Hittin' The Bottle

Don't I wish. After this past week & a half, I sure need one. Or 3. Dozen. But anyhoo's..

After listening to my new air dry Darwi clay screaming my name, I finally took it out of the package & played with it. More like fondled. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate it as an 8 1/2. I had high expectations of this clay, and they were pretty much met, head on. When I first took it out of the package, it was not only moist, but it was wet. I subliminally rolled my eyes as I took a chunk in my hands & saw them turn chalk white. 'Great, I was hoping this wouldn't be as messy..' I thought. But much to my suprise & sheer delight, that's all the messier it got. Just one thin layer of residue. Yay! But what would I make? I've been saving this root beer bottle for just such an occasion. I didn't have anything specific in mind when I started to cover it, but I knew it was gonna be awesome. Or so I thought. One of the things that I didn't care for with this clay, is that I had one hell of a time trying to blend the seams together. Sounds impossible - a clay that wont blend with itself?? I figured I just need to try longer next time, and a lady suggested I use a tool with teeth on it to 'rough it up' a bit before blending - and I will. At first, I was disappointed that I couldn't get the bottle seamlessly smooth. Then I thought, well, this is my first time & I need to experiment. So I marched forward. Getting it as smooth as I could, I started to smell smoke. Then a tiny creaking hum was heard, far in the distance. Yes, my gears were starting to turn! The idea of a grape wine bottle presented itself, and I went for it. I had brought my chalk with me to color the clays before creating, as it only comes in white. Picking the darkest purple I had, a-scraping I did go. Dabbing my finger in the chalk dust, I carefully rubbed it upon the bottle. 'Ohh! That's purdy.. lets do it again!!' So little by little, I covered the bottle with purple chalk dust. Sadly, when I went over the cracks from where the clay butted together without blending, it REALLY stood out. *sighs* But I thought, oh well. Maybe if I get it damp, it'll blend in the crack & you wont see it. So, I spritzed it with water. Well, OMG! THAT was a mess! I had purple drippings all over everything in the bunk! Quickly rubbing it to stop the purple rain, it took on an entire different look. I cocked my head like a dog who was just told it was time for a snack. Mamma like. And when Mike said "Wow, that looks pretty cool!" - I knew it was a keeper. He also thought I put the cracks in it on purpose. Lol. Yeah.. lets say I did.

Then it was time for the grapes. I scraped some lime green chalk into some clay, blended thoroughly & made a bunch of balls. I stuck them on.. grapishly.. and they just didn't look right. Too big. So I took them all off, cut them in half, and stuck them on again. Ahh, that's better.

It was set aside to dry. A bit later, I checked on it. It was looking good. I picked it up to show Mike - and my balls fell off. Not all of them, but enough. Back to the drawing board. My thought, was that even though I made sure my balls were nice and wet & sticky, the chalk I had rubbed on didn't let them adhere. So... I popped the rest of my balls off, and rubbed off the chalk in my grapishly pattern.

Now.. with my white hurricane bottle, I continue. I wasn't perfectly happy with the grapes, either. "You should have done the grapes like the bottle.. rubbed the color on top." Well, allrighty, then. Purposely making them a bit dry, I made a new batch of balls. And a small container of slip to use as extra 'glue'. I put some slip down, and placed my grapes accordingly.

After about an hour, I *very carefully* rubbed some of the lime green chalk dust on them, barely touching them. Annnnnd, they came off. WTF?!? Being a tad beyond frustrated, I somehow resisted the urge to throw it out the window. Inhaling deeply, I picked my balls back up & placed them back on the bottle where they belonged. If my dad would have been sitting beside me, he would have been saying "TRACY!! TRACY!?! I see that 'want to' in your eyes!!" As in, wanting to slam it against a wall. He knows that look well.. lol. *blushes inoccently* =^)~ Anyhoo's.. I knew now that no matter what I did, my grapes were gonna have a mind of their own. Out comes the glue. After I knew the grapes were dry, I glued them down like there was no tomorrow. They aint goin' NOWHERE. Then I needed vines. Grapes don't grow in mid-air, ya know. Well, they do, actually. I squeezed out some ropes with my extruder & I let them lie. Lye? Lay? Whatever. You get my drift.

The stem went on first, then the vines. I did with them, what I did with the rest - rubbed the color on top. Not very satisfied with how they, in particular, turned out. But I think I can touch them up with some watered down brown paint. It was hard to get in the crack with my finger. Oh shut up, you know what I mean. These were also glued down, needless to say. I couldn't wipe off the purple chalk where the vines were going to lay, because I didn't know. They told *me* where they were going to be. It still needs leaves, but I didn't know how to make them. After we left for another trip, and me leaving the bottle at home, I remembered I have a grape leaf mold. D'oh! But anyways... the last 2 pics here show the side view. You can see where the clay didn't go together smooth, but made it look 'aged' instead. Alot of the horizontal cracks were solely caused by me covering glass with air dry clay. And maybe stroking it too hard. That's a habit of mine. Not a bad habit, just a habit.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my journey into Darwi-dom. Now, thanks to a very sweet woman on my AirDryClay list, ((ASTRID)) I now have yet another 2 clays to try out in the truck. Hearty clay, and Artista. Today, I already opened the Hearty because I'm trying to make it into the Apple Challenge on PolyClayPlay.. due at midnight tonight. I'll try to update everyone interested on that, later. But I can't post pictures until the challenge is over, as Trish likes to torment us like that. :)

Talk to you guys later!