Hand Sculpting What I Imagine

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Hi there, today I want to share something I love to do. I love working with my hands, and lately I've been sketching out ideas to make into some type of jewelry or to use in mixed media projects.  One of the products I like to use two part epoxy clay.  There are several brands out there and a while back I went to Michael's and found this jewelry clay on clearance so I figured I would give it a try.  It was pretty sticky, maybe it was old product, but at the end it did what I needed it to do. 

This is a self hardening clay, so there's no need to use a kiln or an oven to cure this product.  I got two packages one had black and white parts, the other had white and gray parts to mix.   Just like the two part epoxy clays, you take equal parts and mix them well until you only have one color like in the third photo below. Once the clay is mixed, you have about an hour or so to work with this clay before it begins to harden.  One of the reasons I like using this product is because it hardens on it's own and when it cures completely (24 hours) it will be pretty hard, almost like stone. 




 Here are my two parts, ready to mix/blend together.



Now that the clay is all mixed, you can either place it inside a mold, or begin to sculpt your item by hand. (my favorite part)


Here are a few sketches of items I want to mold.



Well here you go, these are a few of the pieces I made, skulls in different sizes and each one different, made some tiny roses and different types of hearts.



Can you see the dimension added to some of the hearts? Once the base was hardened I went back and added borders and roses to some of the hearts to give them dimension. 



Tiny roses


Over the years I've had a lot of people asked me why I like to craft. At the beginning it was my way to relax, to get rid of stress, to clear my mind.  Soon after I began to challenge myself, to learn something new and to use crafting as a means to bring my ideas to life, I've been doing this for over 20 years, challenging myself to keep on learning.

For me to be able to use my hands to create what my mind sees, it's the best feeling in the world.  I love to create!!! How about you, are you crafty?  If so, why? Share with us the reasons you craft/create.



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