a good day for clay

Today was one of those days when I liked my project, then didn't like it at all, but then in the (nearly) end, I liked it again.

I wanted to make another "slugs" necklace like the one I made with the beads inspired by Kim Cavender's class back at Donna Kato's clay get-together in Las Vegas in 2008. But I wanted to use brighter colors, specifically turquoise and navy blue. I was very happy with the raw beads. But then when I put the alcohol inks on things took a turn for the worse. For one thing, the colors were so intense that they effectively covered up the colors of the clay that I had liked so much. Then the embossing powder I put on was just too much It looked way to much like glitter which I could have anticipated if I had actually paid more attention when I put it on. But I cured them anyway. Then, once cool, I decided to try to remove some of the damage with sandpaper and they came out looking pretty cool. The ink colors stayed in the texture from the plastic scrubby and all the surface effects stayed in place where dimples in the shapes kept the sandpaper action at bay. It'll be fun to do the beading and I will probably like the necklace even though it won't be anything like what I envisioned.

I need to experiment with thinning the alcohol inks for more dilute colors. And I'd like to try translucent clay. That's what I love about this medium - one thing inevitably leads to another!