My Twist on Tropical Fish

 



Ever wonder what you could do with those extra parts and pieces you have in containers?  I happened to pick up a polymer start to a bead and decided to do something else with it.  I may never know why it reminded me of tropical fish but it did.  This was my opportunity to experiment, create and learn.  

These are polymer shells I learned to make in Dan Cormier's class and as it happens I got carried away and made several I did not use.  They make great fish bodies!  

Next a little research -  I wanted my fish to be somewhat accurate (yes with lots of poetic license!)  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_fish

Then I started going through some of my old polymer canes and making some new colors and textures and the fun began!  Just coat the baked shells with liquid polymer and start applying textures and colors.  Once the fish were finished.....ok it was so much fun I may have to make more!...I needed seagrass to anchor them in the visual story.

Long strands of seagrass came from using the extruder.

Extruder [add clay and push)









I used a plastic placemat I had as a pattern to cut out the coral fans.   Metallic polymer adds shimmer as does an acrylic glaze.   To finish I painted a board, added a glaze and glued everything in place. 

I'm really happy with the result!  I hope you enjoy seeing it.



Labels:
Location: Prescott, AZ, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning As We Go!

Image
Viking knit is the oldest method of chain making and I've become fascinated by it.  Once I conquered the single knit, I decided to add beads.  I could have googled or asked how it was done but it seemed like something I could just figure out.  And I've learned a lot as I proceeded first with tumbled turquoise beads and then with pearls.  I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned.   Iif you want a great tutorial on viking knit technique, Trina Ann at http://blog.trinaann.com/  has written a clear concise easy to understand tutorial.  I highly recommend it.    Tumbled tuquoise beads in viking knit  I used tumbled turquoise beads in the first viking knit chain and I did not really know what I was doing.  But I went right ahead and as it turned out, I liked the end result.  Since the beads were irregular in shape there was a random quality to the finished product. During that process, I beg...
Read more

Polymer Clay Conversation

Image
One of the polymer clay groups on FaceBook is 'Polymer Clay Collective'.  This is a group of artists working in polymer clay who share ideas and support each other.  I'm so glad to be a part.  A new feature of this group is the 'Polymer Clay Collective Conversations' where a different member answers a set  of questions.  I get to be first - the trailblazer! I hope you enjoy learning a little more about me and in two weeks I get to learn more about someone else. • Tell us a bit about where you live. I live in Prescott AZ right next to the national forest.   When I look out my studio windows, I often see large black ravens swooping between the pine trees.   Binoculars are always available for close viewing of our smaller forest birds.   You’ve probably read about the forest fires we have had in our area this summer.   The monsoon rains we are having are so welcome. • What do you do when you're not polymer claying? As of 2010, I...
Read more

I'm Back with New Pieces of Art Jewelry

Image
It’s been a while since my last post and while I missed writing them, I hope you also missed sharing my adventures!  Between a road trip to Berkeley and having painful (very painful) shoulder tendonitis my activities really slowed down.  Now I’M BACK!  Ready to explore new techniques and have fun. When I see a good tutorial about something new that catches my fancy, I buy it and eventually the day comes when I just have to try it.  Staci Louise Smith wrote a tutorial “Gold Rush: The Rustic Crackle Technique” for Craft Art Edu.  I loved the pictures of her necklaces and wanted to see what I could do.  If you like the crackle effect  on my pieces or want to try something new, check out her tutorial on   www.CraftArtEdu.com    They have good classes on many subjects. When I started following tutorials, I expected my pieces to look like the instructors.  That just did not happen and it is not the fault of the tutorial or ...
Read more