Back when I had time to kill, and babies were things only other people had, I discovered an art term that had me at "hello": Papercraft. It's like origami but without all the rules; you can cut, tape and glue all day long. Similar to origami, the models come in a range of difficulties of which you can lose your mind on a step or two. There are tons of papercraft models you can buy on the internet to print and assemble. If buying art on the internet is your thing...well... have you seen my shop? If freebies are more your style there're a plethora of free papercraft models as well... and... have you seen my shop? Those of you familiar with Papercraft may know it as Pepakura or "Pep" for short. If you REALLY are familiar with it, then chances are good you live in Japan and Europe. Here...
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Mwaah hahahahaa! As you may recall, there were "projects and more projects..." during this Mentally Challenging March. Did you know that I was freaky, baby? I made a tumorous-eyed-thingy lighter case for a disposable lighter. Since then, I've detailed it further by dry brushing red and black pastel powder sparingly... and did I mention sparingly? I've explained in the past how I apply pastel powder to weather a robotic cyborg from the future to make it look more rugged (for the ladies), but never on a piece so pink and wrinkly. It's surprisingly similar, just different colors really, but I applied them more sparingly. Here's a link to it if you're curious; it's only a robotic cyborg from the future. That's all. First, I brushed the red pastel powder into the corners of the eyes, then other areas where the skin looked "extra tender". I followed the red with a...
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I'm spent some time testing the molds I made... As you may recall, the blue 3-part mold had not come out as well as I'd hoped, so I was very interested to find out what it would make. I have yet to complete the mold for the second half of the lighter case, so I still can't say with certainty what went wrong, but I hope to have answers on Monday. The 2-part mold of the Rook came out as planned, so I am more confident - knock on wood - that casting it will go smoothly. Otherwise, I've been brainstorming on creating a base for all the individual chess pieces. Something simple, I'm thinking a little wooden "puck" with a felt bottom. I've been poking around the interweb trying to find something like that. Ultimately, I suppose I could buy a wooden dowel and slice it into half or quarter inch...
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One of the more unique applications I've discovered for polymer clay is as a Zippo ligher case. The example I'm referencing is the horse lighter case. The biggest challenge was how to transpose the requested design onto the lighter's rectangular shape. Some creatures features are more conducive to the rectangular shape, while others drive you right out of the box - the wolf lighter case is a prime example of the latter. The shape of a horses head and neck are more triangular in profile. Side-by-side with the horse the sculpture was modeled after, the most artistic liberty I took becomes clear: on the top portion of the nose between the nostrils and the portion of the horses neck under its chin. I had always intended on the line from the inside corner of the horses eyes to give the illusion of the head being triangular, the big...
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