Atomic age Influence votive holder

While you are reading this I am escaping from home to go hang out with my friend Jodi and talk to an adult, craft until my fingers hurt, and stay up crazy hours. I am expecting to have a good time.
We are going to make some books ;-D
It is hot here, kind of cloudy and humid, I do not feel like doing anything. It is 99 degrees here and almost 4 pm on friday the 26th, crazy!
I will talk to you all on Monday have a great weekend.
Be safe and be well.

Make the canes from the Black and white tutorials.
Continued from Part 1:
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age.html
and Part 2:
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age_09.html
and Part 3:
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age_14.html

Save any pieces from the making of the canes that you have left over. We will use those.

You will need:

clay slicing blade
glass votive holder
Canes from tutorials

Start with the sputnik cane or I guess it could be a stylized dandelion, well whatever you want to call it.
Slice off the slices about 1/16" thick and place around the top of the glass.
Do not press on just place.
When you have them spaced evenly with about an 1/8" between all of them.
Press into place.

Here is a better view.

Add the second cane.
Place those below the others.
Press on firmly.

These are from the second cane and are left over.
Slice off some slices and round them a little with your fingers.

Place one of those between the big circles at the top of the rim of the votive holder.

Now I have added the pieces left over from the dandelion cane and placed those between the rectangle canes.

I added some of the spiral, basically I am building a net of canes around the top of the glass. I can have small open areas as long as all of the canes are connected together.
I rolled the spiral cane down to about 1/4" and added one to each of the bottoms of the rectangles.
Bake in a pre-heated 275 degree oven for 1/2 hour, shut off oven, and let cool in the oven.
Add a votive and you are good to go!

OK, it is official!

OK, it is official, I am totally addicted to this book making thing.

This is my 3rd book.

I did this one with craft paper so it will be an art journal.

Blank fresh pages waiting for art.

It has 26 signatures, 52 pages, 1 3/4" thick, 4 3/8" by 5 1/2".

Next comes the embellishments.
I am working on my 4th one now.
;-D

My Coptic bound book

I told you guys I was making a book. I wanted to show you what I did.
This one is the first one I did. It has a nice cover. I learned a lot.

I used chipboard for the covers. I only have thin stuff, so I taped three sheets together to make it more like a real book.
This is some hand-made paper I've had forever.


I love the way the covers turned out.

I used some scrap paper I had for the inside cover.
I had this colored card stock that I rarely use so I made the inside papers out of it. There are some orange petals in the paper on the cover and I thought it would look better than it does ;-D

It looks OK with the back inside cover.
Another piece of scrap.

Here is the stitching that I used per the YouTube instructions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHAJyzzb4EE
I think that the heavy-duty thread I used is not heavy enough for this job.
Down by my thumb I pulled the thread too hard and ripped one of the pages (called stations by the man who was teaching it).







Now this one is my second attempt and I took my time and went through things thoroughly. I liked doing it enough the first to try again.
I really like learning old school things that may one day become a lost art. Plus I believe that building your body of knowledge or skills will only help you in the long-term.
It also given me a great appreciation of modern conveniences and technology.

This is the spine of the 2nd book. I used a much thicker cord, it is waxed linen I have had for an age, I knew it would come in handy one day.



Worked beautifully. I also used curved upholstery needle this time. What a difference a needle can make.

I used a creamy yellow card stock for the pages this time.

I used the great green sage paper with leaves and stems painted on them. This is the inside back and front cover.

My stitching looks so much better with this waxed linen and it stays in place when you pull it there. It also does not seem to bind, knot, or tangle as much as the other thread.

Pretty neat all the way across the spine.

The book opens nicely and will lay flat on the table too.

This is the back inside cover.
Book laying flat.

I used a great craft paper for the outside covers. I am so very happy with the way this came out, I am making another one ;-D

Wednesday updates

I am still not feeling up to snuff, but better. Madi and I lay around a lot. There is just something about having a cold during hot weather, it doesn't feel right. It is supposed to be cold and rainy so you can drink chicken soup and get better. You know the whole bathrobe wrapped up to your neck, thermometer hanging out of the side of your mouth, droopy eyes, slippers and blankies all over you.
Not this cold, not this time.
So no Wednesday Wonders again :-(

I wanted to remind you I have a piece I am giving away on the Mary's Graces Blog
http://marysgraces.blogspot.com/2011/08/token-of-love-give-away-from-marie.html

The giveaway is over on Friday 08/18/11,  you might want to go check it out if your are interested.

Since I had to stay home this weekend and not go play at Jodi's house, I brought out the paper and started to play.
I have always wanted to learn Coptic book binding, I did.
I did OK too.
My friend Meredith makes wonderful books, Coptic binding is one of her specialties. I have always admired them, it is a neat technique and she does a great job.
You can see her book and paper art gallery here http://www.mereditharnold.com/MeredithsWebsite/books-port1.htm
She also teaches in the Seattle area and will teach a class for it if you get enough people together.

I will take a picture of my little book and load it up here later.

I went to google and did a search for Coptic bookbinding and up pops,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHAJyzzb4EE

This one is for Coptic bookbinding with hard covers. There are other wonderful videos under the same search for doing different covers, images, and a plethora of info to keep you or me busy for days ;-D

I am going to do this again.

I have also listed tons(OK, lots) of stuff in both of my stores.
http://www.mariesegal.etsy.com/
http://www.thehoarderscloset.etsy.com/

Also I don't know if you know about this web page and group, but if you are an Etsy seller of handmade or vintage, this might be a wonderful source for you.
It is called Etsy Lush http://etsylush.com/
They also have a team on Etsy, you can check it out here.
http://www.etsy.com/teams/8706/etsylush
It is totally run by volunteers, donating what I am sure is massive hours of time, to promote sellers on Etsy
Thank you guys!!
They also started doing individual pages for the people who get their things listed.
 
Here is my page
http://etsylush.com/author/mariesegal/
It also helps me keep track of what I have submitted already ;-D
That kind of tool always helps me. It is also nice to be able to share it too.
Thank you guys, again.

I hope you have a great day.
Be well and it is almost Friday ;-D

Fave Crafts Blog Hop- Black and White Canes #2 Atomic age influence part 4, and Happy Monday!!

It is time again for the Fave Crafts Blog hop- finished on the 15th.

 You can click on the link/logo to take to you to a Fave Crafts page with all of the other artists participating in this.

Welcome to my site.
I am in the midst of a tutorial on Black and White canes with Cernit polymer clay.
A cane is a method of making images in rods of clay by layering different colors of clay together to form that image.
Then cross sections are cut of those rods and used in many applications like jewelry, and application to many different things like light switch plates, silver ware, glass, and ceramics just to name a few. The possibilities are endless.

It is an adapted technique from ceramic and glass, in ceramics it is called neriagi and in glass it is called millefiori.

You can see a wonderful example of neriagi here by Ito Sekisui V, make sure you scroll down to see the flowered vessel:
http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/ito-sekisui-v.html

Here is Wiki's definition with pictures of Millefiori in glass:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millefiori


And now for the tutorial...

Continued from Part 1: http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age.html

and Part 2:
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age_09.html
and Part 3:
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2011/08/black-and-white-canes-2-atomic-age_14.html

You will need:
2 blocks of Opaque White Cernit
1 block of Black Cernit
Porcelain White Cernit big block
Clay machine
Clay Slicing blade
ruler

Links lead to my husband's store http://www.clayfactory.net/.
Thank you for looking or buying, we appreciate it very much. It helps us eat and pay the bills.


Mix the small blocks of Opaque white with equal amounts of the porcelain white.
Then mix the black block with an equal amount of the porcelain white. It will look slightly lighter, but bakes up a beautiful black color.

1. Trim off the ends of your cane (so far).

2. Stand the cane on one end.

3. Add the round cane rods that you cut in part 3 to the block you have standing on end.
They go at the four points of the diamond image.
Trim off the excess from the four round rods.

4. Like so.

5. Roll a small coil of white clay about 3/16" and using your thumb and forefinger press in to a triangle shape.

6. You will need 8 of these as long as your image block is high to go around the small rods in white wrapped in black.

7. Tuck one of the points of the triangle in to the space under the coil, just enough to fill that space, not enough to move it.

8. Press them in like this. I have this turned on its side so I can show you how it is done. You do not want to lay this on the round cane and press it in, it has to be standing so you do not flatten the round rods.

9. Fill all of those spaces on the image block.

10. Roll a coil of white clay that is about 3/4" in diameter and a little bit longer than the length of the image block. Trim off one end so it has a flat edge.

11. Cut the coil in half through the length.

12. Add one half flat side in, to the top right side of the image and add the other one to the bottom left hand side of the image flat side against the image.

13. Roll another coil that is the length of the image block's height.

14. Now cut that one in half through the length. Add those to the other diagonal spaces. The top left and the right bottom of the image block.

15. Roll out a coil of white that is about 3/8" in diameter. Press it into a triangle shape.

16. Add those triangles to the left and right side of the image right in the middle of the two half coil on each side.

17. Roll out another small coil of white about 3/16" and press into a triangle.
This you will use to fill in the two spaces on the top and the bottom of the image block where there is a dip on the top and one the bottom.
You will need four of these triangle pieces.

18. Here the image block is filled in all the spaces with one left to trim off. It is basically in a rectangle shape.

19. Pinch the block in the top corners and in the bottom corners to make them more defined and more like a rectangle. Pinch them all the way down the image block side in all 4 corners.

20. Roll out a sheet of white on the thickest setting in the clay machine. Trim off the leading edge for the straight edge. Lay the rectangle image block on that edge.
Trim off the right and the left side of the block to make the sheet that width.
Wrap the sheet around the rectangle image black sides.

21. Wrap it up and trim the other end of the sheet to match the beginning of the sheet. Smooth the seam with your finger.

22. Press on the side of the image block to compress together and reduce. Go slow and use the flat part of your palm (or the flattest part) usually the heel of your palm. That heel of your palm is the strongest too. Press down as evenly as you can.
Turn the block 1/4 turn to another side and press again the same way.
Turn the block 1/4 turn to another side and press again the same way.
Turn the block 1/4 turn to another side and press again the same way.
You have now done all four sides.
Flip the cane(image block) from end to end and proceed to do all 4 sides again. then repeat, doing this over and over until you have reduced the cane down to about half the size.

23. When I have reduced the cane down far enough I then I hold the cane with one hand and use my upper palm and slide my hand down the cane to lengthen it.
Always turning it one-quarter turn now and again and then I flip it from end to end and do the same thing from the other side of the cane. This makes it smooth and stretches it out. I am gliding the top of my palm over the clay.

24. When you have reduced it down to about 1" by 3/4" cut it in half.
Tah dah!
Come back for the next one we are going to cover a votive in all the black and white canes we have made so far.