Gaming

So I haven't made any new creations in a while, but something happened the other night that made me want to start creating again.

I belong to the Jester Honorary Social at MUW, and I am proudly the big of two sweet Jester babies. Both of my babies share my love (maybe they more than me) of gaming. I'm not what you would call an avid gamer, but I do enjoy old school Super Mario Bros. and the occasional Nintendo DS game (Zelda, Animal Crossing, Scriblenauts, and Rhythm Heaven just to name a few).

Getting to the point... the other night at one of our Jester functions one of my babies was wearing a pair of earrings that look remarkably similar to the little red mushrooms you get in Super Mario. When someone asked her if that is in fact what they were, she sadly replied, "No."

Seeing as how her birthday was the Jan. 26th, I decided to make her a special birthday present.

The penguin key chain in my first post, lovingly went to my other Jester baby, who celebrated her birthday Jan. 11.

Granted they are inexpensive, but something about homemade gifts makes people feel warm and fuzzy. At least they do for me anyways. Plus, something that takes so much time and effort is bound to be made out of love.

Happy Birthday Chelsea! Hope you enjoy your present!

P.S. Since I was on a roll with the whole nintendo themed clay things, I decided to make another little guy. Recognize him?

Sushi!

So my day started off a little rough. Instead of sleeping in until 15 min before class, I actually got up and boiled some water to take a giant bottle of hot tea to class today to warm me up. I also ate a little bit of breakfast and packed some snacks for in between classes, because I have 3 classes in a row (from 9:30-2:00) with a 15 min break in between each. So anyways... I go to my first class, we are dismissed early, I walk down the 3 flights of stairs and right when I reach the bottom, the top to my tea bottom pops off and sends tea bags flying. Fast forward 15 min and I'm standing out in the cold because I've just locked my keys in my car. I was able to get my keys back without much of a fuss, but I was pretty upset that for some reason Karma decided to strike me down today.

After my classes, I decided to venture over to the art building to glance at the ceramics exhibit. I guess my visit inspired me, so when I got home I decided to pull out my clay and begin experimenting. Sushi is something that generally puts me in a good mood no matter what, so I decided to make a mini sushi set. Sounds easy, but as I have stated before, there are many steps involved in making miniature food, and if you don't do it just right, your sushi can come out looking like a turd.

Thankfully, I paced myself and made, what I think, is a successful mini sushi set.


earrings and necklace charm



The rolls may be a little misshapen, but sushi is very squishy (and so is clay!)

When you make bad lemons...

Last night after I abandoned my crafting (due to frustration) and decided to watch tutorial videos.

It's amazing what some people can make out of clay! I found several videos of just tiny creations, small pies and cakes. The videos make everything look so easy, so I started to gain confidence again.

First thing this morning, I woke up with my new found confidence, and a head full of ideas. My mission was to create tiny citrus fruits, e.g. a pink lemon.

Making lemons is a very intricate process.

First, you have to make the inside of your lemon, in my case, pink fruit and white to designate the different sections of the fruit. Then the outside peel (I used yellow).

I won't bore you with the details of the process (but maybe one day I'll put up a how to tutorial), but let's just say my pink lemons didn't turn out exactly how I expected.

Not exactly a lemon... but hey, when you make bad lemons, make bad lizards! (Or something else like a snail and a peach)

My attempt wasn't a total waste, I did get some cute bunny earrings out of it.

Needless to say, I put the clay up for a few hours until my pride had time to heal. Then I attempted the fated citrus again.

This time, well... see for yourself...

I think I did alright... I even had enough left over to make a cake

and some other treats

The most important thing for me is not getting frustrated when I mess up. I turned my mishaps into other things. Instead of wasting perfectly good clay, I just turned it in to something besides a fruit.

That's a good thing to remember if you ever get started making things out of polymer clay. Nothing should go to waste. If you can't turn your mess up into candy cones or lollipops, make funky beads.

Until next time...

The Beginning

For some time, I have realized that I am in need of a hobby, one more constructive than sleeping. I have thought about a few things, but nothing really stuck. Until Christmas, I had no idea what hobby I would like to take up. Then, thanks to my boyfriend's sister, I was introduced to polymer clay creations. Being one who is not very familiar with different artistic mediums, I had no idea what polymer clay was. However, I made it a point to familiarize myself with the new material.

I quickly researched all the color possibilities and crafts that could be made with polymer clay. I was definitely intrigued, but I needed my own materials if I wanted to practice making mini sculptures of my own. I took a special trip to Hobby Lobby to gather my supplies, and as soon as I returned home I began experimenting.

My first creation was a small penguin charm for either a necklace or key chain. I tried to continue with the animal theme by trying to make a whale, but that endeavor was a little too ambitious.

I was a little frustrated, but I reminded myself that I am new at this, and it's going to take some time. I scrapped the whale idea and just decided to make an apple with a little worm sticking out.

Overall, I think my first attempts were a success.

I decided to start a blog to post some of my work, but also to keep track of my progress in learning this new art.

Enjoy.