Celebrate today with HEARTS

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Clayaphobia -- Conditioning Good'Old Clay

KATO clay is one of my favorite clay but when it comes to conditioning, I usually suffer from "Conditioning Clayaphobia".
Thank goodness a cure is found!!

Looks familiar? Stiff clay... crumbling all over your working place... arrgh!!
I used to work very hard conditioning clay like this with the help of clay softener -- it's a messy job but it works! However, there is a much easier way to do it.

You need a BLENDER!
This is now my second must-have tools (first is the pasta machine).

Just toss in the chopped clay and let it do the 'hard' work.

After 10 sec. or so....

wahlah! A full container of finely chopped clay is ready to be used!

Obviously, pour it out onto your work surface. Although it looks kind of messy, but trust me, this is way easy to handle than having to mix with clay softener.

Gather all the tiny pieces and press lightly to form a square. The clay feels a bit warm after being worked in the blender.

With a acrylic roller, roll the clay to the thickness with match the thickest setting of your pasta machine. (Be kind to your pasta machine. You won't want it to work too hard!)

This is how it looks. Though not entirely flatten but it is in one piece.

Roll it through the pasta machine starting at the thickest setting.

This is how it looks after going through the pasta machine one (1) time. Continue conditioning through the pasta machine as usual.

And this is how it looks after going through the pasta machine 30 times.






Well, this may be nothing new but since I have just tried it out, might as well share it in case there are some clayaholic out there suffering this "Conditioning Clayaphobia" like me. ;p

"Claying will be so much fun if you don't have to sweat over conditioning." - Lilin

Featured in PCAGOE.com

Yay! I'm the featured artist of the week at the PCAGOE.com. It feels good knowing that my artwork are being appreciated.
(Thank you LINRIO)

I had been busy lately with a book publication assignment for my sister and now I can sit back and relax for a while.

Metamorphosis

Nail Creations

By Catherine Wong

Book Preview

This is THE book -- "METAMORPHOSIS Nail Creations by Catherine Wong". It is a compilation of her nail artworks over the years including latest works. It contains more than 90 original designs created in acrylic, gel, handpaint, mixed media and fantasy.

My hands are itching for clay... so most probably I will start working on something before the end of the week.

Mica Shift Challenge results -- SHARED First Prize!

My Strepia Butterfly Necklace is sharing First Prize with Marcia Palmer 's Metallic Silver Pendant! Yay!!

Check out the challenge results by clicking here.

Congratulations to all winners! And thank you all for your votes! =)

MiniME MOM - The Making

This is MiniME Mom, my first handsculpted polymer clay character cake topper. It took me approx. 18 hours within 2 days to complete. I should have taken photo of the making process but conveniently forgotten until the head is completed and heat-cured. As for the later part, I am racing over time so I skipped the picture-taking... which I am kind of regret now.

I believe the most challenging part for every sculpter is sculpting the face. I spent a good long hours just working on the face features alone. It is difficult to show the expression I wanted on the head sculpture. Distortion occured from time to time and fixing it was kind of disheartening. Just start all over!
The head in this photo is already heat-cured. I am attaching it to the raw clay upper body.


Working on the hands are fun. Maureen has illustrated a fantastic step-by-step instruction on making hands in her book.

This photo showing the palm of the hand (raw).





This is the finished raw hand, ready to be attached...
I wanted to apply nail polish on it but no time for this! Sigh...



Phew! Another time consuming part of this project is the fabric. I have pre-selected the outfit for my mom so I know what she's going to wear on her birthday. Color-mixing took some time cos' I wanted to get the closest color possible. Then it was the caning work, slicing and making it into a piece of clay fabric. I am quite happy with the result although there are plenty of room for improvement. ;p





Next, the Hair-Do!
Love the extruder especially at time like this.




I enjoyed working on this. It is my version of faux Jade pendant with chinese silk knotted necklace which Mom has worned to match her outfit.

And, what is a birthday without a birthday cake?
Thanks to my sister Catherine for giving me the idea of having MiniME MOM holding a cake with a big '60'. This should give great memories to mom of her special 60th birthday.

PCAGOE May MICA SHIFT Challenge

Been busy... but there is still time to vote if you haven't done so!
Vote for your favorite entry at pcagoe.com between now and midnight EST on Thursday, May 7, 2009. The challenge winners will be announced on May 8. All voters will be entered in random drawings to win attractive prizes, so come vote!

“Mica Shift is a technique that involves “shifting” the mica particles in metallic polymer clay to make a picture in the clay. Though the patterns on these items look textured, they’re not — they’ve been sanded smooth, and it’s the mica particles in the clay going in different directions that make the design show.” extract taken from pcagoe.com

Mom's MiniME Portrait Cake Topper

This is my mom - a mother to 5 grown children and grandma to 7 grandchildren.

She is turning 60 this year... guess how we celebrate this special day?

First, we celebrated it according to the Chinese custom... We had the Longevity Peach Bun (aka Shou Tao), which is a Chinese steamed bun specially made for birthday of elderly folks. It is stuffed with sweet lotus seed paste (yum!). In Chinese culture, peach is associated with longevity and ancient chinese believed that the peach of the Heaven (Pan Tao) can grant one an extra 500 years of life once eaten. So, we had to have these longevity buns on Mom's 60th Birthday. :)

Then, we surprised her with a western style birthday cake with a mini version of her as cake topper! Everyone burst into laughters when they saw this. What a way to end a celebration ;p

This is my first piece of polymer clay hand sculpted clay character and I am glad that it was made for my mom.