Dec 12, 2008
Holiday Paper Doll Page1, originally uploaded by sarajane helm.
Happy Holidays!
In the spirit of the seasons of giving thanks and more, I’m posting this two page set of paper dolls that I drew at full resolution size–please print them out and have fun coloring, or give a set to someone who will! This Victorian Era young miss has a party dress and accessories for celebrating all sorts of holidays including Thanksgiving, Santa Lucia Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Soltice. Ring those bells!
I remember when I was younger, and the best presents of the holiday season were art supplies, and the time and freedom to use them. Fresh sheets of white paper, a new box of crayons with LOTS of colors–freshly sharpened colored pencils….those are wonderful things still! Although these days I’m learning to draw with my Wacom digital pen mouse and color with tools in Adobe Photoshop, I still have a fascination with a fresh sheet of plain white bristol board, a sharp pencil, a micro fine tipped ink pen..and then the fun of coloring in the results of my drawings with inks or paints. The computer is a wonderful art supply. But there’s just something about drawing and coloring on a cold winter afternoon when you don’t have to be someplace else like school, or work. Creative play brings about some of the warmest holiday memories still!
HolidayPaper Doll Page 2, originally uploaded by sarajane helm.
Here’s the second page of this Holiday paper doll set, with a wooly and warm coat and bonnet ready for Yuletide Caroling, a nightgown and cap complete with Christmas stocking ready to hang by the fire, and a seviceable Pilgrim’s gown and bonnet with a basket of harvest fare.
If you’d like to see more please visit Polymarket Press or my etsy store.
Blessings to all in the upcoming year!
Nov 9, 2008
Last week Judith Skinner and I were vendors for our third year at The International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas. The show is the absolute best in the world, and there are more beautiful quilts and amazing wearable art pieces than I could possibly imagine–and I have a VERY good imagination!! We go every year to promote our books, including Adapting Quilt Patterns To Polymer Clay and The Business Of Professional Art as well as to sell our polymer clay jewelry, beads, faces, and Spirit Doll kits. Next year we’ll be bringing new titles as well–I think its time to ship all the books ahead, though. We take all of our booth setup and displays and all merchandise with us, and things are getting heavier the more titles we add! This year we shipped some of the books, and that worked out very well. The Houston Polymer Clay Guild helped out with Receiving and made us welcome at a lovely evening reception too! It is always great to see our friends there again.
In addition to seeing polymer clay vendors like Jennifer Patterson and Karyn Kozak, we get to explore as much of the show as we can. There are 20 rows of booths, and thats not counting the Quilt Display areas!!
There’s an area in the farthest back block for Embellishments, where you can find us in our PolyMarket Press Booth and many other suppliers of textiles, trims, buttons and beads, and other great stuff.
Like Glitter! Barbara Trombley was there with her Art Institute Glitter. Not only do she and her sparkly assistant Nancy show off the uses of an incredible line of glitters that are compatible with polymer clay use, Barbara’s line of “Elements” make great inclusions in translucent polymer clay and all the supplies in their booth have possibilities when it comes to mixed media art that is so dear to many, including me!
As a certifiable color addict, I warn you to be careful when looking at her color samples. Many, many colors, in very many sizes–like seed beads and paint chips it can be an occasion for gazing a long time.
I also had the opportunity to meet Jenny Doh, editor at Belle Armoire magazine. It was lovely to see in person someone with whom I’ve worked well and happily as a writer of the Business Of Professional Arts column there. I rthoroughly enjoy working with talented, creative people, who are very good at what they do.
It was exciting to see the “Where Women Create” booth and to meet her and the other ladies there. WWC is all about the “inspiring work spaces of extraordinary women” to quote their website. Keep an eye out for this newly debuting magazine!
Click here to see more about this exciting show.
Oct 21, 2008
In addition to writing for books and magazines, and creating artwork with polymer clay and textiles, I spend a lot of time working with graphic and web design. I love what can be done with a digital camera and Adobe Photoshop..and several hundred fonts! (I have about 950 installed now, having had to delete about as many….it made things slow to load. Imagine!!) I have a special fondness for dingbats.
As a web designer, I enjoy working closely with my clients to create a site that reflects their work and their personal style. Click any of the graphics here to see the site I’ve built with each client–energy workers, artists, massage therapists, musicians and more.
If you are interested in having a website built or improved, please contact me at sarajane@polyclay.com and view my website page for more information.
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Oct 6, 2008
oh, I do love the time of year when summer is over, winter isnt here yet—and the fall weather starts to make inroads into the garden. There are wonderful holidays at this time, including Halloween, when I’ll be in Houston Texas at the International Quilt Festival again with Judith Skinner, taking lots of new beads, jewelry, faces, and other items made from polymer clay, plus spirit doll kits and more.
The Day Of The Dead gets celebrated around here for more than just one day, as do many holidays. This year my polymer-clay-headed spokesmodel Aunt Acid is taking a turn displaying her flowers and skulls decked out in DOTD finery and seated with her dogs in the front window of Nomad Designs, a fabulous bead bazaar in Boulder Colorado where you can find all sorts of exotic things.
Jul 25, 2008
I just returned from the Tougaloo College Summer Art Colony in Jackson Mississippi. This year was #12 for this week long celebration of art. Its also the second time that I’ve been there as an instructor. Our class made masks, spirit dolls, icons and boxes, beads and more…all with polymer clay. Click here to read more about it and follow the links to see what we made!
The mask shown above is a full sized domino style mask. We also made a lot of miniature masks, making the original sculpt and then creating silicone molds using Amazing Mold Putty by Alumilite. The bacground in the banner is a digital picture of the night sky with full moon as sseen from campus. The picture didnt come out all that well–but parts of it are beautiful, and as instructor Carmen Hathaway (Digital Dreams) tells her students, the original photograph is just the starting point. I would have eagerly taken her class–or any of the other classes given by VERY talented instructors. Seeing what other artists do, and speaking openly with them about making and marketing art is tremendously inspiring and helpful. I had a wonderful time at the Artists Colony, and I encourage everyone to spend some time this summer viewing the work of other artists and making more of your own!
Jun 6, 2008
We’ve had rain all the first part of this week, and we needed the moisture. It is beautiful in a sunny way today, and we’re starting into the annual dyeing days! Today is prep day–I’ll be mixing dyes, and getting them into the bottles. I just ran off the sheets of labels for the plastic bottles. This year we have:
#03 Golden Yellow
#05 Soft Orange
#8A Pagoda Red
#09 Scarlet
#13 Fuchsia Red
#14A Hot Pink
#15 Amethyst
#18A UltraViolet
#19 Plum
#19A Lilac
#21 Teal Blue
#23 Cerulean Blue
#25 Turquoise
#27 Midnight Blue
#28A AquaMarine
#37 Bronze
#44 BetterBlack
#45 Jungle Red
#47 Chartreuse
#50 JadeGreen
#60 Lavender
#62 PeacockBlue
#64 Orchid
#96 Lapis
#97 Citrus Yellow
#105 Pewter
#111 Black Cherry
#112 Periwinkle
#113 GoldenBrown
#115 Eggplant
#118 Yucca
#312 Strongest Red
#510 Basic Brown
We use Procion MX series coldwater fiber reactive dyes. We’ve found that labeling the bottles after mixing them up makes it easier to tell what’s what, when you have lots of colors. We also have bagged swatches (that’s the picture at top) so that we know how the color is going to come out, mostly.
Another good tip I’ll share with you is to mix your dyes with water and then pour through a coffee filter into the bottle, that way those pesky little red or turquoise spots are not a problem.
This year I’m dyeing lots more pieces of turned wood, because I LOVE how last years batch turned out. No ribbons this year–I did a lot of them last year.
They went into the current crop of Spirit Doll Kits along with the cotton and silk fabrics, and polymer clay faces. I’m selling them on Etsy.comwhich is an on-line site presenting handmade and vintage items. I’ll be adding lots more items in the upcoming weeks as I clean out the studio and help fund upcoming shows and projects.
I’ll also be dyeing some t shirt dresses and shorts for my own summertime wardrobe, and backdrop and curtain fabric that will be used in the Aunt Acid Show. They WERE beige muslin–how drab!! They were great when I did out door shows and needed backdrops that did not compete with the displays. But for this particular show, we can take LOTS of color. I’ve been gluing mosaic set pices, and things are coming along splendidly in a visual sense. Now for another big dose of color, and we’ll be onward into the Summer of More Love…and we happen to love art and music and humor, so I’d say these good times to “Be Happening”.
Speaking of summer time fun, I’ll be teaching a week long seminar on using dyed fabrics and polymer clays to make spirit dolls, icons, and masks this summer at Tougaloo College Summer Art Colony. July in Mississippi is time for some HOT ART!!
May 16, 2008
Bryan Helm makes audible and visual mosaic art. Some of his instuments can be used for music. The ones that can not keep a tone are recycled into beautifully encrusted works of art that Senor Gaudy might well have liked.
He uses polymer clay, glass, wire and found objects and each finished instrument is different. Here’s a photo of the back of it that I’ve taken into Photoshop and played with a bit, taking the creative connections even a little bit further.
Many of the impressions that were stamped into the polymer clay tiles that cover this piece were made using custom stamps anda molds we had made at Ready Stamps in San Diego, using dingbat fonts to create our own designs, then to rubber–then to polymer clay and now here.
We’ve recently opened an online shop at Etsy.com, where handmade items are featured for sale. Please do come and take a look at our items up for sale there, which include the Tumbling Blocks Guitar shown here and in the book “Adapting Quilt Patterns To Polymer Clay”.
He’s recently finished the Little BlueGlass Guitar, and has just begun the Big Green Twelve String. We’ll be sure to show it off when it is finished!
He is also tiling a table for a commisioned piece locally, and it features gorgeous ceramic tiles that have crystals grown into the glazes, made by Fa Shimbo.
I’m gluing too–working on the tiled backdrops and set pieces for the Aunt Acid Show. That’s sure to show up here in the blog soon too!
May 13, 2008
For every scintillating moment of a fabulous show, there are hundreds and sometimes thousands of hours of creative work that go into making it happen. “My Dad has a barn–my Mom has some costumes in the attic…lets put on a show!”. Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland knew how much went into each shining moment, no matter how easy they made it look in the final cut. Lighting, sets, costumes, hair and makeup, choreography and music, and many more special skill sets and jobs come into play. Things progress from the design phase, where many choices are tried out and refined until the designer has a pretty good idea of what to do to make it all real. Then the production phase takes over, and things have to be flexible in the process of making the designs come to life. Intricate work takes a great deal of time and effort. But oh, my…it really is worth it. At first glance, you’d never know what all goes into making up the event you see on stage. Things start out as ideas, progress to sketches and more specific designs, and with a great deal of attention to detail on the parts of many people , things get done.
Lately we’ve been working on lots of things that tie up together in creative connections. We’re making mosaic tiled tables, set pieces for our upcoming Internet puppet show extravaganza, “The Aunt Acid Show“, encrusted instruments, even a sequined soap box or two. Costumes and props, stage and set construction are all progressing, and Aunt Acid herself is all pulled together and ready for her fittings and her closeups!
This is the design sketch for the show’s set pieces.
Just wait till you see how THAT turns out!
With a show debut date of July 4th, we’ve got a
tremendous amount to do…
Check in again soon and see how its all coming along!
May 2, 2008
I’ve been working for months now on getting ready for “The Aunt Acid Show” and it’ll be a lot more work to come before we air the first episode. We’re writing the segments, the music, creating the sets, the costumes and props…even the star and supporting cast.
Aunt Acid is a puppet, a performing artiste, a political humorist and a spokesmodel. She’s taken a while to come together , but the progress has been fun, and documented along the way. Her head is polymer clay over papier mache, and now I’ve added the sections pertaining to her body and her hands. These are NOT pc, but rather fabric over wire armature.
Does using two colors of polar fleece for the skin mean she’s bipolar? hmmm….. maybe!
The final stitches are in place, and as soon as she’s had time for her manicure (gotta make the nails!) makeup, and hair she’ll be ready for the photographers.
head http://auntacid.com/originalsyn.html
body http://auntacid.com/auntiebody.html
hands http://auntacid.com/handsoff.html
Feb 27, 2008
I’ve been having fun playing with face masks, dolls, and beads. All the cotton jersey that I’ve previously dyed has been cut into fat quarters for making into doll bodies and spirit doll kits. I’ve got some premade bodies that were dyed as well, and I’ve put together dozens of kits. Now I’m ready to make more sample versions so people can see what can be done with the kits. Here’s the start of one floral doll. She still needs lots of beads though! It is important to remember that spirit dolls take several sessions to really come together.
It all takes a long time….but eventually it’ll all be organized together into a how-to book and a lovely display of dolls, kits, and polymer clay faces. This book comes AFTER the new “The Art Of Polymer Clay Masks” in its release date.
I’m working on the text and pictures at the same time. It’s making for a very busy winter, when you also factor in my “Day Job” building web pages for other artists, musicians, and local businesses.
Dec 2, 2007
I had fun with my creative co-workers decorating the Christmas window of the local bead store here in town. We just kept adding more and more…fused and slumped glass bowls, hand dyed silk scarves, dolls, the miniature quilt store, (which we decorated for Christmas too), a polymer clay covered wagon and even Golde in a box. She’s my full sized cloth doll, who shows up in many different roles here. This time she’s wrapped up like a present right in the front window, along with lots of other hand made gifts and goodies. The pictures here are all of the little store “Pieces”. It measures 2’x4′ and is in “fashion doll scale”.
Nov 28, 2007
I love books. And while I am a big fan of stories and words, I admit that I also get them just for the pictures. I adore going to the public library and I believe that thats where the “free” part of free speech finds its most equally available home in America. Anybody–absolutely anybody–can go there and look at books and magazines, as long as they are behaving themselves in a non-violent way. But though I keep many of “my” well-loved books on the shelves of the library when I’m not reading them, there are some that I just have to own outright and keep at my house for whenever I want them, no sharing neccessary. Two of my favorite places to buy books are at Amazon and through Bud Plant’s catalogues. Mr. Plant specializes in very reasonably priced art and comic art books. Great illustrators, wonderful compilations—it is a treasure trove. I’ve recently updated my Books section on my web site with two pages of recommendations from the newest selctions there. And, there are also 4 updated pages of books available from Amazon having to do with dolls and miniatures, textiles, and more.
The book shown above is Ukiyo-E, Japanese prints from the “Floating World”, which has been a HUGE influence on my own artwork. Japanese prints also influenced the work of artists like Mary Cassatt, Van Gogh, and other greats. I like to use the pictures as reference when making my Japanese girl beads and pins with polymer clay. The colors in these meticulous block prints really speak to me–even though they were created as much as 150 years ago!
Nov 16, 2007
There’s a movement afoot this year to promote handmade items for decorations and gifts during the holidays. Now, this is something we’ve ALWAYS done here at my house, because I love the excuse to bring out the creative opportunities. Lots of homebaked cookies with colorful icings, an almost historical archive of all the years’ decorations on the tree, and lots of fun making items to give as gifts. We don’t spend a lot of money. We prefer to spend time and energy on making quality holidays that are memorable and shared.
This year I’m talking up that same idea at Bead Lounge, the local bead store here in town where I work as the class coordinator, web designer, and one of the talented staff of bead artisans. I’m putting the store window together in stages this year, and here’s a little part of it so far. Still to come are more additions which will include putting the miniature quilt shop “Pieces” in the window all decorated up for the holidays too. We’re promoting making your own jewelry, gifts, decorations–and also buying from other artists who make things.
You can see one of my dolls dressed up as an angel here. She’s got the same face that I drew for my paper doll series for the “Heirloom Lady” and “Belle”. Both those paper dolls have the very same outlines and face, but Belle is a dancehall girl with poofier hair, cleavage, and more frou-frous and furbeloughs on her outfits. And a beauty mark!
Later this month I’ll add the full sized cloth doll Golde to the window, but her Santa Belle outfit isnt quite done yet. And, I prefer to do this window in stages rather than all at once so it doesnt get boring for who are looking in at the store displays. Stay tuned for more!
Nov 16, 2007
My, but what a lot of traveling I’ve done this Autumn! The Holiday Food and Gift show in Denver, The International Quilt Festival in Houston, and two days of classes in Columbus Ohio with the polymer clay guild there. I had a great time with them, and also got a chance to get together with family and friends.
I’ve got an upcoming Bead Buglearticle about the results from the millefiore caning, mimicking textiles, and beautiful beads classes. It should be on-line sometime this month.
Shown at left are a pair of earring dangles (no hooks on them yet!) made from canes made in those classes. I’ve been having fun making charms and dangles with baked cane slices using my leather mini-hole punch from Tool-Smith. It makes the cleanest easiest holes through baked polymer clay!
The triangles at the bottom of the dangles show one way that color can be gradated in polymer clay canes. This kind of “3D” color gives the illusion of blend when it is taken very small. You can also see it in the petals of the rose shown here. Polymer clay artists David Forlano and Stephen Ford of “City Zen Cane” made this color stacking technique very popular at one time. Along with Judith Skinner’s “Skinner Blend”, these two techniques allow for the appearance of shaded parts in cane images. I love the way I can get a very graphic style in clay and then take it down in scale with reduction!
The wedge from which the dangle slice was cut was a leftover piece from the making of the cane shown at left. The similar uses of form, color and multiple repeats are very much present in textile designs too. Sandra McCaw uses these kinds of color stacks in her caning process. Hers is far more precise than mine, and taken to much greater levels of reduction and recombining. Its always interesting to see how different artists can use similar materials and techniques in ways that suit their own styles.
Sep 22, 2007
I am currently seeking high resolution, professional quality digital images of polymer clay masks for review and possible inclusion in The Art Of Polymer Clay Masks.
This new book is scheduled for release in June 2008 through PolyMarket Press.
Images need to at 300dpi resolution. Masks can be miniature or full sized, wearable or wallhanging, but must feature polymer clay as a primary material.
I will be showcasing my accumulated collection of miniature masks from previous Internet Mask Swaps as well as showing larger pieces by myself and by other artists. I have more than 350 already, but more is better. This book will be pictures and some information, with another book taking care of how-to aspects of making masks. This book is meant to spotlight the art itself–so send in pictures of your very best masks.
The deadline for sending images to me on a cd for review is January 15th. Email me for the mailing address at sjpolyclay@comcast.net if you are interested in participating. CDs WILL NOT BE RETURNED. All accepted artwork will be credited to the artist by name in the printed book.
Thank you in advance for your potential interest in this project!
Aug 27, 2007
I’ve just started an *aStore* over at Amazon, where I list great books and tools, including the ever popular Atlas Marcato Pasta Machine and Motor and the FABULOUS Wusthof Cheese knife. This one’s a favorite with Judith Skinner and I love it too. Most clayers we’ve shown it too have wondered where to get it–its on sale now! I’ve also listed Varathane in the quart size, spray Varathane and more hard-to-locate items.
Aug 27, 2007
This month has moved along at a frenetic pace, even though I’ve been moving a bit slow due to the heat. Hopefully we will soon be done with the days that range past 95degrees F, because I’m yearning to get back to my claying and step away from the computer a little more often. Thats difficult to do when its my “day job” but the bigger sticking point 
is just that–the stickiness. Clay is simply too soft to work with well when its too hot or too cold, prefereing the Goldilocks “just right” temperate state somewhere between 50-85 degrees. Thats why they call it “thermally reactive”, in that clay gets soft when its warm and hard when its cold. But those days are JUST around the corner, and I have many hours of both production and playtime ahead of me in my studio. I’ve been stocking up on peripherals like transfer images, foils, glitters and inclusions, and more for quite some time–and now I get to use them all!
One of the things that people have a hard time finding is Varathane Indoor Waterbased finish in the quart size, and the Varathane spray as well. Both are compatable long term with polymer clay. And both are available through Amazon.com at a very good price! I have just set up an *aStore* there that lists these products and also the Wusthof cheese knife, (shown above) used by Judith Skinner in our recent book “Adapting Quilt Patterns To Polymer Clay”. This knife is incredible! we love it for slicing through bricks of clay and for cutting 4 1/2″ strips and sheets for precise caning (thats how long the blade is) and for cutting wedges and stacks. Its simply the best we’ve seen, and both of us are constantly on the look-out! I’ve also picked out a great selection of cutters–you can never have too many cool cutters. The sets are reasonably priced, and I’ve included my favorites. I hope you like them too!
Aug 17, 2007
The Columbus Ohio Polymer Clay Guild has invited me to return to my old hometown and offer three polymer clay classes!
I’ll be there at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center Saturday, Sept. 15 2007, 9-12:30 and 1-4:30 and Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007, 1-4:30 to offer the following:
CANEWORK–MILLEFIORE TECHNIQUE
MAKING BEAUTIFUL BEADS
CANEWORK–MIMICKING TEXTILE DESIGNS
Click here for all the information!
Jul 30, 2007
oi! What a summer full of work its been so far. I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a minute to stop and post here in a while. The garden is going full tilt–all the lettuce is gone and the raspberries are done for the season. (But we froze 16 lovely bags full which will be great in muffins later this year and next winter too.) Now my daily garden time is spent watering and pulling the weeds which tend to thrive wherever you water here in Colorado. We don’t have a big farm or even a little one, just a backyard in a small town with a few small plots and a few big black pots that trees once arrived in from a nursery. We recycle and reuse as creatively as we can…with the addition of some good dirt and even better compost from a local dairy, we have thriving tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, herbs and 5 kinds of squash plants!
In addition to an hour or so a day in the garden, I’ve been growing lots of website pages and blogs, both for myself and for other clients. That includes helping my husband with his musical podcasts and blogs, though he’s becoming very self sufficient at it these days. He’s got quite a bit of original music up for listening, and more to come. I’ve been hearing and enjoying it for years; now its YOUR turn!
I’ve been busy sorting and gathering and bagging beads too, preparing for show and for upcoming classes, kits, and bigger projects like the next books. Polymer clay masks are all ready to be photographed and mounted this week, with the frames prepared and databases for the artist information all prepared–its a serious lot of work just to get ready for some projects. The amount of effort that went into making all the masks is enormous, but its also been spaced out over five or six years and done by many different artists who participated. That sure helps!!I’m really looking forward to putting this one together, and its happening now, this very week. And for the next several months as well! Bryan will be mounting and framing the masks as I finish their photos. As I sort through them now, I’m really struck again by how wonderful they all are–so many extremely cool little pices of art! Shown at top are two from the 2006 mask swap made by Karen Cowles. Check out her website at www.choosetothrive.com
Right alongside of that giant miniature undertaking is production of new beads and new polymer clay faces and more masks! Before we show off the masks on the walls and in a new book, I’ll be traveling back to the ol’ stomping grounds in Ohio in September, where I am very pleased to be offering classes in Bead Making and Millefiore Caning through the local polymer clay guilds. More about that in my next post.
I’m also very excited to say that work is well underway on the many aspects of preparing for our “Really Big Show”, as Ed Sullivan used to say. Scripts, songs, websites and blogs, puppets and even the theatre itself all have to in place and running before we bring up the curtain. As every one who has ever participated in theatre of any kind knows, there are years of work that go into a single hour’s performance, and its done by many hands and with the use of all sorts of skills. We’re close to being able to share the progress, and thats what’s keeping me pretty busy at the moment. Visit again soon and find out more!
Jun 25, 2007
I’m going to play with dolls today, and let my project dreams roll around in my head while I do the day’s tasks early so that I can get to the parts that are more fun. There’s something about the heat on long summer days that really encourages day dreaming, memory drift, 
and imaginative play. Perhaps its because its just too darn oppressively hot when its in the 90’s by midmorning to be comfortable in the physical world. Maybe brains let the thoughts sputter around more freely when warm, like kids playing in sprinklers. I don’t know and its really too warm to worry about it…maybe thats why its so much fun to hole up with a good book or a project in the shade! Especially if you get the heavier work done early–then its perfectly alright to spend a few hours on pursuits a but more whimsical!Not that I’m going to be entirely frivolous–the play is also work, but “funner”, as any kid would know. There are two big little projects to do this summer, and I’m making my way slowly with both. There are hundreds of miniature masks to be photographed for the upcoming “The Art Of Polymer Clay Masks” book, and its a perfect season for doing that–lots of light!
The other miniature project is another store. Last year saw the production of “Pieces” a miniature fabric store made and stocked with polymer clay. In it, I had the fun of combining my love of textile designs, miniatures and set design, quilts, and polymer clay. I had lots of help, too, as other polymer clay artists helped stock the shelves with miniature “bolts of fabric”–which were all polymer clay. Even the plants are polymer clay. It was originally intended as a display for use in the book “Adapting Quilt Patterns To Polymer Clay” by Judith Skinner and me. That was the official excuse—but it was also SO MUCH FUN!!! I still enjoy shuffling the hundreds of bolts into different piles, and someday they will all become parts of a wall hanging…but not today!
Today, I’m thinking about the NEW store, which is in the same scale (1/6, which is also called fashion doll scale and also 1’=2″. click here for a page with more information about miniatures and a scale conversion chart). If Barbie were a quilt maker, she’d shop at “Pieces” for her fabrics. And, if she were shopping for things like cosmetics, perfume luggage, and fashionable accessories, they’d all be in some fabulous storefront.
So here I am, dreaming of little perfume displays with framed antique labels for boudoir decorating pleasure, tiny luggage with labels from far away places and more. I’m also being practical about it–the luggage is to be made with polymer clay and formed around cookie cutters and petit-four cutters, and the perfume bottles made with beads and a bit more clay..I’ve been sorting the actual beads and will do more later! (There are kits and a how-to in the making)
The perfume labels for both bottles and art come from the same source as the luggage labels. I am thrilled to have at hand cd’s of vintage art from Stan and Russell at Twisted Papers. They have antique travel ephemera, vintage labels, and textile designs all on cds at very high resolution for artists to print and use. Because I can size them to different scales, they have all SORTS of uses!!
“Vintage Label Collection Vol 1: Perfume Health and Beauty Products” is a personal fave, as is the vintage travel series. I’m showing you just a couple of the fabulous pics that I’ll be using in making displays and products for my new little store–there are 306 images available on this cd alone!!! I have plans for transfers, charms, collages—lots of ideas for a hot summer day. See some of the travel labels and a bit more info about this treasure trove here at a previous blog post.
Jun 16, 2007
I just love old ephemera. Even the word “ephemera” is wonderful–it has a faded paper sound to it when you say it out loud. Old ticket stubs and programs, maps, vintage valentines, designer’s sketches, antique advertising, sheet music… lovely old paper products. I’ve always enjoyed using things like that in collages, and we have boxes of carefully collected magazines that go beyond the usual National Geographics. (though we have some of those too!! One of the interesting things to remember about copyright law is that it pertains to making copies. So I can legally take these magazine photos, or catalog advertisements, or any paper ehemera and use them–without making any copies–in my artwork. If I want to make copies, I use artwork that is in the public domain, that I create myself, or that has permission granted for artists to use. This last catagory includes clip art that is installed in computer programs that come with your computer and all the Dover Pictorial Archive images. They have thousands of books with images in many catagories, and they are also now making them available on cds that come with the book. When purchased, the owner of the book has permission to use the images in their work, though not to just create a copy of the book or cd itself for sale. These images can be used in so many different ways! I have a Japanese Heraldic Crest symbol used on my business cards and printed materials. I’ve used them to make rubberstamps too, through Ready Stamps (for more about that, click here). Between Dover Pictorial Archive images and dingbat font images, I have had dozens of stamp sets made. They are my favorite tools!
In addition to using images to make molds and stamps, transfers can be created using liquid polymer clay and a print out from my deskjet printer onto Epson Glossy Photo Paper. This is particularly fun to do with colorful graphics that can be scaled down in size for miniature and doll use. My newly found friends Stanley Pekarsky and Russell White of Twisted Papers have an absolute treasure-trove for all artists who share my love of ephemera. They have very high quality vintage images available on cds for artists to print and use. They feature collections of travel oriented and advertising art, postcards and valentines, ticket stubs and menus (like the two shown here). AND they have many cds of the fabric designs that belonged to the design firm for which one of them worked. They now have the rights to these lovely textile designs in several colorways, and those with the cds can use them to make cards, hangtags, all sorts of printed or web-based use! I have great plans for the weeks ahead…and I’ll show what I do with them later. I’m going to make miniature luggage and travel posters for my upcoming doll store as well as perfume ads and labels and all SORTS of things!! Thank you Stan and Russell, for collecting and sharing these fabulous images.
Take a look at their other site, Midnight Rainbow to see even more vintage goodies.
Jun 14, 2007
I spent an hour or two yesterday looking at links on the ‘net, and adding several favorites here, plus a little re-organization–some links fit in many catagories; they could be Dolls/Miniatures or Puppet/Props or Costume/Textiles…so be sure not to overlook some great links due to the organizing, do poke around! I’ve added more than a dozen new links. Quite a few are in the new Puppet/Props catagory. We really like puppets and all sorts of animation here at our house. “Gumby” was one of the first popular claymation characters that helped introduce American audiences to the potentials of polymer clays. Although made with the non-hardening varieties, the clays offer ease of movement that animators love. The “Wallace & Grommit” shorts and features made by Aardman Animations are another well known use of clays in animation. Cloth puppets often make use of some clay parts, notably eyes and teeth, and polymers also make for great costume details and props. My son Ian is in film school, and uses puppets in many of his movies. Here’s one created for his movie “Collywobbles”. Sister says “Do It Now” which is sort of a family saying here….
He used polymer clay to make faux rocks in which the Title was inscribed—much easier tha carving REAL rocks. The creative connections come home to roost along with the chickens here at our house, and Ian gets a hand here with the costumes (from Mom) and music for soundtracks (from Dad) and a round of applause for the finished productions from the rest of the clan. In his spare time he writes reviews with his cronies–take a look at confusereviews.com if you’d like to skew your slant on the day with some darkly humorous pokes at movies, games, books and more.
Jun 1, 2007
We made it through the Big Dyeing Event and it all worked out very well. My hands and back are really tired, but the backyard has certainly been well watered with all the rinsing.
The ribbons, lace, scarves, cording, fabric, hats, bamboo beads, wooden pieces and tshirts have all been dyed, rinsed, and washed, and now I’m rolling and tagging and getting things ready for sales.
Next up on the “to do” list is making more polymer clay faces to go with all the great new colors, and putting them together into Spirit Doll kits–I’m going to the Houston International Quilt Show again this year in the Fall, and so this Summer is going to involve a Big Production Push. Lots of things to get done….Musician Bill Nelson says in song “People who do things, are people who get things done”.
I’ve been busy writing articles for Belle Armoire and other magazines, and working on books to the point that I’ve been spending less time than I need to on the actual polymer clay work, and I’m really looking forward to getting back to that!
Though I’ll be photographing as I go, because the dyeing process is part of one book, and the polymer clay masks are part of the next one up–“The Art Of Polymer Clay Masks”.
I have to work pretty steadily on that for the next two months in order to make it happen this year. It will be self-published through Lulu.com as is “Adapting Quilt Patterns To polymer Clay” with Judith Skinner.
I’m still working on migrating this site to the one that I maintain myself, but I havent figured out how to get tags to work there as they do here–in the meantime, I’ll make use of both lobes of my brain and both ftp sites and maintain both for a bit! Please do visit “the other side” to see the features available there that aren’t here.
May 28, 2007
The Annual Dyeing Days are over for another year. Almost–I still have to rinse out the bottles and put then pools away in the garage, but not today!!
My hands are sore, and so is my back…but I do love the colors that we got this year. Eggplant was the new color in the group, and is true to its name. I think I still like Black Cherry better…but Chartreuse was the winner of the Most Used award this year.
I mixed up more of it than the other colors and STILL had to make up another batch the second day!
For more information about this wonderful color, visit Maggie Maggio’s Smashing Color site–it is WONDERFUL and the section about chartreuse should have tipped me that its going to be A Popular Color.
We dyed shirts, hats, socks, fabric, lace, ribbons, doll bodies, and even wooden pieces. I think they are pine, and we got them in bags from a thrift store. It was a great find, though I’m not completely sure HOW they will be use, it will probably be in a puppet theater set or miniature diorama or some sort.
To read all about it, visit the new Dyes page at the Polyclay Gallery. It may take a few minutes to load as it is graphics-heavy.
May 24, 2007
If I’m going to make colorful puns (and I am, just accept it) then the whole quote would have to be “We who are about to dye, solution you. ” Which is probably only funny to textile artists and those forced to take Latin in school…if that. But the colorful fun IS about to start here in my own backyard–after several days of unseasonable cold weather, we are ready to get saturated, with color and water both.
I spent yesterday mixing the dyes–42 bottles of saltwater and dye, ready to go. You see them here in a wading pool, and its just one of many. We have a soaking solution pool for the soda ash, a rinsing pool, and many many buckets. We have color swatches for reference, bagged items all tagged for 
the color pots, and my presence is shortly required out there, so I’ll finish up here with this picture of Premo clay beads in a colorstrand that helps me keep track of mixes and blends. The goal is to dye lots of things that will go with the polymer clay beads, faces, and more. I’ll be back with pictures later this weekend!
May 18, 2007
Creative Connections is more than just the name of this blog–its how we live our lives at my house. All sorts of stuff comes together, goes elsewhere and wraps back around into our lives again eventually. This weekend finds us getting ready for the Dyeing Days starting Monday, and while I sort things into the various bags for each color, I’m listening to music from my past, because my husband is going through 25 years of recordings and digitally archiving them. He’s a musician as well as a landscape and mosaic artist, and I’ve recently set him up to do podcasts. He’s coming round to where the computer meets the music, and thats a challenge for someone who claims to be a techno-primitive in style. The fingers are faster on keyboards of another sort, not the PC. But hey–he managed to move from acoustic to electric guitar, and I’m betting that this too will be a more comfortable medium eventually.
Some of the old recordings even include me, back in the days when I split my time between art and music, before adding children to the mix. (Ample Parking was the name of our ’80s band) Then I retired from the music scene and made art and family and writing my full-time jobs. I don’t miss the smoky-bars-3AM scene but I do sometimes miss playing music with others.
And now, the kid who’s persistant kicking along to the music decades ago while still inside made me put away the bass guitar is making his own films, and coming home to work with his Dad on some soundtrack music; isnt it just convenient that there happens to be hours and hours of it available?!! If you’d like to hear some of it, visit:
http://feed.at-the-helm.us or his accompanying blog: http://bryanhelm.wordpress.com
I think I’ll turn the volume up and go back to sorting–its great to be able to use my eyes, ears, hands, and brain all at the same time.
May 16, 2007
I’ve decided to take the plunge and move this blog onto my own server, where I have more control over the storage and also the options…it means going from the free WordPress.com site to WordPress.org instead—both are free to use, but the first is easier and more limited in some ways. The second requires hosting abilities—do let me get you a napkin! Actually, napkins dont really figure into it….
So until I figure out all the switching details, I’m working on the site and adding to it while I learn both here and there. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are a different code than HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and I’m not a native born speaker of either…when I was learning to talk the new rage was the Electric Typewriter, and computers were just something my GreatUncle worked on at the Census Department, where mysterious machines filled rooms and did less calculation than my three dollar solar powered calculator does now.
While I figure this all out, do take a look at both the versions–here and there–and let me know what you think of the differences. polyclay.com/blog
May 14, 2007
Time to turn to another set of projects–we have made a timing adjustment to the dye schedule, and are waiting another week. When the white cotton crochet hats with wired brims arrived last week from Dharma Trading Co. and were tried on and instantly admired by both of us, my friend and I realised we had a math problem. That’s when 2 Hats+46 Dye Colors = Another Order (placed that very day). So our dyeing days have been postponed but we’ll be better prepared in another week, as the pale piles accumulate.
A creative mind is able to adapt to a change in scheduling. Just turn to a different project; there are ALWAYS at least ten different Things To Do visible in the corner of my mind’s eye, and thats because they block the view of all the rest of the list. A little bit done here, a few hours of concentrated effort there, and a wide variety of things do– eventually–get done.
I’m going to do a bit of polymer clay work today, and put away the messes I’ve made from taking things out for classes at my local bead store, and have some fun! That includes the glitter and metal leaf, the clay and the Jones Tones foils. One of the uses of little bits and scraps of clay is to take small amounts of colored clay and add metal leaf. This is a VERY thin sheet of metal, and can be found in silver, gold, copper, and anodized color bursts, swirls and patterns. It sticks to raw clay without any adhesive.
Place it all on a solid color background, roll it out, and you have a multi-colored sparkly confetti-style design. Portions of this were placed on chunks of polymer clay and pressed into a mold of my own making.
Today I’m going to take some actual clay time where I can listen to music and make faces. These will go in the spirit doll kits. The faces shown here are from the 2006 Miniature Mask Swap. Its just one of 90 designs that were traded between polymer clay artists. AFTER the dyeing happens, I’ll be taking pictures of them all. That’s too big a project for the next few days, but it is the next on the list. But for today, I’m going to putter around the studio a bit!
May 14, 2007
Time to turn to another set of projects–we have made a timing adjustment to the dye schedule, and are waiting another week. When the white cotton crochet hats with wired brims arrived last week from Dharma Trading Co. and were tried on and instantly admired by both of us, my friend and I realised we had a math problem. That’s when 2 Hats+46 Dye Colors = Another Order (placed that very day). So our dyeing days have been postponed but we’ll be better prepared in another week, as the pale piles accumulate.
A creative mind is able to adapt to a change in scheduling. Just turn to a different project; there are ALWAYS at least ten different Things To Do visible in the corner of my mind’s eye, and thats because they block the view of all the rest of the list. A little bit done here, a few hours of concentrated effort there, and a wide variety of things do– eventually–get done.
I’m going to do a bit of polymer clay work today, and put away the messes I’ve made from taking things out for classes at my local bead store, and have some fun! That includes the glitter and metal leaf, the clay and the Jones Tones foils. One of the uses of little bits and scraps of clay is to take small amounts of colored clay and add metal leaf. This is a VERY thin sheet of metal, and can be found in silver, gold, copper, and anodized color bursts, swirls and patterns. It sticks to raw clay without any adhesive.
Place it all on a solid color background, roll it out, and you have a multi-colored sparkly confetti-style design. Portions of this were placed on chunks of polymer clay and pressed into a mold of my own making.
Today I’m going to take some actual clay time where I can listen to music and make faces. These will go in the spirit doll kits. The faces shown here are from the 2006 Miniature Mask Swap. Its just one of 90 designs that were traded between polymer clay artists. AFTER the dyeing happens, I’ll be taking pictures of them all. That’s too big a project for the next few days, but it is the next on the list. But for today, I’m going to putter around the studio a bit!
May 13, 2007
Today is Mother’s Day, and I am happy to have a Mother and to BE a Mother. I’m thinking of my human Mom and of the Earth that is our mother too… and while my human Mom is a buzz in her own right, the buzz I’m most thrilled about today is the bees.
We’ve been growing our own salad greens, herbs, and hot peppers, squash and tomatos for many years now and its always a reminder of the source of all creativity when Spring comes and the plants begin to show their colors again. Nothing like salads and salsa and spice to make meals more enjoyable!
This year is already good–we have three kinds of spinach and six kinds of lettuce that are already giving us more baby salad greens than we can eat, so we share, both with the bunnies and the neighbors.
But we’ve been noticing fewer and fewer bees this year. So, I was absolutely delighted to see that for this year’s Mothers’ Day celebrataion I have flowers; they are blooming on my raspberry bushes–and BEES in them too! At least six–and while far fewer than in other years, its good to see any of them at all here.
Lets hear it for Mother Nature! Creativity starts there.
