Mar 24, 2013

A little bit of green: Miniature plants and swear words

Good Morning folks!

Boy I have been posting like crazy huh?.. It's good because my ideas will dry up soon like a little raisin ;P

Today I wanted to show you the fruits of my cursing up a storm..er labor. To continue from the other day of leaf stamping.

Quiz time:
  • Question:  How many times did Jane drop the plants?
  • Answer:    A whole F'in bunch  >=)

Translucency is key here, we all have tons and tons of translucent clay right? *smirk*

When you do decide to start to work on foods or plants, always remember using parts of translucent clay are going to help you make a item that has a more realistic quality to it.

I am still working on the best way to make the plants, in some of these I have prebaked the leaves and stems and crazy glued them on, some I have baked the stem into the pot and shaped unbaked leaves onto the stems and some I have just layered into a small pot with a  bit of cornstarch in between.

These plants of course are EXTREMELY delicate but for personal use or glue down they would be fine.

Anyways..on to the show.........


Now here is where you can see what I am talking about with translucency. You can see the different clays I have mixed in to these leaves and also some of the veins.
 
Again here is some clay colors mixed in the miniature leaves and some caulk. The stems are also twisted up bits of leftover translucent clay.
 
Some of the same leaves just a different looking plant I added a flower to change it up a bit.
 
Details
 
My flowers still suck but I am practicing :P
 
More crap flowers
 
This one shows the range of the same leaves slightly mushed mixed or shaped, but you can see the variations you can get with just stamping and shaping a bit of the clay.
 
Try it out and let me know about your miniature clay plant adventures!
 
Any questions feel free to ask in comments.
 

37 comments:

  1. ROFL! Jane, you are WAY too hard on yourself. I about shot coffee all over my keyboard when I looked at the super cute purple flower you titled "more crap flowers".

    Dropping things a whole f'in bunch, yeah been there ;)

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    1. ;) yeah love little things till your drop them all over my dainty level goes down about 50 notches to old foul mouthed sea horse ;P

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    2. ha ha! Love it! Been there, done that!

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  2. Wow! These are great! definitely going to try and do some. Tomorrow :)
    Perhaps you could share how do you make pots as well? *hoping ^^*

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    1. I will share about the pots hon, I will do a little update about mold making and clay pressing for Monday ;)

      Thanks for the idea now I have something to write about!

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    2. thanks again :) I've tried and made some plants - they turned out nice, however not as trunslucent as yours. Do you use just a tiniest bit of color and all the mass itself is translucent clay?
      Didn't do pots, as I do not have material for molds yet, but will surely give it a try one day :)

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  3. I love your plants and flowers. I've made Fimo flowers myself and used translucent, but I never made Fimo stams, only used paper covered wire for these.
    What I love most, are the leaves you made. These are simply wonderful.
    Hugs, Drora

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    1. Thanks hon, I would normally do wire in them to sturdy them up but I wanted to play around a bit and see how it turned out, for showmanship sake they looked nice in the sun ;p but they are very tweezer delicate ;)

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  4. Hai realizzato delle foglie bellissime, con le venature e le sfumature di colore! Un bellissimo lavoro. baci Manu

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    1. Grazie, che si dispone di una bella gamma di colori.

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  5. Fantastic result! They look good enough to eat!

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  6. It all looks absolutely fantastic, I'm very impressed. So well made.
    Hugs
    Wyrna

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    1. Thanks Wyrna, I hope to get better at it..maybe ones that don't break with a sneeze ;P

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  7. Your flowers are absolutely amazing! Im so impressed, I have tried myself, but didn't got the hang of it, but I will keep trying later, and mix in translucent and make a shape to cut out the leaves with. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. No problem hon, your getting pretty good at it already!

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  8. Those look awesome! Maybe will give it a try over Spring Break! Fr. Kevin's church could use some more greenery. Thanks for the tips!

    Vicki

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    1. Even mixing a few like Drora says, with wire and leaf will make a few catchy spots ;)

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  9. Oh wow, these flowers are gorgeous! You have a natural talent for clay it seems :) I sure wish I could make things from clay half as nice as yours. I can't wait to see what you come up with next!
    Oh, and if you think your flowers aren't realistic enough (which I don't agree with btw) you can always make some imaginary/fantasy ones :D

    Illyria

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    1. mmmmn fantasy flowers huh? *lightbulb* ;)

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  10. Really great job! I like your leaves.

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  11. I thought you were going to make some with paper! But you made them with clay :) It was worth all the swearing. They look great for a first try.

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    1. I still cant do paper ;) but Jen calls me the clay whisperer..i am gonna roll with it ;P

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  12. thats it. no more flowers all made out of paper for me.
    i am definitely going to have a go with fimo leafs.
    your plants look gorgeous!
    and you're ssooo right about the translucenty ..... translucency.. or how do you call it.... it makes a world of difference..... love it!
    hugzzzz,
    Gee

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    1. With you fine work in clay they should be amaaazing! Do share a picture or two!

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  13. The flowers are so beautiful! You can be proud of your work!

    Lil in Sweden

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    1. thanks hon, just like your beautiful dolls..alot of time and work ;)

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  14. are you kidding me??!! As a person that cannot manage to make much out of clay I think these flowers are all incredible and not crap :) Looks like you have the start to a flower shop there!

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    1. Thank you hon ;)

      I am no flower scientist, but I will work on hybrids they seem to turn out better for me;P

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  15. I could swear they are real:) Gorgeous work:)

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    1. Thank you very much, the translucency does add a depth to them I think some of them even look soft ;)

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  16. Your plants and flowers are wonderful and so realistic.
    Greetings, Faby

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  17. Jane, I never heard of translucent clay. Is this something that Fimo makes? Is it marked on the package -- or is this something that you do to make the clay translucent?

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    1. Hey Mandy, translucent clay is a semi translucent clay that is made by fimo, sculpy kayto,

      They all have there levels of "see through" and folks have a preference. I like Premo accents version, I find it the easiest to work with.

      You will find this in the same section of any polymer clay isle. It looks white or off white but will say translucent.

      Here are some packs as a picture for you,
      http://thebluebottletree.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Packages-of-Translucent-Polymer-Clay.jpg

      Good luck!

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  18. Cool, thanks, Jane. Clay is the only medium I haven't worked with as yet, and I hope to rectify that soon! I loved the look you achieved on the leaves of your plants with the translucent clay and I will try my hand at this and see how good I am. I know I need patience -- which is not one of my few virtues, but I'm looking forward to trying my hand at this.

    Sandy

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  19. These plants are so cute!!! And "weirdly" I particularly love the ones you label as "more crap flowers"!! :) :) :) They all look absolutely great and I can't understand why you call them "crap"...they don't deserve to be called crap!! The flowers on all plants are stunning. Very well done. If what you made is classified by you as bad, I can't imagine what you can produce when you are happy with the work!!

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