Not So Boring Polymer Clay

Went back to polymer clay last weekend--this time with some more exciting colors! Had a lot of fun playing with the different colors, making some patterns, mixing colors and doing some stripes and marblizing. I made a faux jade which looks better in person than in the pics, and was fun to do. I made a bunch of buttons to use on journals and art quilts, and some dangles and pendants to make jewelry out of. DH got me a book at the library, so I am reading that over to build my skills. I've got some more ideas to try out this weekend.

Art Cloth

I have been doing more surface design on my fabric lately. Taking hand dyed fabrics a step further, and adding more dimension and visual texture to them with paint--stamping, squirting, stenciling, etc. I am currently hosting a painted fabric swap on Collage UnLeashed--where we are swapping 8.5 x 11 inch pieces of fabric using one or more of Traci Bautista's techniques that she lists in her book. Plus, I am working through Rayna Gilman's book, Make Your Own Hand Painted Cloth on A.R.T., so the stars are in line with fabric painting these days!

Here are two pieces of fabric that I have recently done. I used a combination of stamps, stencils and found objects.

Capri Sun Bag

So....what's in YOUR dishwasher? A couple of days ago, mine was filled with a bunch of washed Capri Sun bags waiting to dry--great tip from my friend Donna. I have used many kitchen appliances for crafting, but I think that this is the first time that my dishwasher has played a part.

So, after all of the bags were washed and dried, I used 12 of them to make this bag. Not too bad for a first try, but I learned a valuable lesson--don't try to make a gusset by sewing the bags right sides together, sewing diagonal corners, and turning the bag inside out. It was a major PITA to turn it inside out! So, my next bag will be different.

I gave this bag to my 6-year old daugher, and now all of her little friends at summer school are requesting bags--oh my!

Bleach Discharge Line Drawings

Here are some more bleach discharge experiments. I wanted to see if I could get some finer control over where the bleach went. This time, I used Electrasol liquid dish washer detergent with bleach, and put it into an empty glue bottle. It was a little bit too thick to get through the nozzle, so I had a little bit of a hard time squeezing it through, but not bad for a first try. The piece that is in the upper left, I did by squeezing a large amount onto the countertop, and swirling it around with my rubber faux finishing tool, and then laying the fabric on top. Got my counter nice and shiny too!

Painted Flower Quiltie

Here is the latest quilt for the online class that I am taking with Terri Stegmiller. The background and flowers are all hand painted. This piece is a little bit larger than the previous ones, about 13.5 x 17.5 inches. Fun to mix different media and to do the different techniques that Terri lays out. She goes over a lot of different paints, resists, and alternatives. Fun class!

Polymer Clay Beads, Buttons, and Bangles

I am pretty new to polymer clay, but I enjoy playing around with it. I made a batch of beads, buttons and bangles, with various textures and colors. You can click on the picture to get a better view. I just joined a couple of Yahoo groups to try to learn more about polymer clay, but I would love any suggestions you all might have.

I might use some of the buttons in a mixed-media piece that I am working on right now--I haven't decided. I'm not sure why I used such boring colors--remedied that today by getting a few brighter shades of polymer clay for the next batch. I'm also thinking that the little buttons would be fun as the closure on one of my fabric books.

Something Traditional

I don't post my traditional quilting stuff here too often, but this is a new project that I just started. It is all out of scraps, the squares measure 1.5 inches finished, so they are fairly small. There are 56 pieces per 12 x 12 inch block if I counted correctly. So, this quilt might take awhile to finish! I've been cutting up all of my tan, brown, hunter green, dark turquoise and dark teal fabrics while watching T.V. Friday and Saturday nights. I am hoping to have enough for a queen size quilt, and will just stop making blocks when either I run out of fabric, or lose interest! I am trying to use up some of my fabric scraps that are taking up precious space, but that I can't bear to throw away.

Flower Quiltie #4

I really need to find a catchier name for the quilt! Not my area of specialty.
This is the quiltie that I made for week 2 of my online class with Terri Stegmiller. We did a faux batik method--I won't tell you the secret--you'll have to take the class! But, I loved the result, and I plan on making more quilts with my other "batiks".

I also stamped the fabric for the background on the right side. It was a fabric that I had hand dyed several years ago, and it needed something more, so this was the perfect opportunity! I stamped various items with acrylic paint, and then spritzed with Color Wash.

Another Flower Quiltie

This is my 3rd quiltie that I am doing for Terri Stegmiller's online class. For this one, I used several fabrics that I have dyed, stamped and painted. The flowers were made on my new Embellisher machine, and then appliqued to the background.