Oven craft....

Welcome back!

I have a very well meaning craft benefactor !
I got into Polymer clay only because I got the final push by bartering an oven for work during the Seattle project. ( link: http://richarps.blogspot.in/2014/05/paper-seattle-and-working-with-best.html)
I jumped headlong into using it for something. Although the oven hung around my workroom for almost 3 months before I finally procured some Polymer Clay (referred to PC hence forth).
Having had no previous knowledge of the PC, its chemistry or how to utilize it except the pictures available on the internet, I got down to reading about it. I choose it because it was used in Jewellery and would add a new skill to my own profile. I knew I would explore it, even if it meant to start off on my own. So believe you in me, all the lessons were learnt the hard way.

first trial with air dry clay

I started first and foremost with reading various blogs about PC. After working alongside Pritesh as an 'artist' for almost 2.5 years, I had learnt to research any art form before starting any work on it.  Just like we read warning labels on packaging, it is important to accumulate all the information about the contents to take preventive steps while working. Knowledge is the key! What is PC? It is a variation of PVC- Polyvinyl Chloride, with clay-like properties. It's encompasses the use of an oven ( not microwave) baking for hardening. You can find out more from google, but here is a PC supplies website, with more information to get you started.  http://www.sculpey.com/

my first trial at polymer clay figurine.

There are lots of PC brands and sub-brands to choose from- FIMO, Sculpey, Kato, Pardo to name a few. I started with Sculpey as it is much more easily available in India. It is important to choose a brand of clay where repeat buying is possible once you decide to go into it professionally ( and that holds true for any art form you want to do). Then came the humongous task of a work-surface. While working with paper, I just needed a little spot to start working, where as here, I needed a more dedicated space to work on. So came the staggering task of clearing out part of my work table for it. I had bought an A4 sized acrylic sheet to use as the surface on my table. ( If you read about PC, you will know that a wooden surface is not recommended to work on), since then I have now moved to a Ceramic surface.
I had done a small terracotta making course and a mud work workshop a year or so ago, and it helped me tremendously to make my first polymer clay figurine. I actually first tried making things with air dry clay, since it is a cheaper option to practice. Your hand will set in, once you get used to clay molding, in this case practice does make perfect.

Once you are serious about using PC you will want to invest in tools as well. I have found the initial investment for Polymer clay is higher than other forms, including clay, oven & tools.

first jewellery trial - PC

I started with making small pieces of jewellery and by the time I had worked with PC for 6 months, I had only managed to touch the numerous number of techniques.My first piece of jewellery, 11 DEC 2014. This was when I was trying to get a hang of Applique technique! What a walk down memory lane. Since then I have tried out other techniques, but for me nothing holds a candle to this simplicity! There is absolutely no need of any PC specific tools, just a craft knife and a ruler and a toothpick!
The rest is all about hand work and letting your creativity roam freehand.

WHAT I LEARNT 

It all boils down to finesse not the number of techniques! Practice one technique if you must, but do it like no other! Every little millimeter counts! Every little smudge looks like a failed attempt, every little wasted piece is a drain on your resources!

DONOT invest in anything but the basic- clay, acrylic roller, craft knife, blade, toothpick / needle, oven, baking and bond glue and a work-surface. Atleast not until you are sure about your PC making future. In India it is a very expensive hobby.Most of the secondary and tertiary tools are not available easily in India, or if available are expensive. Buying clay itself if quite a drain on your resources and requires repeated investment once the orders start pouring in.

Follow instructions on the packaging of the clay, tools etc. It takes only something small as a nick with a knife to ruin something. Follow strict cleaning procedures both for your hands and your tools. A stray piece of clay can ruin a perfectly good design.
Make sure you protect your hands, they are you most expensive tool. There are toxins in Polymer clay and if you do not clean your hands well, it will have an adverse effect on your health, when ingested. Wear gloves if you have cuts and bruises.  Same warning goes for fumes, they are toxic, hence make sure your work room/ baking room is well ventilated.

NO CHILDREN. 
NOT FOR PREGNANT WOMEN and NEW MOTHERS. 

Pricing PC products takes a extra thinking and calculating. I needed to find the golden balance for pricing because I have to include clay price, tools, time, electricity. No clay is ever wasted, you can use and reuse scraps of unbaked clay. Workshops also cost a lot. Work smart, it will save you a lot of money and time!

Lastly and most importantly, I cannot stress on this point enough, there are millions of images out there, lots of video tutorials to explore from. Please make sure you give proper credit where it is due. Try not to make replica's for sale purposes. It is unethical and takes away from your creativity.

So to sum it up research, practice and create!

In the end I will leave you with some of the pieces I made as a freelance designer at Art'zire! 

You can also follow the link below to one of the pieces I as involved with. 

http://artzire.blogspot.in/2015/09/thumbelina-evolves.html

Off to have my coffee,

~Richa

A little ethnic turn for the modern!

I have always found it challenging  to hand draw or paint, and when the surface is reduced it get's that much more harder. I gave it a try while conducting a paper jewellery workshop. I was explaining how Tanjore looks ( until i realised I didn't have any embellishments, which are an integral part of Tanjore type of painting) as well as, how to encase Paper work in resin. ( You can click on the earlier resin post for more information)

 The Tanjore-like design I have tried here, is based on a bird as the central design, with contrasting flowers and leaves thrown in to complete the picture. Although this effort was nothing like traditional looking Tanjore design,it became my own twist.

  The earrings had a matching floral design, in mirror effect. This is extremely important when it comes to making earrings. It's also one of the toughest things to do. When I draw my designs, I am quite satisfied with one, the mirror image I leave to forces beyond my kin. As you can see the design only focuses on the designs of the pendant and earrings.

I tried it on for good measure. 

 

I always find it a bit much, to wear both the neck piece and earring together. Interestingly, I choose to wear one of my own creations only for special occasions. Which led to me to think, there will be other youngsters out there with the same problem. 

With one difference already in place, I took it a step ahead and used very minimal accessories to go with the actual pendant and earrings. This not only reduced the jazz of the over all set, but also gave it a modern look by using the metal choker. The economical aspect was a value addition!

Officially back from a stupor!!!

~Rich

It's a big bad and artistic world out there :)

Hello worlddd.....

One has to try their hand at everything, before you decide, something is good or bad, easy or difficult and pretty much nothing is impossible!


So far I have tried my hands at Quilling, Resin, Doodle or Zentangle for the use for a fancier term, Polymer clay, Bead-weaving, Acrylic painting mainly to introduce all these mediums into Jewellery. It really a versatile world out there. After having touched into all these, I still haven't found my speciality. There isn't that one thing that only I can do with maybe only 1 other person.





 Now I am working towards perfecting them, but also trying to fuse them together, they are slow but happy little steps. With loads of help, inspiration and opportunities to work outside of my comfort zone! Doing a lot of customised work, sometimes freelancing with other designers has definitely helped me to look at my own work with different eyes. Expanding my own horizons based on the wants and needs of others, is not only every changing but also challenging.

Don't forget to visit me at
https://www.facebook.com/rockpaperandscissor

 ~Richa
 

Quillography + Resin :)

Hellllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooo

A veryyy veryy late post.
Finally after doing numerous trials on Resin, I am, almost happy with my piece.

Here I have tried to mix a lot of different mediums like colour pencils on sketching paper, Quilling Outlines and finally Resin.
Although I must admit that I did require a lot of help from youtube on this occasion ... especially paperlace princess for her tips on shading with pencil colours. (Do look at her zentangle colouring for an easy to follow tutorial, of-course do it alongside so you can make adjustments and corrections to your own work, because there is nothing like self learning).
I cannot stress the point, that do a couple of practice trials before you can figure out the best way it works for you. I have used Staedler Colour Pencils ( Faber Castell  I think would be a better option, but I didn't want to buy a new set of colour pencils), some local resin mixture, black Quillography strips from Art'zire & glitter from Colour Conceptions.

After making this I came to the following conclusions  ( picture of a trial gone wrong in all possible ways, to highlight my points below.)

1. The need to be more careful about the kind of paper to use as the base for the drawing, or your resin will soak through giving your design a transparent look. So all that colouring that you have spent an hour doing, get's lost somewhere. The other option to give a protective coating on both the top and bottom of your painting with maybe varnish, or a transparent drying glue.( In the above picture there is clearer spot towards the centre.... that was the original paper colour) If you are using pigmented colouring techniques, like colour pencils, charcoal colours etc which can dislodge and form streaks as they come loose. It involves a two part process, varnish (preferably spray), the coloured area to prevent the colour pigments transfer while applying the layer of glue. The glue creates a film between the porous paper and the resin leaving your colours intact and original.

2. While Quilling outlines, perfection is everything. The strips should be able to act as walls to keep the resin within the design. If there is even a little crack, it's going to leak through on to the outside and spread, pretty much spoiling the effect you are aiming to get.

3. If you want to add a little something extra... say like glitter, mix it in the resin. If you put it on after you have poured the resin into your design it does not sink to the bottom, so you get an uneven surface and at times it will cover part of the design that you have worked so hard on. ( Part of my drawing above is hidden because I sprinkled glitter on the top)

4. Air bubbles is resin designs biggest enemy, it will make your design go blotchy and/ or uneven (above picture , the spot of clearer design that you can see is because of an air bubble that was caught under the paper while inserting it into the resin). 

5. If you want a doming effect the key is layering the resin. In effect it means that you will need to work the resin in batches, atleast 3 hours apart. With paper, especially where you have non uniform shapes , mix in resin, let it cure for half an hour ( please decide what the right time is with trials, the outside temperature makes a lot of difference to the curing time)

6. Dust is hell on earth. Living in India , it can be anything from dirt particles, threads from clothes, residue particles from whatever craft you do on your table. Keep it covered! Make sure its not air tight or you will have condensation inside, which may fall into the resin ( if it forms a big enough droplet).

7. Any imperfections in drawing, leaving behind pencil marks that you have used as guidelines, settled dust particles, uneven grooves, WILL BE ENHANCED! The clear concave effect acts like a tiny lens where it zooms a little. So things you thought were insignificant once will definitely enlarge and become obvious. Sometimes if you are using a darker background ( for example black) all the little tiny air bubbles will cause disturbance in the otherwise plain black background.

8. Working with 3D surfaces lends itself to trapped air bubbles. Its not something you can get rid of 100% , but it makes it easier if you try and reduce the straight edges into sloping ones, using transparent drying glue. Basically you fill up the crevices that may cause these air spaces to be created within. Secondly pour the resin slowly, if required use the stirring ice cream sticks to apply resin.


I also did a series of free video tutorials along with Pritesh, from Art'zire, follow the link below for a live demonstration.

http://artzire.blogspot.in/2015/07/handling-casting-resin-series-of-free.html


Do leave me feedback... and if you try something similar, I hope, I have inspired you and helped you a little in the right direction and you will be kind enough to acknowledge my hard work.

~ Richa





 

Decked up and nowhere to go ;)

Heyloo peoples!!!

Today I thought, why not put some goodwill out there and spread the word about some of 

ROCK PAPER & SCISSOR

 Collections in Jewellery. 

I am proud of the fact that everything is handmade , hand crafted and sometimes handpicked ( very rare times, those). Even when I buy ready made earrings, they lie in my cupboard begging to be worn, but they end up being part of my RPS collection at some point. :P.

My entire collection is displayed on facebook at the below link. 

https://www.facebook.com/rockpaperandscissor

Most of these are possible to be re-made on order, if you email me on customrps@gmail.com for placing an order, we can work things from there.

I had customised it for a Deep Blue dress, in the end it ended up being too big for the girl in question and it came back into my stock. I still love it though. Its perfect to wear stand alone, it had a lovely jingle to it ( and that is what is most important to me)

One of my most sought after designs, using semi precious nuggets in their natural handcrafted form. I named it Aparna after one of my best friends even before I knew it would be a hit.

My very first attempt at trying tubular netting. I decided to pick a more traditional colour, teamed it with bronze and Gold. It looks like a bangle, I called it a Boxette- Mistress Red!

The new Addition to my ever growing list of things that can be made are Rings, hairbands and Fridge magnets!

Made to Order, sunflower ring was one of the first in the range of polymer clay products I introduced in the RPS wine. 

My very first trial with hairbands using polymer clay. and it turned out pretty funky and strong as opposed to what I had initially thought. 

 *** Disclaimer:  Beading techniques are easily found online and as such I have seen pictures online and with my then colleague figured out the beading best suited to us, with raw material found in India. These are by no means my original beading techniques. ***

Caught the recycling bug yet???

Fellow Recyclee's,

Although I haven't really made a serious attempt at marketing what I make or do, I tinker at home and dream big about what I could do. Recycling old things is definitely the way forward, especially with all sorts of left overs while crafting.

This is one of those times and things.

Luckily I know someone who has used something like this, I strictly believe in sharing such small tit bits.

I have so many wedding cards at home collected over the years, a habit I have had since I was a kid. Its either the design that I liked, or the paper or the motif on it. Its inexpensive and what you really need is some glue, a pair of scissors and some wedding cards with a slightly thickish paper cards.Sometimes like in my case you may need a double layer to keep the paper straight. This one I had used to display a set of necklace and a pair of earrings. You can use a similar design only for earrings too. 

** The corner punch and paint are secondary and need not be used if you are interested in keeping things real!

1. Get the right sized card
2. To decorate, I have used a corner punch ... but there are several other options you can use, or nothing at all.
3. Painted it, to give it an over all uniformity, again you can skip this if you are not so inclined. I have used another sheet of paper to make it stiff , since you can see the paper curled up after painting it.
4. Put a small triangle to prop up the card so that it can stand upright. This gives it a support for the display.
5. Give 2 small pricks in the paper and Viola you have an earring display ! 

My brother the Brainiac had these "know your word cards" ( you can also use old playing cards, visiting cards-- they are the similar) lying around the house ... and they are such a great size and shape for making name tags, price tags and  thank you cards... that I just couldn't resist making some. 

 I have used Fiskars corner punch, Fevicryl Acryllic pearl and sparkle Paints.

 If you try any of these... do leave me feedback :)

~ Rich 

Paper, Seattle and Working with the best!

Hello fellow art junkies,

What better way to shake me up into posting ... than showcasing a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Seattle... 

A city that will remain etched in my mind forever and ever. Before you think "Why? What's so special about Seattle?" A picture can explain it to you better than a million words.

  Let me start with a little background on the painting itself.

Subject: The Seattle City Skyline (Washington, USA)

Size: 5.5 ft x 3 ft (That's almost as big as a door!!!!!!!!)

The approximate number of papers used (A4) is close to 600 Sheets not including what we used for outlining each building and base.

FUN Fact:

 If you join all our 26000 strips used, they will take you atleast 8 kms away. So if you are ever planning to go into a maze .... 1 tight coil in your pocket to unravel and you are safe to go into it and back.

DR PRITESH (The perfectionist) DAGUR

Pritesh has been my mentor ... then a colleague, for a little while and now we share so many ideas together its actually uncanny sometimes. We end up thinking of the same thing at the same time. Maybe we are long lost sisters ;)

When P takes a project up, she sits and researches and analyses how to go about it.

Concept ---> Background score ---> Designing ------->Printing ------> Outlining ------> Finally Working.

 Even as she begins working , she is constantly re-evaluating as the painting progresses.

When she got this project, I had thought, Man this woman is crazy!!! The sheer scale and the amount of work involved within the timeline given was next to impossible for my imagination!!!

Since I was not there in the initial stages, it would fill in the gaps if you follow some chapters on the blog Quilling me Softly-  Dr Pritesh Dagur.

http://quillingmesoftlee.blogspot.in/2014/06/sleepless-for-seattle-world-record-of.html

THE PAST

I worked with her for a short while of 5 months during which we worked on 2 big projects namely the Peacock and Rapunsel and several smaller ones as well as Jewellery. I must admit that from P ,I learnt how each process works when you take up a quilling project. Although my projects are in no way on the same scale, I have been tarnished by the perfectionist brush.

BANGALORE

Just when Pritesh moved to Bangalore, I knew there was a project under discussion with Suchitra, but I could never have imagined what they finalised on eventually. I made 2 trips to Bangalore for helping with the painting and ended up only working on it on my second trip. The sight of the huge Plywood looming in the background itself was so daunting. ( the ply took up almost half of the space in her workroom) Just when I came back to Pune on the 1st of May, then Pritesh dropped a bomb that she needed to complete the painting in 25 days and that she was going to try for a WORLD RECORD and then she asked me if I would help her. You see I was used to her quilling standards and  all that mattered was, "If Pritesh has asked for my help, then she trusts me to do a great job." She has said many a times that she doesn't generally expect people to meet her standards. She had asked me, ME! I was (super- duper) happy. When she asked me to come to Bangalore, it didn't even enter my mind to think about it. I just said OKAY, I can come after the 13th of May and suddenly I was part of this project. We worked on 70% of the painting between 17th and 27th May.

  

I don't think the magnitude really struck me, until, I for the first time, sat in front of the Painting and started doing the beehive. Initially I only helped with tight coils, I was scared of not being upto the mark, so I didn't offer to do anything on the painting. I saw her work relentlessly on this project, working 10 hours ( which gradually went up to 20 hours towards the end)  in a day. On the 2nd day, out of the corner of my eye I could see Pritesh's intense face and the realisation hit me, I have to buck up and volunteer to do the beehive. I kept telling myself, if Pritesh can do it so can I!!! If she doesn't take a break... how can I? After a while our rhythm just fit in, Pritesh would layer, give it base and outline and I would sit and beehive. Once I got confident we switched roles to relieve each other. Pasting the tight coils was a pain in the neck (Literally). Your hands and neck would just start locking up after a while. On the other hand, beehiving would numb the fingers. Later on it didn't matter who did what, everything was paining, on top of that we were sleep deprived. We were counting down 10 days.... 5 days.... 96 hours. Then another obstacle hit, we were quickly consuming the tight coils, so one of us had to do that in addition to our preset jobs. Now we had to swap between , beehiving, cutting- making and sticking tight coils, completing our buildings. We must have cursed each and every architect who contributed to making the Seattle Skyline. Each building was a new shape and size and a new layer. 

 It was slow and challenging, but WE DID IT! After all what is a world record if we could achieve it easily. Now, if and when we do achieve that goal it will be that much sweeter.

LITTLE COMFORTS:

We resorted to doing crazy things to keep ourselves alive. We giggled on endlessly, anything and everything was funny. Pritesh's son and his antics were such a fuel to our fast slowing brains. He would totter into the room with a naughty expression in his big round eyes and a smile on his face. It was like he would come around for 2 minutes, lift our spirits and run away ( usually with something from the worktable in his hand). Ananth Krishnan (Pritesh's husband) despite his heavy work schedule, he kept us supplied with coffee and food. I wish I had gotten to thank them before I left.

Another noteable mention would be Radio Indigo... they played our songs all day long, "Lemme take a selfie" "whudat whudat" and we were perpetually waiting for the retro hour!!!

 We even watched some great movies like "Desi Spiderman". [ For those like me, who would revel in crappy movies, this is the best of the best. You should learn dancing from the main characters if nothing else.] I for one am indebted to it.

THANK YOU's
Firstly I would like to thank my pillars of strength, my Mom & Dad who, despite not knowing what I was going to do and why, never doubted me, encouraged me and are still very proud of me ( also my brother and his wife supporting me all the way from Singapore, my cousins in Scotland, Dubai, USA, everyone has been awesome).  Lastly Pritesh, Ananth and Anvesh ... each and everyone have been wonderful to me and are absolutely like my family.
 

NOW all I can think of is sleep and my pending work!

~Rich