Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

Basking Polymer Lizard Today I needed a distraction and as I was browsing through tutorials on the internet, I came across Kathy Weaver’s “How to Make Fimo or Sculpey Polymer Clay Lizards”.  http://creatorsjoy.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-make-fimo-or-sculpy-lizards.html   Sounded like fun and I remembered a bordered cane in browns left over from another project and decided to make my first polymer lizard.  Since I have the real things it was easy to see how legs and feet and heads really look.  They made great models.  And my first lizard was fun to make.  

Taking a side trip to Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, we made a sharp right turn off the highway onto a side road and were treated to one of nature’s dramas.  Fortunately I had my camera ready! A group of Sand Hill Cranes were in a farmer’s wet field and I started taking pictures of them.  I was so excited that they were close enough to get some details.   All of a sudden two of the cranes started jumping in the air spreading their wings and dancing.  The mating dance can take place all year and is quite the athletic event!  Sand Hill Cranes, their take offs and landings, their calls and dances and their sheer group numbers make them unforgettable and one of my favorite birds.  Read more about them at http://lindabrittdesign.blogspot.com/2011/12/migration-of-sand-hill-crane.html http://dnr.wi.gov/eek/critter/bird/sandhill.htm http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Birds/Sandhill-Crane.aspx

One sunny fall day while walking by Willow Lake I took some photos of lovely translucent white seed pods.  They were worn by the wind but still standing.  Their shapes were ragged and lantern like.  They hung from straight white dried stems and I just had to see if I could recreate them in translucent polymer clay.  I've been thinking about how to do that for a few weeks and decided it was time to jump in and experiment.  I thought I’d share some of the steps I took. First I bought my 3 packages of Pardo Translucent Clay at Hobby Lobby (all they had).  I had not worked with Pardo before and I love it!  Not sticky like some of the other brands of translucent.  I’m hooked! After making the lantern pattern, I found a great texture plate to give a cell like organic texture to the clay.  The clay was rolled to #6 on my Atlas machine because I really wanted the translucent quality. The first time I did not use wire and I like the look but it was not strong enough.