craftgrrl | Dea learns her lesson (Reply)

Unlike other beginners who pore over How-To's (bake a cake! Shave your dog! Drive a car!) and follow directions to a T (don't use near flame!), I don't. Whenever a new craft catches my fancy I scour up loads of raw materials and jump in headfirst -- to hell with the consequences! Well, my latest disaster was polymer clay.

After quickly browsing through some quick how-to guides on the internet, I figured all I needed to know was shape, bake, paint and seal. I swept up a small beginner Sculpey pack with oodles of delicious colors and set out to SuperCratfs(wo)man!

Of course, it didn't really turn out that way. Though I had tons of fun and made some cutesy clay things, I did learn a few important things.

First up is a pendant made of two crossed eye-pins covered in clay with a thin string of clay wrapped about to simulate a ball of yarn. Everything went well until I made the mistake of using watercolors instead acrylic paint. Once the modge podge came out to play, everything had blended into a yucky blue....mess.

Next up we have apple pie the way my grandma made them. The crust is a bit too big for the pie but in general, this is the best one out of all my Oopsies. The "pie tin" burnt to a black crisp on the bottom since I left it too long in the oven, but I was able to attach a square magnet to it so now it sits on my fridge.

The next one is just a complete and utter failure. It was meant to be a pendant, but I ended up making it too large and bulky. The hands were a nightmare to sculpt and paint, the E looks more like a W, and the sealer just emphasized the lumpy surface texture. I still do like the idea behind it and I might try again at a later date when I have a better idea of what I'm doing, for now it rests as a paperweight.