Saturday, May 2, 2009

Pretty Blue Candles

handmade soy candle
I'm testing a new mix of soy waxes and these were the first up. Spring Rain scent with just a touch of blue liquid dye.

handmade soy candleThey smell lovely unlit, but I've yet to get a good read on it lit. It didn't help I tried it near the open back door.

handmade soy candleThey do look lovely though.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Camera Bag that could have been...



I have been looking for a new camera bag for a while, one that is for just the camera not all it's stuff. I've seen a few different models but figured I could try making one of the pouch style.



I really like the colors and print of this fabric and could see myself carrying a bag in this fabric around. But...



I just didn't like it as a camera bag, I really need something more sturdy, probably waterproof and with a strap long enough to carry from the shoulder which mine is not.

Too bad I only have the one camera so you can't see it in the bag. For just running around locally taking pics it would be great I'd just find it cumbersome.


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Polymer Clay Box and a New Technique

So I've seen several examples of polymer clay boxes over the years, but I've never gotten around to trying one. Lately I've been seeing several blog posts on the backfilling technique, it's really not very hard to do but getting the really good results seems to allude me.



I used a dollar store cardboard box as my base/form. It eventually disintegrated during the sanding process. Next time I'll try a metal form so it can be reused.



The base is a layer of black Fimo Soft covered with a textured sheet of black. I then filled the impressions with a strip of gray and a strip of white. I was trying for a graduated look that I didn't quite pull off. I do believe I may have been too ambitious in using this texture for a first try, it was very detailed and I did not do as good a job applying it as I needed to. During the sanding process to remove the unwanted white and gray areas it became obvious that the backfilling clay and background clay did not adhere to each other very well a layer of liquid pc may help that with the more detailed designs.



The lid of the box was made from a cane of 2 skinner blend logs, cut and reformed into a square of 3x3. I just cut thin slices of the cane and arranged them on a layer of gray backing, that was then applied to a sheet of black.