Mixed Media Bumblebee

Firstly, I'd like to wish all of our US Readers a Happy 4th July. Hope you have a wonderful day!

For today's post, I'd like to share how I made my bumblebee connectors for last months AJE Theme Challenge. The theme was summer and I decided I wanted my design to portray a summer's garden, so I came up with these mixed media connectors to design around.

My version is made in ceramic clay, but it would work equally well in polymer or air drying clays.

To begin, you will need clay, and decorating colours (either glaze or paints), wire, and metal sheet, plus tools.

Take a small lump of clay and roll in to a long egg shape.

Divide the shape in half by pressing a line around the centre.

Using a flat tool, smooth each side of the line to remove the sharp edge.

Choose which end you want to be the head and divide that section in half as before, by carving a line around the centre.

Smooth the edges again.

Draw an eye shape on either side of the head, pressing around the edge of the line to make the eye stand out.

Clean up the carved areas with a damp paintbrush.

Using a knife or other thin sharp tool, start at the rear of the bee and scratch lines in a circle to start adding the texture of the fur.

Continue adding the fur texture in rings around the body of the bee stopping at the head.

On either side add a slot through the middle section of the body. This needs to be wide enough to add the wings so check the thickness of your metal. If working in ceramic clay, make sure you allow for shrinkage.

And finally, add high temperature or other wire to turn the bee in to a link.

Originally I was going to glaze these in black, but decided that wasn't very summery, so I went for a rusty matt brown.

To make the wings, I drew the shape on to a sticker and put this on to copper sheet for cutting. I used temporary stickers so I could peel the original off and use it again for the others to make sure that each wing would be the same shape. Each wing has a tab where it can be inserted and glued in to the body.

To add texture on to the wings, I decided to etch them. Stop out fluid was painted on and they were etched for about an hour and a half.

I don't always like the wobbliness that is created with the etching fluid, but it gives the wings a brilliant texture.

After treating with Liver of Sulphur and tumbling, the bees were ready for assembly.

Using a toothpick, I put two part epoxy resin in to the slots on the bodies and added the wings, holding them in place with a rubber band while the glue set.

And here's one of them in the finished necklace.

I think copper and clay work really well together and my brain is buzzing with ideas for other ways to incorporate metal into new work.

Inspired by Art

I'm really getting in to the swing of things with my ceramics. Do you ever feel as though things are starting to fall in to place? I have many styles and techniques that I love to work in/with. And over the last couple of weeks I've been working on ways to incorporate them together in my work.

My first love in the art world is Art Nouveau. The gentle flowing lines, the movement and suggestion of form, and the rich earthy colours in the designs.

Art Nouveau Inspiration

My absolute favourite is Alphonse Mucha, the Czech painter and decorative artist.

Alphonse Mucha - Donna Orechini

Alphonse Mucha - Job Cigarettes

Alphonse Mucha - Zodiac

When you look closely at his work, it seems deceivingly simple,  a series of heavy lines, with washed pastel colours, but the sum of the parts is an incredible result.

Alphonse Mucha - Posing a model

Mucha regularly used photography as a tool for his work, building grand sets with his models, taking many photographs, and choosing elements from them to create his artworks. After school, I studied photography at college and have hundreds of pictures from which I regularly draw inspiration. 

If you'd like to read more about Mucha's life and work, you must visit the Mucha foundation website,  full of information and even colouring pages of his line drawings.

http://www.muchafoundation.org

Mucha Quote

I also love to draw, and have multiple sketchpads full of work I've produced in pursuit of my own style. 

Sketches

The simple suggestive style really appeals to me and I've been exploring that with some new tile designs.

Carved tile designs

I'm really enjoying working on a larger scale and these designs include my love of carving, nature, photography and Art Nouveau.

Underglazed tile

Inspired by Jenny's post showing how she uses underglazes for her work, I decided to try it out myself for my first test. The carved tile was decorated in multiple layers of underglaze to create solid colours, outlined in black and then fired with a coat of clear glaze. I've found with my underglazes, they work better if you fire them bare, then fire again with the clear. The colours turn out much brighter. 

For a second test, I tried single colours of transparent glaze. These turned out to be my favourites.

Single colour glazed tile

I've always had a thing for the way glaze breaks over texture, and in this version, the carving really stands out. 

Not wanting to abandon beads altogether, I tried out some miniature versions of the tiles as pendants.

Hand carved ceramic pendants

Next I'm going to try these out with multiple colours, although on previous attempts, this hasn't always gone to plan and they looked a bit messy, maybe having a bit more patience might be the key! 

And finally, as I really liked the smaller tile pendants, I tried out one of the design in bronze clay, using the same hand carving techniques I used for the clay versions.

Carved bronze pendant

I'd like to turn this in to some jewellery, I have bronze wire on order, just need to decide how to go about making up the chain! I'm thinking something with rich coloured Czech glass beads and wrapped wire. 

And finally, a quick update on the mugs from my last post. They're still very much a work in progress, I've decided the handle on this one is too big, but I quite like the multi coloured glazing (which took forever!) I think with a bit of tweaking, and maybe an extra coat of glaze for a more solid colour on the purple, they will be pretty cool! 

A WIP

It's still great fun to drink out of something you've created yourself, even if it isn't exactly as you'd like it.

I'm really enjoying the journey I'm taking with my work, it's extremely satisfying to search for what it is that you love and express it through your work. 

I'd love to hear what it is that inspires your work... don't forget to leave a comment!

Learning to Sculpt

I don't sculpt.  I should say, I've never tried to sculpt before.  A few weeks ago I decided I would start teaching myself.  My cousin had been posting photos of her new pet hedgehog so I figured that was a good place to start.

My first two stoneware hedgies

These were my first two tries.  Not so great but not so bad as to make me quit trying right then and there (my complaining would suggest otherwise).  I took some advice from friends and kept going.

Silly stoneware hedgehog with tiny body

I don't know what happened here.  He came out with a big head and almost no body.  Ok, let's try some more.  

Two stoneware frogs and a hedgehog

This little guy made me happy.  His head to body ratio was better and I changed the shape of his mouth (also based on feedback from friends).  After I made a couple of hedgehogs I played around and made those little frog heads.  

Start of a stoneware cat face 

After the hedgehogs and frogs, I decided to try a cat face.  I made little silly-looking cat face charms a few years ago but decided it was time to up my game.  I rolled out a base and then attached two balls of clay for ears and began shaping them.

Cat face before eyes

I kept adding and taking away clay, adding more and taking some away.  Eventually I was left with a face with no eyes.  I couldn't decide how to make them.

Cat faces with two different types of eyes

Originally I made faces with the eyes on the left.  They didn't look right to me so I got more feedback and then made a change to one of them.  I carved out the eye area and then rolled two little balls and pressed them in.  I left the other one as-is just so I could see how the finished pieces would look.

Some of the finished test pieces with oxide and glaze

After all the pieces were sponged, bisque-fired, stained and glazed, I glaze-fired them and these were the end results.  I'm happy with the hedgehogs and frogs but the cat faces need some further adjustments.  

I started working on some more last week.  Here's a little hedgehog in porcelain.  I want to test a specific glaze on him.

Porcelain hedgehog

So my goal this week is to make some more in stoneware with the necessary adjustments and hopefully have a batch of them ready sometime next week.  It's been a fun (and at times frustrating) process trying to teach myself something as simple as these little animals.  I'm excited though to see what else I'll be able to create as I gain more experience.

Happy Beading!