Clay Playin'

Clay Dude

Show & Tell @ Work Day

Evidently it is. Happy Friday.

Idea...

I collect tins, especially candy/mint tins and lunch box tins, and I don't just collect them, I use them. Most of my tins have supplies or a project inside. This tiny tin was full of tiny mints in a con package a while back. I anticipated some great project would come out of this.

 

I covered the top (and bottom, but that didn't stick) with polymer clay to cover the advertising and to make it my own. This poly clay is the cane I made back in November, smooshed together and run through the pasta machine.
So what would I put in something so small??
Now I realize that I should have put something in the pictures for reference. Again, silly me.
It's about two inches long, and about one inch wide, and just under 1/2 inch tall, by my guessing without it close to me at this moment.
So with those measurements, what project or supply could I possibly put into this tiny tin??

Finally Fotos (or Phinally Photos?)

Yes, I have been becoming more creative this fall.
Habits changing.
On my breaks at work, I've been working with felt more. Pins, barrettes, puppets, sculptures, and sleep masks. Lots of sleep masks. I have some fun designs already in progress, and even more still in my head, and I am working toward stockpiling a bunch for my (future) etsy store.
The two shown were both finished a couple weeks ago for gifts.
In my not-on-my-breaks-at-work art/craft time, I have started the habit of Studio Time on Friday evenings. Last night was the fifth week in a row I sat down for at least 1 & 1/2 hours to work on poly clay. Organizing my art supply closet a while back was the best thing to get my Studio Time going. I have a dedicated shelf area for all my poly clay paraphernalia and the three totes and one milk crate fit perfectly into the area. So on Friday evening, I can pull everything out, and subsequently clean it all back up, very very easily. Making it easy is important for me since I don't have a 'craft room' right now.
I had already bought the blues for a specific idea, so that was what I've been working on. I just mixed a few different shades of blues and whites, and decided to just go with a polka dot pattern. I love caning with poly clay, but since it's been a while since I've been seriously working with it, I decided to kinda start slow, re-learn some of the basics. The evening that all I did was condition the clay and mix maybe one color was so therapeutic!
Shown are several slices of the long cane I ended up with, before they got more manipulated into something else. I have three finished things so far, and lots more of the cane to use.
And my epiphany of late: I love working with felt for the same reason I love working with poly clay: COLOR!

Heart Dish with Etsy Purchases

Heart Dish with Etsy Purchases
Originally uploaded by seeshells

Since I was taking the photos of my heart dish from my childhood at the same time as I was taking photos of my recent Etsy purchases, I decided to put them together, and what perfection! I think that's the perfect thing for my little heart dish to hold, and it sits by my computer to inspire me!

And The Back

M.R.F. 2-1-75
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Here's the back of the cute heart dish. It has my initials (my formal initials that is) and the date: 2-1-75, which would make me about a month and a half after my 11th birthday, in the 4th grade. That date also means I created it on a Saturday (I had to look it up, because I didn't remember doing anything like this in art in elementary school), so it wasn't a school project. Maybe a 4-H special seminar or a Saturday church group?
The piece is about 2 1/2 inches across and about 3 inches from point to highest peak.

Heart Dish

IMG_6105
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

I didn't think of myself as an 'artist' throughout most of my elementary school days. There were two or there boys in my class who would meticulously draw the most detailed cars, maybe one drew ships, but I was in awe of this talent. They drew realism, and were the same ones I had drafting classes with later in high school. They were the future draftsmen and designers whose artistic talent lay in the perfection of realism.
I have never been good at or interested in doing realism myself, and realized later that I was an artist, I am an artist, despite making things that are not photo representations.
I made this little dish when I was still in that period of my life of not thinking that I was an artist. I had just turned 10, and was much more interested in the literature we read that year, which included The Hobbit, and A Wrinkle In Time (if you've never read this book-go read it now!).
I don't remember the actual making of this dish, I remember that we wouldn't know what the glaze actually looked like until it came out of the kiln, which was very intriguing to me, the not knowing. I think, since I didn't consider myself an artist, I didn't care so much about making it perfect or symmetrical, but the asymmetrical-ness was what I realized I really loved about it.
I really think that creating this particular piece helped me start to see the artist inside me, the artist who isn't about realism, but more about the beauty in asymmetry, the artist who doesn't need to know everything is perfect, but can experiment and play and be happy with the results!