What I Made Yesterday - Steampunk, Grannie Style

Here is a photo of my experiment in the studio yesterday. It started out from two separate needs.

First, I have gotten quite a few of those Cricut type dies for embossing because I hoped to use them for subtle texture but was not having the results I sought so I wanted to work on that. Second, after seeing all the photos David took, I was really, seriously unhappy with the edges on most of my aluminum armature cuffs. They look okay on the arm, but not good at all in the photos. Since one of my main goals is to promote polymer clay as a fine art, art jewelry material, I have to find a better, more visually pleasing way to do cuffs. And these reasons were why I was in the studio.

The first problem took multiple conditioning and set up but I finally got the embossing tools to work exactly as I had pictured when I purchased them. So now I had a piece of clay, roughly 6" x 8" with a steel & copper metallic colored subtle mica shift type pattern of gears and sprockets.

Now time to try the new covering technique I thought up. And it worked well I am happy to say. It is even easier and less time consuming than the other method. But the cuff was very plain. So I dipped into my supplies and found some of those Tim Holtz sprockets, gears and game spinner pieces he markets for paper and collage (told ya "if it doesn't run away, I'll try it with my clay" is my mantra). Still looked too plain.

My understanding of the steampunk look is to have the mechanics of a new industrial age with the romance of Victorian times. What is more romantic than pearls? Back to the supplies. Numerous pearls were tried and discarded. Originally I thought I wanted them to match on each side and then I remembered about "Pearlies". In Victorian times, these were street type performers who were known for having all sorts of pearl buttons (mother of pearl) sewn all over their clothing in a random fashion. Hence the name Pearlies. So now I was looking for two very different looking pearls. I was very happy to find one in my stash which echoed the coppery color I had mixed and to also find one with all those lines on it. Almost as if it had been given a machined edging. Perfect!

After getting my components together I put a couple of "aged to imperfection" marks on it and into the oven. No sanding on this one. The metallic clay gives it just enough sheen. Voila, subtle steampunk any Grannie can wear. Or a radical steampunk girl/guy can have one not so flashy piece as a complement to the others.

And I have enough of the patterned clay left over to make some tile beads today. I think I like the look enough I will make several more pieces. I'm thinking of mixing up a dark, mildew/mossy/verdigris green with a brassy/dull gold for the under layer and a brighter/softer metallic green for the top layer. Then doing the same thing with blues. No pinks though. I am so tired of pink from all the mokume I did. Just can't face pink right now.

Enough rattling....back to the studio.

Small Jewelry Jar

This jewelry jar started its life as a small jar of Oil of Olay night cream. I liked the shape and wanted to recycle. I used faux malachite from one of the many techniques books out there but it has been so long ago I don't remember which one. The black "lava" was my own attempt and I a not to displeased with it. This jar is so small it really holds only the one pair of oval faux malachite earrings.

My Favorite Piece of My Art....so far

Way back in the mid 1990's I started trying to come up with some way to showcase my jewelry work. It seemed so wrong, somehow, to spend all those hours designing a piece, creating the focal parts, scouring shows/stores/antique shops/internet for the perfect matching components and finally realizing a design on to then put it away in drawer or jewelry box. I really liked the work Ford & Forlano were doing incorporating brooches into wall pieces but didn't believe my skills were sophisticated enough for that. I also got inspired by all the differing shapes/sizes of glass jars. After pondering this for many months, voila, the "jewelry jar" was born.

Several of the prototypes are still only partially finished from running into technical difficulties I haven't solved yet. Some were not suitable for public consumption. Currently I only have two in stock. One is small, and I hope to get a photo of it tomorrow.

These photos (taken by my very supportive husband, David) show my favorite and best work, in my opinion, to date. This work started life in the clearance isle at Hobby Lobby. I really liked the off beat shape and pedestal. I covered it using the faux turquoise, ivory & coral master class offered by Tory Hughes in an issue of Ornament magazine. The large buffalo conchos are over the counter finds. The small ones are the dress type rivets usually found on better quality women's western wear and I found those at the Houston Livestock show & rodeo. The necklace and earrings also contain real coral & turquoise and are part of the outside design of the sculpture. The piece still looks okay without them, just a little plainer. The inside is lined with a deep burgundy velvet and is suitable for putting other jewelry items in as a jewelry box. And the lid has enough eye pins to hold another six pairs of earrings because I truly dislike having earrings jumbled and tangled up in the bottom of a jewelry box.

I hope you enjoy this piece and I look forward to any comments you have the time to share.

Now, back to the studio.

Found my way back

Okay, I am not the worlds most computer literate person but to loose one's blog is a bit much. I literally couldn't find my way back (navigation wise) until today I thought to google myself. Why google my name? I just uploaded photos to flicker and used "dlakotaqh" as one of the tags and wanted to see if it worked. How surprised I was to find myself listed first on Tory Hughes site from a comment last March and then to find my blogspot again. Oh yeah, oh yeah!!

Must be a sign for the beginning of my new year. I wonder if I can find my other blog "dlakotaqh's spiritual spot" as well. Can't hurt to try.

But, let's catch up. I am working to get a website up...Dakotah's Polymer Place to showcase artwork, ideas and to sell items. I'm going through intuit and they say I'll even be able to take credit cards for a reasonable rate. I have been in a juried show with moderate success. I attended and sold, with much less success, at the Houston Covenant House Fall Coffee. I will be sharing a table with Bob Wiley (work shown in Polymer Cafe, 400 Polymer by Lark books) at a bead show in three weeks. I have a flicker photo stream. All on their today is some bracelets, 4 rings and 2 necklaces but David is working hard to help me get all my inventory photographed and on to that site. I communicated w/Cinthia Tinapple about ongoing projects and she was most supportive and helpful. I just have to get my things done before I contact her again. I don't want to be a bother. I will be attending a class by Lindly Haunani hosted by the North Texas Polymer Clay Guild in two weeks. And lastly, the third Saturday of this month I will be teaching a demo at our guild (see http://www.houstonpolyclay.org/ for more info. I'll be turning in the photos and material list to Betsy by the end of this week) on my paper punch technique. But since I just now learned how to upload photos, if not put them where I want them to go, above is a tile bracelet using my technique and my technique for faux raku. Enjoy and I'll figure out how to make a more cohesive post before I come back.

So...oh yeah..got fired from my nursing job because a co-worker stated she was afraid of me r/t my spiritual beliefs. And I haven't been able to find a job since then that I qualify for and don't have to drive 1.5 hours to (one way) each day. This is why I am pushing so hard on the polymer right now. I know when I find another nursing job I won't have near as much time. If I can get all this in place before then I should be able to keep up. At least I hope so.