Welcome to my blog

If you enjoy finding a lot of different outlets for your creativity, then we may just be kindred spirits.
This blog is an outlet for my interest in miniatures, crochet, plastic canvas, and many other various arts and crafts.

I also love walking, taking digital photos, and most recently, have rediscovered an old love...bike riding! I purchased an amazing new bike, a comfy Townie by Electra this summer, and have been having a grand time exploring the area as though for the first time. It's like being a kid again!

If you enjoy any of these things too, pour a cup of coffee and tea, sit down, and join me.


Take care!
Kat

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Polymer Clay doll eyes and Crocheted doll cradle

 I had a blast trying various polymer clay eye tutorials, even though most didn't turn out right, lol.

Polymer clay eyes
 The yellow and brown eyes were made with polymer clay, printed irises, cut  out and centered on the clay, then covered with Sculpey bake and bond, which I accidentally bought thinking it was liquid sculpey.  They were cloudy until I used the heat gun on them, and then they turned glassy pretty quickly.

My heat gun, made especially for polymer clay, is in storage so I had to use my Dad's heat gun, which is much hotter than mine, and it blows things around, so I lost some of the smaller eyes, lol, and burned others before I got used to the heat settings.

 I can't wait until the weather gets warm enough that I can dig through my stuff in the garage and find my art supplies.  I did find my genesis heat set paints on the last day that was warm enough (-10 C) to brave the garage, but it's -24 C with the windchill today so there's no way I'm going back in , lol.

I had to cut the irises out with tiny curved manicure scissors.  I blew them up in a major way for the photo; all of these eyes are smaller than the head of a sewing pin.  I ordered some hollow hole punches so I'll be able to cut things out better when they arrive.


 I also made this bassinet for my little girl doll; she still doesn't have a name, poor thing.  Some friends suggested Lily, others Violet.  She looks more like an Emma to me though.

Crocheted bassinet

crocheted bassinet

Crocheted bassinet
 The yellow and brown eyes were made with bake and bond, and the rest were made with translucent liquid sculpey.  The bake and bond actually came out nicer!
Polymer Clay eyes
 Various eyes, following various tutorials I found online. 
Polymer clay eyes
 I made these eyes (below) without following a tutorial.  I have a zillion tiny clear glass bear eyes, so I painted some blue, green, and brown, and after they dried, cut off most of the wire and shoved them into slightly flattened clay balls to make the ones on the top of the white plate (below).  The rest were made in the same manner but with fish lure eyes instead of glass bear eyes. They came out great, even though the colors are weird (red, gold, clear).  I liked the way they came out so much that I ordered 100 blue lure eyes, and 100 green ones.  I think they'll make lovely fairy eyes with the whites, and without, they can make cute animal or dragon eyes.
Polymer clay eyes
 The blue cloudy eyes in on the white plate, below, are the same as the blue clear eyes in the photo on the brown ceramic tile, above.  I had to use the heat gun to make them clear.  The ones in the middle of the brown tile were made just by adding liquid sculpey on top.  The blue and green ones in the lower left corner of the brown tile were made by making a little hollow using a round tool on the clay, then adding the iris, then adding the liquid sculpey.  I like the look of the eyes without the depression better, and I like the bake and bond eyes (yellow and brown, upper right corner) better than the liquid sculpey eyes.
                                                                                                                    
Polymer clay eyes

My favorite eyes are the red, gold, and clear lure eyes, baked into clay.  They're sparkly, lol.The blue and green glass eyes came out nice too.  The brown eyes look dull.  When they're in a face, maybe they'll look better as only a bit of the whites will show.

2 comments:

  1. Wow...eyes from clay...they came out great! How naming the baby...Lyla?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! Lyla is a pretty name. I think I've been calling her Vanessa, in my mind, for some reason, lol.

    ReplyDelete