New Work Decisions...

after being accepted into a wonderful gallery show for christmas season, i decided it was time to concentrate on making only the items that really fired up my imagination and gave me great pleasure to create.



here i am at my workbench creating the sleeves for the kimono for my geisha. the picture you see is of the one before she all fell apart in the oven... sigh... but of disaster good things come, i am much happier with the new kimono. altho it is the same design, the technical work is much better.



later i am going to sort out all my flickr photos and put up new ones of the work i want to continue to do... hopefully by friday or saturday i can get that done.

My Elegant Annie.....

well, here she is with her scope... i haven't had much time to take photos of the images, but i will do that tomorrow.

under her skirt there is a wee pedestal for the scope to sit on. the scope is about 5 inches tall and has an oil filled chamber.

she is now residing at sandy's gallery, where she will be part of the Christmas Show, 2007, along with the work of 25 other wonderful artists.

A test . . .

my friend amy and i have been talking about polymer clay and dishwashers, as she has made some beautiful decoration on the stems of wine glasses. while i don't understand why someone would even think about putting such fine work in a dishwasher, apparently many would be buyers asked if they were dishwasher safe.....

so i did some experiments, as i had heard that buttons made of polymer clay could be put in the washing machine, i wondered what would happen if we put polymer clay in the dishwasher... so i covered the base a bit, the stem and a bit of the bowl of a small wine glass and then put it in the dishwasher...
here are some photos and the results...

just to save my dishwasher in case it all fell apart, i put the glass in a mesh bag. wasn't necessary at all, the glass as you see it has been through the dishwasher cycle. now, i did try to pick off the bits that are sort of what i would call 'free standing', the small piece on the left you can see stands up unattachedto other clay for a long narrow way... i could pick it free of the glass, but it didn't come off, i think the water got behind some of the upper pieces, but when it dried it was just as if i had never touched it. i used no glue. if i pick hard enough, of course i can start to break off the clay parts that are on the bowl of the glass.


here you have the glass turned around and you can see the tallest 'free standing' piece on the other side of the glass. the part you see on the left on this side of the glass is still firmly attached, again no glue.

so, i would say that items covered with polymer clay are dishwasher safe, but i would highly recommend hand washing! eventually, i suppose, after some number of times thru the dishwasher, some of the pieces, especially those like the one seen thru the glass, would eventually come off.....
however, the clay on the stem and base are still very securely attached.

if you want to be sure of the polymer clay remaining on the glass, i would make sure that most of the clay was attached to other clay.....

One is done!!!

my elegant annie, my new kalidalady, is ready to be shown to the public!

as i finished her face, i realized that she looks very like a young friend of mine from some years back. it suits her well...

under her skirt there sits a 5 inch kaleidoscope with an oil chamber... when i finish it i will post some photos...

It has been quite awhile!!!

but i have been busy working on my kalidaladies for the show at sandy's gallery, here in kingston, ontario. here is a card showing some of the artists that will be with me from november 21 through december 30. my friend carolyn will be there too, although the photo of her work is not here... i am really looking forward this show. thanks sandy for making it possible!