So far, not bad

Well i've played around a bit with friendly plastic. A couple of simple broach type ideas, which worked. I bought a butterfly mask as i simply love the shape and have several ideas for masks. I covered the mask in tin foil, to be honest it wasnt as smooth as i wanted, the foil kept tearing, so it was layered in several places. For some reason i had wrestler masks in my head at the time, similar to the ones the mexican high flyers wear. I cut several strips of FP and a few shapes. I like how the first few strips came out.

I'm learning a fair amount by trial and error really, but in my opinion the best way for any artist, only so much you can learn from books and the like. Lesson 1. my heat gun gets really hot, very quickly. So i'm adapting how far away i hold it. Lesson 2. Joining using the heat gun doesnt always come out the way i want, the colours blend unevenly or the black under strip comes through. So some form of hot water method has to be looked at. Lesson 3. Constant re-heating of the plastic as i add more to the mask, it simply distorts the first plastic parts more, fine if i want a free-form or a mask i'm going to colour again. Not if i want a block/smooth colour one. Lesson 4. Finger prints. No matter how hard i try not to touch the plastic i kept getting them. I use my palatte knife with a bit of water which helps, as do my embossing tools, but sometimes i prefer smoothing my hand. Gotta work on that.

As an alternative material, friendly plastic has many possibilties. My one issue is keeping the surface smooth and less 'plastic looking'. I know sounds weird as it's....well plastic haha. But many surface finishes can be used to make it look like othe materials, i just need to perfect the heating method so it heats evenly and doesnt distort so much.

Friendly Plastic-The begining

By the gods, has it really been a year since my last blog...whoooops. To be honest i have been lax in keeping up with a few of my online accounts, but i'm working to change this, including my blog.

So, what have i been upto, that is a whole other entry, so i wont bore you now.

Over the past few years i had been tempted to play with a material called Friendly plastic. The possibilties look impressive and wide ranging, from card embellishments, picture frame adornments right through to jewellery. What grabbed me was the use in mask making. Really no idea why all of a sudden i'm drawn to mask making, but hey like every good artist i go with it to see where it takes me.
Having looked around online for friendly plastic tuts and info, there isnt an awful lot. In the UK there is Liz Welch @ rarebird.ltd.uk, who in the couple of short e-mails has been very helpful with a few tips n hints.

So, onto my new play things. First couple of plays not bad, apart from my mistake of laying transfer foils the wrong way up on the plastic...idiot hahaha.

I'll post the randomness of my first plays soon.

Well,that went well.....not

Well, as you can see this what my experiement with Art clay paper type looks like. The two squares were before firing glued together, but this didnt work as i was able to split them with ease using a sharp blade. I also tried to coil a strip around a skewer to see how it went. The paper tears easily i found. But it did fire using a torch, but i was very careful. The biggest issue i see with this brand of paper type is strength, there isnt any!. I doubt this would change even if layered a few times. So i shall try to find out about PMC sheet type and whether it is thicker. On a brighter note, i did have some lump form so was able to make a start on the earrings for the 'IMPERFECT' collection. Although they do need a lot of clean up pre firing,and i need to decide on a way to secure an earwire to them, but i think i may well just craft a small 'block' to be pasted onto the back of each top square.

*Correction*

This is what i get for trying to post and having several conversations at the sametime hahaha.

The last paragraph should read 'ID style bracelet' not idea style.

Paper type

Another trip to hatton garden saw me buying some Art clay silver paper type. Not used paper type before but i've read as much as i can. After purchasing it i was a little shocked to find just how thin it is, 0.25mm YIKES. Am going to try using it to make earrings to match the 'IMPERFECT' squares pendant. With it being so thin i'm going to have to double it up as i've been told it shrinks more than the lump type. Of course all this hassle could prove fruitless as it's ment to be kiln fired. I have a feeling it's due to the nature of the product, with it being very much like paper direct flame could well simply burn it, so i may well try a gentle flame and not directly on it until the binder has burnt away. Hoping this works, whatever happens i'll post pictures of the results.
Am also hoping to use some of the paper type for a bracelet for me :D. Like an idea style bracelet with my initials. Not sure yet whether to design it with one 'plate' for the initials or 3 individual 'plates'. Most likely with be individual style as i dont want a standard rectangle and cant quite design anything i like for a single style.
So hopefully tomorrow i'll get at least one of these pieces sorted.

Imperfect-first piece

Ok so the picture isnt great..still, but it's much better than my first attempt. I tumbled the piece, but didnt quite get the surface finish i was hoping for. Was hoping it would be a little more smooth and burnished, but no matter it fits with my original idea of a brushed finish. This picture really doesnt do it justice. It turned out exactly as i wanted it too. Simple, smooth surface finish,but not mirror smooth like sterling would have, the brushing worked very well, except for the small spaces between squares, but this fits in well with the whole idea behind the mini collection of 'IMPERFECT'. To be honest the whole piece is brushed, it's just that the brushing on the overlap doesnt quite go in the same direction, but you have to look really hard to notice.
So, my first silver clay piece in ages, went exactly how i saw it.

Balancing act

No pictures this time. I have left the copper clay alone for now due to the firing issues. A shame as i really like working with it, it produced some really nice pieces i thought. Just the fact it is sold as 'torch fireable' yet the instructions from the manufacturer say nothing about this, whereas their silver clay variant the instruction sheet does. Well if i'm able to get hold of a kiln then i will go back to it.
So i got some silver clay the other week, which i have used before so know it fires well using my current torch/gashob options.
So i re-did the 'squares' piece, and this time it worked without falling apart or needing rivets haha. Having used it before i know paste making with scraps and filedust is pretty easy, i think this helped the piece work this time. Although i havent plier tested the piece i have tried to 'twist' it in my hands and it didnt budge, all good :D. I have put a brushed finish to the piece, but this is purely an initial finish and i'm going to tumble it tomorrow and then brush the foreground squares to give depth, thank you to F from making jewellery for that one, and all their lovely comments to the picture i posted there *better pic to follow*.

Unfortunately, me being me, once this piece proved a success my head went off into overdrive, as it usually does *hey i am an artist afterall haha*. I have since had various ideas to produce a mini collection based around the 'imperfect squares'. Most of these i can do without problem using either my torch, gashob or a combination of both. However my idea for a bangle/cuff is so far proving difficult. I am limited to what i can fire purely by the tools i have to hand. I have neither the space nor the wallet to get a kiln yet, so i really need to find a balancing act between wallet and head full of ideas hahahaha.