I finally found a tile placemat in my area, and made these pendants. I love them to death. I'll have to add them to etsy, and see how well they go. See how pretty the pics are using the box? What a difference!



Here's the promised results from my try at the hidden magic tutorial. I tried it differently, by using just two colors, and wrapping up the skinner blend differently. I like this technique, but would need to practice some more!

Hidden magic tutorial

I love this technique.. I got this from one of the blogs to your left: http://trukabul.canalblog.com
I'm hoping to have some time this weekend after my pre-cal test to make an example of this.

Make a skinner blend:


wrap the skinner blends in black:



elongate the canes:



Make a rectangle type cane using the smaller canes:


This is how you flatten:



Flatten out your slab, then go through the pasta machine on the widest setting.


Use stamps, or any tool that you have to create indentions.





Slice off pieces.


Slice off pieces of the slab

Keep adding slices until filled as you like, roll the sheet with a acrylic rod to flatten.

Photo Box, cheaply

This is taken from http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

I need a photo box, and this instruction tells it how to make it cheaply. Forget the plastic piping. We all have cardboard hanging around. I'll just need to get some black poster board.

"
I used a 12" x12" x12" box, but let your subject needs define your size. I would not go smaller than 12x12x12, tho.

Basically we are gonna cut windows in three sides of the box and totally take out one side. (That last part is optional - see below.) You'll want to tape the original bottom of the box securely into place before making your cuts. Leave two of the top flaps on for light control as shown, and remove the other two. The three-shot sequence just below shows it better than I could explain.
I used a razor to slice the boxes. Try not to amputate anything, okay? Besides, the arterial bleeding will saturate and weaken the cardboard.

The last photo of the three-shot sequence shows the box with the tracing paper taped over the windows. You can choose to leave the "side" of the original box that will form the bottom of your studio attached to make it stronger, but it will preclude your ability to place the box down over an object (like a plant) outside and retain the surrounding ground environment. Your choice. I'll sleep well either way.

The thing could not be easier to use. You'll need at least one light source. A flash works great, as long as you can manually control the output and get it off of the camera.

But you could also use a bright lamp or work light. Just be sure to balance your camera for tungsten and put the camera on a tripod to keep it still during the exposure.

You could even use the sun, making it come from whatever direction you need by rotating the box.

The beauty of this thing is the lighting control you get. You have the ability to almost completely wrap your subject in high quality light. But if you use only one light, the tissue paper acts as a fill reflector all around your subject.

If you want to kill the reflection on the darker side, stick a square of black posterboard on that side (on the inside.) Ditto on the top."

"My favorite thing about this box is the "infinity sweep" effect you can get for a seamless bottom-to-background look. It's just a strip of posterboard.

White and black (especially white) both work fine, but you could also use any color you wanted. You'll just have to pony up another 49 cents.

You want more lighting control? You got it. The two remaining flaps act as gobo's to block your camera from seeing the side light sources. Bingo - no flare, and very saturated colors. Simply adjust the flaps for best blocking effect.

You want the light to come from closer to a 45-degree angle? Rotate the box around a little and shoot from closer to a corner.

You want more definition on each side? Use a light source on each side. This setup puts the old "Big Tupperware Light Tent" to shame."

"The flower you see at top of the post (a "Black-Eyed Susan") was shot with just one small flash (on 1/16th power) positioned on the camera right side of the box, with no fill other than the tissue paper. (I actually used tracing paper.)"


Thank you Strobist.. you've saved me time and loss of patience!

Work, work, work

After a whole day of nothing but calculus, I'm fixing my blog a little bit. I've included tons of other people's blog links. I love to read blogs. So, if you have a few moments, catch up on some reading! I'll be producing more stuff tomorrow morning before having to study for chemistry and doing a speech on myself. argh.

Filigree Magnets

Here's my creative side for the day, in between studying for chemistry quiz on Tues, my pre-cal homework, and writing a descriptive speech for oral communications. I don't like doing speeches. Never have, and never will. I'd rather be sitting in the corner, minding my own business, doing clay. Let others fight for the limelight.

I've got tons of stuff I probably should de-stash on etsy. I've been such a crow when it comes to pretty things. I'll have to think about it.

Here's my work for the day:


One of these days I'm going to invest the time and money and build a light box from those white pcv pipes.

First Sale!

I've been so iffy about selling anything I've made. I've been so critical of my clay work for many years. I've been playing around with polymer clay for around 4 years now, and just had the courage to put my stuff out to the world to view/critique and hopefully buy.

So, came the day when I finally opened up a shop in Etsy. Did this a few days ago.

But, with in a day or two of opening my etsy store, I got a sale! Here's my first sale:



I have to admit, it was one of my favorites. I was on etsy one day, and saw these brass filigree pendants that were wrapped around glass stones. I wondered if I could do that, but, when receiving the pendants, I wondered what they would look like on polymer clay. I created it, used some mica powders, and bam! There she be.

I know I'm probably beating myself for the price that I let it go, but, I would love to have a little extra cash to buy more clay! A girl can never have enough.