Year of Clay - Upcycle
This is a tribute to International Earth Day (April 22). Clay makes a wonderful cover for so many things including old bottles that might otherwise get recycled or discarded. Not that recycling is a bad thing but you want to aim for higher on the list than that. Upcycling (reusing) is a bonus.
According to Wikipedia:
Upcycling is the use of waste materials to provide useful products.
I love the shape of the Mateus wine bottles and lucky me - I have relatives that drink it! The bottles are a lovely organic shape and the neck is wide enough to accommodate a few flower stems. Both of these qualities make it just about perfect for upcycling it to a pretty vase.
In this case, I raided the Tooaquarius Boxes of Canes, pulled out pretty much every single blue and turquoise flower plus a few others, and started slicing. For this piece, I didn’t pick a specific design and simply placed the flowers in lines and curves. There is about 2 oz of cane on this bottle - so some 6 or 700 slices. This sampler vase has been sanded and hand buffed (oh I need a bench grinder, I do).
10 ‘Green’ Tips for the Clay Crafter
In the spirit of International Earth Day - and because one of my goals for 2007 is to be a lot more ‘green’ - here’s a few tips for the environmentally friendly clayer:
- Batch your baking. Use less electricity, save energy AND money.
- Resist buying supplies you probably won’t use. I know, crafters HAVE to have the latest but if you stick to a list or budget it or plan it a little, you’ll save money AND all the packaging and shipping the company uses.
- Use printed one side papers. For notes, baking your clay on, and leaching your clay (make sure not to use the print side though!).
- Use clean, empty milk jugs or stiff plastic packaging for stencil and template making.
- Give old denim a new life by using it for making buffing wheels.
- Reuse attractive jars or chipped dishes as bases for clay projects.
- Reuse plastic bags as stuffing for your shipping.
- Recycle the old craft magazines and books or sell them to other enthusiasts.
- Give your old but sturdy beads and projects to your local school, daycare or other group that may use them. Declutter AND less garbage.
- Use the least harmful glues, paints and finishes you can. Dispose of remaining chemicals safely.
Reduce, reuse and recycle can be applied to a lot of crafty things I notice.
Claychicks Weekly - April 19
Our ebay this week is a whole load of bits and pieces - I feel bad calling these ends ’cause my ends don ‘t look this pretty - of Carolyn Canes. 18 oz of bits and pieces in fact.
As always, check out our etsy!
Year of Clay - Spread my Wings
It’s a little late and I am making puns. You see, I made more canes. A lot the same as last batch… and then, I stretched a bit. Spread my wings. I finished off a blue morpho butterfly cane that I had been putting off and made a cabbage white butterfly. So those are the literal wings. And I made some retro canes to actually USE from… er… brave (for me) combinations of colours.
And before two years ago I did not know what a blue morpho or a cabbage white was. Clay has improved my flower and bug knowledge. So educational, Mom would be proud.
Caning Fool
As I alluded to the other day - I had a productive caning weekend. Some of this was Needed to be Done caning since the stocks at the Claychicks coop were running low and I had found all this pretty scrap clay in plain sight on my desk.
However, some of it was what I like to call productive procrastination. Make a boatload of good but not top-priority stuff. This is a bad habit. Why? Because just like everyone else I run out of time and then I have to spend later time catching up.
I do know better than this!
Year of Clay - Daffodil Doodles
I love daffodils. Last year, a friend sent me a piece of her daffodil cane and I’m embarassed to say I didn’t even crack the neatly wrapped little tube until this weekend!
Like a lot of my prototypes I took a little coordinating scrap and some other cane ends from my neatly arranged box of ends and made a little springy picture. It will probably get baked up with my cane slices from this weekend - I was a caning fool! - and made into a magnet.
The cane slices become references for me and toys for my daughter. She assures me they are the best snacks for her toys. Plastic snacks for plastic ponies…
Claychicks Weekly - April 5
Don’t forget our Spring Break Silly Sale - tell us a chicken joke and save on the shipping! Yep, you heard it right 
Send a chicken joke to thechicks at claychicks dot com when you make a purchase from our etsy or our ebay and you will get your shipping refunded. So get a little weird and crack jokes.
And if that isn’t enough to egg you on, a little eye candy from our current Ebay goodies:
Happy Birthday little blog
The Polymer Clay Beads by Tooaquarius blog turns 1 today! I am thinking it will be much less messy with it’s chocolate cake than my daughter was.
In that spirit, some sweets that my daughter and I made from clay. Most of them are beads, as well as half inch food minis. Polymer clay truly is an incredibly versatile medium and I have much planned for my continuing journey in it!
Here’s to an even more bloggy, clayful and beady second year!
Year of Clay - Unclutter your Clay
Here I was, feeling a little blue, because I didn’t get to take as much as I wanted at the recent Michael’s sale on clay. Budget concerns and all that. Combine that with work being horridly behind and just a little overwhelming at this moment. And of course my desk looks like the universe collapsed on it… little blobs of clay EVERYWHERE.
Somewhere in the self-pity moment I started squishing the blobs. A while later - and serious muscle use - I have TONS of new clay.
OK not tons but 10 pounds. Seriously. It looks so much more usable now and my desk (and mental space) has a little more breathing room.
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