Testing Vintaj Patina Inks on Polymer Clay

Now that the holiday show season has ended and the last of my special orders have been delivered, I am taking a well-deserved break and playing in the studio. On Monday, I stopped by Ink About It in Westford to do a little artsy-crafty shopping for myself. I bought some Copic  markers, a handful of Colorbox chalk ink stamps, and a package of Vintaj Patina inks by Ranger.

I decided to try out the Vintaj Patina inks first. I’d never heard of them before Monday. They were originally created to use on metal. I wondered if they were anything like the alcohol inks I’ve used. Let’s find out.

Vintage Patina Inks

FYI

Before you use the Vintaj Patina inks, a few recommendations:

• Grab a handful of paintbrushes to apply the paint.
• Have a cup of water handy for rinsing your paintbrushes. The inks dry quickly. If you spill any ink, wipe it up immediately.
• Paper towel. You need paper towel to either wipe your brushes, wipe up your spills or dab the inks.
• Gloves. Wear gloves when using the inks. They’re a bit messy. (Really, it’s not just this artist!) You need to shake the bottles to mix the ink. The ink tends to spray into the cap. When you remove the cap, the ink drips from it. Be prepared.
• Odor. I noticed a spray paint-like odor when I opened the first bottle of ink. It seemed to disappear over time and I didn’t notice it with the other bottles.  If you’re sensitive to odors, use these inks in a well-ventilated area.

Okay, onto the play and testing the Vintaj inks on polymer clay.

Testing

The colors inks I tried out were Ochre, Agate, and Onyx.

Vintaj Patina Inks: Onyx, Ochre, Agate

I conditioned some Premo black polymer clay and pushed it into a mold from my collection. I decided to test the inks on two samples of raw (unbaked) clay and two samples of cured (baked) clay.

Clay samples

Can you guess what item I used to make the texture in this mold?

Raw Clay and Ink Test

In this first sample, I applied the agate ink, two layers, and hit each layer with the heat gun in between applications.

Raw clay with agate ink

Then I brushed on a small amount of the ochre ink, dabbed the ink with paper towel, and hit with the heat gun. (NOTE: I used the heat gun to slightly dry the inks between applications. I didn’t run the heat gun long enough to cure the clay. I’ll do that after all the inks are applied.)

Raw clay with agate and ochre inks

The last application was the onyx ink over the previous two colors. I dabbed the ink slightly with a paper towel to remove some of the excess. To keep the confusion to a minimum, this first sample will be known as AOO.

Raw clay with 3 layers of ink (AOO)

On the second piece of raw clay, I applied the ochre ink first, then the agate ink, and then the onyx. I dabbed all the ink lightly with a paper towel and then hit it with the heat gun. This second sample will be referred to as OAO.

Raw clay with ochre ink

Raw clay with ochre & agate

Raw clay with final layer-onyx

Both pieces of raw clay were cured (baked) in a clay dedicated convection oven for 10 minutes at 275 degrees. After baking, I let the pieces cool completely. Then I lightly sanded both pieces with 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

OAO (ochre, agate, onyx) on left
AOO (agate, ochre, onyx) on right

Sanding removed most of the top layer of paint in the OAO sample on the left. It also left some interesting scratch marks on the surface which I kind of like.

If you couldn’t guess it earlier, now can you tell what item I used to make the mold?

Cured Clay and Ink Test

While I worked on the first set of samples, I cured the other two pieces of clay. Those pieces were in the oven for 15 minutes at 275 degrees and cooled completely before applying the inks.

On the first cured sample, I applied the onyx ink first. I mixed the agate & ochre inks together and applied this combination on top of the wet onyx ink. Then I dabbed the wet ink and hit all layers with the heat gun. I repeated the process with a second layer of the agate/ochre mix.

At this point I was so absorbed with what I was doing that I forgot to take a picture of this sample at this stage! Sorry.

With the final sample I was feeling a little more daring, so I started by spraying the cured piece of clay with rubbing alcohol and then applying the ochre colored ink. The Vintaj ink immediately ran off the alcohol soaked clay. So I wiped off most of the mess with paper towel and dried the piece with the heat gun.

These inks do not react like Ranger’s alcohol inks.

On the next attempt I applied thin layers of the ochre ink. I mixed the onyx and agate inks which resulted in a rather ugly battleship grey color. I put the battleship grey color on top of the ochre ink. Dry this mess, I mean mix, with the heat gun.

Okay, now I’m starting to get bored. The resulting color combination is rather “meh.”

Off Come the Gloves

At this point, the gloves came off. (They’re too big for my hands anyways so I really needed to take them off.)

I don’t like how either of these cured samples is turning out. They’re both look dull. They need some bling. Some spark.

I sand off the top layers of ink on both pieces using 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper and pull out my Lumiere paints. On the first cured sample, I apply a layer of  pearl turquoise paint, wipe it off, and dry with a heat gun.

Cured clay with Vintaj patina inks and Lumiere pearl turquoise paint

The Lumiere pearl turquoise paint gives the first sample a little more depth.

On the second cured clay sample, I applied Lumiere super copper paint, dried and sanded it. A lot of the paint came off when I wiped the still wet clay. (The clay was wet from the wet/dry sandpaper.) I put on another layer of super copper paint followed by more ochre ink and wiping in between layers.

Cured sample #2, sanded copper

Cured sample #2 with copper paint & more ochre ink

You know how a teacher will tell you beware of turning your piece into mud? I’m starting to feel that way with this sample.

Finally, I decide to apply a very light brushing, almost a dry brushing, of Lumiere pearl white paint. I wipe off the excess, dry the sample with a heat gun, and then use 0000 steel wool to sand the piece followed by a very light run under the buffing wheel at low speed.

Cured sample #2 with many layers

It’s kind of gone from “meh” to “maybe.” Not sure if I “saved” it or not. But this is just an experiment. There was no planned destination.

Impressions

Well, I can say that the Vintaj patina inks are nothing like Ranger’s alcohol inks. The word “ink” is a little misleading. The Vintaj patina is more like a paint. There is a mixing ball in the bottle to mix the pigments. And there is that slight “spray paint” odor.

On the raw polymer, the paints appeared more vibrant after the curing process. On the cured polymer clay, the patinas were not so vibrant. Now this could be due to my color choice in both the clay and in the patina color combinations. I would definitely try this again on other colors of clay to see what happens.

In general, I think the patinas have potential to be used with polymer. They make an interesting alternative to the standard acrylic paints we often use to antique or stain cured polymer clay. I did like the layering affect that happened with the patinas. It reminded me of the results you get using the mokume gane technique.

Now there is something to consider. Using the Vintaj patinas in the mokume gane technique. I sense another test coming on.

If you’re interested in using the Vintaj patina inks on metal, you’ll find numerous videos on the Vintaj website as well as on YouTube. These two posts on Ink Stained Roni’s blog were also helpful (note-these titles are my synopsis titles, not the original post titles): Samples of the line of Vintaj inks (there are some very pretty colors) and Answers to questions about the inks & that messy ink bottle

New Art Friday: Birds of a Feather

A quick check-in this Friday with a few more new Ornimals.

Some of my favorites ornies to make, and also some of the most popular, are birds. Living in a house that is surrounded by woods, I have lots of inspiration right outside by window. We have cardinals, blue jays, nuthatches, chickadees, and goldfinches, juncos, and titmouse. We occasionally see grosbeak, towhees, orioles, and cedar waxwing.

And then there are the big birds-sharp shined hawks, red-tail hawks, owls, and vultures and the occasional heron.

Last year, my bird Ornimals featured just the head of the bird. This year I’ve expanded my sculpting so the bird Ornimal has a body and feet. Some come with additional embellishments like hats and ear muffs.

Cardinal Before (2011 version)

Cardinal Ornimal 2011

Cardinal 2012

Cardinal Ornimal 2012
Amy A. Crawley (2012)

Chickadee Before (2011 version)

Chickadee 2011

Chickadee with Earmuffs
Amy A. Crawley (2012)

Baby Chick

Over the summer, I ordered 2″ glass balls. Another slight error on my part-ordering the wrong size ornament because I still couldn’t find the ones that matched the ornaments I used in 2011. These glass balls sat in the box they were delivered in for a few months.

Then I found inspiration in a few pictures on a great blog, My Modern Met. The post included pictures of baby chicks. They were the perfect size critters for sculpting on these smaller bases.

Baby Chick Ornimal
Amy A. Crawley (2012)

What do you think?

Do you prefer the “full bodied” birds or the “head-only” birds?

Ch-ch-changes

As much as I enjoy sculpting the Ornimals, I find myself yearning to return to some art that I dabbled in last year: encaustics and my polymer focal disks. I took some time in October to dig out the disks I made and laid them out on a work table. It was fun to shuffle them around, lay them out in various patterns, and think about how to assemble them into wall hangings.

Focal Disks

I pulled out several books on encaustic and watched part of a DVD on the medium. Sometimes we all need to take a break from the art we currently make and rejuvenate with a different medium. I hope to work a bit more with the disks and encaustic after I finish my last holiday show in December. Who knows, maybe I’ll combine animal sculpture, encaustic, and wall hangings.

Focal Disk on encaustic paint background

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend.

New Art Friday: Revisiting An Art Doll

This week I’m sharing with you an art doll I made in 2009 during my first visit to La Cascade in Dufort, France.

This is an art doll that is an example of why you must think through your design and construction process. I had only thought through part of the process back in 2009. It is a challenge to create a piece in a limited amount of time and consider all angles of the process. That’s okay. I’ve learned that it’s completely fine to walk-away with a less than perfect piece.

Back to the Beginning

The workshop in Dufort was with my friend Dayle Doroshow. You can read about it here and here.

By the time I started working on this art doll, we had visited Revel, Soreze, the Farmers Market, the vide grenier, and Albi. I was feeling inspired by all the gargoyles in the area and chose an old office rubber stamp as the base for my doll’s head. (I bought a bag of these stamps at the vide grenier with the intent of using them as art doll “heads.”) I sculpted the head onto the handle of the stamp, wrapped his “neck” around the stem of the handle, embellished and antiqued the head.

Dufort Art Doll head
Amy A. Crawley (2012)

I decided to cover an empty cardboard matchbox with polymer and incorporated it into the body of this art doll. This was something new for me as I had only made hollow-core art doll bodies up to this point. The matchbox is embellished with a piece of napkin, a small sunflower (le tournesol) and a face bead.

Dufort art doll mid-section
Amy A. Crawley (2012)

Now in between his head and his torso is a long cane-embellished snake with two little paw-like hands at either end. These became the arms for the art doll. Using a similar technique I created his long legs and feet.

Dufort art doll legs
Amy A. Crawley (2012)

So there I am with four sections, a head, arms, torso, and legs. Somewhere in the process I had decided that I was going to “string” all the parts together, kind of like a marionette. This is where the construction part became interesting.

Dayle’s lovely husband Dan found a drill at La Cascade. We measured (“eyeballed” really) the horizontal part of the stamp (where the rubber portion would have been attached) and Dan drilled two holes into the wood. Then I set about measuring some buna cord. I laid out each piece and strung the head portion to the arms and torso.

Where this got interesting was hoping I measured each piece of buna cord correctly (i.e: evenly) so that the art doll’s top portion would be balanced. It almost worked. He has a very slight unevenness in his right/left balance. But that just adds to his character.

Stringing the legs to the torso was a bit easier as the buna cord is glued into holes at the base of the torso and top of each leg. But again, I had to measure rather accurately so he wouldn’t have one leg hand lower than the other. (What is that old adage, “measure twice, cut once.”)

Back Home

My intent in creating this art doll was to have him hang on the wall. After returning home I added the feathers to his head. Then I attempted to hang him on the wall.

And his head immediately drooped over. His head was too heavy. Wah.

For whatever reason my brain insisted that the only way to mount the piece on the wall was to hang it from a nail placed under the wood stamp. And would you believe this approach stayed stuck in my head for quite some time?

I thought about creating a hook on the back. For some reason my brain got stuck on the idea that to create a hook, I’d have to drill into the back of the stamp handle.

Then finally the other day, as this art doll was resting comfortably on a work table, I picked him up, grabbed some 18g wire, and started wrapping the wire around his neck. I made a loop in the back and secured it.

Finally the Dufort Art Doll of 2009 could be hung on the wall without flopping over. Why hadn’t I thought of this earlier?

Dufort Art Doll 2009
Amy A. Crawley (2012)

As I said, had I taken more time to think about the construction of this piece, it may have turned out a little different. Had I not been so stuck on my earlier construction process, I might have completed the piece sooner. Really, all that was missing was a good way to display him on a wall.

I haven’t made anything similar since 2009, in part because of the challenge I faced in figuring out how to hang the damn thing. Now that I look at this piece, I remember how much I enjoyed creating him, especially the marionette-like aspect.

Maybe, just maybe, another one is in my future.

Have a great weekend!

New Art Friday: Teaching Found Poetry Artist Trading Cards (ATCs)

I’m happy to announce that I am teaching my new class, Found Poetry Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) on Saturday, August 25, 2012, from 10:00am to 3:00pm at Ink About It in Westford.

What are Found Poetry ATCs?

Found Poetry ATCs are the artistic blending of artist trading cards and the random expression of found poetry. When combined, these two art forms result in funny, imaginative, and quirky ATCs.

Found Poetry Artist Trading Cards (ATCs)
Amy Crawley (2012)

In this class, we will

• create inspired phrases from randomly chosen words
• create polymer “paper” using liquid polymer clay
• embed the phrases, add color and images to the polymer “paper”
• attach the polymer “paper” to a substrate
• add additional embellishments for a truly inspired ATC, and
• swap ATCs at the end of class.

The Gentle Class
Found Poetry ATC
Amy Crawley (2012)

In class, you will receive a materials kit that includes polymer clay faces, napkins, ATC cards, paper beads, alcohol pads, a small palette, & white paper.

Your Hardwired Eyes
Found Poetry ATC
Amy Crawley (2012)

In this class, you get to play and experiment with liquid polymer clay, alcohol inks, rubbing alcohol, paintbrushes, colored pencils, water soluble oil pastels, black paint, rubber stamps, and ink pads.

Small Stories For Her
Found Poetry ATC
Amy Crawley (2012)

For an overview of the class, watch the YouTube video below.

I hope you can join me on Saturday, August 25 at Ink About It for my Found Poetry ATC class.

Have a great weekend.

More Heart Art

I was completely surprised and honored to learn that my LUV heart was featured on Polymer Clay Daily this week.

I’ve been working on more hearts and since it’s Valentine’s Day, it seemed like a good time to share more heart art.

BE Heart Front

BE Heart Back

HOPE Heart Front

HOPE Heart Back

LOVE Heart

LOVE Heart Back

All of these hearts are made with polymer and alcohol inks. I’ve been experimenting with different techniques for applying the alcohol inks. Still learning which one I prefer to use. Have also tried mica powders as a base layer but am not sure if I like that approach.

Either way, it is all fun. Isn’t that what play and practice is all about?

The hearts measure 2″ long by 1″ at their widest point. I love the way they fit into the palm of your hand.

Totem Experiments: Variations on a Theme

A couple weeks ago, I introduced you to some new work. You can read about those first pieces here.

Last week I continued playing with the totem idea and created some new variations on this theme.

This first Janus totem is colored with alcohol inks and has a square base.

Janus Totem Back

Sideview

I was a bit disappointed with the next Janus Totem. The colors aren’t great and one of the faces didn’t turn out as I hoped. However, the palette of decorative chalks that I used to color both faces gave me a new idea.

Janus Totem Front

Janus Totem Back (sad) Face

Side view

Since I wasn’t pleased with my second attempt, I decided to try something completely different in the body construction of the third Janus totem.

Instead of tube beads, I made a pillow bead for the body. I colored the entire piece with assorted decorative chalks. And then I used wire to pull all the pieces together.

Drum roll please….

The Bobbling Janus Totem:

Bobble Janus Totem Front Side

Bobble Janus Totem Front Face Detail

Bobble Janus Totem Back Side

Bobble Janus Back Face Detail

The Bobble Janus Totem stands 7.5″ tall (base to wire.)

And since it is hard to capture the movement of this totem in still pictures, watch this short video where the Bobble Janus Totem gives a little demo of his moves.

Art Ideas in Progress

One of the challenges for artists is coming up with new work. Sometimes the creative well is filled to the brim with ideas. At other times that well can be drier than fallen leaves.

I have several sketchbooks full of ideas, many of which never see the light of day. It can be fun to flip through the pages long after a particular idea has passed. I look at some sketches and wonder “what was I thinking?” Sometimes old ideas can spark something new.

Drawing on Inspiration

Following the success of my Ornimals: Animal Sculpted Ornaments, I started sketching ideas for a new line of artwork. This new line may compliment the Ornimals in some way. I definitely want to continue with the sculpting that I really enjoy. So I started thinking about totems and mobiles. Brainstorming with some fellow artists, other ideas that came about were house spirits, garden totems, and reworking the standard ornament so that it doesn’t look like an ornament.

I took several of these ideas and did a brain dump in my sketchbook. (That isn’t as messy as it sounds.) I sketched ideas, did some word play with names, and flipped through several books on icons and symbolism. I also poked around on the internet. There I found some inspiration in the face beads created by the lovely Maureen Carlson.

With Maureen’s face beads as a springboard, I pulled out some molds made from my own hand sculpted faces, a pile of texture plates and tools, polymer clay, some alcohol inks, soft pastels, markers and colored pencils.

Below is the result of playing with these materials.

Totem idea

Janus Face 1

Janus Face 2

Two Faced Janus

Ideas are still percolating in my head. I really like the two faced piece and will explore that further. I also got some ideas from another friend for potential themes for totems (or whatever name I decide to give them.) The biggest piece in all of this is keeping it fun. And these are definitely fun.

The Video: Snapshots & Memories from Languedoc-Roussillon

Well, it only took three complete video shoots plus a few short missteps and installing the newest version of  iMovie. However, I am happy to announce that I can now finally share with you the video version of my latest series of artwork, Snapshots & Memories from Languedoc-Roussillon.

In this video you’ll learn about my inspiration for the series and hear a little more about the individual pieces. All of the artwork in this series is for sale. If you’re interested in purchasing a piece, please leave a comment and I’ll contact you.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel and receive updates when new videos are posted.

Enjoy!

Found Poetry Artist Trading Cards

Last week I took a short break from sculpting Ornimals and created some artist trading cards (ATCs) for my art guild. We were challenged a few months ago to create artist trading cards for a guild swap. With the deadline drawing near, I needed to get my act together. Of course I drew a blank on what I wanted to create. I didn’t want to make traditional polymer clay artist trading cards. Then it dawned on me one night that I could use liquid polymer clay to create “paper.” I could use that as the base for my ATCs.

But I didn’t want to simply color and stamp layers of liquid polymer clay. Another light bulb went off. I would create Found Poetry Artist Trading Cards and embed the words in the liquid clay.

I’m not sure where I first heard the phrase “found poetry.” It could’ve been Quinn McDonald. Or maybe it was Dayle Doroshow. Either way I’m sure I didn’t just coin the phrase.

Not being quite sure of the process, I made up my own. I pulled out a few magazines, found some pages with lots of text, and circled every few words, usually every 5th to 7th word. Then I cut out the circled words and put them in a pile on my table. This is where the fun began.

Looking at all these words, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and articles, I began to sort them into phrases and sentences. This is a rather intuitive process. Sometimes the phrases made sense. Other times they didn’t make sense but the words sounded interesting together. And that was the whole point. To create phrases and sentences that were sometimes silly and sometimes rather profound. If they made sense, great. If not, all the better.

Using a simple process of layering liquid polymer clay on glass, the words were embedded into one layer of clay. Additional layers were stamped and colored. Then the liquid “paper” was removed from the glass and attached to painted playing cards.

Here are the final results:

Found Poetry ATCs Set 1

Found Poetry ATCs Set 2

Give What You Allow

Uniquely Sheepish

In the next post I’ll share some of the ATCs I received in the guild’s swap.

Introducing Snapshots & Memories From Languedoc-Roussillon, A New Series of Artwork

Over the past several weeks, I have been working on a new series of artwork, Snapshots and Memories from Languedoc-Roussillon. This series of artwork was inspired by a trip to an area of France known as the Languedoc-Rousillon region. The Languedoc-Roussillon region is a loosely formed triangle that includes such towns as Albi, Revel, and Toulouse. It is an area steeped in history, with many castles and ruins from the time of the Cathars. It is a magical place.

This series currently features 15 collectible pieces. All of these pieces are created using encaustic medium. Many feature the fusion of polymer-encaustic. That is, the combining of encaustic medium and polymer clay. All of the pieces feature my printmaking or my original photographs. Each image is fused to a board the size of a playing card (2.5″W x 3.5″L). The playing card size board is then mounted onto wood.

Some of the images are presented individually on the wood boards. Other images were combined in double and triple formats. Several of the pieces are additionally embellished with items I purchased at the local Vide Grenier (flea market) during my time in France. All of the artwork is ready to hang.

Arched Shutter_Revel

Chez Castre

Hear No Evil

Le Tournesol_The Sunflower (1)

Le Tournesol_The Sunflower (2)

Shutters de Montolieu

The Key

Weathered Door_Revel

Gnarly Dog_Gnarly Tree

Shutters de Soreze

Weathered Brass Knockers

Doors of Intrigue

France In Blue

Keys of Three

Rest