Taurus

Believe it or not this is a Taurus. It is built for a friend of mine who will give it as a gift. Here are the specifications he gave me (Boris).
- it has to smile - check
- not very big horns - check
- dancing position - check
- sunglasses between the horns - check
- a bottle of vodka that has to be removable in case the person he intends the Taurus for gets offended - check
- a silver necklace - check, even though this is not exactly silver, but it looks like it, some old piece of broken jewelry
- silver trainers with pink stripes - check
- I love WV Polo inscription - check
So much for building custom ordered figurines. Hope you like it.

The 'old bone' look.

I(Boris) had to explain again to a fellow clay enthusiast how I give the figurines I make an old bone look. So here is what I would normally do description. The first two pictures are of the same not varnished and then varnished figurine. Keep in mind that the same effect can be used not on one color sculptures only. It can be used on colorful sculptures too. You just have to keep in mind that the varnish will make the colors darker and in some cases slightly change them.

There are two different ways to achieve an old bone look for figurines made of white clay only. One way involves working with brushes gouache and water - this way is suitable for kids. Better results are achieved working with turpentine, asphalt varnish, brushes and old rags - this way is not suitable for children. So here is some info about materials. I feel it is important to read before continuing.

Gouache Extra Fine Quality flacon 16 ml

Turpentine (also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, wood turpentine, gum turpentine) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene. It has a potent odor similar to that of nail polish remover. It is sometimes known colloquially as turps, but this more often refers to turpentine substitute (or mineral turpentine).

The word turpentine is formed (via French and Latin) from the Greek word terebinthine, the name of a species of tree, the terebinth tree, from whose sap the spirit was originally distilled

Asphalt varnish. Asphalt varnish is composed of asphalt pitch that is heat-treated with Gilsonite and thinned with mineral spirits or naphtha. Varying degrees of flexibility and toughness are obtained by varying the ratio of pitch to Gilsonite.

Giving an 'old bone' look - for kids

These are the tools needed to give the creature the 'old bone' look. Two bottles of gouache, one ochre and one black. A small plate to mix the gouache. If you don't have gouache but have tempera paint at home it will also work fine. It is good to have several brushes of different sizes. Those don't have to be expensive - ordinary brushes that kids use at school are perfectly fine as long as the hair of the brush doesn't fall.

The process is as follows - imagine (at this point imagine) you have the pawn or the pawns baked. Take some ochre and some black and mix a dark ochre color. I missed to ad that you will need some water to work with the qouache, but I suppose you already worked that out. After you have the color ready paint a thick coat of gouache over the entire figurine. Be careful to paint all over the pawn, don't miss even the smallest and hardest to reach places. Let the paint dry for several hours. Then with a brush dipped in water start to wash off the paint. Most of the paint will wash off but some of it will change the color and some of it will remain at places. This will make the outlines of armor and other body parts better visible. After you have finished let the pawn dry. At this point it must be varnished one more time with a water based transparent varnish.

Giving an 'old bone' look - for adults
These are the tools needed to give the critter the 'old bone' look. A small bottle of turpentine - this one looks green because the manufacturer's label on the other side is green. Some asphalt varnish - here it comes in quite big bottles so one bottle can be shared between artists, that's what I did so my asphalt varnish resides in an old coffee box. You will need a wooden stick (sculpting tool in my case) or a spoonlike tool - you must have one since the asphalt varnish is quite thick and when small quantities have to be moved from one container to another such a tool is needed. A small dish to mix the turpentine. Several brushes. At this point is is good to remind that after finishing work with the asphalt varnish one must not forget to carefully wash the brushes.

The general idea is to paint the piece with the varnish, let it dry for about 20 minutes and then with a brush dipped in turpentine wash off the asphalt to the necessary point. I realize this is not explained in detail, but it is best to show the process and not describe it. I will be showing that process as soon as possible - as soon as I find someone to assist me and film it since it is a messy process and it is not possible to film and work at the same time. Another reminder when speaking of asphalt varnish and working with it is to remind those of you that have sensitive skin to work with gloves. And a reminder for everyone is to work with open windows or if possible outside your home - asphalt varnish and turpentine don't smell good.

Just a cool picture

Someone took a camera and looked into the wizard's glasses made of magical glass. What did he see - nothing definite alas. Some ghosts that passed, memories of the past, spaces tiny and vast. Charcoal, coal, fire and blast, images that changed too fast. The big teeth of a creature of a strange breed, stories of valiant deeds. Legends, fairy tales, a white nightingale, a long sharp and deadly tail.

There was nothing specific that prevailed, so it is impossible for the description of the vision to be detailed. Now that I think of this story it seems to be tragic. I wish I knew how the wizards do their magic.

Gargoyles

I (Dinko) did some heavy scholarly research on the fascinating, and highly academic too, topic of gargoyles - the grotesque stone-carved creatures you see on the outside of Gothic cathedrals and some other buildings. Why they put demons and monsters to drain rain-water form the rooftops of churches, when they could have just as easily put angels with hoses, and other sprinkling devices (a certain fountain in Brussels comes to mind), is not exactly clear to me to this very day. There are theories of course, but we won't dwell on them here, for lack of conclusive evidence.

The research technique I employed borrowed heavily from train-spotting and bird-watching, fascinating hobbies in their own right. So I went places, I saw gargoyles, and I took pictures, looked at them for some time, shook my head violently, and made these deranged-looking creatures. I guess it's all the dripping water that made them crazy.

"But what does that have to do with mythical creatures and their sculpting?" some of you may ask. Just about everything, I would say: gargoyles, and chimeras (the ones that are just statues with no water draining function) are often depictions of mythical beasts, and beast cocktails -1/2 part lion, 2/5 snake, 1/8 man, stirred not shaken etc. In a nutshell: If you are looking for some interesting ideas about mythical creatures, Google "gargoyles" and you will find some century-old and tested material.

What about tools/basic set of tools - Chess project

The tools described are a basic set, not the minimum, because the minimum would be your hands and a safety pin. The basic set will enable you to work on complex projects.

On the first picture are photographed a set of dentist's tools. In many craft supplies shops tools similar, if not exactly the same. They are sold as sculpting tools. In general it doesn't matter where you will get them. I prefer to buy from shops for dentists' tools because they are in general much more durable and strong. When buying tools for sculpting there is no particular rule what tools you should get - get whatever you think will suit you and your goals.


The next three tools are quite familiar to everybody. A knife - nothing is special about knives but having one is a necessity. The other tool is a handheld drill which will be used on many occasions but only on cured clay. Why the automatic pencil - the automatic pencil must be an old, not working one, we will use only its tip to work on clay.

The clay shapers - those are pen like tools with resin tips that are really useful to shape and smooth polymer clay objects. Those are made to be used with polymer clay - found in almost every craft supplies shop and paying for them is absolutely worth it.

And finally your most important tool - your hands. Please note that if working with hard clay pieces, wire or some of the other tools proves to be to difficult or requires too much effort you should ask for help your parents, teachers or friends. You may also post in the blog about such a difficulty and I'll try to come up with an alternative way of completing the same task.

The Never Selling chess set

These two dudes are actually the pawns of the 'Never selling chess set'. Several reasons why those two glorious warriors appear here.

The first one is that Iris Mishly posted a link to them on her polymeri online blog. I am grateful, because her post got me thinking - which by the way does not happen very often and is an event that is slower than the movement of tectonic plates. Anyway I thought that I may copy the posts of my chess set making blog here, thus aiming to put all the descriptions of my polymer clay adventures in one place.

The second reason for the chess warriors to appear here are all my ramblings about variations. Actually making a chess set is a great exercise of variation. 16 identical pawns, 4 identical rooks, 4 identical knights, 4 identical bishops, a pair of queens and a pair of kings - this is the chess board gang. Well..., pieces are different in color, but how do you make each piece different and still preserve their uniformity? Variation deals with this issue. Look for them in the next posts with a 'chess' tag.

And last but not least - this is 'The never selling' chess set. It is impossible to sell. It has become a favorite hobby for me to make futile efforts to promote this set. No matter how popular it becomes it doesn't sell. I am ready to bet that the set won't sell no matter how popular it becomes.

How to make an Easter bunny - summary

This is a summary of How to make an Easter bunny video tutorial. The entire project takes 21 min. to complete. (excluding the 30 min. baking time). It is separated in three videos: part 1, part 2, part 3. It is one of my favorite creatures to make. If you decide to make one, please feel free not to adhere to the color scheme. Any colors work fine. f you have any questions please feel free to mail me or post a comment. I have been making some of those since February this year for my friends. Pictures can be found here and here.

There is one other thing that I found out yesterday. I was working at my day job - a telecommunications company. We have various brands of test mobile phones for all kinds of reasons... Anyway, the point is that I tried to play one of the 3G I phones and it worked great.

So if you are looking for an excuse to buy a new I phone here is one for you. 'I need it for polymer clay educational purposes!' Can't say no that. Can you? Oh by the way - all the other how to polymer clay videos from youtube worked just great too.

The 3 little piggies experiment

A few weeks ago I had some time to spend and I entered one of Etsy community chats. People discussed each others work and while talking to fellow craftsmen someone asked me if I could do a funny pig sculpture. I thought the idea was intriguing so I made a little pig experiment. A sculpture of a pig holding an apple - about three inches tall. (largely using the same technique I use for my Easter/not easter/funky bunnies. Turns out it works pretty good for a pig too. Then I made a small piglet - a really simple one to make, about one inch tall. And finally a magnet that looks like a pig. I am not particularly interested is pigs, so I put them on sale.
Anyway the one thing that was really interesting for me, or should I say became interesting is the magnet/polymer clay weight ratio when making a magnet. The piglet magnet holds easily one a4 piece of paper on my fridge. But it wouldn't hold more paper. The magnet I used was bought from a craft store. It had no description, so the only way to determine how much clay to use in order to have a functional magnet and not one that is useless was experimentation. I wonder if there is another more 'scientific' way to tackle this issue. Please if you know of one tell me.
Boris