Like a Rolling Stone

SPRING & SUMMER 2006 By now I was clay crazy! The more I played with it, the more versatile I found it to be. My faces were time consuming, and my imagination was going faster than my hands could work. I went to the craft store to check out the clay supplies. I found face molds and shape molds, scrolly molds and ethnic molds. Needless to say, I was all about molds! I literally ran home to experiment!

For some reason, the colored clay hadnt caught my eye yet. I was imagining the play-doh-looking kid creatures and wanted a more complex finish (little did I know....). I kept trying to use flesh, ivory, white and translucent then add paint to it. I tried acrylic, stains, inks, powders.... everything imaginable. I discovered that rubbing a baked piece brought out a shine, then sanding it before buffing brought out an even higher sheen. I inadvertently mixed some scrap and ended up with a marbled effect, which stunned me. I made a little flower, then started impressing leaves.

My sister then introduced me to rubber stamping. Of course I applied it to my new addiction... clay! Lo and behold, I was completely taken by the results! More visits to the craft store and I bought a pasta machine and starting covering vessels and candles with clay. I bought a clay/stamping kit. Away I went, stamping and baking. The tutorials included in the kit referenced a website. That's where I launched into the REAL clay world, the internet! I discovered the possibilities where endless!

I tried new projects, read the facts, found new methods.... I was consumed by this art. I just hadn't found my niche', polymer was wonderful but what on earth was I going to do with all these clay tidbits?