An unsolicited copy of a new magazine appeared in my mailbox this weekend, and it has brought to the forefront an issue that I have been batting around for a few months. The focus of the magazine is on crafting with natural materials. I flipped through it and saw things like felt, wool, cotton, natural food colors (like, from beets), beeswax, etc. Not surprisingly there wasn’t an ounce of polymer clay to be found.

Even in the beading article, the words “choose natural materials wherever possible” appeared, essentially excluding the multitude of beautiful polymer beads available these days.

I guess I started considering the idea of natural living, conserving resources, using renewable materials wherever possible, when I started blogging more regularly this summer. I found myself reading blogs like Tiny Choices where the entire focus is on reducing your ecological footprint. I observed bloggers like Amy Karol write about ridding her home of plastic bowls and cups and buying her children handmade wooden and fabric toys. And while I am still choosing to drive my minivan over a small hybrid, and I have no intention of giving up my washing machine in favor of an old-fashioned washboard, I have been making some more ecologically-sound choices inspired by things I’ve read.

For one, we’re using exclusively cloth napkins around here now. The only paper napkins we ever use are the ones we’ve collected from take-out restaurants, who always put more than you need in the bag. Initially I started with the cloth napkins because it was an easy sewing project for a beginner. Now, though, I can’t imagine going back to the paper kind - the cloth ones are so soft and nice, particularly after they’ve been broken in.

I bring heavy canvas bags with me when I do my food shopping. I don’t know why it took me so long to do this - as it turns out, I like shopping with these bags infinitely more than the paper or plastic variety. There’s nothing more handy than slinging 4-6 tote bags over your shoulders to get the whole grocery load in the house in one trip!

At the moment, aside from what I’ve already mentioned, my actions aren’t drastically different than they ever have been. What has changed is my way of thinking. When I have needed new kitchen things lately, I’ve considered the materials carefully before buying. I’m phasing out the plastics and nonstick stuff, and replacing with glass or stoneware as the need arises. In thinking about Christmas gifts for the boys this year, I’ve found myself drawn more to handmade, classic, wooden objects and less to the ubiquitous Made in China plastic monstrosities that I wouldn’t have previously thought twice about putting on the shopping list.

Plastic is the enemy lately. And as drawn as I am to some of the more natural materials out there (particularly since discovering fabric, sewing, and crafty mom blogs earlier this year) I still am under the spell of polymer clay. Polymer clay, which, in the right hands, can be transformed into a wonderful, colorful work of art. Polymer clay, which has held my interest and taken over my house for the last twelve years. Polymer clay, which is, essentially plastic.

This is not a topic I’ve given much thought to until now, and to be completely honest, I don’t know how I feel about it. These days, I refuse to buy new plastic mixing bowls when I can have glass. I turn my nose up at plastic cups when I can drink out of glass. I don’t have any interest in buying plastic building blocks for the boys, when they could stack wooden blocks instead. But give up my polymer clay? Should that form of plastic be the enemy as well? And will I one day start to perceive it as such despite myself? And even if I remain confortable with it, will there cease to be a market for my creations once more and more people start to “go green” and adjust their attitudes towards plastic?

If you’ve read this far, I’d like to know your thoughts. Are you enamored with polymer clay? Are you feeling the pull to utilize more renewable resources in your daily life? How do you feel about using a material like polymer clay, and does it bother you that it does nothing to reduce your ecological footprint?

[Edited 11/14/07 to add: This topic just came up today on Polymer Clay Daily.  Have a look.]

Share This

Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

Have a handful of scrumptious Farmers’ Market kettle corn and answer a quick question for me, ok?

 Loading …

Thanks! And now on to other things…

Like toes! A certain little four-year-old boy looked up at me the other day and said, “Mommy? Do you have green nail polish?” I didn’t. “Do you think we could get some green nail polish for me to wear?” I thought it was a funny request from a child of the male persuasion, but I said “sure!” and the next time we were at Drug Fair he helped me pick out a bottle of green and a bottle of blue for good measure. Handsome feet, don’t you think?

I did some long-time-coming updates to both the Polka Dot Creations shop and my Etsy shop today. Here at PDC, I’ve got some Posy Hair Pins and Posy Rings in Swamp Calico…

…and Candy Chenille.

Over at Etsy, I’ve added some Posy Hair Pins and Posy Rings in the Triangles pattern and Heather Bailey’s Freshcut colors. I’ve had all of these posies made and photographed since late June, but I never got them listed.

Coming soon to Etsy, the Birdseed Line…

Somewhere in between inserting the final images and getting the correct links in this post, Aidan, surprised look on his face, said “hey! my tooth just fell out!” Much excitement ensued - at 7 1/2 years old, one week before the beginning of 2nd grade, this is his first tooth to let go. I felt a wee bit misty holding his tiny tooth in my hand - my firstborn has taken another step out of babyhood.

Share This

Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

At any time in my life prior to 7.5 years ago, if I had come across a bee in the house, I’d have locked myself in another room until someone could dispose of it. If that meant confining myself to the upstairs and letting the bee have the run of the kitchen, dining room and living room until Neil came home, well, that’s the way it would have to be.

Somewhere along the line, I had to grow up. It happened when I became a mother. I realized that I couldn’t teach these little people to be afraid of bees (they’d have to come into that on their own [and they have - makes a mom proud]). So, now when a bee enters my home, I calmly take of my flip-flop and thwak the evil beast to death. Heh.

Bees had been getting into the house a couple at a time for the last few weeks, and on Saturday Neil discovered why: there was a nest somewhere behind the shingles of the house near the kitchen window. I got the exterminator out here pronto, and he dosed those bad boys up with something guaranteed to knock their socks off. He said they’d probably still be flying around for a day or so, but then they’d be good & dead.

In what must have been a mass exodus, many panic-stricken refugees have been seeking shelter in our kitchen and downstairs bathroom all day. My flip-flop has seen a lot of action today - I’ve killed at least 40 of them myself, and Neil has flip-flopped a few and sucked up a bunch with the vacuum. Mmmm. Tasty.

Anyone have any good bee recipes?

“And then we all went outside, and threw wet sponges at each other before bed. The end.”

Share This

Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

Do you think Rod Stewart is still performing Tonight’s the Night live at this point in his career?  If so, I have one word for that:  Ick!   Does anyone really want to watch an old guy sing about deflowering a young innocent?  Bleck, ew, ick.

And that’s what I was thinking about while driving today.  (Maybe I should leave these little thoughts to myself in the future )

Lisa

Share This

Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

Anybody interested in sharing some opinions with me? As you may know, I have been playing around with polymer clay posies. The six to the left are my first batch. The solid colors are matte and the patterned layers are shiny. All layers are the same thickness and are rounded. They’re topped off with a small Bali silver bead.

I liked them, but thought they needed to be bigger, and maybe have the solid colors be toned down. Enter batch #2.

I used darker colors for the solids, and I added two more layers behind the flowers to make them a bit bigger. The solid color layers are half as thin as they were before and their edges have not been rounded. The patterned layers are still done the same way as before. I replaced the Bali silver bead with a ball of clay.

I do like these but I thought maybe dark wasn’t the way to go after all, and I missed the touch of silver I had before. Enter batch #3.

I went back to the lighter colors and replaced the clay ball with a much smaller clay ball with a silver seed bead embedded into it.

My original thought with posting this was to ask for opinions on the three options, but as I write, I realize I’m not satisfied with any of them!

There are elements of all three that appeal to me - I think #2 is my favorite, and if I make all layers the same thickness and rounded, as in #1 and the silver bead as in #3, I might have something. I’m undecided about color, mainly because I am trying to match fabric with most of these. Some of the color decisions that would work against white, for instance, don’t really complement the colors in the fabric. And I may have to resign myself to the idea that what works for one type of fabric may not work with another - I like to have a “set” way of doing a particular project, and it will upset my world order to think that I could use bright colors on one posy and darker accent colors on another. Oh, my head! I may just have to get over that

I’m going to have a lot of these things to unload when all is said and done… anybody interested in a contest where the prize is a pocket full of posies?

In other clayful things, I spent some time yesterday mixing a batch of custom colors for more fabric. I’m really happy with two of them, and not so thrilled with a third.

Ok, it’s noon and my tummy is grumbling.  I’m off to bake me some Naan from Trader Joe’s.  Love that stuff! It’s the closest to real Indian restaurant Naan that I’ve found anywhere.

Lisa

Share This

Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

I love the first Sunday of the month. It’s the day the NJ Polymer Clay Guild has its workshops. In the three or four hours I’m there, I get to socialize with like-minded individuals, sharing some of my knowledge and absorbing some of theirs. I get to sell a couple of the latest books & videos to hit my shelves (if I bring them with me - I don’t always). I get to see what everyone else is working on. But probably my favorite thing is that I get to work on a project uninterrupted for several hours. Today I made buttons. Some in my usual color schemes to be sold in my regular store, and others in my new “designer fabric” scheme to be sold at Etsy.

There was a lot of talk about Donna Dewberry at our meeting today. Many were concerned about Polyform’s certification program, which is being spearheaded by Donna. I think it’s the most lively conversation we’ve had in some time. I can certainly agree that it’s ill-conceived for one clay company to “certify polymer clay” after it’s already gained such a foothold with many artists and enthusiasts worldwide. But the more I look at it, the less I see this endeavor as such a global thing. I was just poking around the Polyform site, and I see that they are calling the program “Studio Home Dimensions”. Teachers will be certified to teach the particular “Home Dimensions” techniques to a likely audience of beginner polymer clay crafters. Their target is people who have never touched the stuff. That really has no bearing on those of us who have been working with clay for several years, and on those artists who make their livings teaching advanced techniques. Would I demand that, say, Judy Belcher be certified before I consider taking a class with her? Um, NO! I think of it like Donna Dewberry’s “One Stroke” program. That program has enabled many crafters who didn’t think they could paint to go on and make pretty things. Has the One Stroke program cut into the livings of serious painters? Those who make art their livelihood? I don’t have any empirical data to back this up, but my gut tells me no (I welcome comments from anyone who has data to the contrary). As much as the clay community is up in arms about this right now, I suspect by this time next year it will be a non-issue.

As usual, I thought of most of these things long after the conversation was over

Anyway, I had fun at today’s meeting. Next month the focus is going to be on faux techniques. I wish I could make it - I’ve got a lot of great books/videos on the subject that I could bring. Unfortunately, there’s a scheduling conflict with my clay widower of a husband that weekend, and unless I can find someplace to deposit the wee ones, no clay day for me.

Lisa

Share This

Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

Sculpey III: the polymer clay serious artists love to hate. When a newbie comes on the scene, the advice from the veterans is always the same: “Get rid of all of that Sculpey you bought before you knew any better and get yourself some real clay, like Fimo, Premo, or Kato.”

I learned to clay 11+ years ago, and like most new to the craft, I started with several bars of Sculpey III. I loved it. Unfortunately, a lot of what I made became useless when the fragile parts started to snap off. Frustrated, I tried other brands. I switched to Fimo but swore off of it after completing 4 nativity scenes one Christmas season while I was still using a plastic roller and an x-acto knife as my only tools. That was an exercise in complete frustration. I flirted briefly with Promat but found it, too, was harder than I liked. When Premo came out, I fell in love with it - it was soft enough not to be frustrating, but strong enough not to break when I looked at it sideways.So, for a few years I was a Premo girl. These were also the years where I did the most experimenting. Eventually, I found my niche in caning. I was particularly enamored with repeating patterns and I liked tiling cane slices together to make sheets that would be useful as veneers. But there was a problem - the Premo canes I made didn’t age particularly well. Every slice I wanted to use had to be warmed up in my hands (which don’t really have much of their own warmth to spare) and even after warming, it didn’t meld well with the other cane slices next to it, nor did it stretch well when run through the pasta machine. I couldn’t use my Premo canes in my applications once they had been sitting around for a while, and that wasn’t going to work for me.

So, I went back to my roots and started caning with Sculpey III. I needed a lighter touch when reducing the canes, but that wasn’t a problem for me. And I needed to take into account the fact that Sculpey is not known for its strength after curing. I could use it for caning, but not as a structural element. I adapted all of my designs so that the primary items were constructed with Premo, and a very thin veneer of one of my Sculpey canes was applied. In most designs, I also added another layer of protection by coating the design with Liquid Kato Polyclay. Sandwiched in between two very strong clays, the ultra thin layer of Sculpey has not posed a structural problem in the least.

It seems that most people serious about polymer clay, particularly those who do caning, prefer the stiffer clays. Newbies are warned off of Sculpey as “too soft for caning.” Well, I’m here to tell you that it is certainly possible to make appealing cane designs in a soft clay. If you don’t have super hot hands, if you can reduce with a light touch, and you use a strong clay for the structural elements of your design, then Sculpey III is a perfectly legitimate option. I have made hundreds of Sculpey canes, mostly in repeating patterns. Many of my canes are several years old, and when I slice them they are still as fresh and as supple as the day I made them. They stretch beautifully in the pasta machine and they meld seamlessly with the slices next to them when forming a clay “fabric.”

This weekend I learned Jana Roberts Benzon’s Arabesque Caning technique. I brought a stiff clay to class as instructed, but I was curious if Sculpey could be used for such an intricate design. Since I have a tendency to work quickly in a workshop setting, I brought some Sculpey to try out the technique during any downtime I had. At the end of class, in addition to the cane we were supposed to be making, I also had an approximately 4-inch tall triangular cane made of Sculpey.

I wasn’ t overly surprised that Sculpey was acceptable for all of the components of the cane, but I do have to admit to a small doubt about its ability to withstand the reduction process. I generally make canes that are only about 6-8 ounces. This was much bigger than that and I was afraid I’d turn it into mush. I was unable to attend the Philadelphia guild meeting today where Jana was going to go through the reduction process, but armed with her written instructions this morning, I plopped down on the floor in my pajamas with my cane and went to town. Well, wouldn’t you know, the cane reduced beautifully, with minimal waste, and all of the crisp detail intact.

This, my friends, is a very complex, very detailed precision cane made entirely out of Sculpey III:

And just for kicks, here are some items that I made from that cane this afternoon:

All of these items encase the paper-thin Sculpey cane slices in a sandwich with a thick slice of Premo and a layer of liquid Kato clay so they won’t break easily.

I’ll be the first to admit that caning with Sculpey isn’t for everyone, but I do think that it deserves a far better reputation than it gets. I’m looking forward to playing around with Jana’s technique and encorporating ideas from it into my own work. I see a Paisley cane in my future…

Lisa

Share This

Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.