Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A touch of gold

I thought for post #249 I would feature an item I have in my Etsy shop along with some information on the evolution of the piece.
This pendant is one I chose to call "A Touch of Gold" It is hand made of polymer clay. When I first started playing with polymer clay, I found that just rolling the clay in your hands is therapeutic. (or is that just me?) Anyway, I started making freeform beads. There are all types of molds, etc you can buy to work with polymer clay. For me that is NOT the artistic option. I prefer to shape things with my hands.
Having said that, the design on the piece is impressed from a carving. Don't get excited, I carved the piece myself from a rubber block. Thus I did shape it with my own hands. The design is original with me. I see some personal symbolism in it. I don't explain what I see in an abstract piece until the viewer has made a statement of what they see. So I won't be posting that here. I will say that it is a symbol of my belief system.

After shaping and imprinting the design on the pendant, I baked the clay to harden the polymer and retain the shape. After baking, I painted, with artist acrylics - not the cheap stuff- and let that dry. There is more than one application of paint and then it is sealed.

So that is the basics of how it was created, and here it is for your viewing pleasure.


6 comments:

Royce said...

ooohhh, very nice. The paint has a real depth to it.

Anonymous said...

I've given some thought to working with polymer clay. Your step by step process helps, thanks for that. This piece is lovely! For whatever it's worth, the word "reaching" comes to mind as I view it.

Needled Mom said...

Beautiful pendant. I agree that the working of the clay is very therapudic.

Barb said...

Very interesting and very pretty.

Pat said...

Very nice piece, Gene.

quiltmom anna said...

Lovely pendant, Gene,
I do enjoy working with clay too- it is very soothing- though there are some textures that my kindergarten kids get to play with that they like with that I don't particularly enjoy working with- we have some stuff called floam that has beady things in a gooey texture. I also really don't like goop - its kind of runny and dry - very strange texture...
Always enjoy looking at all your interesting projects.
Warmest regards,
Anna