some new stuff.....

Hi everyone,

    I am still in the hiding mode but I am playing with a few things.....some polymer ideas I have been thinking about and wanting to see if I could make them work.  I saw some beautiful gold brocade fabric that I thought would be beautiful as a polymer plate. Well, I am still experimenting to get that look.....what I thought would work ....didn't!  and I was kind of surprised at that! So, I thought about it some more and changed directions a bit, but I still didn't get the look I want....and number three and four didn't work any better.....but I think I may have a winner with idea number five (although, I thought I had a winner with idea number one!), so we will see..... 

     I also wanted to make something fun out of PMC just for myself to wear. I don't normally make anything for myself but I got these great stones at Bead and Button and the PMC Conference so I decided to use some.....and I got a beautiful tiny spoon on the way to the conference when I was driving with Debbie and Carol.  I wanted to make a little steampunk kind of piece...I love the look....Victoria's swirls and frou-frou with scientific lines....kind of like experimental artwork for the body....at first, I was just going to make a sweet little charm type box bead with the bullet stone rising up from the center but when that didn't quite have the feeling I wanted, I started doodling and came up with a frame for around the frou-frou part. I was going to cut out the back of the frame to make a skeletal type frame with the curvy part suspended in the center but I was afraid it would buckle in the kiln so I left the back in tack. I was thinking about cutting out the back(after firing) in a fancy type design and filling it in with resin so it would appear light and glass like. I decided against all of those in favor of the beautiful butterfly wing I found in the studio. I sealed the wings in resin and set the stones...a total of 9 layers of resin and drying times.....I am still trying to decide if I should lightly sand the resin behind the curvy part.....I wonder if it is too shiny....I think I may be trying out this bead in different ways to work out some of these questions....working in a series again, always useful.

   I hope everyone is having fun in their studios whether they are hiding or not....Kelly    

   P.S.  the first photo is the front of my steampunked piece and the second is the back with the opal. The third photo is one of the polymer experiments I tried and didn't work.  It is kind of cool, just not what I was working towards....time for more playing with polymer.....hope you like them...K