Reveal Day of 11th Non-Blogger & Blogger Challenge

Actually the reveal date for the WINTER FOREST challenge was yesterday, but you know me...always a day behind.  I decided to join this challenge because I fell in love with the painting which we had to get our inspiration from.

I thought it would be great to sort of recreate the painting and turn it into my own.  I have been interested in learning more about working with polymer clay and making pendents and when I saw Dini's painting I just had to do this.

So I made a simple drawing, then got to work.  I made the cab from polymer clay.  I then drew on the cab and added some soft pencil blending to help deepen the colors once I started painting them on.  I first sprayed the pencil with Flexatif spray so the pencil wouldn't rub off.

I then misted the piece with water and added the paints little at a time and heat set in between the layers....

Next, I drew darkened the shading with pencil again, and wrote Winter Forest on the bottom with permanent ink, then heat set that.

I then painted white acrylic paint blops to create the snow and drew more lines for texture.  I sealed the pendent with 3 coats of high gloss spray.

See the snow...and the fun heart on the trunk? 

Then it took me a day or two to decide on how I was going to finish on the pendent.  I have done beaded pendents before, but not using the embroidery beading technique.  So I challenged myself a bit when I decided to learn to do embroidery beading.  I made a quick pit-stop after work on one of my crazy days...lol...and picked up some leather scraps at Joann fabrics...ran the rest of my errands and when I got home, I got to work.  I had all the beads on hand so that was the easy part.  It took me, well, lets see, maybe 3 or 4 attempts before I finally got it working smoothly.  Im still not 100 percent happy with the results of the bead work, but I think it turned out ok.

Then, today, when I got home and logged onto facebook...there it was!  The reveal post...and my mind was a tad on overload!  I was not finished yet with the piece.  I didnt have the bail beaded, I didnt even have the chain or rope or what ever I was going to use to hang it onto!  Then, suddenly, the light bulb came on...I had made a rope with denim one day for fun, before Christmas, and it was sitting in my kumihimo box.  That is what I needed..that is why I made that rope!  So, once I got that all figured out and put together... it was time for the photo shoot.  Thank goodness that was a quick ordeal.  I loaded up photoshop and did my quick crop and sharpen and any other little fixes and posted the final picture on the challenge page.

But before I posted the picture, my mind started playing games on me.  I was thinking...OMG, maybe Dini will think I was copying her painting...maybe I was in the wrong for making this.. So I asked for some advise from an awesome beading artist and she was kind enough to tell me that she felt the pendent was beautiful and if it was her painting, she would have been happy with what I have created from the painting.  I hope Dini feels the same...

Thank you for reading all of this...and I hope you go to the hop and vote for my piece... XO

No Name....

Here is my first attempt with resin.  I really liked how Wyanne's paintings looked using resin, the richness of the colors are amazing.  The photos do no justice for what they really look like.  Im not sure I like working with the material though...It stinks something fierce!  My eyes watered and my throat burned.  I poured the resin in my garage with the door open.  My table is set up at the garage door so there was lots of fresh air!  I dont know if different brands have different smells, but this one was awful!  I know I will do this again because I really do like the end results, and I do want to attempt making jewelry with resin.  I think maybe the next time, I will keep a fan near by.  Also, I followed the instructions exact, and it took longer for the resin to set.  This could be because the weather is still slightly cool here, not much hotter than 70 degrees, and the instructions did say not to use in temperature less than 72 degrees.  But I was in the sun during this day.  It took about 2 days for it to become less sticky, and slightly smooth.  Almost a week later, it still is a little soft and sticky but you can touch it and you wont leave and impression of your fingers...but it will streak!  Im not sure how to make it less sticky unless maybe by putting a little of baby oil or glycerin, I am not sure.  I still have to try it out.  All of the pieces are not totally covered on her.  Her antenna sticks out, but I wanted it that way.  And her necklace pieces are not totally covered, but I do like it this way too.  The rest is covered.  I did make it with 2 layers.  Its a little hard to tell even not in the photo, but I think maybe the layers were not thick enough to really get the dimensional affect I was after.  Overall I am satisfied with the painting, I only hope that it gets easier, less stinky, and continue to be a fun thing to do....