Winged Creature night light

This was made for the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) August challenge "home decor".

I've been on a night light kick lately, having lots of fun with translucent polymer clay (liquid and solid) and alcohol inks.  So I knew I would make a night light. I made two for the challenge and this was the one I decided to enter in the challenge.

As always I started with a sketch.  I get these fun ideas and (at my age) if I don't jot them down RIGHT away they are gone forever.  So this sketch ended up in one of many trusted journals. To the right is the drawing on graph paper that will be used to make the pattern.

The graph paper gets glued to thick card stock to make a sturdy pattern.  Here are the pattern, pieces created and cut out.

Okay, now to dye the translucent clay.  This is the hardest thing for me, to wait for the alcohol to evaporate so I can blend the color into the clay.  Really, really hard.  Patience is not what I am know for :). Also you can see the start of cutting the "wings" sections.

The assembly begins with extruded jungle green (I do love that color!), for the framework.

After I added the jungle green body, head and antennae, the piece was cured.  Then it was time to build the backing.  The backing is clear translucent clay, and the purpose is to provide strength and a clean back look. I use poly bonder to combine the layers.

The finished product is a large 5" tall x 4 1/2" wide by 1 1/2" deep:

light on

light off

on from the side

view of the back 

Thank you so much for sharing my experience.  I would love to hear your comments.

Faux stained glass - the beginning

Recently I had an idea that I would like to make night light shades using translucent polymer clay.  As a lover of the Art Deco and Arts and Crafts art movements, I decided this would be a great way to work in those styles.    

So to start I ordered on line Translucent Pardo Art Clay (a lot),  Adirondack alcohol inks (bunches of colors), and a stock of Translucent Liquid Sculpey.   I also ordered night light bases and clips to hold the shade and stocked up on LED night light bulbs.  Since these run much cooler, I was more comfortable with them next to cured polymer clay.  

Stocked up, my night light adventure begins.

My first shot was a little design, just to test out using all these new (to me) materials.  I love the colors the inks and the translucent clay yield.  LOVE them.

As a lover of green, I had recently discovered the Premo!  color jungle.  A rarity for me, I liked it so much I didn’t even blend it with other colors.  To complement the jungle color, I used the ink color celery.   What a wonderful combination that turned out in my first practice piece.  

Boy, did I have a lot to learn!  Looks good, right?  Close inspection showed a lots of gaps between the extruded Premo! clay and the dyed translucent.  And right after I photographed it, I picked it up and it fell apart!!  The pieces came apart and the extruded clay fell away from the flat pieces.  My technique definitely needs work.