posted January 03, 2010 12:14 PM         

The only problem that I ever had with polymer clay was this....and you can ask Yin too, when she gets back, cause we were both just talking about getting back into clay....but, like for making objects like what you have there, it is wonderful. Then I wanted to expand from there, so I started making little replicas of peoples dogs. Which looked great. The problem was in the tails. When the clay is formed into a really skinny shape, like a tail, then baked, it becomes, I dunno, brittle? I guess that is the word, anyway, the tails would always break off. I tried baking longer, shorter, etc...and still could never get the tails to not break.

Also, I ended up buying a pasta machine to run it through, because those things are great for blending the colors together, and easy on one's hands.

They have pre-made molds, you probably saw them at Michaels. But they do have another product specifically for making molds as well.

I'm excited for you. That stuff captivated me for a couple years.

posted January 03, 2010 01:02 PM         

You can boil it for a shorter period of time, and still have it cure hard.

posted January 03, 2010 05:54 PM         

I did find alot of uses for it though, I made some beads, and I got these cool molds that made tribal faces, old faces, all diff kinds, and I would combine colors, make the faces in the molds, and then use them for all kinds of things. I did a whole mirror using the faces. It was a huge, ugly oval mirror, the frame was gold plastic. I found it in the trash in front of somebodies house. Anyway, I covered that frame in spanish moss and bits of (hmmm, like bark, and chunks of potpourri) and then added the tribal clay faces all around. I sold that at an art show for $65.00. I had it marked $80.00, and I probably would of got that had it not been nearly 100 degrees outside, and the show was fairly dead.

But anyway, I'm gonna hold on to my supplies and clay for awhile. I had it packed up to give to a friend, but if your interested in it, and Yin is thinking about playing with it again, then maybe I will hold on to mine, and between the three of us we may be able to work out the kinks.

posted January 06, 2010 03:36 PM         

Anyway, Ag, that brand is less pliable. Which is the reason I bought the pasta machine in the first place. It can be downright difficult to smoosh.

posted January 07, 2010 01:17 PM         

No, I didn't trudge out into the frozen tundra, but I found a book. FIMO, is my brand, and here is something you might like to read.

"......Most brands of polymer clay are sold in two-ounce (56 g) packages as well as larger, one-pound bricks. Polyform Products creates several polymer clays including Sculpey III, which is a populuar brand. Characteristically very soft and workable, it works well for children and beginners. After baking, it tends to be fragile, so I don't recommend it for projects that use thin sheets of clay.
However, it works fine for solid shapes, and has a nice, slightly matte finish after it is baked.

Premo! Sculpey by Polyform Products was developed by Marie and Howard Segal of the Clay Factory of Escondido in response to a need for a polymer clay that combined the workability of Sculpey with the strength and durability of Fimo. Premo is very easy to condition and work with, while being firm enough for creating distinct design elements. it is very strong and considerably flexible after baking.

Fimo, perhaps the best known brand among polymer clay users, is a product of Eberhard-Faber in Germany. Its firmness makes it an excellent clay for canework because it ensures that intricate designs will remain distinct with little distortion. Fimo can be difficult to condition, which is often frustrating for beginners. Because of this a polymer clay called Fimo Soft has been developed...."

RE: difficulty ~ I used to sit on mine, of course while still in the wrap!! For like 20 minutes to get it softer, or, if your impatient, I also placed it on a washcloth on top of a heating pad for a few minutes.

This excerpt is from- Polymer Clay by Irene Semanchuk Dean.

posted January 07, 2010 07:38 PM         

I know nothing about resin, can't offer any advice there.

But I did want to add with the polymer clay, if you make an object and then want to glue to something, as I did the mirror frame, you have to buy a special glue. Hot glue does NOT work. Because the clay is plastic, it is very hard to stick to stuff. The glue I got was in a tube, smelled like burning hell, and was costly. I cannot remember the name of that, but I do still have some, somewhere, so when and if you get to that point, I will look for it for you. I remember the tube was white, with black writing and it had a number with the name, (something 1,000).

posted January 08, 2010 10:36 AM         

So, ok, some sort of wall art is your final destination then? I wasn't sure at the beginning exactly what you were going for. In true Cap fashion, you DO make me work for the details!

posted January 08, 2010 03:04 PM         

You're funny. I don't know of any Capricorn painters off the top of my head either. Capricorn whatshisname Anthony Hopkins played Scorp Picasso (?) in a movie I watched recently.

Wall art isn't necessarily my final destination, though it may be one of my destinations. No, my first inclination is to items that sit on stuff. I thought about creating scupltures of essentially potted plants (but I'm realizing that it might not turn out as cool as I envision). I'm still considering busts and heads. I did actually conceive some wall art last night. I know modern design wall art would be a cinch. Clocks, too.

posted January 08, 2010 04:56 PM         

*In the above scenario, I would SO be Hobbs and you would SO be Calvin.

Picasso was a Scorp??? Will my obsession ever end?? OK, now I must know about Dali. Now where is it that you guys get your celebrity data from? I have to bug Yin all day with my endless rock star musings because I am a terrible "googler."
I type in something like "birthdata for rock star.....whomever" and up pops things like:

*Birthday cakes cheap!
*Birthday decorations you can make at home
*Rock gardens and supplies
*Stars and Stripes - sheet music/Americana

etc... (?) I wonder what I am doing wrong.

posted January 08, 2010 05:30 PM         

For the birthday of a celebrity, most of the time you only Google their name. That'll generally turn up a wikipedia entry with their birthdate. If that doesn't work I usually turn to the name plus "born," because that'll show any pages with the celeb's name, and the word 'born' on the page. Keep it simple.

posted January 09, 2010 04:40 AM         

Here's the thing I hate about these new artistic pursuits. I can't perfectly conceptualize things, and I don't have experience with a lot of the products. I want to skip all the mistakes and the money they'll cost, so I try to be thorough in thinking things through. It's a bit debilitating.

Tonight I came up with perhaps a more interesting, cost-effective approach for my model making. In the clay aisle there was the air drying clay, and there was also paper mache that is sculptable (I may have just made that word up). The paper mache stuff claims that it'll adhere to lots of surfaces. It's also obviously lightweight. That got me to thinking about maybe combining the paper mache with the styrofoam shapes they have there (including the ones they have in the floral department) to make shapes that could potentially be used to make a mold. It could be more cost-effective way of doing larger sculptures. If not, at least it would make for a more physically manageable ones.

posted January 09, 2010 01:13 PM         

Yes, I should of told you that the Fimo comes in small packages, but the color is really dense. Alot of people order the large brick online, in white, and then blend in the smaller brick to get color. Or you can paint it.

I know what you mean though, about buying art supplies. I always jump in head first and end up with alot of stuff I really don't need.
I probably could of done without the pasta machine, I mean, it was only $20, but, I didn't get that much use out of it. Once you use it for clay (same with a cookie sheet, or any utensils) you are never supposed to let food touch it. So, now I have a pasta machine in a box in my shed.

Same thing with alot of scrap booking stuff. I have crimpers, and punches, and stuff like that, when in reality, I barely ever use more than one simple punch. Those supplies are still in pretty hot demand though, so I can probably sell them at the flea market come spring.