Salaric

I made this pot of gold for St. Patrick’s Day for an Irish friend.

First off I got some black fimo and rolled a ball/sphere out of it, about 1.5cm in diameter.

I then made a slight depression in it – this would be where the gold coins would sit. I realised that I would not have to make a hollow pot as the coins cover up the black fimo underneath.

I then rolled three small spheres of black fimo about 6mm in diameter for the feet. I checked them against each other to see if they were all the same size. One of them was too far out, smaller than the other two, so I had to add some extra fimo. I then gently pushed the three small spheres onto the large sphere with the depression in, and the feet went on the opposite end to the depression. I had to reattach one foot as it was it was not equidistant from the other two, and in fact I didn’t get the feet completely right.

They should have been placed so that they make an equilateral triangle – ie so they are all the same distance apart – but I was in a rush so was not careful enough.

I then rolled a thin sausage of black fimo, making sure it was of uniform thickness all down its length. Using the pot itself, I measured around the depression with the fimo sausage and pinched off any extra sausage. I then attached the two ends of the sausage to each other. I smoothed and rolled the join so that it was no longer visible. This is a bit tricky and can end up with you twisting the sausage or ending up with thin and thick bits in the sausage, it takes a bit of practice!

I then place the rim on the pot, made sure it was in the desired position, and gently pushed it onto the pot to secure it.

I then rolled two tiny sausages of black fimo for the handles, about 5mm in length. I also tapered the ends of these sausages so that they ended in points.

I then curved them and pushed one gently onto the side of the pot, just under the rim. I checked to make sure that the handle was suitably aligned with the feet, and then repeated the process on the opposite side with the other handle.

I then broke off little bits of gold metallic fimo and rolled them into little balls. I flattened the balls between my thumb and forefinger to create little 3mm discs or coins.

I then laid these in the pot, making sure that all the black was covered underneath so it looked full of gold, and just to make it look more like it was overflowing, I made sure that one of the coins was overlapping the rim of the pot.

I then baked it in the oven for 30 mins (1/2 hour) at 130 degrees C. This hardens the fimo or polymer clay.

Ok, I know I promised ages ago to show you all some of my artwork but I haven’t got round to the scanning etc… I have some shoddy pics here I took with the camera of my doodles in a little A5 notebook I have. These really are light doodles though, so don’t expect anything good! They are all done with a Stabilo black pen, point 88, fine 0.4 art no. 88/46.

This was me trying out ideas for webcomics – but found something too similair since. 🙁

Ok, I was thinking of gothulu and the like when I drew this – this all started because a gothic horror/dark sci-fi and fantasy imprint is looking for pictures.

More of the same.

This one is based on a dream I had – the style is me mucking about with ideas of how to illustrate something for Al.

Erm.. I was bored?

Ok, this one again was working on styles for Al’s thing.

In desperation with the fact that I appear not to be able to draw anymore I went hunting for a book. Because of the specific project I’m working on, I was excited to find a book called ‘Anatomy for Fantasy Artists’. I copied this from just inside the front cover; first time I’ve done a copy like this in 4 years. :/

I was attempting to manga/cartoonise a photo here.

This is another one from the book – it’s supposed to be the barber’s daughter. The book makes a big point on how difficult it is to draw children and how right that is. I was copying and have managed to draw her older sister who is blatently a teenager!

Floating heads – I was just trying slightly different styles.

Yes well it was late, ok.

I was crossing over styles with this – just doodling really, as they all are!

Again just trying out different styles.

Ok, I was trying to make someone look ill – and the pen slipped but it’s a nosebleed, ok!

I made this card to send to my relatives in Wales for sort of St. David’s Day – spring etc… as I missed sending lots of people Christmas cards this year.

I chose light blue card as the backdrop, custard yellow paper for the outer petals and orange for the central ‘bell’ of the daffodil flower. Then I picked out a bold green for the stem and leaf.

I cut the stem and ‘bell’ out freehand but after three attempts gave up and cut a square of yellow paper for the outer petals. I then folded this in half and half again so that I had a small square of yellow paper. Then I held the corner that would be the middle of the paper when opened up, and cut a leaf/lensoid shape, snipping off the paper to a curved point. When opened out you have the four petal arrangement.

I then arranged these on the pale blue card (which I had folded in half and then in half again). Once satisfied with the look, I glued the pieces on using Pritt Stick.

I think this would also work as a mother’s day card or an Easter card! I was not too happy with the result though, and feel that perhaps I should have been more patient and drawn the shapes out first before cutting.

Shrove Tuesday or pancake day gave me an excuse to make this cool pancake tossing card to send to a friend.

I chose royal purple card for the backdrop, brown card for the frying pan, glittery black card for the frying pan handle, orange card for the hot interior of the pan and yellow paper for the actual pancake.

I folded the purple card in half and then in half again to create the ‘card’ backdrop.

I cut the shapes out – though the frying pan handle had to be cut using the already cut frying pan as a template. The orange inner of the saucepan also had to be trimmed to fit. You probably should measure and mark with a pencil but I prefer to just start cutting!

I then arranged the shapes on the card. Once satisfied that it looked right, I started sticking them on. I had to weight down the corner of the card with the scissors to do so, otherwise the shapes were just pinging straight back off the card. The frying pan had to have the orange and black glued on it first before it was glued to the card. I stuck the pancake on last for alignment purposes.

Our one year old presented us with this, or rather the nursery staff did when we picked her up. 🙂

It’s a simple idea; they’ve cut out two sugar paper (mounting paper – thick, not sure if it counts as card or not) by folding the pieces of paper in half to get nice symmetrical hearts, one larger than the other.

Using poster paints, Jean then decorated the outer pink heart with her little fingerprints in a concentric pattern in blue, yellow and red paint.

They then stuck the smaller yellow heart in the middle with the valentine’s message neatly written on it.

Being her parents we thought it was the best thing ever and it’s gone straight up on the wall. 🙂

I make fimo vases by covering glasses in the stuff! I always check new types of glass by giving them a dummy run in the oven with no fimo, just in case they crack.

For valentine’s day I made this heart vase:

I started off by mixing up blue and pink fimo; I do this by rolling each colour into a sausage. I then put them next to each other and roll them into one sausage – now half blue and half pink in cross section. I then folded the sausage in half, rolling it in my hands so it smooths into a nice sausage. I repeated this two times to get the desired interlacing of blue and pink fimo.

I then cut slices from the sausage – I try to go for 1-2mm, but it doesn’t need to be that accurate if you do not want a regular pattern. I then place all the ‘discs’ of fimo next to each other in a very distorted square; then I use my fingertips to squidge the discs together. A hi-ball glass then serves as a rolling pin and I made sure I rolled in different directions to try to get the pressure even across the glass. Otherwise you end up with a wedge of fimo – thick at one end and thin at the other.

I also picked the sheet of fimo up and turned it over regularly, otherwise it sticks to the surface it is being rolled on. I sometimes have to use a modelling tool to help me lift up these sheets. A thin, flatish blade is best. I use the rule of thumb that if the sheet starts to distort when lifted, then rolling it any thinner will make it too thin and useless.

I then selected one of my heart cookie cutters (metal), and I chose the wider of the two for purely stylistic reasons – ie I was going to use a tumbler glass which is short and wide, so I thought the shorter wider heart would look better! The heart is approximately 8cm wide.

I cut a heart out of the blue and pink fimo sheet and then gently laid it on a glass. Making sure I was happy with the position I gently pressed it onto the glass – checking that as few as possible air bubbles remained between heart and the glass (you can see this by looking on the inside of the glass) by gently pressing it on. Be careful not to press too hard or you will distort the heart’s shape!

I then baked the glass – 130 degrees C for 30 mins (1/2 hr).

I then got some grey granite mix fimo with glittery flecks in it; I squidged it about first to make it soft enough to handle. I did the same with same yellow/gold glittery fimo. I then rolled them into sausages and cut discs off them. So I now had grey stone fimo discs and yellow fimo discs.

I pressed the grey granite discs in around the heart to give it a nice border and I then decided that it would be better to have a mix of the yellow and granite. So I scrunched all the yellow up again to make a sausage, which I mixed with a grey granite sausage. I only folded it about four times to get the effect I wanted. I cut it into discs and then put it on the vase around the pre-existing grey layer, blending it into the fimo already on the glass.

I then thought that two verticial strips either side of the heart would be nice, so I mixed up some sausages of metallic gold fimo and dark blue, folded them together and cut it up into the little discs. Making sure I had the glass so that the strips would be the exact opposite of each other on the glass, and be nicely positioned either side of the glass, I laid the discs on the glass and pushed them down so they stayed on.

It was only once I had done this and looked at the effect I decided that it looked completely wrong. I took my penknife and cut down the side where the blue and gold pattern had fused with the grey granite and yellow. I then scraped all the unwanted fimo off and later made beads and things with it.

For the remainder of the vase I used alternate layers of grey granite and the yellow granite mix. I continued the strips underneath the base of the glass and also made sure there was an overlap of fimo along the rim of the glass.

Once the vase was completely covered, I signed the bottom by slashing marks into it lightly so that they didn’t go all the way through. Then using a long, flexible angled plastic blade from my sculpture tools, I removed the excess fimo from the inside of the vase by running it along the rim.

Then just to smooth the fingerprints out, I rolled the hi-ball glass around the outside to smooth it. I then put it on a baking tray and baked it in the oven for 30 minutes at 130 degrees C.

I ended up having to work out a craft project for our Cubs for Chinese New Year. However, I could not find anything on how to make the lanterns I had initially envisioned them making – so I cast my mind back in time.

I have a vague memory of doing a play called something like ‘Ching Ching and the Dragon’ in junior school. We made dragons for the puppet show in the play. I vaguely remembered a technique for folding paper so started experimenting.

My first attempt I decided was good enough.

I cut some strips of coloured card about 1.5cm in width; the pieces of card I had, however, were A3 size and too big for the paper guillotine, so I had to chop a bit from the bottom first.

I chose what I consider to be dragon colours, so they were red, green, yellow and blue. For my prototype, I chose blue and yellow, and placing the ends of the card strips one over the other at a 90 degree angle, I then folded one piece over the other. You fold the coloured card alternately going around the ‘square’ so blue, yellow, blue, yellow and so on.

Because the card strips I had weren’t quite long enough, I had to overlap the ends of the card strips with a second strip of the same colours, so in some places there is a double thickness of cardboard.

The head and tail were a bit tricky; I sort of imagined very square features so that I could work out a sort of box that could be stuck on. I also added lots of curves as I think they look a bit like flames and very dragony.

I drew the rough outlines and then scored along the bits that would need folding (this makes folding easier and gets a nice neat line). I folded the head and tail into shape and then stuck them onto the body using sellotape (I made a loop of sellotape with the sticky side out, but double-sided tape would be better.) I then cut out some fins for the tail and stuck them on with the sellotape.

This done, I took two plastic drinking straws and cut the bendy ends off. I then stuck these to the body of the dragon inside the ‘pleats’ with sellotape. This all worked a lot better then I had expected!

I then drew out the designs for the head and tail, including fins, in fine-liner pen, including dotted lines for where the children would need to fold the cardboard. I then scanned them and tidied up the digital image a bit (ie correcting the mistake of a solid line that was supposed to a dashed line for folding), using a programme called the Gimp. I put two copies of it on to an A4 sheet and printed them onto brightly coloured paper (we had run out of card).

I also did a ‘proper’ set of easily understood instructions for the kids – the kids did really well with this. Here is one of their dragons: 🙂

This project got nicked by an art teatcher for her secondary school kids so I was quiet chuffed. 🙂 I still have my digital copy of the head and tail.

Here are the instructions:

Needed:

3 strips of one coloured card

3 strips of a different coloured card

1 dragon sheet with shape out lines on

Scissors

Sellotape

Pens and things for decorating

2 drinking straws

Method

Take two strips of card, preferably different colours, place the ends of the strips together so that they overlap and make a right angle. Fold the bottom colour over the top of the top colour – alternate.

So it should be blue, red, blue, red. You should end up with a squared shape of folded card. When you are near the end of the first two strips, lay the next two over the top and continue folding as before – make sure there is lots of overlap. Once you get to the end of these strips, do the same with the next two.

You now have the dragon’s body. You may have to cut excess card off the finishing end. Double-sided sellotape or single-sided sellotape looped back on itself should be used to secure the very ends of the body to prevent unravelling.

Cut out the dragon’s head and draw eyes and nostrils on it. Fold along the dashed lines and sellotape the tabs on the jaw to the sides of the head. Using double-sided tape, attach to one end of the body.

Cut out the tail and back fin. Again, fold along the dashed lines. Stick the fins on the tail and, using the sellotape, stick the tail on the other end of the body.

Take two drinking straws and cut off the tops just before the bendy bit. Attach these to the underside of the body, one under the head and one under the tail.

I’m addicted to taking millions of photographs! Here are the ones I have dubbed BUBBLES!.

(I still have three new pics to upload!)

Spell check and links coming soon!

I made this card for a friend who was going away to sunny climes, leaving the rest of us to freeze – sort of a bon-voyage card.

Equipment needed:

Paper Card Pritt stick or equivalent Fine-line pen

Mainly what I do with these cards is think about what sort of things I want on the card, and then collect together the different colours I want and the paper punches I want. In this case, I chose pale blue card for the actual card. Then I selected dark blue paper for the sea. This paper has a sugar paper type texture to it – ie it’s not glossy printing paper, more like mounting paper you get in schools.

Yellow paper for the sand.

Red for the boat and the crab.

Orange for the starfish and the sun.

Green for the leaves of the palm.

Brown card for the palm tree’s trunk.

Pink paper for the shell, and white for the boat’s sail and clouds (the white paper was actually an old envelope).

I punched out a selection of shapes becuase originally I wasn’t sure exactly what sort of design I was going for. In the end I used:

Six cloud shapes – these were punched out of white paper

One orange sun

One orange starfish

One pink shell

I also punched one red crab out.

When punching out of the paper I find it’s better to fold the paper twice, as the shapes punch more easily that way. If you just have one thickness of paper I find that the shapes tear out instead of looking clean cut.

I had to punch out three palm trees – one out of yellow paper, one out of green paper and one out of brown card. I then used the thicker brown card as a base. I cut the bottom off the yellow tree and stuck it onto the brown tree. This is the sand. I then cut the green leafy bit off the green tree and stuck that onto the brown tree. I was actaully quite impressed with the result.

For the boat, I used the same technique as I did with the tree. I punched out a red boat and a white boat – then I cut the white boat’s sail off and stuck it onto the red boat.

I then folded the pale blue card into four, making sure I lined up the edges as much as possible.

This produces a card that stands up. I use card that I got in a big multipack in Costco’s. It is slightly bigger than A4 when unfolded but folded in four makes a good card size!

I then cut out a piece of dark blue paper to stick on as the sea, and stuck it onto the pale blue card, leaving a nice bit of pale blue showing as the sky.

Then I cut a strip of yellow paper for the sand and stuck that on.

I then arranged the shapes on the card to see where I wanted things.

Once satisfied, I started gluing the shapes on. As a finishing touch, I drew some features on the pink shell to make it look more like a shell and less like a pink blob!

I think great variety and style can be achieved by overlapping shapes, as in the case of the sun and two clouds on this card. Just as an aside, I actually sell these paper punches.

Spell check coming soon, along with colour ref for the fimo and links.

Click on the photo to see a bigger version.

We used this sort of thing at our wedding and I have made a mix with stars etc… for my cousin’s 18th birthday.

These are flat polymer clay (fimo) hearts approximatly 1cm across. I mixed the colours and textures I wanted, then rolled out a flat sheet of fimo. This can be done either with a rolling pin, preferably glass, or by using a pasta machine. I tend to just use a glass tumbler or some such as I’m too lazy to set the machine up.

I then use the heart aspic cutters (mini cookie cutters) I got from Almond Art who predominantly cater for sugar crafts. With the cutters, I cut out as many hearts as possible. Sometimes, one of the more flexible plastic sculpting tools I have, has to be used to tease the shape from the cutter or from the surface it has adhered to, ie sometimes they get stuck inside the aspic cutter and sometimes on the chopping board I use. The chopping board should ideally be untextured glass, though mine’s a beaten up old wooden one – warning, fimo stains such surfaces.

I then laid these hearts on a baking tray. When I have sufficent things for baking (at least 2 trays as I hate using the oven inefficiently) I pre-heat the oven to 130 degrees C. Whist the oven was heating I scrunched up any excess fimo, rolled it into a ball and rolled it flat to cut a few more shapes out.

I then baked them for 30 minutes. Warning, when the fimo comes out of the oven it is hot and is also still soft and malleable, so don’t go prodding it! Wait for it to cool. Also you may have to use the sculpting tool to help you ‘ping’ some of the hearts off the baking tray!

I have a tendency to use these hearts for many other craft projects as well, and have even sold them as craft materials!