Scrap no more!

Here's few of my scrap clays... when working with canes, it is impossible not to have scraps! i usually use these scraps in my beads... i knead them, cover with fresh clay, then cover with canes slices... i love love love beads!

but today, i made something new.... in my previous blog, i talked about resin and how i enjoy working with the medium. i love the idea of making collage using mixed materials, and pour it with resin... bezel plays an important part... in the Philippines where materials are limited and expensive, you have to be a little creative to get what you want.

i baked these last night... from scraps to these... yeheyy!!!  (the reason why i am sleepy now. lol! )

my very own bezel! :)

i used makins clay extruder and makins texture sheet for this one... applied some mica powder too!

i used ballpen to make textures

Hello hello Sebastian! :)

made some swirls and attached it to clay

will put holes using drill bit - no worries everything is secured.. a wire /jumpring is attached for protection.
im soo excited to use these in my collage projects! :)

will try to make a tutorial soon!  see yah!

Note: im just a crafter, not a writer.

P3's Trash to Treasure Challenge

What’s keeping me busy?

It’s The Philippine Polymer Clay Guild (P3 for short).

We just had an election for council, and I was elected as one of the Ethics heads. P3 is the First org I’ve ever joined, well except for the SFC long time ago… We just published the Rules and Policies and now ready to accept new members. We also had our first ever publicity when we joined a bazaar in UP Diliman.

Everybody knows I love craft… anything about craft… creating something crafty excites me.. And it makes me really happy.. But I’ve never been this happy until I joined this group! With P3, You get to meet a lot of crafty friends, learn more techniques through tutorials and challenges. and of course it feels really good when you get compliments from the experts! J  Though we are from different walks of life, we think alike- CRAFT!

P3 focus more on Polymer Clay. It is our objective to uphold more Pinoy talents through education and challenges.

In my previous blog, I talked about P3’s 1^st challenge. The Black and White Bead Swap. 

Our 2^nd challenge was announced on 1^st week of August. THE TRASH to TREASURE. As the title says, we need to convert trash or recyclable materials into something useful and creative using Polymer Clay as a medium.  And since I want to challenge myself, I signed up!

I wanted to repair my doll using polymer clay… and i'll call my project TREASURE TO TREASURE since I never considered it as trash.. never ever! I love my doll so much.. i received this from my Tita Lina when i was 7.  :)

my repair didnt work.. lol! i still need to get in touch with my drill bit and wires. and it isn't crafty at all.. if the challenge is "to become sentimental".. maybe id get more votes!

A week had passed and I still couldn’t think of any trash that I could convert into a treasure; it was so stressful! 

I thought of a packaging tape core… I can make a bracelet from it.. or a clay covered box. I don’t know why.. but I didn’t feel the excitement in doing it.. its just not me… maybe because I already did something like it..? The decoupage box?

Just not to stress myself, I stopped thinking about it and focused with my Wired Filigree rings ala CF.

 

I noticed that my filigrees look like bottle caps! Yes! A bottle cap... I can make jewelries out of bottle caps! Excitement rushed all over.. I asked my niece and nephew to get some bottle caps from convenient stores just few steps away from our house. We cleaned the caps, and put holes in them. Excited as I was, I worked straight from the cap… didn’t bother to paint them first!

I tried to put a little life to it by adding diamond glaze… but since there was a hole in the cap, the glaze leaked. And maybe a chemical reaction between the cap and the glaze caused the cap to tarnish.

(Lesson learned – paint the cap first!)

(diamond glaze)

Diamond Glaze leaked and left tarnish on the unpainted area (i painted the back when i saw the tarnish. too late! lol!)

So I made new ones…

i tried painting more flower designs in these caps.. but was not able to take pics..

(background is from Donna Dewberry’s One Stroke Painting book)

I used picasa to edit my entry... just wanted to have a vintage look... here's the output!

Our entry was supposed to be posted anonymously… Mine speaks loudly! It’s as if I’ve printed my signature all over… ngek!

So I decided to submit new one.. this one was from a broken locket that I thought I could never use again.

I was happy with the output and sent it!

My Bottle Cap entry won the 3^rd Place! Yahooooooo!!!!! J

I am sooo happy…

2^nd place – from my new Idol, Jhoi Montano

https://www.facebook.com/enjhoiwith.clay

 

 1^st place – from The Cane Queen of the Philippines, Jennifer Cruz.

https://www.facebook.com/purpleluggage

 

Here are the other entries…

Everyone put their best effort in making these lovely pieces… and I salute you girls for joining the challenge. (pede ko na ba iuwi lahat? i love love love everything..  )

  

         

 

  

As I have said a while ago.. P3’s objective is to produce more local talents… and I believe P3’s challenges are ways to improve our craft. We need to challenge ourselves!

I love P3!  You may see our creative jorney here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Philippine-Polymer-Clay-Guild/172264889494140

Note: Im just a crafter.. not a writer...

Black & White Challege is Challenging Indeed :)

Members of the Philippine Polymer Clay Guild agreed for a Bead Swap Challenge.

The challenge: We have to make 17 pcs. beads using only black and white clays…  

Sounds easy? Oh Yes!!!  So I signed up!

But I was wrong! lol

I am a bead maker, I enjoy making beads… but I hate working with black and white combination…

It’s really hard to keep the white clean! 

I was thinking of beads made of jelly roll cane..  The easiest I guess..

But the goal in having a swap is to challenge ourselves..

I have to make something new… something different…

So I tried different techniques…

I made canes using clay extruder.. and worked on my cane covered beads….

I sanded them but was not happy with the result.  

Failure!

 (lesson learned: when working with small beads, just try hard to hide the finger prints while they are still raw.. and keep your hands clean!)

Well I had the technique already so I thought I could do it again.

Then I had a FUN FUN FUN clay bonding with my clay friends and taught them how to make black and white petal canes using clay extruder…

With that, I assumed that we would have look-a-like beads.

And since I wanted something different, I tried other technique.

The photo transfer technique.

I transferred the image into the clay and added some black & white flowers… It looked good,

But when I added Kato clay and baked them…

the output? :Failure!

(lesson learned – it isn’t true that KCM bakes @ 160 degrees, 140 degrees would be fine. well in my oven i guess)

Here are the other beads I made with the photo transfer technique.

They looked good.. but I was not happy…

Ahhhh… I was cramming… what should I do? This challenge is super challenging indeed!

Then I remember my flat beads, it would be nice to have flat beads with flowers on top of it...

It would look good in my little finger..

So I decided to make the flat beads. My clay friends know I love making flowers anyway…

Using the same canes, (I noticed that new kato clays are softer now… Out of topic! Lol!)

Anyway, using the same canes, I was able to make diff petal canes.

The output?:

I didn’t like the plain backing so I decided to put a little life to it by adding texture. I was happy with it though I left some signature stamps in there (that’s how Che calls the finger prints). Sigh!

I turned Jen’s extra bead and Ling’s into a ring using brass wire.

a closer look of my ring... i love it!

I was not happy with some of my beads, and wanted to make new ones, but I had a hand injury while working with my wired ring, so I just left it that way..  I hope you guys will love it!

The challenge was super stressful; some of the participants (including me) showed disappointments with their beads.  Still I had FUN.  I learned a lot! And I was able to get some more free stuff from the participants. Yeheyy!!

I wish others will join the next challenge. It’s a fun! fun! fun! learning experience.

Want to see what I am going to receive in return soon?

Ahhhhh ! They are sooooo adorable.. Can’t wait to hold them J and I keep reminding myself that I will only get one each!

Anyway… as I’ve said, I had a hand injury while working with the wired ring… this is it… the cute little thing in my finger...

My hand is ok now... ready to wire again!

Note: im a just a crafter not a writer... ;)