My garden themed teapot

I thought that you would like to see how I went about decorating this teapot.

If you decide to try this yourself, remember to wash your hands and wipe down your tools between colour changes. Do ask if you need help with anything.

I started out with a plain white ceramic teapot.

I then made a Skinner Blend (explained under the butterflies) from blue to white, covered the pot and lid, then baked it.

Flowers

I then made my flower stems;

1) I cut strips of thin florist's wire.

2) Swarovski crystal beads in clear, yellow, orange, and amber. I have 40 here.

3) I thread the bead onto a bit of wire and move it to the middle.

4) I fold the wire down on each side of the bead.

5) I twist the wire together  (pliers help).

6) I wrap the twisted bit of wire in a bit of masking tape. The clay will stick to the tape, where it will slide against the smooth metal.

Now to turn them into flowers;

1) I wrap some conditioned green clay around the stems and roll smooth.

2) In the same colour, I make 2 Sepal leaves for each flower. They are the little ones at the base of the petals.

3) I roll out a small sausage of conditioned clay, in the petal colour and press it flat on a tile.

4) I then indent the clay, so it's 4 bumps.

5) I then lift it with a blade and wrap it around the bead. Then I put the Sepal leaves on.

Grass

This is a far less fiddly stage than the last.  I don't even think it is worth a numbered walk through.

I condition several shades of green, roll them into tapered sausages and flatten on a tile. Then mark a line through the middle.

I put the grass and flowers around the bottom of the pot,  making sure they are firmly pushed on.

I then roll out several balls of different sizes, in white conditioned clay and arrange these to make clouds. Then I bake it again.

Butterflies 

To make the wings, I am going to make a cane.

1) I make a faded Skinner Blend sheet of clay in my chosen colours. I am doing one cane in pinks and a second in purples.

I take a dark and light shade of my chosen colour and make a flat triangle of each and put them together to make a square or rectangle. I make sure that one color is on the left and one on the right .  then roll it flat, rolling up and down only.

I fold it in half (bottom to top) and roll it flat. I repeat that around 20 times. The fade will appear from left to right and not in the direction you are folding in.

2) I turn the sheet so that the fade is top to bottom and then I cut the sheet in half and put one half aside for later. Starting from the darkest side, I roll the second half up into a stick.

3) I then get the first half and starting with the lightest side, I fold in a widening concertina. This will leave me with a triangle shaped stick, with the lightest colour at the tip.

5) I roll out some black and wrap it around the outside of the triangle stick  (not the ends). I then put black around the outside of the round stick.

6) I put the round sick to one side and I cut the triangle stick in half.

7) One of the halfs, I cut in half length ways  (so I have 2 smaller triangles .  I then put a strip of black clay over the bare sides of each triangle.

8) Facing all the light tips in one direction, I samwich the large triangle between the 2 smaller ones.

9) I cut the circular stick into 6- 10 bits,  the same thickness as the triangles, then I put them in a line along the dark side of the triangle.

10) I roll out a round stick of white conditioned clay to the same thickness as the round stick I was just using.  I cut it into 10 -12 bits  (the same thickness as the rest of my project and put them in a line above the coloured round bits.

11) I make sure it is all firmly pressed together,  then leave it for an hour or two.

12) I reduce the cane by half its size,  by putting even pressure on the middle pressing towards the outside. The ends will look messy, but I cut them off.

13) I cut a third off this new stick and reduce that by half ish.

14) I cut a slice from the larger and smaller teardrops.  the big is the large top part of the wing and the small is the bottom bit.

15) I cut a slice off each for the 2nd wing and make a simple body from black conditioned clay. I then assemble the butterfly.

16) I then attach them to the teapot.

Sun and clouds on the lid 

Sun
For the sun, I use my swerly pattern  (I have a page devoted to showing how to make this on my blog) I use yellow, orange and gold.

Here is a quick run through;

1) I take thin sausages of conditioned clay (one of each colour).

2) I twist them together.

3) I fold it in half and twist the 2 ends together. I keep folding in half and twisting together until it's ball shaped.

4) I press the ball firmly, to stick it together and roll into a sausage.

5)  I then repeat steps 2 and 3.

6) I press the ball firmly together and roll the ball to smooth out the surface, I then press it into a cube.

7) I cut a thin layer off each surface, turn it around  (so that the inside design is facing outward) and press back onto the cube. I make sure I have done this, so none of the outside design is showing.

8) I roll it into a smooth ball and push it onto the lid's  handle. Make sure it is firmly secure.

Clouds

1) I condition some white clay and roll it into balls of various sizes.

2) I position the balls around the sun, to form a few clouds.

I then bake it all and then varnish it to finish.

Charms. My problem with miniature sculpting.

Anyone who has been to my online Etsy shop,  know that I have a largerange of charms available;

Gina pigs, moles, dragons,cats, badgers, swans,  duck, butterflys, stegosaurus, dogs, lizards, penguins, hedgehogs, crocodiles, dolphins, turtles, owls, rabbits, bears, bees, fish, sheep, monkeys, horses, mice, ladybirds, pigs, squirrel, elephant, starfish and seahorse!

"Looks to me Carly, like you don't have any problems with miniatures,  so what's with the title?"

As I have mentioned a lot on previous posts, I have have Chronic fatigue syndrome and Fibro myalgia. This means that my arms and hands are always in pain at varying degrees and they are often shaking and weak.

Others may just take days like this off and I did,  but after 14 years off ill,  the plan is to find ways to do a little most days (around 10 hours a week in all, if I can). It took a year of trying other jobs and I have been a professional sculptor for a year.  So 16 years disabled.

I work from my bed, but I often have to use pillows to support my arms while I work laying flat.  Luckily,  my bed is 2 single mattresses pushed together.  This is far bigger than a king size double bed. I often have all my Husband's and my pillows and duvet almost like a cloth outline of support.

Even with all this, I find that there are only some things that I can manage. I am often having to move misplaced components and fixingdamage caused by my shaking.

The other issue that I have that really affects my abilities to do miniature work,  is the fact my left eye wanders off. The tendon that holds your iris where you want it, is very loose.  This means that it often goes to the left hand corner.

I have had this all my life. My brain compensates by using my right eye, but this causes me a lot of depth perception issues.  Dyslexia (also got this) has hand eye coordination issues and the brain fog of the CFS, all mix and cause an obstacle for my brain in giving me accurate sensory information.

Luckily for me,  clay is extremely forgiving. While raw,  it is so easy to change.  You can pull it all over the place,  constantly fiddling.  If it gets too warm,  then it can go sticky,  but you either blot it on some paper or just whack it in the fridge for a few minutes  (I do the latter).

Once the clay has been baked, it is actually really easy to carve.  You can actually cut it with a craft knife. You can also sand it to remove blemishes.

I see all of this as a obstacle rather than a barrier, but I have to be realistic.  This is why I will not promise to make anything smaller than 3cm.

I know that there are many elements of the items I have made for the shop, that are smaller than 3cm.

The difference is that if I agree that I will make things that small on commission,  then if it turns out that it is one of the many things that I can't make in miniature, then I have broken my promise.  I want to be trustworthy and customer focused, so I have to make this rule.

There are tons of amazing artists who create incredible miniatures,  so the market will not miss me.

Why I work free hand instead of using moulds

Polymer clay work is basically divided into two. Things made free hand and those who use silicone moulds. These clay models are made by pushing the clay into a mould. You can knock them out in seconds,  so you can charge pennys for them.

Some people make a model freehand and then create their own moulds,  so that they can then easily reproduce the original.

I am not saying that using moulds is not skillful,  legitimate clay work,  but I felt that I needed to make a hard line decision on this.

I decided that I would not use any moulds,  even if they are just to get the base shape and you then decorate it with the details freehand.  I  felt it would confuse people if I kind of used them.  Transparency on this is really important to me.

I do break this on 2 occasions;

1) Sutton slice

This is when you take a rubber stamp (that people usually use with ink) and fill the indented part with clay.  You use a blade to make sure that the raised bits are not covered by any clay.  You then stamp it where you want.

Both the white of the flowers on the first picture and the gold of the celtic design on the second picture where done using this.

My mum had a big collection of rubber stamps that she used for card making,  they where put in storage when she died a few years ago.  My father has promised to get them to me at some point  (hopefully in the next few years).

2) Moulded letters
I have a mould of each letter of the alphabet in capitals and I plan to get more in a few different fonts.  They are just far sharper and uniform than I can make freehand.

I will never use them on any model or on things that the models are on,  if it's made from Fimo. I do say if any of the elements of a piece are not made by me, these include ceramic teapots,  glass vases,  glass bud vases, glass jars, glass bottles and glass carafes so far.

If I am using a non Fimo element,  I  will try to make sure that they are very plain.  I  want them to add an element of practicality to my artwork, as I want everything to be of more use than them being pretty. The clay will always be the star of the show.  I  see the other materials like a painter would a canvas.  It facilitates the art.

I do also make purely decorative bits like my Christmas decorations and status,  but I wanted to be able to offer both.

I accept that it will take many years before I have the perfection that a mould offers. You can guarantee before you pick up your clay,  what the measurements will be exactly.  You can guarantee a exact reproduction every time.  But you don't develop.  It really narrows your creativity.

I have grown to love the imperfections of freehand work.  I  think it makes each piece far more valuable,  each piece has a bit of my heart and sole that I would never feel about moulded creations.  

My diversity penguins

One of the first characters I made was this little cartoon penguin.  It started life as a charm,  that shortly after joined my Christmas decorations range.

I love this little fellow so much, that when I started to make boxes,  I really wanted to do one of my little penguin friend.

Shortly after making my penguin love box, we where fortunate enough to witness a wonderful landmark in the evolution of mankind;  gay civil partnerships became legal.

I was so happy  for humanity, I wanted to celebrate the occasion.  So I decided to make 4 little statues and I felt that my penguin was perfect for the job.

I made 2 gay penguins;  2 penguins kissing,  one wearing a bow tie and the other wearing a scarf in the gay flag colours.  There is a little gay pride flag on the base.

Then it was the lady's turn.

2 statues of the same kissing penguins, but this time one had a flower and the other had a handbag.  They also had a gay flag on the base.

One of each of these statues have found their forever homes. After them being avaliable in my shop for a few months,  I was contacted by a lovely lady wanting a commission made.

She said that her best friend (Jacob) was a nurse who was also gay and she wanted the statue turned into a box for his 21st birthday.

I  was particularly proud of the name badge. 

Several months after this,  I was commissioned to make a box for a disabled people's help center called "The hub". 

As soon as I decided to make this donation, I knew exactly what I wanted to make and I felt that it really had to be my penguin again. 

They were really pleased with it and it has lived in the window of the premises on the main high street in Epsom, Surrey ever since.

I have ventured into more realistic penguins,  but I will always love my original cartoon penguin.

My penguin has donned his white coat again! This time it's for a name plaque that I have made for my GP.

Assuming that I am able to keep working as a clay sculptor,  I am certain that my cute little penguin will feature in future projects.