It's tip time!

Hey everybody! Hope you had great holidays, and have a Happy New Year too! 2012, everybody! The year we're all supposed to die! I can't help feeling that something REALLY good is gonna happen on December 21, 2012. We'll see.

So, as for what's going on, I'll tell you. A lot. Thanks to everyone who's bought from the gallery, it really means a lot. I was surprised when one of my better fall scenes sold around Christmastime. But I'm just glad it sold. Monday's the changeover date, though, so I have to get busy making stuff for the new year. I also placed an order for some real deal micro marbles, the first thing I've ordered with my own money (Christmas money) online, and I'm excited. I'll make some stuff with them and show you.

I also somehow got a PayPal (without being 18+! It's a miracle!) so we're that much closer to selling stuff online. Nationwide, for now. In fact, as soon as I feel like spending more money, I might just go out and buy some packaging. The thing is, I really don't have any idea how to go about it. So the first person to buy will be my guinea pig and shouldn't expect everything to go smoothly. I'm not sure whether the stuff I make will last in the mail because of the details, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I'm still in my cake obsession phase, and with my most recent and best cake have come some new tips. Firstly, how many of you have grown tired of spending a long time mixing TLS with clay to make frosting/icing/whatever? I discovered a secret. It's not really a secret, it's just an alternate way. Instead, mix acrylic paint with TLS and voila. Much faster method. It doesn't burn in the toaster oven, even if you cook it at insane temperatures like I do. The only downside is, you can't store it because the paint in it will dry. But it saved me loads of time and problems (take a look at my earlier blog post about the Icing Endeavor).

Secondly, the rose method, which is illustrated in one of my character blog posts on the sequel website (http://www.awesomeclaysculptingextras.webs.com/), link here: http://awesomeclaysculptingextras.webs.com/apps/blog/. So please check them out. I didn't come up with them, but I like sharing.

Posted above is a picture of my latest cake, which was a gift for my mom #2. The chocolate cake demonstrates these methods. Also, you notice the border on the bottom? That was all done by hand. I placed alternating colors of dark sparkly brown and gold (Premo I think) teardrop shapes on the base of the cake. Wasn't too hard.

Disney Princess Collection Series 1

It's finally here! I've been working on these for quite a while, and here they are. I didn't want to release them until I had finished the first five, and with the next five will come series 2. From left to right: human Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, and Snow White. I made them in this order: Belle, Aurora, human Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella.

Comments:

Belle: my first and favorite. She's so skinny. I love her hair, it really makes her. The reason she's so fantastic is because I had a figurine to look at. It's one of those things you find on the top of a Play-Doh container. It's a stamp.

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty): she turned out okay. Her hair doesn't look natural from the front, but it's beautifully curled in the back. I'll have individual shots soon. Her necklace is too thick, but it was an afterthought. Her dress isn't correctly shaped, and the sleeves go too high, but whatever. She's fine.

human Ariel: she didn't turn out quite how I wanted. First of all, to put it bluntly, she's too fat. I had to get the dress right, but I sacrificed her figure. I might redo her, or make a different human Ariel. But her bow looks nice from behind.

Cinderella: she's great, like Belle. Nice and skinny, and it's a miracle I pulled off her necklace. Tiny red lips, perfect. I also got the wrinkles in her dress, I don't know how I did it! I even managed to pull off her gloved fingers, even if her arms are a little long. The ONLY THING I may have a little bit of a quarrel with is how her hair looks from the back, but that's not too much of an issue, is it?

Snow White: fat fat fat face. Too puffy. It ruined her! Her hair might've saved it, but her dress is awful. I couldn't get the wrinkles and it just looks ratty. I'll definitely be redoing her, or maybe not. She's not a favorite.

See more pics on Flickr, and stay tuned for the next series. But don't hold your breath. For all of you Googling 'polymer clay Disney Princess', I'm hoping you found what you're looking for! Feel free to request who I should make next. Since it's 2012, maybe I'll get another series out by the end of the year. Thanks for reading!

Thanksgiving Meal

I did make a clay Thanksgiving meal, of course. A grand total of 9 dishes were created. I looked at Gardenofimagination's (YouTube) tutorial for most of them: the pumpkin pie, the apple pie (sort of), mashed potatoes, corn, and some of the turkey. For the turkey, I looked at her tutorial and Sugarcharmshop's (YouTube) cooked chicken tutorial and sort of combined the two. But the platter was my idea, using gold and silver. I also made the candles and the pumpkin and the cornucopia with no outside influence. The dishes from my imagination were the mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallow, the salad, the green bean *casserole*, and the bread. I'm going to make a video on YouTube so you can see them, and I'll be accepting tutorial requests for anything that I actually made myself.

Right now they're on my Flickr- Firefox979. Please check them out.

I also painted the wood table they're on.

Pumpkin Tutorial: Video!

Hey everyone! I finally uploaded the pumpkin tutorial in video form, so enjoy! I'm so glad to be finally helping my fellow clayers- especially the new ones. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE feel free to ask any questions or request something or leave a comment or anything like that! I want your feedback! I want to help! Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ums1oVID_oU

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and I'm starting to plan a clay feast. I noticed that Garden of Imagination (from YouTube) has a sort of menu from years ago and she shows how to make a lot of Thanksgiving foods. I'll sort of use her as a reference when I do mine.

I'm starting to worry about the Gallery- the stuff I have there hasn't sold and it was a lot of Halloween stuff! So now I can't put anything in there Thanksgiving-themed or Christmas-themed because the Halloween stuff hasn't sold- and won't, because Halloween's over! Big dilemma! We'll just have to see. Upside- I'm starting to think more seriously about neighborhood advertising, and from there, I'll proceed to conquer the world! Just kidding- from the neighborhood and the town I live (I'm already selling at the gallery, remember) I'll progress to the country and maybe the world. We'll see how far I get. It would be a great help if you would just tell me what you think.

Farewell until next post! Ta-ta, y'all!

Shipping Nationwide

I have been entertaining the possibility of nationwide (and eventually worldwide) shipping for a long time. It is kind of hard to do, seeing as I'm 15 and don't have a credit card, but it's definitely a future possibility. I am looking to expand our little business and I think this would be a good place to start.
I do have an Etsy shop and while I can't use it now, it will be available to me and all of you in the future. I guess I'll settle money payments that way, so that takes care of that. Probably through PayPal. (Note: I tend to undercharge according to friends/family. So if you think you're getting a good deal, then you probably are. But it's gonna change when I start to include shipping factors. Read on.)
The only real issue is packaging. Boxes cost a lot, so that will increase the price considerably (too bad for you, but I guess you already know and are used to that). I can deal with that. But then there is the issue of the fragility of my items. I tend to sculpt small scenes that are very detailed and could fall apart easily in the mail. I think this could be avoided for the most part with proper packaging, and this is where I need help. For those of you out there who ship miniatures elsewhere, especially polymer clay miniatures, please advise. How should I package them? When I bring them to my friends at school or whatever, I use small boxes with stuffing. The stuffing keeps them safe in my backpack, etc., but it would definitely not hold up in the mail. As soon as I can figure out this issue (and don't tell me to not include fine details. They're my signature thing. I mean, I'll try to make it a little less detailed, but really. You can't know what is or isn't going to fall apart until the person who ordered it contacts you all angry saying it arrived broken into a million pieces.) and the issue of payment methods (which should get resolved with age- I know most of you out there are thinking that it is ridiculous to expect a 15-year old entrepeneur to start this), I will start to ship nationwide. So expect it in the future.
Another note: I think I mentioned this in the last post, but again- the website is still having problems that Cali and I are working to fix, so to keep up-to-date with pictures of stuff we've made, check out Flickr (Firefox979). See you later, hot potater!

Formspring/Flickr

Our website has been having problems lately, because I think we've reached the 'storage limit' and can't fit anymore pictures- or that's what I thought until we deleted some pictures and the new ones still wouldn't upload. So rely more on Flickr now. If you have any idea how to fix the problems we've been having with http://www.webs.com/ then please let us know.


Here's the Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/firefox979


I recently discovered a nice little question/answer website called Formspring (perhaps you've heard of it?) and created an account there. I actually created one because of another polymer clayer, theshiri on Formspring (check her out and tell her I sent you!), who does really awesome really cute stuff on YouTube. So, ask me questions there too and don't be afraid to be anonymous. Here's the Formspring: www.formspring.me/firefox979


The picture is of the earrings I made Caitlin, made to look sort of like granite. I caned them using two canes, 3 colors each. Really simple. Canes took me 2 minutes each to make, earrings maybe 6 minutes each. But they turned out awesome. The letters imprinted in the middle are her initials- C and N.

Student work

My friend Caitlin was at my house the other day with her little brother, Christopher. It was some sort of party. I showed her my art room and the Clay Table, and she loved the miniatures/jewelry but was scared of the idea of sculpting.

I kept encouraging her and saying that there was no wrong way to do it because it's art and stuff like that. That's the good thing about sculpting- you can do whatever you want with it. She had had experience with ceramics- actual clay- before and quickly recognized that in theory this wasn't much different, but in actuality, there were a lot more options with polymer clay. I started her off with some small models to copy- a flower stud earring, a donut. Soon she became bold enough to do something of her own- a plate of pancakes. I let her use some of my pre-made syrup- TLS with soft pastels. Here's a picture. I also made her earrings while she was there. The flower is GITD, BTW.

I call it 'student work' even though she's technically not my student, but if/when Cali and I do start teaching, I would start off with simple things like food and this is probably how it would turn out.

Thanksgiving...or Christmas? And soft pastels

Guess what? Right. I went to Michaels again. So did Cali. We also went to the gallery and submitted more scenes/jewelry. But you know what's disappointing? I keep forgetting to take pictures before I submit them. Well, more like, I cook/glaze/finish them last minute and don't have time to take pictures. I need to stop that. It's sad. But oh well, there'll be more cool work in the future. Just not enough space...on our website. I'll work something out.
As for what I got, that would be...eight packs of clay, gold powder (funny story- Cali spilled most of hers today and now her floor is sparkly), and nature mini cookie cutters (Sculpey brand).
As for what we submitted, Cali put in three pairs of earrings and took two out (the ones with the old finishings and without glaze). She's already on Christmas stuff. I put in a double set of earrings, ghost studs and pumpkins. They're really not all that heavy, but they look like it. I also put in a scene, a fall/Halloween scene with a girl under a tree reading a book with a black cat. She's leaning against the tree next to the hay bale with a pumpkin on it. It took a while, which is why it's the only scene I brought this time. I used translucent for her skin instead of flesh to see the effect, and it looks like she's a porcelain doll. It's pretty neat.
So as for the holiday seasons, Cali and I are in disagreement over something. Now, I know the stores usually go like five seasons ahead with their decor, and she wants to start with Christmas stuff now (skipping Thanksgiving entirely) while I think we should do Thanksgiving now and wait until after Halloween do start doing Christmas stuff. What do you think? Should we be doing Thanksgiving...or Christmas? Leave me a comment telling me. What season are you buying for?
I still have the pumpkin tutorial up and Cali managed to make use of it (no one else has said anything about it, so does it work? Or not? If it doesn't I may as well take it down). I'm thinking of doing an actual video for YouTube, where all the other awesome tutorials are. That would be a good idea. I'll start experimenting. But there is one thing I need...time.
Now, since you've been so good at listening/reading so far, I will give you another idea. I've been watching tutorials on YouTube and I've noticed that one cool tool a lot of the sculptors use is...are...soft pastels. They're really good for subtle coloring. Great for mixing with TLS to make stuff like syrup (on pancakes) among other things. Buy them at Michaels and Hobby Lobby and other places that sell craft stuff. If you already use them, tell me what you think. I've just started using them but they're pretty neat.
So...bye for now! A bientot! (Yes, I'm taking French)

Pumpkin Tutorial

I finally made that pumpkin tutorial, converted it to a PDF, and here it is. I'm not sure if it works, so please tell me if it does or doesn't. I'm new to this whole PDF thing.

http://www.filejumbo.com/Download/E43243046F41AE36

Michaels Haul, Art Gallery, and Fall!

I finally added the Codex to the sequel site, so if you've been waiting for those (not that you have) then there they are. I apologize about the lack of new pictures, but the storage limit is pretty close and we'll have to do some Fall Cleaning there.
I just went to Michaels again and got soft pastels, a carrying case, more colors, and more tools. Never can get enough of that place. I'll include a picture.
I used the pastels to do a little pancake project off of a tutorial on YouTube, and if you want the channel and all that, the link is...on the sequel site blog. Yes. So if you want it, you have to make a little detour. Hope it's worth it (it totally is).
So our work is now in the Market Street Art Gallery, and if you want details, check out the YouTube vid. Find me on YouTube under Firefox9799, or just search 'AwesomeClaySculpting'. We're pretty psyched about being able to sell stuff and all that, not that anyone will actually buy, but we're proud. We got some requests because of it, too.
Some of the scenes I included are the Pumpkins/hay bale scene (on Flickr) and the Graveyard Scene, which has yet to be photographed. Maybe I'll stop by and take a picture of it in the gallery to make it official. Cali included basically earrings, pendants, and a scene/figurine or two. I did two scenes, a simple Fall earring set, and a Halloween bookmark, 3 of which haven't been photographed yet because of time limits and their simplicity. I'll make better ones and take a picture. So, see you soon! Bonsoir and au revoir!

Fall time!

Here's Cali's mini pumpkin, taken with my new amazing camera.

News

Hey everyone! I made a new website as a sequel to my old one. The new one is at http://www.awesomeclaysculptingextras.webs.com/.

Birthday season rolled around again! I had $100 to spend at Michaels and guess what I did! I went and bought tons of clay stuff and actual clay. For my birthday I also got a magnificent new camera (the same as Cali's, but what can I say, it's an awesome camera) and now I can take better closeups. I know I haven't said much on here lately, but most of it's on the main site. So here's the scoop: Cali's and my work is going to be shown in an art show or something (she has the details, I'm not sure) next Sunday (I think) and we're going to be selling at the spring Flea Market, so if you live in our area, come by and buy. Haha. It'll be real cheap but real amazing. You won't regret it. All opportunities courtesy of Cali's art teacher. I don't take art this year (I take Fashion Design) because I really don't think art is something that can be judged and given a grade on. But thanks to her, we have a way to publicize.

Since it's fall, I'm hoping to find some way to get a pumpkin tutorial up soon. I think I'll do a Prezi. I don't wanna mess with YouTube because the whole video thing is kinda...comme ci, comme ca. Could go this way or the other and I don't really wanna be judged. We'll see.

The picture on top is of my Tower of New Clay, rising to the sky. Taken with my new camera, I angled it just right to make it appear taller than it really is. Although, 12 packs of clay tall, it really is a lot. I bought all 12 when I went to Michaels. 9 Premo (I wanna start caning more often), 3 Sculpey (more diverse color palette), and 1 Fimo (best Emerald green).

Store comparison

Now, I live in an area where the two closest craft stores (they're not really all that close) are Michaels and Hobby Lobby, and I go to each one for different reasons. Let me give you the run down. Michaels is good for keeping up-to-date with the latest Sculpey products, but Hobby Lobby has a lot more generic clay stuff that isn't Sculpey brand but is still awesome. More variety at Hobby Lobby, more reliability at Michaels. Hobby Lobby has more (a LOT more) cookie cutters in the clay section, while Michaels only has Sculpey brand cookie cutters (the mini ones that come in sets of 12). I myself got the basic ones, because the other ones...well I couldn't really figure out what they were, so they weren't really much use to me. As for powders...you know, to brush onto the clay before you cook it to give it a certain look...well, I have only experience with the Mona Lisa brand powder, but it works pretty well. I haven't tried any other, not even the Premo! Sculpey brand stuff (I tend to distrust things that look too brightly colored, it sort of looks childish, not serious like the Mona Lisa brand) but I would be willing to try the powders at Hobby Lobby, which come in great variety and quantity for nearly the same price. I suppose I'll get back to you if I do. One thing I do have to say, though, is that now Michaels is selling these really neat storage cases for $2 each which are great for storing beads, clay, anything. Just the other day I went and bought two and they serve me well. But I will say this: if you plan on transporting your clay, do not use these to mass-transport. Use a smaller container and pad it with stuffing or tissues or fabric or something. That is how I transport mine to my customers, and the more padding used, the less chance of it breaking. So now, I must get back to making my mini pumpkin patch. I may post a tutorial on here about how to make mini pumpkins, because I think they're adorable. Nothing I like better than sculpting mini pumpkins late into the night while watching The Muppets Treasure Island...:-)

Pins (and Bake&Bond)

Yes, it is time again for me to give you a good hint.
And it's about the use of pins.
Now, I'm not talking about really sharp ones or really long ones. Short, stubby, bluntish pins do the job just fine.
I use them in almost everything, to hold my pieces together. They are about 1 inch, maybe, and the head of the pin is pretty small. You see, they're different from my sculpting pins, which have a ball at the end (good for hollowing out stuff) and are longer (good for holding when you pierce eyes or something). I got a really cheap ($1) pack of like 250 or so from Hobby Lobby, a really good deal. It's great they're so cheap because I was making a Mario Wiggler and to connect the body segments I used like 4 and for the flower on its head I used one, and I almost used 8 more for the legs but I thought, Bake&Bond will do the job. And so it does. To throw in another tip, use Sculpey Bake&Bond for holding smaller pieces together, and a glue gun for the bigger less fragile pieces. It's like clay glue, and it dries pretty quickly, although not nearly as fast as a glue gun. I think it's sort of the same thing as Translucent Liquid Sculpey, because it's bakeable, but who cares. It gets the job done. It's maybe...$6 or $7? At Michael's.

Must-have clay tools

All right, it's time I tell you my favorite tools.
The first one is a tie between my bendy blade and my pin. The blade is just a rectangle of super-sharp metal that slices clay like bread. It's fantastic. The pin is like any sewing pin, but it's a more decorative pin, I believe- it has a ball at the end that is perfect for smoothing or texture (I use it to make indentations on hamburger meat).
My two other favorites are my trusty if cheap pasta machine and my shorter double-ended blade tool. The pasta machine (a.k.a. pasta roller or clay conditioning machine) was $20 at Michaels, not a bad deal, but the handle keeps falling off. As long as you keep the handle in, though, it works great. Plus, it's handy for transportation when you can easily just pull the handle out- it halves the size. The shorter blade tool is a triangular blade at one end and a curved blade at the other. I bought it for carving freestyle shapes out of flat clay- like carving the top of a crown out of a rectangle. Something that would be harder to do with a bendable blade, that might cut you while you try to hold it.

So, those are my tools, and if you have any favorites of your own, please comment and share! And you get Awesomeness Points if I then go out and buy that tool!

Science project gone horribly wrong (the Icing Endeavor)

...or at least that's what I like to call it. I followed Monster Kookies' instructions on how to make frosting for a cupcake, and it went crazy. I mixed polymer clay and TLS and it became this huge sticky mess that stuck to everything. I lost a sponge and a rubber glove over it. Thankfully I was able to wash the rest of the tools used, although I was certain I wouldn't be able to get it off of my hands. But I did. And I learned to mix it more and not touch it with my hands at all. I will put a picture up eventually of the cupcake I used it on. I had extra so I used it to cover a bit of my salmon pink clay, making it a purple fuzzy rock. Lesson learned.

Besides, now that I know I won't be making this mistake again, I have created a Rare and Retired cupcake. I printed a Certificate of Authenticity and I am giving it as a gift to my friend who's going away soon, to make it special.

Cooking clay

Before I get into the real stuff, I have a blibbet to say about cooking clay. I use Sculpey III, exclusively, but no, I don't usually set the temperature below 300 degrees F. That's right. I cook my own way. BTW, I use a toaster oven, whatever that matters. I usually set it between 300 and 325 degrees F, because it cooks much faster, in a matter of minutes. The only issue is you have to watch very closely to make sure it doesn't burn, but goodness, does it speed things up. The minute you open the oven and smoke comes out, it's good as gold.
I actually only started doing that awhile ago when I misremembered the directions on the pack of clay and thought it meant 375 instead of 275 degrees F. I burned quite a few clay pieces then. But soon I got the hang of it, and realized how much faster upping the temp. made it.

Just one thing to say about translucent. Now, I just started using the stuff, and it's my experience that it won't get so translucent if you cook it in a chunk (mine was an unkneaded house-shape, cut directly from the pack), but when sliced thinly, it gets very translucent and looked overcooked while the house-shape was still cooking. So be careful.

My inspiration

Hey again, y'all. And no, I don't y'all because I am a strong Texan with a drawl and all that, but I just feel like it. Sometimes you'll catch me talkin' like a Brit. Cha-ching. I am awesome.

Now, my inspiration to create a 5th blog came from a fellow blogger who also blogs about polymer clay and stuff. (let's see how many times I can say blog in a sentence) Anyway, her blog is called Monster Kookies, and she's got an Etsy shop and the whole 9 yards. Her URL is monsterkookies.blogspot.com. Check it out, she's got lots of tips and thingamawhatsits to share. As do I, so I should get back to actually blogging.

Intro

Hey y'all! It's Alicia from awesomeclaysculpting.webs.com. If you don't know me, I sculpt with polymer clay and occasionally sell stuff to people I know. My friend Cali sculpts too, and you can see some of her work on our website. Or at least, you will be able to once I put more pictures up. The website is basically a work showcase and a request database. You can request from there if I know you. If I don't know you but you request anyway, I might make it anyway and put a pic on the site just to annoy you. Yes. I love doing that. But I decided I had to make a blog because since I have been working with clay for over a year, I have discovered some new ways and ideas about sculpting and just had to share them. I might mention fellow bloggers or other websites so you can check them out. So, for now, happy claying everyone! Oh, and if y'all came here, I would very much appreciate it if you visit the site listed above, because I would like publicity. Just as soon as I put pictures up. Ciao!