

Creative Paperclay®modeling material
3/16" x 12" wooden dowel
small screw-eye
drill
white glue
trinkets, yarn, or other embellishments
acrylic paint
sandpaper
rolling pin
craft knife

Start by drilling a small hole in the center of one end of the dowel and inserting a screw-eye just far enough to hold it firmly.  This will be what you hold on to while sculpting, and what enables you to hang your wand to dry.

Using sandpaper, taper the other end of the dowel and round off the tip

Coat the entire dowel with white glue, thread a piece of string through the screw-eye and hang the wand to dry.

Roll clay slab to approximately 22" x 14" and 1/16" thickness.  The dowel should be able to fit as shown.

Cut clay along the edge of wand, then into a triangle with curved edge as shown.

Dampen the dowel and place it at the edge of the triangle.  Pull clay up and smooth/attach it to the dowel.  Roll the clay around the dowel.  When the triangle is rolled onto the dowel, wet fingers and smooth as desired.  I chose to leave mine with an irregular spiral along the length.


Hang wand to dry.

While the wand is drying, gather up some embellishments you might want to use for your wand!

After my wand dried, I decided to add another spiral of clay wrapped around the wand with runes drawn into it.

If you choose to do this, cut the strip of clay, attach one end to or near the bottom of the wand by wetting the dry clay then pressing the wet clay onto it.  Continue wetting the dry clay and adding the strip a little bit at a time all the way up to the tip.  The runes were pressed/drawn into with a toothpick AFTER the strip had been attached to the wand.










Paint and embellish as desired.


I used layers and washes in several shades of blue & green, walnut, and iridescent blue, then added a simple gold cord and star drop earring.

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun


Tori
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Tori's Tip - Stencils Aren't Just for Painting

I was recently looking through some of the stencils in my file and found this old and well-used heart stencil that I cut from card stock.  With Valentine's Day coming up, I thought it might be fun to try it with Creative Paperclay and one of my favorite texturing tools - scrunched up aluminum foil!

and since I saved the cut-out, I can try it in reverse!

I might use these for card embellishments or a special project for my sweetheart!

This fun technique can be used with just about any stencil and texture tool or texture sheets.

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun!

Tori

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Art Dice - Inspirational and Educational

I am lucky enough to be my youngest grandson's art teacher (I may have mentioned this one or two times before ☺) While researching project ideas for his lessons, I was inspired to create these art dice from the book "Tinkerlab - A Hands on Guide for Little Inventors" by Rachelle Doorley.   As she explains in the book "Art dice games are a creative way to jump-start drawing.  Every toss of the dice becomes an opportunity to explore and expand art vocabulary, drawing skills, color recognition, and shape identification."  Of course I don't see any reason they have to be just for kids, I think they can also be a way to practice or try something new in creating my own drawings as well - throwing one or all of them - could be a great way to try a limited palette or try a new style.

Or, you can make dice for any game you choose -  Some suggestions for other types are at the end of this post.

To make the dice you will need:

Creative Paperclay® modeling material

sanding block with coarse or medium grit sandpaper

file or emery board

cardboard

craft knife

ruler

pencil

paints

varnish

plan or pattern - the themes for these dice are:

• Shapes- square, circle, oval, heart, rectangle & triangle)
• Lines - vertical, diagonal, zigzag, wavy, spiral, and dots
• Colors - blue, red, green, yellow, purple, orange

My dice are 1" square, so the instructions will be for those proportions.  If you want larger or smaller dice adjust accordingly.

Begin with a 1/8" thick, flat, dry sheet of clay (for my instructions on how to make a flat sheet click here)

Measure and mark the grids for your die or dice.  If desired, carve a design or indentation into each side.

Cut the squares apart.  Measure and mark cardboard - for each die you will need two 2" square pieces of cardboard with a one inch square cut out of the center

Using the sanding block, sand each side of each square towards the center at any angle greater than 45° (this goes pretty quickly with coarse grit sandpaper, so make sure you don't sand too much off the edge!)  Go as close to the edge of the square as you can though, without losing the edge.

Now test fit four of the squares into your cardboard square form as shown -

If they all fit, wet the connecting sides of each square and place in the form.  Add the second square of cardboard over the first.

Now re-wet an inside corner and apply a roll of clay

Press the clay firmly into the corners to join the pieces, and repeat with remaining corners.  Pull the second piece of cardboard up to the top of the clay square and set it aside to dry.

When the clay is dry, remove the cardboard forms, clean off any stray bits of clay and file the inside corners at an angle (if needed).

Now test fit the top and bottom squares.  You will most likely have to file the edges of these down a bit and increase the angle of the interior of the square to get them to fit within the cardboard forms again.  When you've finished adjusting the top and bottom pieces, make a mixture of clay and water to the consistency of thick paste.  Wet the top rim of the square and the edges of the piece you are adding.  Place a heavy layer of your paste mixture along the inside of the cube then place the top section on and press firmly.  Repeat with bottom piece, then place the entire cube back into the cardboard form to hold the cube together securely while it dries.

When all is dry, remove from the form and sand any rough spots or clean up as necessary.  Paint as desired.

To play with the dice, throw one or all three, then draw a picture using the elements shown on the dice.  It's up to you and the other people you are playing with as to how strict you want to be with the elements - just suggestions? or perhaps you want to play with a timer and each person HAS to use all three of the elements in his or her drawing.  

Blue, Triangle, Diagonal Lines, Go!

Some other suggestions for creative dice making:

• Animal dice - each person would have to act like that animal, make a noise like them, or say a fact.
• Story dice - make dice with different pictures pasted on them and the players have to make up a story about what comes up - or, paste pictures of family and friends on the die or dice and then their photo comes up they have to tell a story (about themselves, or, make something up)
• Monster dice - one or two dice with the names of body parts - eyes, legs, antennae, teeth, etc. one with numbers, and one with colors.  Players make a picture of a monster with whatever they roll, for example, green monster with 6 eyes.

The possibilities are limitless!  The author of "Tinkerlab" suggests textures, emotions, movements, etc.

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun!

Tori

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Tori's Tip - Simple Relief Carving

Happy New Year, friends! 

Later this month I will be showing you how to create a set of "art dice".  I have chosen to do a relief carving in the center of each side of my dice, and although it isn't necessary to do this to complete the project, I'm sharing the how-to for my monthly tip.

This type of carving, done on dry clay, can be used for many different types of projects, including page embellishments, boxes, etc.

Bonus tip - I've included a diagram for making your own sculpting/scraping tool :)

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun!

Tori

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Tori's Tip - Cookie Decorating Fun for Kids of All Ages

For my tip this month I'm reminding you that Delight™ Air Dry Modeling Compound retains color well when mixed with acrylic paint, it is very light weight, and can be easily rolled out and cut with cookie cutters!

For a fun way to make ornaments,  mix up a batch of gingerbread or cookie dough colored clay, cut out shapes with cookie cutters and allow the pieces to dry.  When the clay pieces are dry, decorate them with puffy "shiny"fabric paints to create the look of icing.

This will be my last post of the year, so I'll wish all of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR! - looking forward to the new year ahead and creating more projects with Creative Paperclay® and Delight™

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun!

Tori

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Holiday Spinners

The year has gone by so quickly!  I am getting ready to celebrate the holidays and so happy to be back in Arizona where I belong.  Don't have my tree up yet but decided to try making some ornaments to hang in the windows or wherever they seem to fit.

If you'd like to try creating some of your own, you will need -
Delight™ air dry modeling compound
pattern
scrap piece of board or cardboard, about 4" x 8"
acrylic paints
a fishing swivel
plain paper
white glue
rolling pin
plastic wrap
masking tape
pliers
monofilament or thread
round toothpick
craft knife
decorative bead or beads, as desired

Here is the pattern I designed for this project:
if you click on the image it should take you to a page where you can print it.

Print the pattern, but out the semicircular shape with the tabs.  Use the guide at the edge to mark 2 pairs of parallel lines onto cardboard, then mark line perpendicular to those at approximately 2" intervals, as shown.

Roll clay out to 1/16" thickness.  place circular pattern cutout lightly on clay and trace around it with a craft knife.  Gently lift out the cut out piece and place it onto the cardboard, aligning the top tab with the top line as shown.  Press the tab portion onto the cardboard just enough to make it stick, then add a piece of tape to hold it in place.

Now carefully lift up the bottom edge and turn it to the other side, creating a twist in the piece.  Align it with the marks on the cardboard, press and tape into place.

Repeat the process for the next piece -

you will need two for each ornament (or, you can try adding one or more extras onto a single ornament if you like).
Set the clay curves aside to dry.

Remove the clip on the fishing swivel, if there is one, and use pliers to pinch one of the end loops on the swivel to make it smaller than the ball in the center, as shown.

Cut a strip of paper the width of the top tabbed section on the pattern and about 1" to 1 1/2" long.  Roll the strip around a toothpick, then place the swivel inside and tighten or loosen the strip so that it fits snugly onto the swivel.  Glue the paper roll into a tube, but do NOT glue it to the swivel.  Make another paper tube for the bottom tab.

Prepare the string for your ornament by putting a stop bead on the end.
cut a strip of paper the same size or just slightly smaller than the hole in your bead.

Fold the paper in half, tie the end of a length of monofilament around the paper (12" to 14" of monofilament should be more than enough - it's better to have it longer than you need it at this point, so you have room for tying off the ends later).  Fold the paper in half again, keeping the monofilament in the fold.  Pull both ends of the monofilament up through the bead, put glue on both sides of the paper and pull it up into the bead to hold the monofilament snugly.  (clip off the ends of the paper if it is sticking out below the bottom of the bead.  Trim the extra "tail" off the monofilament so you have a single strand coming from the top of the bead.

When the clay pieces are dry, trim the tabs off in line with the marks on the cardboard.  Glue a paper tube to each end of the curved clay as shown, making sure that the tubes are in line with each other.

When the glue is dry, attach another clay twist to the other side.

It should appear to be a figure eight when looking through the lined-up tubes from the top or bottom of the ornament.

Allow the glue to dry, then paint as desired.

To string the ornament, put the monofilament with the bead on the end that you prepared earlier up through the bottom tube.  If desired, add a center bead in the center of the ornament by either knotting the monofilament where you want the bead to sit and gluing the bead in place, or by wrapping a piece of tape around the line and securing the bead to it with glue.

Thread the monofilament through the top tube of the ornament, through the bottom (squished) end of the swivel, then back through the top tube of the ornament.  Pull the swivel snugly into the tube, then make a knot in the monofilament to hold it in place.

Hang it up and blow on it gently to watch it spin, or place in a breezy doorway or window.

I hope each of you have Marvelously Happy Holidays, whichever ones you celebrate!

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun!

Tori

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Blue Flower Grass - An Experiment in Art

A few months ago I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the book Artful Paper Clay - Techniques for Adding Dimension to Your Art by Rogene Mañas for review.  I really loved this book, and was excited to try the techniques, but at the time, was living in a hotel room while we looked for a new house.  The day finally arrived that we had our new home and I had my art supplies back (Hurray!) so I decided to try the technique with a three-dimensional project of my own design.

Sisyrinchium demissum - stiff blue-eyed grass

For this project I used:

Creative Paperclay® modeling material
a 5 x 7 shadow box
gesso
acrylic gloss medium
acrylic paints
rubbing alcohol
sculpting tools
wood scrap
sandpaper

 I started with a simple sketch of how I wanted the flower placed.

I prepared the two background pieces - one of illustration board and one of wood, by cutting them to size and coating them with gesso (I had more gray gesso on hand than white, so I saved the white for the clay coating)









The upper piece is cut at an angle so only the edge of the wood will be visible, helping to create the illusion that the piece is floating against the background










I taped the larger background piece to a work board, masking off the edge that was needed to fit the board into the frame.

Clay was rolled out to approx. 1/8" thickness and applied to the board, then I pressed in random lines to indicated grass.











I wanted to have more texture in the background, so rolled and crinkled up some Kraft paper and pressed that into the design at various intervals.

















Here is the first background piece, set aside to dry.

I sculpted the second background piece, flower, and stem separately.

When the large background piece was dry I cut a frame into it, per my design.

When the other pieces were dry, the edges were cleaned up, and some of the sections were sanded.

All of the pieces were given a coat of white gesso, then glued together and given another coat of gesso, then two coats of clear medium, as per the instructions in the book.

Next the scary part - painting the entire thing with Mars Black and allowing it to dry.

After the paint was dry, the top layer was removed with rubbing alcohol and then I started adding color to the piece.

















I colored all the layers, then decided the background was more of a distraction than an enhancement, so added a dark wash of green over it.

This is the final piece, with the darker background and with highlights added to the grass stem, some of the grass, and the flowers.

I enjoyed creating this piece and trying the new techniques.  This was one of those cases where the work didn't match my vision of it before starting, but that's okay, I learned new ways of working with clay and acrylic paint, and I will definitely be trying these techniques again.

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun!

Tori

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