Post-Christmas blahs and other things...

Christmas is over; yet another year has almost passed, and it surprises me how fast it goes!  I have enjoyed my Christmas tree, and eaten too much food... just like any other year.  The post-hoopla is both peaceful and deflating.  Where one word is positive, the other isn't.  The blahs show up every year, but it's not a big deal.  I'm glad the craziness on the roads is pretty much over.  I spent several evenings making mosaic art.  When other people baked their cookies, I baked polymer clay mosaic tiles.  I never was a good baker, but I can whip up a mean polymer clay batch!  I made these heart plaques/frames.  The hearts are made from old plastic Christmas ornaments that I sanded, decoupaged, painted, and then embellished with words.  I still have a couple left in my stash for future inspirations! 

 

I bought a star cookie cutter at Michael's for a dollar and made some polymer clay stars.  I stamped the words and painted the stars.  I will hang them in the kitchen window when I get around to it.  They could make awesome Christmas ornaments, so my friends might get some next year.  It was hard to get a good picture, but you get the idea...

What are you working on?  I hope you had some time off for the holidays and that inspiration is flowing.  Please sign up for my newsletter (top right hand column) if you want more inspiration and mini tutorials.  See you next year!  Have a safe and happy New Year's celebration!

Free tutorial! Polymer clay mosaic tiles galore...

Hello fabulous,

For years I used to make polymer clay mosaics.  I don't know if you've heard of Laurie Mika and her fabulous book, Mixed Media Mosaics?  I was smitten and used some of her techniques for making my own boxes and frames.  I have made many, but I got burned out on making them.  They make great gifts!  I took photos of the process, but I struggled to get good pictures.  I will post them anyway since the mirror I worked on is done.

 

I didn't get pictures from the tile making process, but you knead a block of polymer clay and roll it flat like cookie dough with a rolling pin.  The slab should be about 1/8" thick.  I then use rubber stamps, old buttons, charms, and found objects that make good indentations.  I cut out the tile with a polymer clay blade.  I put the tiles on a baking pan and put a same-size pan on top, bottom up, like a lid.  I secure the pans together with binder clips and bake in the oven per manufacturer's instructions.  Carry the pans outside, release one of the clips and slide top pan open to release fumes.  I like to use Sculpey III, but I'm sure Fimo and other brands are good too.  I tried self-drying clay for a batch and it was very difficult to work with.  You can use any color clay since you're going to paint over the tiles, but black will make the tiles darker. 

 

Here is a close up of the jewelry charms I baked into the clay.  They add bling!  These are the tiles after one coat of paint where I usually fill in all the indentations and wipe off the rest.  Looks messy at this stage....

This is a mirror frame.  I took out the glass part and painted the frame front and back with black craft paint.  It seals the wood and also adds "tooth" to the surface, which makes it easy to adhere the tiles.  Attach a sawtooth hanger on the back before adding the tiles.  There are sometimes holes for hanging, but it's difficult to use those and get the mirror straight on the wall.  (At least I find it so..lol.)

 

Same two pictures in different light.  This is the second coat of paint.  I usually smear it on with my fingers.  I try to vary the colors to get more tiles to choose from for my project.

Third coat of paint, which is embossing powder in different colors that I also smear on with my fingers.  I use Perfect Pearls.  See how it all came together?  Now the tiles don't look messy at all, but handmade for sure.  Embossing powder smooths everything out and adds a nice highlight to any ridges.  Where there is white shining through from the tile, I usually go over it with a paint pen or a fine brush, or fill in larger areas, like the purple star and sun with more of the same paint.

 

A basket of yummy tiles!  Now my mirror frame is dry too and I sand the edges.  Then it's time to match up the tiles for the design. This is the fun part...  It can be painstaking, but I have never done a project that didn't come together just perfectly. :)

When the design is done, I put the tiles in order on the table and spread LOTS of glue on one area at a time.  I use Aleene's craft glue, which works great, but Weldbond is also a good brand of glue for mosaic tiles.  For the wings and heart on the center piece, I used E6000 jewelry glue, which is heavy duty.  I really like my pieces to be solid.  Where there are small gaps between the tiles, I pour in a string of seed beads.  It adds bling and gives the piece a finished look.

Finished!  I painted the edges with good black acrylic paint.  I also like to paint the back one more time to make it really look good.  I sign it on the back.

Are you willing to try one of these?  It's not hard, but it looks hard. :)  What are you working on now?
I have a sale going on in my etsy shop, 20% on everything until 12/31/14.  Check it out.. http://etsy.com/shop/greeneearthoriginals
xoxo
Maria

Follow your heart...

You know how important that is for general wellbeing.  Art does that to me, and creating art even more.  When I'm in the midst of a project I'm really happy despite the challenges that arrive as the project progresses.  Stretching and growing as an artist can be uncomfortable, but what new birth isn't??  Here are some more pictures of recent polymer clay creations.  Not very challenging but fun!

Someone or something to celebrate...

Peace is good! 

So.... PEACE today to all of you, and lots of joy!!

Made three more frames last weekend...

Magic number is three in this case...  Had just enough tiles to cover these and I even found the packed away Scrabble pieces.  I painted them, or rather stained them, to fit into the overall color scheme.

I rediscovered the fun.  Basically, I got really tired of the polymer clay mosaics, but the magic is back. I'll try not to overdo it this time....  There is something like too much of a good thing at times.  These frames will be sold locally.  Check out one of my outlets HERE. 

Heart is in the air!

I guess Valentine's Day is one of those days...."eat-massive-amounts-of-chocolate" days, but we can also remind ourselves about focusing on heart related things like LOVE!  Or "lurve" or "luv" ...  Beloved thing that has many names that basically mean the same thing.  I think of a great big heart that encompasses our entire planet where people will lay down arms and instead make a joint effort to make sure everyone has enough to eat, a decent place to live, and clothes on their backs.  It could be easily accomplished if our attention wasn't focused on "this is my border" or "I want to control your oil/money/minerals/diamonds."  I would think it's time to grow out of this disease of "mine and yours" and focus on what is best for all.  What affects people in Africa affects us here in the U.S.  Time for humankind to grow up, don't you think?  I visualize a world where there is peace and people are happy, sharing their hearts with others!

Anyway, on a lighter note, I have been thinking "hearts" lately, and came up with some mixed media wall art with my ubiquitous polymer clay tiles.  I posted one on etsy which sold in 20 minutes!  I was so shocked I almost fell over!  :)  I made another one and posted that as well, and I'm working on another.  Running out of puffy hearts to use, though.  They are actually Christmas ornaments that I sanded and covered with strips of paperback books, and then painted and embellished with uplifting words.

The trees are dancing in the windy yard.  They are so happy it rained!  The cat wasn't too happy, but he could at least sit on the porch to prevent any water drops from touching his precious fur...  :)

Where have I been??

That's a good question... I got away from blogging and blog cruising for a while.  I miss it!  I've been making some things, but mostly polymer clay mosaics, so those types you have already seen.  Though, I have a couple of things that are a bit different, a large star box, and a mirror that promotes PEACE!  I thought that was a worthy thing to be reminded of while looking into a mirror.  Peace begins within, with us.  When there's peace within, there will be peace all across the world! 

I've been selling some art pieces and there's a demand on the polymer clay mosaics, so here is the "how to" for the star box I made.  It'll appear in my etsy shop pretty soon.  I'm mostly selling locally, but you never know...

 

The stamped and painted tiles for the star box.

 

I painted the lid black to conceal any cracks showing between the tiles, and also to seal the wood.

 

Trial and error.  The star shape is a challenge!

Voila!  Laid out and glued down.  Yay!  Where there's no space for tiles, I glue down glass beads.

I decided to paint the box itself red.  It was spray painted gold inside and on the bottom.  The inside of the lid is a bright turquoise.

Angel wishes...  BELIEVE they can come true!

I like loud color combinations!  Finished. 

The Peace mirror!  Available in my etsy shop now.  It's difficult to take pictures of mirrors without the camera showing, hands, or inside ceilings.  Did you ever encounter that?  Those trees are some live oaks in my yard.

Mosaics galore!

There are many ways to skin a cat as they say (what a nasty saying anyway...)  There are many ways to put together a mosaic.  I'm a "controlled" addict of mosaics. :)  Some will mosaic anything as long as it doesn't move.  Christmas is coming so I've been making boxes after a long hiatus, and also some mosaic mirrors.  Some are with stained glass, some with broken china.  The boxes are going to a local shop, and the mirrors are going up on etsy.  Not easy to ship mirrors since they are both heavy and fragile, but maybe?  I need to make more boxes to put on etsy and artfire, but I have to say I've been lazy keeping new things in the shops, due to the writing frenzy that I went through lately.  Well, rewrites are A LOT easier, so I'm on the home stretch with those, and I'm really happy with the story. 
The weather finally "broke" here in Florida and the evenings are cool.  Yay!  It's weird to wear pants again.  It was so nice today that I washed my car and detailed it, yessiree.  I deserve a medal or something. :)  It's something that doesn't happen often enough--car washing.  Never ever received a medal, but I remember a few gold stars.
It was a gold star kind of a day today, no procrastination, no excuses, no whining or swearing, a "just do it" attitude.  Aren't those days great?  They should happen a lot more often.  By the way, my car looks like new!

What a deal!  The small boxes are only $32.  Can be personalized.

Smoky blue....

Live from the heart!

Follow your heart!  The only way to live...

More stuff...got really busy all of a sudden...

Gotta deliver some boxes and mirrors to a shop locally where they sell pretty well. Also got a project done for one of the chapter prompts from Taking Flight, Kelly Rae Roberts' book on collage and mixed media. I belong to a group of creative souls on a ning network: On The Wing and we work the projects in the book. Great fun and also challenging! Everyone's style is so different even if we're "sparking" off the same project.
This latest mirror states that "all we need is love," --to take a line from The Beatles. I made a rather large picture frame as well "sisters" "friends." We are all sisters, and hopefully friends as well. :)

They are back!

I can't believe it's already fall again! It seems just yesterday that I went out to walk the back yard and saw some morning glories in all their glory! Well, it's happening again. They are back, and this time I found some that were accessible to my camera. I went back inside, charged the camera and took some great pictures. I just LOVE the blue color of the morning glory. It's like Heavenly blue with a core of pure light. Aren't they just fantastic?
I've also been busy here in blogland and in my studio. Here's another winged box, and I'm really happy with the outcome of this puppy! You never know, but that's what makes art interesting. Every project is an unchartered path even though the path is familiar.

Something new in my shop for your prayers or trinkets!

I like to write down intentions and put them somewhere. I have my own little box, well, it's not so small, and I keep all my wishes in it. I date the pieces of paper, and later on when I go through my wishes/prayers/intentions, I find that most of them have been answered. Of course there's a Big Ear in the sky that hears everything, and not clamped to a cell phone either! My prayers might not be answered in the way I envisioned, but they are always answered. I'm very grateful that someone wants to listen to me! This box can be purchased at Artfire here and it's quite reasonably priced, and of course made with love. :)

More mirrors...

Got myself into some more polymer clay tiles; it's addictive you know. These I like because they came out very colorful. You never know; it all depends on the mood you're in. I have some old tiles that are ugly and I always wonder what I was thinking when I made those... They don't make themselves into any of my creations, and I always say I'm going to repaint them, but there they are, slightly dog-eared and scuffed...

Here are PEACE and FOLLOW YOUR DREAM! I like those messages a lot. For those who pop in here know that... :)