Piñata ink and translucent clays

You probably already know this, but the Cernit colors, Opaque white, Pearl white, Porcelain White, Biscuit, Nightglow, Granite, Champagne, and Translucent can be tinted or colored with the Piñata inks. So in reality you could buy just a couple of colors of Cernit and have your self a virtual field day if you already have the Piñata inks and some of you might. The inks can be used on paper, leather, glass, tile, silk, cotton, organza, lace, and some plastics. This is a very versatile product and definitely one I carry in my tool box.

The blue in this flower cane is Baja Blue Piñata ink tinted Pearl Cernit. The background is the plain porcelain white. The color you see in it is a color core and then the cane slices are added to it. I like the frosted appearance.

Baja Blue and Senorita Margarita make a great purple. One drop of each color should do it.

It doesn’t take much of the ink at all. They are somewhat translucent themselves and quite intense in color. If you are out of the USA you can not get them from us www.clayfactory.net, you have to find them locally, go to www.Jacquardproducts.com they have a product finder there under each product or you can call or write them.

You want to condition your clay. With Cernit it is important to thoroughly condition the clay. I condition and flatten a piece about 1/8 of a small block with my fingers and then I put a drop of Piñata on the clay and let it dry on the clay.

With Sunbright Yellow and Tangerine will probably need a couple of drops. Now when I say one or two, I mean one or two, the Piñata ink is very strong.

With the Opaque white you will get more pastely colors and with the porcelain white they are almost like frosted glass that is colored. With the translucent they will be more intense in color or the strength of the color. They may also look very light before baking and will darken up some after baking.

Put on a pair gloves and condition the ink color in to the clay.

With the reds and the pinks they will migrate in to other colors of clay when the clay is unbaked.

So make the colors and if you are using the reds and the pinks, make your canes small and bake your work right away.

I like that I can use this to make a ton of different pearl colors too and the nightglow is a blast with the Piñata because it still glows even when using a dark ink like the sapphire blue. YAY!!!

The ink is also fun to use by applying it directly to a bead that you have already formed to color the bead. I used this method in my Inkling beads.

There is a link to that and the Piñata Ink Flowers and leaves here.

Here is the URL,

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2008/12/another-project.html

This is another project called Glowing Night Lights here.

and the URL

http://www.jacquardproducts.com/support/projects/proj0005/

memorial day

Happy Memorial day,


The soldiers in my life wear no uniforms, but they are strong and they fight with all of their might.


The soldiers in my life draw no blood but they pump my heart with their light.


The soldiers in my life struggle with the plight of human existence and strive to do and live what is just and right.


Let me not forget the battle, let me not forget the struggle, let me not forget the pain as I fly my flag half mast in to the night.

Too cool for school

Can you tell this child is seriously concerned for her mother?

Getting your creative energy rolling

I don’t have periods of what some may call “artist’s block”. For one thing I never call it that, I call those “moments of reflection or absorption” where I am digesting all I have learned in the past day, week, month, or year of creative materialization. A lot of times the block can come from the label itself. If I upload a bunch of stuff... I have to give it a moment to be found. It is the same in my head. After intense manifestation, I give it a chance to settle in.

Another thing is, I also just know that creativity is there, I don’t even give it another choice.
After a period of intense physical manifestation it can seem like I am “blocked” if I am not outputting “stuff”, but as an artist I can be creating and manifesting in the mental level all of the time. I also take note of these brain “sticky notes” and validate them by acknowledging them.

If I do have periods of not knowing where to go next, I refer to a journal of ideas. One way to start your creative journal is to make time or a date with yourself to create something.

I have to create and make things, I have done this so long that it is mostly second nature to me. It is how I roll, as my kids say.

It is what I have to do or die if I don't.

You might be the same, which is why you may be feeling frustrated , crazy, or bad about doing everyday stuff and putting it before creating. That everyday stuff has to be done too and it is balance that makes us feel good! It is in the balance that we are most healthy as human beings, body and soul. And everyday stuff can be creative too. Do it with your heart, and head!

Once you get the hang of this, you may have to schedule your everyday stuff. But be in the moment where ever you are at the time, feel it, notice the colors, hear the sounds and search for the feeling inside, stop listing everything over and over in your head.
Everyone has a different way, but in order to get you going, why not take 2 hours out of every week to sit down and do something, schedule it, make it a date with yourself or destiny!! We all have two hours somewhere, turn off the TV. Then through out the week before the date, think about it. Write it down in a "Me Journal" (a spiral notebook is great for this, and you can call it whatever you want) what you are going to do in your two hours. You have to do the two hours whether you have something planned or not, so you might as well embrace this to get you going. Part of the process is gathering the supplies, planning the card, the painting, or what ever you are going to make or create, making drawings of the idea, and write the feelings.

Make a day to do the two hours on. Every Thursday afternoon at 3:00PM, or AM if you are a vampire ;-) for instance, and commit to this, it is a date with you, for you, and your mental health. As Nike says "just do it".

This also gets you in the habit of taking time out to create, instead of piling life up in front of you all of the time. During the week before your date, you will have flashes of ideas or insights. Write those in a different section of your “me journal”, the idea section. If you have a dream about a design, you write it down and describe it all the way, notes about what it is and how to make it and how you will feel, and what you need to do it. Even during your two hour date, things will come to you. Write them down, they come in handy for the next "two hour date".

Even if it seems stupid, write it down. This is your book to use and share, so no one even has to see it. Hide it if it makes you feel better and safer, just write it down.

I have also found that this is a great thing to have, this journal, when in intense periods of making things or working for money. Which for me had the same effect on me as being in a desert period. At that time I was making lots of the same thing over and over again and it seemed that my creativity was starving for something new, fresh, and another color even. After doing this, lets say for the Christmas season, I, in January could not talk or even help my kids do anything. I just wanted to lay on the couch and sleep. This is why I say balance is healthy.

Battery was low, dangerously low.

It is good for unloading in too, keep track of, and stimulating the creative being that you are, because you are a creative being. Collect pictures, sayings, and anything that makes you feel and put in there.
We come from a long line of ancestor women that picked up mud and made things, it is genetic and feeding it makes you whole in oh so many ways!
I have found that I have more ideas than I can use and I am good problem solver, if I breathe! I don't understand some of what I write down later, but if my brain is uncluttered and in my journal, it is free to create and invent much more. I also find that I can not make enough time to create anymore, that is all I want to do and if I don't feel like creating anything at sometime, I am OK because I know more will come, always, and I have so many ideas in my journal there are no worries anyway.
Oh my goodness does the house suffer for this, now.

1st Giveaway, Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottoms of our hearts

Howard and I wanted to do something special this year and we wanted to do it with all of you. We have been in the Polymer clay and craft supply business for 30 years, this year. That, my dear friends is a feat. We have also been married for 30 years this year and let me tell you that is a monumental feat!! LOL!!
Sometimes though, it has been the business that has been tougher. At least we have had each other and you.

We have met many, many, many wonderful people, friends, customers, and acquaintances in all the years we have been doing this and some of those mentioned are no longer with us for many reasons and we can not thank them personally. We are grateful for each and every one of you. You have touched our hearts and I hope that we have touched yours.
THANK YOU from the very bottoms and tops of our hearts; you are our light and our life.

We were looking for a way to pay it forward and backwards and to let you know that you matter to us and you are perfect just the way you are. We think we have come up with a wonderful way to celebrate this.

This is going to be the beginning of a year of giving. It will take us through our anniversaries, Children’s birthdays (happy birthday, Shas!!!), grandchildren’s birthdays and many more important family and business celebrations. I am counting on hitting some of yours too.

The giveaways will happen at irregular intervals, so it is probably best if you follow, but it is not a requirement. I am so grateful to have you if you do decide to follow.
There is only one thing you have to do and that is to leave a comment to the giveaway post in question at the time.

I will count all of the responses and generate a random number from Random.org (I have also added the generator to the blog if you want to use it) and announce the winner the day after the contest closes.

This first giveaway is brought to you by these lovely and wonderful people and companies; with out them this would not be possible at all. Please make an effort to visit their sites. Thank you, thank you, thank you to each and every one of you:

Clay Factory

Me

Art Glitter

Makin’s Clay

Jacquard Products

I am going to run this till the 14th of June, that is Sunday, and the contest will close at 12 midnight PDT

Here is what you will get:
Art Institute Glitter- basic set with fabric glue
Sculpting tool
Bamboo skewer
Clay blade
Set of 3 round cutters
2- 2 ounce blocks of Cernit phthalate free clay in black
Rhinestones
Pendant I made from photographing the step by step instructions
Step by step instructions

added 06/17/09
#16 Myra Katz won the giveaway, congratulations Myra! There were two duplicate posts and those were eliminated.

Carly wants you!!

If you are a woman and you have a story to tell... Carly wants you!
Check out http://www.womansworldmagazine.blogspot.com/
Email Carly at womensworldmagazine@hotmail.com

it is rubbing off on me

I am surrounded by doll artists and thoroughly enjoy and admire all of their work.

I am wondering if you can learn something by osmosis?

It is just not what I do, but I think they are rubbing off on me.

My daughter was just in hospital having the cutest Grandbaby in the world (no, I am not biased) and she received flowers in these great little vases. I am always saving things because I might use them for something someday 20 years from now. I saved those vases.

After doing this all of my life, I can not save another thing. I notice with others I talk to, that are about my age, this seems to be something they are going through too. At least I am not alone in this. Must be this "50 something clean up your stuff before you die so other people don't have to go through it or see the crap you have been hanging on to forever" thing.

Do you find that the minute you give it away, recycle, or "goodwill" it that you come up with something dynamite to use it for? Maybe I should threaten all of my junk.

Anyway I am tangenting... I took the vases out of the cupboard and I put them in the "recycled glass" bin. YAY!!! Great start. Now when I do this I must make a note to self to take them immediately to the recycle place. I went to sleep that night and I dreamt all night about doing things with the vases, either I am losing my mind or feeling guilty about recycling perfectly good vases, or a lot of both! I saw the vases being held by the object that I put on them. and this is what I came up with.

The woman looks like my great grandmother and please don't be too harsh in your judgements, I dropped her on her face before she was baked and I can see that I need to take more time with my blending. But the blue eye shadow...lol. She also has a blue tint to her hair. My great Grandmother did not. The other is just vampy, and for the life of me cute is in my genes or something, I have a very hard time doing scary. This vamp has some seriously cute melancholy going on here. Must be all of the medications humans are taking now. ;-O

I am very happy with these though and wanted to share and now I can not possibly throw them out, can I?

Have a great weekend everyone!!!