Oct 2, 2013

More on Fimo madness

I´ve got a Fimo madness. Here are some of the results made by using the same technique as in the last post:


Nuff said.

Oct 1, 2013

Horsing around

I got very inspired by modelling clay after a really long time. The reason for such an inspiration was my friend who had done some repro jewelry pieces out of Fimo clay. I have used Cernit modelling clay before, but as my friend recommended  the Fimo, I decided to try it out. And it was a good decision! Fimo is much more ductile and light than Cernit and the colors don´t change when you harden the clay in  an oven.

Here are some 1930's-40's repro pieces I have made of Cernit modelling clay:


 

The theme for my Fimo-experiment came to me when I was browsing the net. I searched for some celluloid and bakelite jewelry. I´ve always admired the beautiful bakelite and wooden horsey brooches and other jewelry. They were made in the 1930's-40's in many delicious and rich colors:

(from here)
(from here)
(from here)

And then there is this:

Oh, my sweet jebus..(from here)

But this one really caught my eye:

(sold here)

I started the Fimo mission by drawing and cutting out shapes from a sheet of paper. I made a horse head pattern, cowboy boot pattern and horse shoe pattern. Then I took a piece of yellow Fimo clay and rolled it out flat. Next I placed the patterns on the clay and cut out the shape.  The same was done with the cowboy boot pattern and the horse shoe pattern.




After cutting out the shapes I carved the details with a sharp wooden tool. You can use anything even remotely sharp, for example a needle.


When the pieces were carved I added a few seed beads to the horse shoe as there were studs added to the original one.


Next I added eye pins by sticking them inside the clay. The pins are needed to attach the pieces to plastic chain.



Between the previous and the next phase the clay parts were baked in an oven to make them hard and long-lasting. Remember to follow the instructions on the clay package! It´s crucially important to set the right temperature and time. I´ve seen the horrors of not following them (the pieces looked like dog poop)..

After taking the pieces out of the oven and after letting them cool for a while, I added a piece of plastic chain to the horse head. And attached the boots and the shoe to the chain


Then I used Fimos own gloss varnish to make a glossy finish.


 Last phase was to attach a brooch pin to the back of the horse.


The end result looks like this: