WOYWW #477: Altered terracotta pot

Has anybody else had enough of summer 2018? I feel like we've had 10 years worth of British summer jammed into the past 8 weeks. But hey, soon we'll be moaning about the darkness and the cold, so we'd better enjoy the heat while we can. Some rain would be nice, though - and preferably not while I'm out and about.

Anyway, I'm not here to moan about the weather, but to share my crafty desk for WOYWW. Here it is:

Yep, it's yet another air-drying clay project. This time an altered terracotta pot. I've tried not to use my usual blue/green colours, so it ended up a deep, earthy red this time with some copper highlights. These were the paints that I used along with two IOD moulds, one of which you can see lying on my desk.

Here's the finished product, shown from different angles.

As an afterthought, I stuck a little cabochon in one of the clay shapes, which was a perfect fit. It's only in there temporarily until I find something more suitable. 

In other news, I found out on Friday that my tea bag collage was in the Top 3 of the That's Crafty June challenge. I emailed Laura and she was kind enough to send me my prize even though I was two weeks late claiming it. I received it yesterday - I chose two 8" mandala stencils from the available selection. Aren't they pretty? 

I've got another freebie to show you. You know how you can get free wallpaper samples from most DIY stores? Well, I've raided my local B&Q and came away with these. Now I'm super motivated to accompany hubby on his trips to the DIY store - no more hanging around feeling bored while he's browsing - I've got more "samples" to collect!

I'm working today and tomorrow again, so I'm unlikely to be able to visit until later in the week, but I'll make sure to get back to everyone who leaves a comment. If I missed anyone from last week, give me a holler! Happy #477! 

WOYWW #476: Altered picture frame with air-drying clay

I was planning to take part in last week's WOYWW, but somehow managed to run out of time. It was totally my fault for leaving it too late. I'm trying to do better this week, so I'm writing this on Tuesday night. Here's a photo of my desk on Saturday while I was altering a cheap picture frame:

The scrap cardboard underneath the frame turned out very exciting! You can clearly see the grit that's in the rust effect paint I applied as the first layer. Here's a closer look to show the texture:

The clay pattern comes from an IOD mould made by Prima Marketing. These moulds are not cheap, but they're very good quality. I have a few more on order.

When the clay was completely dry, I painted it with the rust effect paint followed by some blue and green turquoise acrylics. I know nearly everything I make turns out blue or green, but I just love those colours! I finished with some bronze gilding wax to bring out some highlights. Tada!

And look who's earned the privilege to have his mugshot in a fancy frame - not that he appreciates the gesture!

Thanks for all the visits and comments! I will be visiting later in the week as I'm at work today and tomorrow. How is that for short 'n sweet for a change? Happy #476! 

WOYWW #474: Playing with air-drying clay (again)

WOYWW is upon us once again, so it's time to share our crafty desks. I walked into my art room yesterday morning to be greeted with this scene: Oreo had taken a shine to my scrap box and took up residence in it.

As you can see the evidence on my desk, I've been playing with air-drying clay and made some tiles and embellishments by pressing stamps and metal filigrees into wet clay. These are a bit wonky - air-drying clay will always have a more organic and rustic feel to it than polymer clay and that's part of its appeal to me (plus the fact that it's much cheaper!).

I've also experimented with moulding air-drying clay. Here's a medallion I made using one of my home-made moulds.

I made the mould using silicone putty and a large metal charm years ago. You can find the original post here. It was meant to be used as a stamp, but it works just as well as a mould. I always think some of these charms are too good to use in a single project and never again and this way you can reproduce the design as many times as you want.

Another advantage of air-drying clay is that you can mould it to curved surfaces and just let them dry, which you can't do with polymer clay. Using a bit of gel medium, it will permanently bond to the surface as well. Here's an altered jar I made earlier in the week using air-drying clay in commercially available moulds. (It's an empty marmite jar, in case you're wondering!) 

Here's another picture of Oreo, lazing around trying to stay cool in this heat. There was a nice breeze coming through the window and he made sure that every inch of his tummy was exposed to it.

I forgot to tell you last week that I'm starting a new job on Monday working in a small office 15 hrs per week. This means I can still keep up with my blog, so I'm very happy! I was hoping the weather would turn cooler by then, but it's predicted to heat up even more over the weekend - oh, well, the heatwave won't last forever and we'll think back on it with fondness come January. 

Happy Independence Day to my US visitors! My blogiversary was just two days ago - that's how I always remember! 

And happy #474 to everyone visiting through the Stamping Ground. xx

WOYWW #466: Playing with paper clay

WOYWW is hurtling towards its 9th anniversary! I find it incredible that our lovely hostess, Julia, has managed to keep this crafty blog hop thriving for so many years - and hopefully for lots more to come! Here's my desk shot this week:

I've been playing with paper clay, aka air drying clay. I bought a few silicone moulds from China and I still have a block of clay from last year when I worked on this plaque.  I managed to keep it fresh by double wrapping the open packet in plastic bags with a wet paper towel inside to keep it moist. This seems to have worked really well and my clay is as fresh as it was when I first opened it.

On the left side of my desk, you can see the start of my ATCs for the anniversary swap - or rather you can't see them, as I've blurred them out to keep them secret until the big day. The only thing I can say about them is that they're going to be a different colour entirely - that's just the colour of the card stock I cut them from. It's very much unlike me to be so organised ahead of time, so I'm quite pleased with myself.

This is how my paper clay pieces turned out this morning: (I know the faces are a bit freaky - I've had that mould for a while, so I thought I might as well use it  - the other two are new acquisitions.)

That's all the craftiness for this week, I'm afraid. Ooh, I almost forgot to tell you that my stint at The Range has come to an end. I really enjoyed working in the craft section but when they moved me to another section a couple of weeks ago involving heavy lifting and stressful working conditions, I knew I wasn't going to last but I still gave it a good shot. Does it make sense to you to move the only person who actually knows the arts and craft products to another section? I'm so proud that I was able to give advice to numerous customers about what glues, paints or mediums to use, but apparently that knowledge is not appreciated by the management. Anyway, I could write an essay about this, but I won't bore you with details. It will be nice to have some free time until I get another job - who knows, one day I might even find my place? I'll keep looking.

I've been quite busy with my camera this week, so I can show you some arty photos in lieu of any arty projects. The old apple tree behind our house was in full bloom for a few days - I managed to capture it and play around with the photos digitally:

We've done quite a lot of gardening planting a new hedge boundary. I kept both the plants and hubby - who did the lion's share of the work - well watered (or in his case "tead")!

In case you didn't find the clay faces freaky enough, how about this close-up of a moth?

And, of course, there's no WOYWW post without Oreo! Here he is "al fresco" sitting on the fence - he can spend hours sitting there watching the birds.

Thank you for visiting!

I'm off to work for my last day shortly, but I'll visit everyone when I'm back.

xx

Wanderlust Week 25: Air-drying clay plaque

This Wanderlust lesson was published a few weeks ago, but it took me this long to get my hands on some air-drying clay. The waiting was quite excruciating, especially waiting for the clay to dry - it took three whole days before the plaque was ready to paint. I so loved Kasia's lesson that I closely followed her tutorial with  a similar composition, elements and colours. This project is tied to the art journal page we made back in January, using the same sentiments.

Here's a photo of me getting ready to paint my plaque earlier today. I used my Ecoline watercolours: lemon yellow, turquoise and prussian blue. I had previously made impressions with those metal charms and polymer clay tile, so they would be easier to stick down once the plaque was painted. The word 'GROW' was stamped into the wet clay along with some background textures. It's supposed to be a bit irregular and not a perfect rectangle!

This is what it looked like after I'd painted it. I just loved how the watercolours soaked into the porous surface of the clay. I applied several coats for stronger colours:

I used Diamond Glaze to attach the charms and beads. It worked surprisingly well - those babies are not going anywhere! I filled in the grooves of the letters with Pebeo Moon Fantasy paint (metal blue) to make the letters pop and give them some shimmer. I carefully added a few tiny drops with a toothpick and guided the liquid along the grooves. This is the finished plaque:

And here's my hand holding it to give you a size reference:

This was a really fun lesson - a bit different from some of the stuff I've been making lately. I missed out a step where I was supposed to distress it with some gesso, but I think I like it this way for now. I can always add that later. Happy Friday! Hope you have a good weekend!