I like soup!

Just two picture today, probably something you've already (mostly) seen and something to laugh at.

The difference in this one is the broth.  Previously, I had made my broth by combining translucent Liquid Fimo with chalk pastels.  This colored the gel pretty well, but also left particulate that was not all that helpful, especially because of the remarkable clarity provided by Liquid Fimo.  Did an experiment, and filled a small squeeze bottle part way with Liquid Fimo, and then added one drop each of a yellow and a golden alcohol ink.  (Ranger Adirondack Lemonade and Sunshine Yellow).  I left the bottle uncapped for a bit to allow most of the alcohol to evaporate and then mixed it with a wire.

Matzoh balls were previously shaped, textured and baked, and vegetables were previously sculpted and baked, with the celery and carrots being canes.  Bowls are baked first, currently using the Sculpey Hollow Bead Maker tray.

I'm really pleased with the translucency of this, without any particulate visible.  The color is really nice, and I think this will work well for future projects as well.

The squeeze bottles I got were kind of terrible, so ordered a different kind last week.  I might also have fallen to squeezing the Liquid Fimo into the mini bottles by using a clamp.  It's really slow work...

More ramen mini post

Fishcakes!

The great scallion experiment!

One of my good friends wants a ramen pendant!

Ramen,  I can do that!  So that starts the thought process...what goes into ramen, lets take a look at a couple of pictures.

This one appears to be a curry ramen.  Mushrooms, a soy marinated hard boiled egg, bamboo shoots, fish cake, sprouts, cabbage, scallions, etc.

This one has halved hard boiled eggs, scallions, char siu.

So the first challenge posed is scallions.  They're super tiny!!!  They're hollow! So how do we figure that out?  I decided to do a version of the celery cane I made.  Use translucent to make up for odd shapes or to provide support for certain shapes.  

First, roll out a nice spring green color

Wrap the spring green around a core of translucent

Roll it suuuuuper tiny

When the cane is fresh out of the oven, cut very thin slices.  Here they are in one of the bowls.

Now you can easily see the translucent remaining in this, but once they're plunked into a little bit of clay broth, they'll just be a collection of hollow green :)

Who doesn't like Matzoh Ball Soup!?

ERMGRD, an update!

Today, I found my chicken noodle soup earrings.  Given that the Jewish High Holidays are upon us, I decided I needed some Matzoh Ball Soup.  Ambrosia.  Ok, these are not for eating, but I'm pretty damn pleased with how these turned out.

This is my first attempts at making bowls of anything, so I'm pretty pleased.  Here's how it all works:

Bowls are made of pearl clay, baked in the hollow-bead maker from Polyform.  Bake first to hold liquid clay.

Matzoh balls are made out of a mix of white and ecru clay rolled into a ball and then rolled completely over a piece of 60 grit sandpaper for texture.  

Carrots are a cylinder of bright, reddish orange, a very thin layer of super pale orange and a thicker layer of slightly more yellow orange.

Peas...well, they're round balls of pea green =p

Celery might be most delicate cane I've made.  It's a celery green log of clay, with a divet squished in the middle to create the crescent shape.  Then, a log of translucent solid clay laid inside.  Then, make the marks of the celery ribs on the top of the green, and then put another layer of translucent around the whole thing as thin as you can roll it out.  As you roll the cane, it settles into the ribs.

Broth is made with translucent liquid fimo, a much more translucent product than translucent liquid sculpey.  Scrape some artist's chalks into the liquid fimo, I used a pure gold color.  Mix it up with a piece of wire or toothpick or something, and you get a lovely broth.  Then set your mazoh balls in the middle, and scatter veggies.  You can either do multiple layers of liquid fimo to make the veggies on different layers, or push them down with a wire.

Next batch of bowls, I might make some noodles instead of matzoh balls.  But I'm very pleased with how these came out.

Holy Cow! It's a clay day!

I didn't make all of these today, just the orchid, and finished the creepy little tamarin.

I think on my next clay day, I'm going to be working on more stained glass. 

New Clay!

I have not fallen off the face of the planet.  I have not forgotten how to make clay!  In fact, I have new things to show!

Calla lillies

Steampunk Shark!

Purple butterfly with Swellegant silver

Purple butterfly with Swellegant copper

Now back, after a break!

For assorted reasons, I've not been feeling the bug, but it's definitely back.  I have one lovely comission to show today, and then just a couple of flower pendants I put together as inspired by one of Christi's books.  Will also be trying to work on my celtic dragon piece next weekend.  I'm really pleased with this dolphin, because this dolphin is the first creature I've really done where I just looked at a picture and...created.  No pattern, no suggestions, no guide :)