This is an altered book that I started a while ago. I’d been using different pages for different techniques, but I’d left this page, with the three cut-out alcoves alone.

I wanted to work with the juxtaposition of teal with that apricot color. I love these two colors together. First I took the blue art paper and used my silk screen of the wings to make wings with interference paint. You can’t see it very well, which is kind of nice, because if it weren’t subtle it might overwhelm it. Then I painted the interior of the little alcoves in the bright yellows and oranges.

After that, I glued the paper on and carefully cut out the squares. It’s not hard, as I can feel the crisp edge of the paper block. Then I had to sift through my stuff and find things that worked. I had the polymer clay face with interference paint on it, and I added mica pigments to the tiles and the polymer clay tablet-tile.

As with many things I do, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it came out okay. I learned some things. I especially learned that it’s a pain in the butt to photograph altered books. They just don’t like to lay open.

These are my favorite of the February batch of bottlecaps. I like the watch face because of its complexity, the baby’s arm because it’s creepy, and the bolt over the flower because it works from a composition standpoint.

This was one of the first things I made to warm-up and remember how to blow glass (ha ha). It’s a little small, but perfectly servicable. I adore the color.

I totally dig the google-eye on this. Because it’s encased, it still googles. I also like the grommets (lower left). Resin has a way of tranforming some things magically. Other things, it kind of ruins. Gold leaf-backed tesserae are unimpressive, and mirrors are a little disappointing as well.

Had a little trouble figuring out how to photograph these. Glass is trickier than pottery.

This is a vase that came out much better than I had hoped. It’s a little large for a tumbler, I think, at least for my dainty hands.

To make the lines, I used the optic mold, twisted, then used it again. Amazingly enough, it survived to the annealer.

You can use sharp stuff in these bottlecaps as long as the pointy bits are completely encased in the resin. I like to have some stuff that sticks out, like the tiny fuse and the top of the push pin. The blue bead in the bottom is from some canes I made during a polymer clay session a couple years ago.

I thought about selling these, but then tallied up the cost of the materials, and realized I would make about fifteen cents per magnet if I sold them for a buck each. I’d rather keep them and give them as gifts than use my labor to make money for some retailer.

Dave Vogt, the glassblowing instructor at the Mesa Art Center, demonstrated a “roman bottle” which is a technique for quickly making a long-necked bottle. I must have made a half dozen of these, only two of which came out without cracking. I figured if I kept practicing, I’d get it. I got frustrated after a while and went on to easier things. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong. This one turned out,  however, and I fixed an uneven neck by altering it to a fluted top. It looks almost like it has an invisible drawstring pulling it tight.

My favorite of these are the open safety pins. I don’t think I have any more safety pins. Making future bottlecaps is going to be limited by my dwindling supply of weird tiny stuff. I used to get great stuff by cleaning my kids’ rooms. Barbie shoes, beads, scraps of paper, etc. They’ve outgrown toys now, and are slightly tidier, so there goes that.  Maybe I can find someone else with a messy kids’ room…

It’s funny how sometimes the things that take you the longest are the least impressive. I spent a long time on this book. It had many different steps, from screwing the pages shut, to cutting the insert out. I agonized over every piece to put into the book. Which colors go right? Do I draw something, or do my drawings look too horrible? Will the frame fit? Is this piece good enough to deserve an antique key?

You don’t see the things I decided didn’t work. For example, I was going to frame the drawing, but didn’t like it. I was thinking of adding some small animal teeth from an owl pellet (too gross). I went through lots of papers too, before deciding on what I chose here. I had to doctor the little frame to make it work.

For the cover, I took a piece of printed calico and painted over it with black gesso. I wanted to have creepy tree branches, so I made two silkscreens and printed on them. I’m not happy with the silkscreens. I’ve decided that photo emulsion is the only way to get the fine detail I demand. I printed and embossed the keys with a commercially purchased stamp, and cast the key hole from a mold I made of an antique key hole I bought a few years ago. (Note to other artists: the plaster is too fragile for this purpose)

This project dominated my studio table for several months. I can’t say I’m 100% satisfied with it, but I hope I’m learning techniques which will aid me later.

This didn’t photograph quite like I wanted it to. It’s a perfectly decent, if simplistic and beginner’s cobalt blue glass tumbler. I may even use this to drink out of.