This week I've been working on a hair ornament with the Paperclay. As frequently happens, I have decided to do something else with it. I really like boxes, so my current thought is that I use it to adorn the top of a box I make out of Paperclay. I once made a heart shaped box out of layers of paper grocery bags glued together and then crackle painted, pink with black on top. I decoupaged a butterfly on the top. Even though it was a bit misshaped I really liked it.
My hair ornament started with a design on 1/4" graph paper which I traced onto tracing paper with a pencil. I rolled out my Paperclay and rubbed the design onto it. Then I used my paring knife to cut it out. After a day and a half I was tired of waiting for it to dry so I baked it on a wire rack in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes. When it cooled off I coated it with gesso twice.
While it was drying I had time to think about what I wanted to do next. I painted it dioxazine purple. Then I decided I wanted to gold leaf it. I used my gel medium and let it dry 15 minutes. The gold leaf didn't stick. So I coated it again and only waited 5 minutes. I still didn't stick. Finally I rooted through my supplies and found the proper adhesive. Now it is gold.
The adhesive has 24 hour working time. It's still tacky so I'm waiting to brush off the loose gold leaf. Time to think about the next step. I'm always pondering in the back of my mind what I want to do. If I make my box square I can decorate around the top. Using the graph paper will make it easy to draft a pattern for a square box. Might be the way to go.
I've also been working on a scarf I started knitting last year. Yes, I am that slow. I put it away when the weather got warm. Knitting to me is a warm, cozy winter kind of thing.
It's a seed stitch which is knit one, purl one every row. I find that when I can't sleep and get up to knit, I make mistakes and have to rip it out. I've done that 3 times this week. So now I'm training myself to look at each row before I start the next row so I can catch my mistakes quickly. Awareness is the key along with focus.
Hope you're all having fun creating beauty!
