Back to Bloggin & the PCAGOE Challenge

Hi everyone! I hope some of you are still here after I took most of the summer off. My kids started school this past week (YEAH!), so we are getting back into a routine and blogging will become a regular part of that routine. I look forward to exploring inspiration and offering suggestions for those in a creative rut. There will be artist interviews and I will share my latest pieces and their inspiration. There may even be a few contests and more collaborative projects too. So without further ado, I'm getting started:

The PCAGOE is having it's monthly challenge and this one was right up my alley, Texture. I created this 8x10" canvas as my entry.























I wanted to create something that really showcased just the texture, so rather than distressing the clay pieces I left them the flat white and orange. The trees and the "leaves" are heavily textured with different patterns. Some of the detail is lost in my photo, ( I really have to work on photographing my art pieces). As with most of my pieces, I want to make this a series using different textures and colors. All of the textured pieces were created using my own hand carved stamps. This piece will eventually make it into my Etsy shop, but I am currently working on a set-up to create and offer prints and I want to get my art pieces scanned before I offer the originals for sale. With the kids in school, I hope to start making 2-3 original art pieces a week as I am enjoying creating the larger scale pieces and I have 1001 a ideas (thank goodness for sketchbooks).

You can vote for your favorite entry and be entered to win a pirze at PCAGOE.com from starting today, Sept. 1st through midnight EST, Sept. 3rd. Here are all of this months entries:

Inspired by the Incredible Edible Egg & Rescued by an Incredible Not So Edible Plastic Egg

It's PCAGOE Challenge time again. This month’s challenge was a technique that is fairly common and unique to polymer clay. Each member had to create a piece (functional or decorative) by covering an egg with polymer clay. I had only tried to cover an egg one other time and let me say it was not so successful, so I was a bit apprehensive about giving it another try, but since I run the challenge, I kinda feel I have to create something each month as an example. So I decided to brave the egg again. I got an idea immediately. My stepmother had some eggs that she had run ribbon through and hung from a basket ornaments and I always wanted to make one of my own. I had also been sketching some damask patterns in my sketchbook recently and decided I would put the two together and make a damask egg ornament.

First I made the blown egg and then I drew the basic design onto it to get an idea of scale for the stamp carving.












Next I sketched the design on a piece of paper and tried my best to make it symmetrical. I tend to just draw freehand on my stamps, so trying to do the symmetrical thing didn't really work out, so I ended up just drawing it out on the stamp. It wasn't perfectly symmetrical, but close enough and I figured the curves of the egg would help me disguise the tiny differences.













Here is where it got a bit tricky. I needed to put a base coat of clay on the egg and as I did, I cracked and destroyed the egg. Of course I hadn't blown out any more in anticipation of the inevitable. Some other PCAGOE Members had success with plastic eggs, so since I still had a ton of plastic eggs all over my house from Easter. I thought that would be the best way to go. I used my craft blade to carve a hole at each end for the ribbon to go through and then I glued it together and covered it with the clay. So much easier and a lot more successful than the real egg.













Next I had to stamp the clay, cut out each little piece and put them all on the egg. I also made 3 beads to use as accents.













Then it was time for paint. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use light pink. I just really like the black and pink damask look. I wasn't thrilled with the way the color turned out (I wish it had been more pink), but I didn't really have time to paint it again.













Finally I distressed the egg, glazed it and put it all together with the ribbon.













And now it is entered in the challenge and hanging in my studio. It was a little gift to myself, so it won't be in the shop. I think I will make some more at Christmas and maybe Easter next year. It actually was a lot of fun ( but I will definitely be sticking with the plastic eggs)! You can have some fun too by going to PCAGOE.com and voting for your favorite egg. There are 27 to choose from and once you vote you are automatically entered to win one of 2 great prizes (see below).




Here are the prizes:


or



So get out there this week and create with an egg or just try something that you weren't so successful with in the past. You may find that it's better the 2nd time around. I did!

One of the Sketches Comes to Life as a Pendant plus a PCAGOE Challenge

Taking a little break from the Collaborative ACEO to promote the PCAGOE March Animal Challenge. You can still vote for your favorite ACEO sketch here and don't forget to comment so that you can be entered into the drawing for the final ACEO. My challenge entry is actually tied to the collaborative project. You will see that it closely resembles my fawn sketch. As soon as I had sketched it for the blog, I knew I wanted it to be a pendant. It is a little celebration of spring and all the new baby animals. I love the way it came out. It reminds me of an old children's book illustration which is exactly how it looked in my head! So.... take some time this weekend and head over to PCAGOE.com and vote for your favorite animal entry. When you vote, you will be entered into a drawing for a fun flora/fauna themed prize pack donated by the talented members of the PCAGOE! You can vote from now until midnight EST on March 3rd and the winners will be announced on the 4th! I will also announce the ACEO sketch winner on the 4th and then it will be time for color suggestions (we're almost done!)

















Be inspired by the animals you see in the PCAGOE Challenge and create your own animal inspired piece of art this weekend! And don't forget to vote!

Inspired by Love and a PCAGOE Challenge

It's PCAGOE challenge time again and in honor of this month's theme was "Love". There are a lot of places I could have taken this challenge. These are a few of the words that floated around in my head while I was brainstorming; love lost, true love, unloved, passion, motherly love, kissing, elation, forever, commitment.... I have been planning to do some wall pieces for a while and decided that this challenge would give me the motivation I needed to get it done. I had a tree in mind (Yes, I do have a tree fetish) for my first piece and already had it sketched out in one of my sketchbooks. I then was inspired by my new XOXO design and decided to make the tree's "foliage" a bunch of hugs and kisses. For some reason I have been inspired to use mostly black white and red with my XOXO design, so I decided to stay with that color scheme. I plan to make the circles painted on the canvas a common thread throughout my canvas series, but for this piece they symbolize the cycle of giving and receiving love. The story behind the tree is that it has a lot of love to give (represented by the hugs & kisses) and is just waiting for someone to share it's love. I think most everyone has felt this way at one time in their life. Just bursting with love and wanting someone to give it to. I added the "Love Me" circle to emphasize that it wants and needs love in return!


We had 43 entries into the challenge this month, and seeing all the different interpretations of love was really inspiring. There was puppy love, the feeling of bubbles in your stomach when you are in love, mothers love, romance, passion, hearts, heat, summer love and even love potion. Make sure you get over to PCAGOE.com to check them all out and of course vote for your favorite to be entered to win a fun polymer clay prize pack! Here's a sneak peak of this month's entries. You can see each one of them up close here.






















Take a little time this week to create something inspired by love or make something for someone that you love. Use some of the words and themes used by the PCAGOE entries as a jumping off point and don't forget to vote!!

Be Inspired by a New Year's Resolution

I'm finally back from a short holiday hiatus. I had planned on taking the week off between Christmas and New Year's, but my whole family got sick, so I had to move it back a bit. Being a nurse is definitely not a vacation. So I took a few more days in January, but now I am back and ready to get inspired!

It's that time of year again, when we all look back and think about what we would like to change for the new year. The New Year's resolution has become quite cliched and most people don't even make it through the first month of the year. This year do things a little differently. This year use your New Year's resolutions as inspiration. You may not be able to keep them, but you can make art that will represent the changes you would like to make and perhaps it can be a reminder to help keep you on track to actually reach your resolution goal.


The PCAGOE is finishing up it's January monthly challenge and the theme was New Year's Resolutions. Each member did what I suggested everyone do above by turning their resolution into art. You can vote for your favorite at http://pcagoe.com. I really recommend clicking on the links at the bottom of the post to read the actual resolutions and explanations behind each piece. They really make you think and bring a whole new meaning to each piece. You know I love to know the inspiration and background of art pieces. To me it is like looking into the mind of the artist.

One of my resolutions was to play a little more and take things a little less seriously. It is great to work hard, but you should also make time to play hard. I always love the pure joy my kids feel doing a simple thing like blowing bubbles and this year I plan to capture a bit of that joy for myself! This pendant is what I created from my resolution. The circles obviously represent the bubbles and are a reminder to see the joy in life.



Take a little time this week to turn your New year's resolution into something tangible. Use it as a reminder to keep your resolution, or use it to inspire others. Think about why you chose that resolution and think about change and progression (the things behind the idea of a resolution). Think about the things you will need to do to fulfill your resolution and perhaps what might happen if you don't. All of these things can be great inspiration for creating. So dig deep, make a resolution, make a change and make art! I'm off to go blow some bubbles!

Inspired by A New Technique

I'm taking a short break from the gift guides to promote the PCAGOE November Challenge. This month's theme was a polymer clay technique called Mokume gane. Mokume gane is originally a Japanese metalworking technique that was adapted as a polymer clay technique. Mokume gane is created by layering very thin sheets of polymer clay and then distorting the stack with any number of tools and then shaving off thin slices to show off the colors, layers and patterns created within the stack. You can also add inclusions such as metal leaf and inks to create further variations or use stamps and texture plates to create interesting imagery. This technique offers up a ton of possibilities. I did a fairly simple one this month. I used metallic (or pearl) and translucent polymer clay and stacked them to create layers. I then impressed circles into the clay with a couple circle cutters and then back filled some of them with more clay. I rolled the stack until everything was smushed together. I took some slices off the top until I got the look that I wanted. I then rolled it smooth and cut the shape of the brooch. I liked the simple shape, because it didn't detract from the mokume gane design. The thing I love most about mokume gane is that you cannot always predict how it will turn out. It's like opening a present every time. I also love how you can make something non-organic like polymer clay and make it look very organic.

Here are all the entries:



Vote for your favorite entry at pcagoe.com by November 28th at midnight (EST). You will automatically be entered to win a prize pack valued at over $150.

Take some time this week to explore a new technique or even a new craft all together. Is there something you have wanted to try, but just haven't? Well there's no time like the present. Many of the PCAGOE members had not tried Mokume Gane, but found that it was a wonderful technique that they planned to use again and again. Get out of your crafting rut and challenge yourself to try something new and I can guarantee that you will be inspired, and who knows the new technique may take your work in a whole new fantastic direction!

Here are some more of my Mokume Gane pieces. This is in my entryway:


Here are a couple ACEO's:

Masquerade Ball - PCAGOE October Challenge - VOTE & WIN

It's that time again for the PCAGOE (Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy) to display our talents in our monthly challenge. With Halloween around the corner, we decided on a mask theme. The members came up with some incredibly innovative mask designs. You can go to pcagoe.com and vote for your favorite to be entered to win one of 2 polymer clay prize packs worth over $100 each and donated by PCAGOE members. Here are all of this month's entries:


My entry is the last one and I call him the "Avian Prince" :

I was inspired to create a bird mask from these prints by rosiemusic.etsy.com (formerly Menta). I used one in a treasury list a week or so ago and I just couldn't stop thinking about the bird masks in her prints, so I decided on the bird from there. I didn't really use her imagery so much, as she had full face masks, and that seemed like too much work for me. I also new I wanted to do individual feathers since I could easily carve a stamp of those and i was thinking more along the lines of a bird of prey than a song bird.














This was my first mask and will have to say it was not easy. I burnt the first base that I made, but luckily I was able to salvage the beak (thank you liquid polymer clay!!) Then some how a bunch of feathers on one side got broken off while it was sitting on my kitchen counter before cooking and mysteriously the broken pieces were missing (obviously some was trying to conceal the damage, hmmm....). I finally got it in one piece and baked and then was able to paint. Of course I was in a hurry and tried to distress it before the paint was thoroughly dry. That's why there are some large chunks of paint missing. I decided that rather than painting, I would go with it and started chipping away at all the feathers to make it look like it was purposeful (Ha!). He turned out looking a little more like the Chicken Prince than a bird of prey, but overall I like the way he turned out. I even found out that if I leaned him on his beak, he can stand alone, so now he is on display in my living room. It's always fun to try something new. Making a mask was never high on my creativity to-do list, but I found it to be a lot of fun. Be inspired by the PCAGOE's masks and either create your own or use their innovation and creativity as a jumping point for you to try something new, stretch your creative muscles and create a masterpiece of your own. (And don't forget to vote!!) Polymer Clay Productions also has a polymer clay mask tutorial on their site. Check it out for some more inspiration.

I almost forgot. Kyle was inspired by my mask to create his own. He mixed the colors, I cut out the base and he did all the embellishments. The mask is wearable , is all polymer clay and is modeled by his brother,Trey. It also glows in the dark! For fun, we entered it into the Etsy Costume contest:

Be Inspired by a Favorite Book

I don't know about you, but I love to read. I can easily get lost in a book and they can be very inspiring. This month's PCAGOE Challenge was to create a polymer clay item inspired by a favorite book. My entry was the inspired by the "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Eric has been a favorite of mine since childhood. The bright colors and texture and childlike quality of his illustrations have always inspired me. This book was also the first book I bought for my first son, Trey. I knew I wanted my kids to have a love for Eric Carle and his books too. We now have a small library of just about all of his books, and they are always favorites at bedtime and while I will probably pass most of their kids books on to someone else once they outgrow them, my Eric Carle library will stay and hopefully I will be able to share them with my grandkids too! The other reason I chose Eric Carle is because I wanted to try a new polymer clay technique. I received some alcohol inks from PolymerClayproductions.com (they also have a tutorial available) and was waiting for a reason to use them. The water color painting in Eric Carle's illustrations was something I thought I could duplicate. It was fun to try something new. They had frames on sale at the craft store, so I thought a frame would be fun. I ended up backing it with strong magnets, and now it is on my refrigerator!

The other PCAGOE Members really found some creative ways to interpret their books. Some created images of main characters, some used the illustrations as inspiration, recreating colors, textures and patterns, others created scenes as they "saw" them, while others used the meaning and themes of the book to translate them into art. These are all fantastic ways to be inspired by books. Take a some time to vote for your favorite entry in this months challenge. Just go to pcagoe.com to vote! You will automatically be entered to win 1 of 2 polymer clay prize packs worth over $75 each!! Here is a mosaic of this month's entries:

After you vote, take a little time to find a good book and enjoy a little reading. Let the book speak to you and think about the characters, themes, events, illustrations, the emotions, and even the words and see where inspiration takes you! You may be surprised to find that reading is not only fundamental, but it is also inspiring!!

PCAGOE August Ocean Challenge - Vote & Win

This months challenge was to create a piece of polymer clay art inspired by the Ocean. I have watched tons of nature/animal/ocean show in TV (my oldest loves animals and animal shows) and I remembered one where there was a huge school of silver fish and they were moving through the water in this big constantly moving mass. They were all silver and the shimmered as they twisted and turned as a group. This large school of fish inspired my entry this month titled, Safety In Numbers. It is an ACEO created in polymer clay with acrylic paint. The background is the ocean which deepens in color as you move down the ACEO. The lines in the background are meant to convey movement and add texture. The fish themselves were hand drawn and carved. Each fish is exactly the same and is painted with a shimmery metallic silver color that changes with the light (same as the fish in my inspiration).















Here are the rest of the entries:

To vote for your favorite and to be entered in this month's drawing for a polymer clay prize pack valued at over $100, just go to pcagoe.com and complete the form at the bottom of the challenge post.