Tag Archives: makersofmixedmediaartists

Pages

Pages
Pages

The collage prompts for May, in “Makers of Mixed Media Art/Artists,” are

Branches A label

An arrow Scribbles

Food

Now, I have an idea in mind, but last night I was playing with an app called, “Pages.”

I set it to graphics and searched for each of the prompts. I chose the first result that appealed to me.

The optional theme is, “still life,” so I chose a table to put things on. Then I chose a background.

The app layers things in the order you choose them. Moving things is easy. You click on the object and dots appear in the corners. You can use them to move objects and change their sizes.

To change layers you click the object, choose the paintbrush icon at the top, and a slider appears. I needed to move the background to the very back, of course, so I slid the slider all the way to the “back.” I “layered” all my objects using the slider.

This is what I arranged:

I saved to photos and used photo editing to crop and add my tiny signature:

This may be the app I need to replace Microsoft Picture It.

The Natasha Bead

The Natasha Bead

Several days ago, while watching PM Artists Studio’s live stream, it hit me that I should make a Natasha bead from clay using their monthly color challenge.

This month’s color challenge is spring green, lemon yellow and lilac. You can also add black, white and a metallic if you wish. I wasn’t in my studio, so I was lucky just to find a yellow, a green, and a favorite called gentle plum (Sculpey III.)

A couple of folks in the live stream chat wanted to know what a Natasha bead was. I explained as briefly as I could. You take several colors of polymer clay, chop them up, smoosh them together. Work them with your hands and twist them into ropes, folding them back on themselves. The working of the clay is called, conditioning, and is necessary for the alignment of molecules during curing (baking.) After conditioning, you shape your twisted glob of clay into a rectangular block and let it rest.

After the block is rested and firmed back up. Turn it on its side and slice it down the middle using a tissue blade.

Mine is not perfectly even.

Open the cut block like a book and lay the two pieces side by side to mirror each other.

I think it looks like a bug’s face!

Gently smoosh or roll the two pieces together to adhere to one another. Mine was a little wonky due to the uneven cutting. I flipped it over and trimmed away the excess, again using the tissue blade.

These scraps can be reused for other types of beads.

Here’s the finished Natasha bead, resting.

Before I bake it, I’ll punch two holes where antenna might be. After baking, I’ll add jump rings and chain, and make it a pendant!

#MakersCreativeCollab2024