Watch the birdie...

Hi Everyone

I hope everyone has enjoyed the sunshine this week and that your gardens have appreciated the rain when it came! :) 

I had a great time last Monday in Peterborough at the Hochanda studios and I hope everyone who tuned in enjoyed the shows as much as I did. Creating marbled air dry clay is so easy and fun with DAS Idea Mix - if you haven't tried it yet, what are you waiting for? lol!

Today I thought I would share a great little project which is ideal for using up any leftover marbled clay. So here's instructions for how to create the birdhouse fridge magnet featured on Hochanda and made from DAS Idea Mix with DAS white air dry clay...

Home Sweet Home

Materials:

Marbled Clay: DAS White Air Dry Clay & DAS Idea Mix - Brown & Red was used here

DAS Professional Roller

DAS Clay Metal Spatulas & Wooden Tools

DAS Metal Cutters

DAS Varnish
Brush and white spirit unless you brush is in the vanish lid

Cocktail Stick

Super Strong Magnet (Efco)

PVA Glue

Water

Step 1. Roll out your remanent of clay using the roller with the 5mm guides attached. (The piece pictured was created using the linear marble vein technique which you can download here... Marble Clay Technique 3.)

Step 2. Use the metal spatula to cut your birdhouse shape. I cut a rectangle shape first before cutting the shape of the roof and bringing the sides in at an angle but you could make it whatever shape you fancy!

Step 3. Use a small cutter to cut out the doorway for your birdhouse.

Step 4. Smooth the edges with a wet finger.

Step 5. Flip the clay over and press a magnet into the clay.

Step 6. Flip the clay back over again and use the wooden tools to create your pattern on the front.

Step 7. You can use a cocktail stick to make small holes if desired.

Step 8. Mix a little red DAS Idea Mix with DAS white clay. Roll it out and use the same cutter to cut out a shape.

Step 9. Use a little more of both mixed clays to create a little bird. Take a little of the red clay and add some of the brown and red mix. Roll it into a ball and pinch out either end - one small for the beak and the other longer for the tail.

Step 10. Use a cocktail stick to make a hole for the eye.

Step 11. When the clay has dried use a little PVA to stick the perch and bird on the front.

Step 12. When the glue has dried paint the front and edges of the clay with DAS protective varnish. You will find the first coat makes the colours pop and soaks in a bit. For a glossy finish apply another 1-2 coats when the first has dried.

And here's Leonie's and my birdhouses we created live on air! :)

Leonie was so chuffed with her birdhouse and had so much fun that she wanted to take the clay home with her to continue playing! And not to be outdone Matt made one too...

Happy crafting everyone! :)

Summer Beach Efcolor Scene

Hi Everyone

I've been busy preparing samples for next Monday's Hochanda TV Shows when I will be demonstrating the new DAS Idea Mix air dry clay. It's fabulous stuff as it makes creating marble effects sooooo easy! 

In the meantime I've finally got the photos sorted for one of the samples on the last Efcolor Show I did...the Beach Scene!

Materials needed:
Large Efcolor Rectangle Collage Blank
Efcolor Powders: White, Ivory, Silver Texture, Light Turquoise, Light Blue, Blue Transparent, Clear Transparent & Sand
Empty Powder tubes
Card offcut and scrap paper
Oven and Oven Thermometer
Fine Sandpaper, Tweezers and Pencil
Shells
Canvas
Texture Paste and Spatula
Blue, Turquoise and Ivory Acrylic Paint

Step 1. Lightly sand the aluminium blank before covering the top third with white Efcolor powder.

Step 2. Hold an offcut of card over the white and apply silver texture over the rest of the blank, leaving approx. 1cm clear at the bottom.

Step 3. Cover the remaining area with ivory Efcolor, allowing it to blend slightly with the silver.

Step 4. Place the powdered blank in an ordinary kitchen oven at 150ºC until the powder has melted.

Step 5. Mix some white, turquoise and light blue Efcolor in an empty tube.

Step 6. Cover the white powder with the blue mix, overlapping the top edge of the silver.

Step 7. Apply a few 'patches' of white over the blue as clouds.

Step 8. Mix some blue and clear transparent in another tube.

Step 9. Use the card offcut again to make sure you get a straight top edge as you apply blue transparent over the top area of the silver.

Step 10. Apply the blue mix over the rest of the silver area.

Step 11. Cover the ivory with sand powder before covering it with a patchy layer of more ivory.

Step 12. Turn the blank around and apply a little more of the blue mix over the top edge of the 'beach'.

Step 13. Cover the 'sea' with more clear transparent.

Step 14. Embed a few small shells in the 'sand' at the bottom.

Step 15. Bake in the oven until the powder has melted. When cool, position your blank in the centre of the canvas. Mark the horizon and the beach line on the canvas with a pencil.

Step 16. Temporarily remove the blank and start applying texture paste with a spatula from the top down to the horizon. Make sure your strokes go horizontally across the canvas.

Step 17. Add tiny dabs of turquoise acrylic to the texture paste.

Step 18. Use the spatula to blend the paint into the texture paste.

Step 19. Continue with more texture paste, adding blue acrylic (darker at the horizon and fading out as you work your way down).

Step 20. Cover the rest of the canvas with texture paste mixing some ivory acrylic in with it before embedding the blank in the centre of the canvas.

Step 21. Embed more shells into the ivory texture paste at the bottom of the canvas before leaving it to dry.

I hope you can join me on Monday when I'll be back on your tv screens now that Hochanda is available on Freeview!

Happy Crafting everyone!

Efcolor and Wet Packing

Hi Everyone

I've been experimenting with wet packing and Efcolor powders this week and it turns out that it doesn't work very well. I had a feeling that this might be the result but felt I just had to check to make sure.

Wet packing, for those who may not have heard of it before is then you mix water in with your enamel powder. This is usually used when you want a more controlled application of enamel as in the cloisonné technique. Having packed the enamel paste into your jewellery backing you have to dry your piece thoroughly before firing it. With traditional enamel powders made from ground glass this is easy as you can heat it with a torch or on a lower setting in your kiln before firing at the correct temperature to produce a smooth and glossy enamelled finish.

However, as Efcolor powders fire at such a low temperature (150ºC) it's not so easy to heat them to dry them out before firing them. But I thought it was still worth a try and here's how it went...

When you first start mixing Efcolor with water it appears not to mix at all...

 but if you persist it will eventually turn into a paste...

Having packed my jewellery backing I then heated it in the oven on a low temperature until the powder was dry again.

As you can see the packed powder cracks, loosing it's smooth surface.

When fired on the tea light stove the enamel did become glossy but with little pot marks where either residual water or trapped air escaped.

A slightly better finish could be achieved if the wet powder was left to dry naturally over night but you must make sure that the jewellery backing you use can withstand the moisture content for that length of time (as you can see the backing I used started to rust). However, not only does this way take a long time to achieve (as you will need to do more than one layer to build up the depth of enamel so it takes several days) but it is also not guaranteed for success...

I'm not sure that it shows up in the photo but this too had slight 'pot marks' in the enamel when fired for a second time (and of course was affected by the rust from the backing).

As an alternative I thought I would try mixing Efcolor with the Efcolor adhesive to see if that faired better...

The Efcolor certainly mixed with the adhesive a lot more easily.

When it was dry it was very solid and had a slightly crazed appearance.

Sadly, when fired, it still looked the same. It didn't matter how long I left it to heat it never got that usual smooth, glossy finish. 

So when using Efcolor adhesive you need to use it as directed i.e. painting it on, leaving it to go tacky so that it's no longer wet before applying your powder. :)

Happy Crafting!