Tuesday 31 July 2012

Getting Ready for the Cardiff Steampunk Market :)

Very soon, I shall be trading at the Cardiff Steampunk Market


I am rather excited about this so I did a quick stock check and I am a tad low on my Gearpunk range.

This range is inspired by Steampunk but moves more across to revering the gears, I am officially obcessed with gears....

Anyways, I have run out of material now (waiting for a polymer delivery tomoz) so at 1am have decided to call it a night.

Heres whats been made so far!

I shall pop them in to cure and pop myself into bed!

Mwah everyone! xx

Friday 27 July 2012

Ego a Go Go



So I was messing with my Goggles (www.thebobbu.com) and my new blow torch and my digital camera.

A bizare funky fluke led to the creation of this image and I really like it! Random, huh?

Hope all is well in your universes, maybe you should send me your random pictures? It might be fun to do a post with them.

Captain P

x

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Pebble Experiment with free tutorial

Aloha folks, this is the next part of my series of tutorials for using up leftover surface treatments.

Inspired by some of the faux turqoise recipies out there I decided to try using my trimmings to create fantastical geode stones.

Ingredients : surface treatment scraps, acryllic paints, food processor,

first you need some surface treatment trimmings....


Then you need a food processor.....



This was five pounds at a car boot sale (obviously can no longer be used with food)


Trimmings


Plus some translucent in this case


Whizz it up into polymer kibble


Turn it out onto work surface. In this case my usual glass tiles are topped with recycled paper.


Paint all surfaces of the kibble


I wanted to experiment with two colours



Mmmmmm! I think it looks like robot vomit....but hey ho I am known for being peculiar.


Squish the kibble into lumps, compressing it really hard. I tend to dust my hands in cornstarch to make it all stick to me a bit less.


I prefer to cure my beads and things like this in cornflour in cheap metal food containers. Cure as per packet instructions.



Take the cooled cured pieces out and give them a wash in water.


Then sand the out surface off to reveal the internal colours. The paint between the kibble creates this lovely effect.

Et voila!


I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, more are en route eventually, I promise.

Captain Purky

xxx

Monday 23 July 2012

Mokume Nendo Experiment with free tutorial

Ahoy, I have been meaning to post this tutorial for ages. Unfortunately things are somewhat brassic at Purky towers so I am working two jobs and my time has been consumed by mundanity.

However, this tutorial is a photographic explanation of my attempts to use left over surface treatments to create lovely Mokume Nendo pieces.

Mokume Nendo - wood eye clay - is a technique adapted from the Japanese Mokume Gane - wood eye metal- a method for producing beautiful layered metalwork.


Step 1 condition some translucent clay, here I am using fimo brand and have rolled it to setting 9 on my eberhard faber fimo machine.


When experimenting I prefer to use a cookie cutter to do my mokume nendo, this way its just easier and quicker.


These pieces form the basis of your layered stack.


Take a piece of left over surface treatment, here ink and powder technique.


Begin layering your stack. Do not worry about the gaps.





Keep going until the stack is as high as you wanted. As this is an experiment, this is a pretty small stack.


One primordial mokume nendo stack! Time to get squashing...


Compact the stack to create a united piece. You may find that what is inside affects the unity of the stack. For example as this is an ink and powder piece, the powder natuarally prevents clay adhering to itself. Just keep manipulating the piece until it obeys you.


Continue compressing the stack until it can be rolled through the thickest setting on your clay machine.


Then restack. You can do this as many times as you like but be aware that the finer the strata between layers the more inticate and less bold the mokume patterns will be.


At this point I trim my stack and place the trimmings to one side. Then begin torturing the stack by impressing it with textures. The purpose of this is to cause internal distortions that create the mokume nendo pattern.


While the main stack rested I had a play with the trimmings. Those wooden stamps are chinese seal 'chops'


This is a ginkyo leaf texture from the discontinued studio by sculpey tool line.


Once the stack has rested, take a tissue blade and finely slice across the top. Imagine you are taking slithers in order to produce a veneer.



Like so.


Apply the slices to a base sheet of polymer clay. Here I am using a slightly muddy piece of white clay.


Use a brayer to ensure your slices are adhered. Then roll the sheet through the clay machine. Be aware that depending on the setting you use, there will be distortions in the sheet of veneer.


Trim the sheet. I would normally back this veneer and turn it into jewellery components but I want the experimental sheet for my archive.



After baking and sanding. Interestingly the inks tinted the translucent which gave the lovely reddish hues. However, the dark polymer also over shadowed the translucent layers. It has an interesting finish and I think with further sanding and buffing something very exciting would ermerge.


The other two experiments prior to sanding


And afterwards. I am not really patient enough to sand these experiments down hard enough to explore the full potential but I will pop them in a box and get round to it eventually.



this is the most intrigueing piece for me, the fine levels of detail in the closely layered textured lines provide the most scope for future pieces.

I have another four tutorials using leftover surface treatments planned. Most of the pictures have been taken its just finding the time to edit them and get the tutorials up.

My apologies for being slow, I hope this inspires you to experiment with Mokume Nendo

Captain Purky

xx

Friday 20 July 2012

Goddess experiment

I am off work with poorliness at the moment but have been challenged to create some goddess beads.
Its a pleasant distraction from the coughing and sputtering.
The clay is a quick mix of ink, mica and a few colours.
Not bad for a first go, hey?
First post from my blogger app as well.
Hope you are all well x

Friday 6 July 2012

Butterfly dreams

A few weeks ago, I had a beautiful dream.

Phileous Mogg (my cat) and I were on holiday in a jungle....random I know. We found a colony of beautiful huge butterflies. Their wings were like stained glass and about 40 inches from wingtip to wingtip.

Somehow we ended up in Paris with a gorgeous shabby chic white washed shop on a back street. I could speak perfect french and Phil was wearing a red  beret and could speak 'cat French'. Our shop sold the butterflies as pets and was warm like a jungle. There were beautiful hand turned ceramic butterfly feeders and houses. Also the caterpillars were as big as a mans forearm and wandering around the shop nomming on lushious plants.

It was a really lovely dream and although I am not sure how ethically comfortable I would be with stealing an animal from its habitat to generate profit in a real world situation. I rather enjoyed dreaming about it.

Catch you laters folks

(and try not to be surprised if there is a new butterfly themed Purky Collection soon....)

H
xx

Monday 2 July 2012

The Mushroom Village

So, I was walking in the woods at Alfred's Tower, doing some mental defragging and I stumbled upon this delightful cluster of fungi.



 I have dubbed it the 'Mushroom Village' and to me it looks like little huts built out of the side of the tree and I am sure it will be featuring in a short story sometime soon.




 It is just so perfect and beautiful.



Can you imagine little people living in there? 

I fully admit that I may just be odd...but I had to share this :)


Have you seen anything inspiring like this lately?


H

x