Haunted by Van Gogh

 

Hello dear friends, 

I prepared this tutorial for Day 2 of the 3-day Quote Challenge. I did my best to finish the cuff yesterday, but I guess I have chosen something too complicated to have the chance to make it , take the photos, write the blog post, all in one day. Yet, I am happy with the result of the process. 

 

So, I will start with the Quote Challenge. I have been invited to the take the challenge by drowningwings.wordpress.com (https://drowningwings.wordpress.com/2016/01/07/3-days-quote-challenge-3/)  and these are the rules: 

 

• Thank the blogger that nominated you.
• Share one new quote on three consecutive days on your blog. They can be from anywhere, anyone or anything.
• On each of the three days, nominate three more bloggers to carry on with the fun! No pressure; nominees are free to decline.

Therefore: I nominate:

Lucy from http://allrightchoices.com/2015/07/28/learning-how-to-paint-fur-in-acrylics-10-days-challenge/ Visit her blog and you’ll be inspired to take out your acrylic paints and paint

Inese from http://inesemjphotography.com/2015/11/05/the-land-of-magic/ When photography meets magic 

Yvonne from https://yvonnedewit.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/christmas-gifts-online/ Be prepared to be amazed by the most beautiful earth inspired unique art jewelry 

Even though my blogger friends could not have the time to take the challenge, I am happy to share my admiration for them with the entire world 

 

I used in this collage a photo of a polymer clay statue that I made when I started out working with clay. In fact I was combining two colors of polymer clay to get a marbled design and thus to make cabochons to use them in my bead embroidered pieces. And, while I was working clay in my hands, I stopped to see how it looked and I was amazed to see that in my hands there was like a Madonna and the child little statue (at that time I never considered I would be using polymer clay for more than making cabochons and little beads for bead embroidery). Yet I kept the statue (I baked it in the oven) and I hold it dear (it was like a sign or a gift of the univers, if you like). 

Secondly, even though the final piece seems more inspired by Van Gogh than by the below painting, this is my proposal for the ArtBeadScene January Challenge:

Landscape with Stars

by Henri-Edmond Cross

Materials and tools: scrap clay, gray polymer clay and metallic silver clay, yellow polymer clay,  dark blue polymer clay, white and black polymer clay, translucent clay and blue Pinata ink, crystal bicone beads, wire, liquid Fimo, Lisa Pavelka texture sheet. 

1. I conditioned the different colors of polymer clay. 

I had a cuff of scrap clay that was sitting on my desk for a couple of days (I cut a rectangular piece of scrap clay, measure it against a Pringles box diameter and after putting it on the box, I joined the ends together and rolled on it with the roller so that to have a smooth surface all around). 

Then I started to remove clay with my fingers to get some openings in the cuff (I wanted an uneven and irregular result). 

I am preparing gold wire and crystal bicone beads. 

I put three crystal beads onto the wire and arranged them to be in the openings. I put wire all around, fixing it with stripes of clay. (I go from one side to the other side, leaving an opening for the closure area). For the middle wire, I made loop at each end to be able to attach rings and eventually a clasp (the cuff turned out to be too large to be able to put a clasp, but by adding just a ring, it was large enough to slide it on the wrist). 

I am forcing myself to try new things (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t – but I train myself to concentrate on solutions). 

Then I put the cuff in the oven [30 minutes and 110 degrees Celsius – I am working with Fimo clay] – [first time in the oven ]

I started to create the cane:

I prepared a rectangular block of gray clay. I cut out a triangle shape and I placed in the hole a triangle made of metallic silver clay. 

I am adding more metallic silver clay in the upper part (I looked at the image from the ArtBeadScene challenge for inspiration).

I added Pinata ink to translucent clay (I waited 5 minutes for the ink to dry) and then mixed the clay (I formed a log and twisted it). 

I made some holes into the clay block (using a wooden stick) and put inside logs of yellow polymer clay. 

I am creating the space to add some dark blue mixed with a little bit of black polymer clay. 

I am adding the dark line.

And the tree bodies. 

I pressed everything together and then I started to reduce the cane.

This is the result of the landscape cane.

I prepared some white clay and then rolled a slice of the cane on top of it. 

Using liquid Fimo, I put the cane slice (with the white on the back) over the cuff base elements (pressing gently to glue it to the base). I trimmed off the excess clay.

I got a wavy look because of the strings that I used to keep the wire in place, but I wanted a wavy and irregular look on the entire cuff. 

[Second time in the oven – 30 minutes at 110 degrees Celsius). 

For the back, I used silver metallic polymer clay and a Lisa Pavelka texture sheet. 

I glued the textured clay to the back of the cuff using liquid Fimo.

Then I pulled a little on the clay to cover the margins that were showing of. 

[Third time in the oven – 30 minutes at 110 degrees Celsius].

I sanded it (using wet sanding) with the following grids: 600 – 800 – 1000 – 1500-2000-2300 – 2500.

I buffered it and as I wanted a even more pronounced glassy look, I added some varnish (two layers set with the heat gun). 

The cuff was too large when I attached the claps, so I decided to add rings and a dragonfly dangle.

Thank you for reading my tutorial!

Have a wonderful and creative day!

Mihaela 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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