Maggie Maggio's Color Scales

I have been doing Maggie Maggio's "Color Scales" exercises with Kato clay and have really learned a lot about mixing the different colors of clay. I prefer Kato clay because of its properties and wanted to have a good record of all of the colors I could get with the clay. So far I have done the basic Blue to Yellow to Red and then back to Blue, and then I did Red to Magenta to Blue. This weekend I will finish up with Blue to Turquoise to Green to Blue and Yellow to Orange to Red. I will then have all of the Kato colors mapped. The centers of each are the color plus 1/2 white which gives me the yet another whole set of colors to choose from. At that point I will know how much of each color to mix with white or another color to get the color I want to work with. Well, in theory anyway.

Burnt beads boo hoo

There has been a long conversation about the temp for baking Fimo Soft on the Polymer Clay people Yahoo group. I wanted to post the photos of the burnt beads here. These were made with some of the Fimo soft clay that requires the softer temperature of 230 degrees.

Textural Journey #1

As I said I dreamed I was making these texture sheets all night. So, to get them out of my head I had to make some. (Another good use for the remaining Fimo soft that I bought by mistake.) The first one was done using a clay tool, just picking at the surface of the clay. It makes a really cool surface on the clay. The other three just came out of the oven so I haven't tried them yet. The two red ones were done using different wicker baskets and trays, the purple one was done by just slashing the surface of the clay. The white you see is powder, I tend to have trouble with clay sticking to the paper during baking. Can't wait to try them later. Tomorrow I will try the silicone molding compound that I got.

Another trip down Shriver lane

Yes, I had to try the Sarah Shriver cane again, this was my fourth attempt at the intricate kaleidoscope cane. This time I used all Fimo Classic clay. I even used the same colors that she used. Interestingly enough, unless I were able to get the skinner blends exactly as she has them in the video I wouldn't come close to the same cane, which I didn't. Actually this is the closest I have ever come to the primary cane. However, when I get to the six sided monster I loose it. I think that my triangles weren't equilateral when I put them together and after it was reduced and cut into three sections to be put together the six sides weren't apparent and the harder I tried to make them the more I made a mess of it. So, I ended up making a circle of it and being done. I still have the short bar that I could try again with but I think for now I am going to go back to the basics and try to learn how to handle the clay a bit more before trying something like this again. It will continue to haunt me until I get it right but for now I will be happy learning the color scales using Maggie Maggio's video and pdf sheet. It looks to be a good lesson in color.

New Bead test

Today I tried baking the base beads first. The only problem I encountered was that I didn't condition the scrap bead first and the baked beads had some cracks in them. I used them anyway. I found that it was hard to stick small cane pieces to the baked beads but they did finally stick. Here are todays beads. I call the gold one "tomatoe beads", they were done with a left over cane of gold and red mixed Sculpy III clay, a very soft cane that I am trying to get rid of.

I don't see any new crack that formed after baking the second time. I am going to have to do some work to get the transparent part of the graphics to disappear on the purple beads. Most likely some serious sanding and maybe a little heat gun time. The trick is, of course, not to sand off the graphic.

Future Arylic floor polish

I love Future acrylic floor polish for my beads. Three coats and then a quick pop in the oven to bake the finish. You decide which you like best. I didn't do any sanding on the bead first.

How were these done?

How were these done? I have been facinated by these bead for days. I tryed to make some trasparent and white little canes to replicate something like this but just can't. Does anyone know how they do thie? Do they cover the bead with layers of liquid clay, bake and then add the transparent and white cane? Help!

I'm sorry I can't give credit to the maker. I forgot to label them. Maybe someone can tell me who made them.

The Junk can trials

I saw this done in a book by Carol Blackburn and thougth I could do it quickly for something to do. You take five or six old canes and lump them togher to make a new cane. I have tried it twice now. The first time didn't do much for me. The second time I used all Sculpy III, the stuff is soft as butter so I knew it was going to travel like crazy. Here are the results. I like the second one the best. I used the lefover end cane to make lamp beads and really like how they turned out.