I sliced up that marvelous kaleidoscope cane I made the other day and made wiggly-shaped pendants from it.
Some of the other canes sliced up well and were turned into little pillow beads.
Two days ago, I spent some happy time making up a lovely black and white cane.
I took the trimmings from that and sent them through the pasta machine, intending to make a gray clay from them.
After a couple of passes through the machine, I saw the resulting sheet resembled stone, or even woodgrain. Whoa! I stopped right there and made up some faux stone focal cabachons for future bead embroidery projects.
I ran some chocolate brown and pearl together with a ribbon of gray and came up with another lovely sheet of faux stone.
What I need to learn now is how to polish and finish the pieces so they are nice and glossy and protected from skin contact. I've read that Future Floor Wax or Nu-Finish Wax is good, but haven't been able to find it in our local stores. Any suggestions?
As well, I had several pieces come out of the oven with cracks and pinholes. I figure the pinholes are from not getting all the air out as I worked the clay, but the cracks are a mystery. I let the pieces cool in the oven after baking...
copyright 2009 Shibori Girl
7 comments:
Hi Kate!
These are fabulous. Martin and I are now both interested in learning to do this.
For polishing, how about a rock tumbler? Seems worth a try. If you don't have one handy I'll let you try mine next time you're in town (or I can try it for you if you want to mail me some scraps to play with).
Floor wax makes sense to me. So does car wax. Or clear acrylic spray (if it doesn't react with the clay). If you want to get serious, take some to an auto body shop & ask them to clear-coat them for you. I believe they'd use an HVLP sprayer & baked laquer, but that's just a guess. Anyway, it might be worth it to see how it comes out.
--Ed S
hey
i am sending you some flax!
i feel certain
U could spin it into Gold
:-)
seriously,missy,
look for the package
of flax coming your way.
Wow wow wow! You did a fabulous job!
I love, love, love the green pendant!
I can't believe how amazing you are doing so soon!
Julie
Kate those last ones are soooo beautiful. Well actually they are all very nice, but the last ones are so different. love them!
Man o' Man! You are rolling out some beautiful, beautiful "beads". I love them. I can't wait to see them live and in person! Way to be super-creative.
Hello Kate,
These are fabulous! Have you thought about teaching workshops?
~ Gabriela ~
Post a Comment