Toner Transfer Silhouettes

(See more photos of this style of toner transfer pendants in my Flickr photostream.)

This is one of the techniques I've been experimenting with for the past few weeks-- toner transfers. I still have lots of things I want to try with them. I started out with the encased toner transfers Donna Kato demonstrates in her new book. I want to eventually go back to those for another try, but in the meantime, I've been sidetracked.

BlockPartyPress wrote recently about the returned popularity of silhouettes. I'd noticed that, too, and been drawn to their simplicity and graphic appeal. However, I've found myself wanting to add to them, to a certain degree. I guess I'm just not really that much of a minimalist, at heart. (g) Whatever the reason, I've ended up putting clouds and such behind the silhouette toner transfers.

While working on these pendants, I've thought that perhaps it's just extra work to do this with a transfer when you could get a very similar result from a stamp. Certainly it'd be easier to just stamp it on rather than going through the song and dance of making the image, having it photo copied, burnishing (and burnishing) it on, then carefully removing the paper. I guess the reason to do it with a transfer is that you don't have to own a stamp for each and every silhouette or pattern you'd like to use. I don't have that many stamps, so this works for me. There may be other advantages to using a toner transfer instead of stamp and ink, but I haven't (yet) used inked stamps on pc, so I can't say what they'd be. (That does remind me, though, that it's high time I used the ink pad I bought especially to use with clay. . .)

I've learned a little about which things do and don't work for this technique, but I'm still running into occasional problems with tiny air pockets in my clay that puff up during baking. Nothing awful, but not what I want. I guess I'll just have to be more careful about that. Unfortunately, I thought I was being careful. (g)

Incidentally, the pendants in the bottom photo are just about the only Halloween-themed things I've made this year. I had plans to do more, but I just never got around to it. Oh well. Maybe next year!

Ten on Tuesday: ten October projects/inspirations

It doesn't feel very Octoberish around here, yet. Highs near 90, still! But we're expecting a slight cool spell by the end of the week-- and maybe some of you other folks are already enjoying crisper air.

Whether eerie, shivery, spine-tingly Halloween is your favorite holiday (and you've had your costume all picked out since June) or you prefer a "cannier" (see "canny", def. #3) celebration of the harvest, it's a great time to pull out the ol' polymer clay and get craftin'. The colors of the season are beautiful, and there's a strange sense of excitement in the air. Take advantage of these fleeting, golden days of October! (Before you know it, it'll be time to think of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and you won't have time to breathe, much less enjoy a leisurely afternoon with the clay!)

Ten on Tuesday: Ten October Projects and/or Inspirations

1. If you haven't already visited Sculpey's list of projects, now's a great time to do so! Many of them are great for beginners or kids, and there's a whole section with fall, Halloween or Thanksgiving themes.

2. Speaking of kids. . . Unless they've changed a lot since I was one (which admittedly, was a number of years ago-- and that number just keeps growing (g)), kids love things that glow in the dark. Consider adding a little glow to a project for a bit of instant spookiness. I just came across this page (by Lesley Shepherd) describing the qualities of glow clay. Could be useful, if you're new to the stuff.

3. If you didn't find the right project on the Sculpey site, check out this page of Diane Black's GlassAttic for a list of links to seasonal or holiday-themed projects. (There's a separate page for Christmas, if you're getting an early start this year.)

4. And for those who aren't so much into the whole "Halloween" thing, here's a little autumnal inspiration. . . This is something I just found by clicking a link at random (from the GlassAttic list): a photo of some beautiful miniature pumpkins. (The photo is labeled "Jodie Pumpkins", so I assume that I ought to give credit to Jodie Last-Name-Unknown.)

5. I learned a while ago that owls were "in" a year or two ago. (I didn't know that when I chose my Internet identity. Honestly! (g) I explain the origin of the name in my profile, if you're interested.) Anyway, if you don't mind looking a bit faddish (or like you're trying to be faddish, but are a bit behind the times (g))-- if your fondness for owls is genuine, maybe you'll benefit from Marie Hart's pictorial guide to sculpting polymer clay owls. As for why this is on the list-- owls are vaguely spooky, aren't they?

6. This one could count as inspiration if you're the type who finds motivation in an organized challenge. You're invited to enter the Inscrutables, MAKE, and PopSci DIY Halloween 2007 Contest. There are four categories, the one most relevant to pc probably being "Decorations, Gadgets, and More". You have until November 4th to enter. Check out this page for more info!

7. There are several pumpkin tutorials out there. Okay, more than a mere "several". I'm too lazy to go through them all, but for the most part, they're very similar. Here's one: Pumpkin Picture Holder, by Jill King. She makes her pumpkins pretty big-- about one pumpkin per 2 oz. package of clay. They have to be large, to support the wire and photo. Personally, I'd probably build the clay around a base of some sort (such as a small stone)-- partly to save clay, partly because I worry that thick items like that might be difficult to fully cure. (Of course, you could also cure it in stages/layers.) Anyway, putting aside my worrywartiness ;o) , you can use a similar technique on a smaller scale to produce miniature pumpkin decorations, beads, or pendants.

8. Need inspiration? If you have time to kill, go to flickr (or your photo-hosting source of choice) or Etsy and search for "Halloween polymer", "creepy polymer", "autumn polymer"-- you get the idea. You never know what you'll find, or what ideas of your own will be sparked.

9. For still more inspiration, visit the PCC Challenge archives. Some of the past challenges have had autumnal themes, such as Harvest and Autumn, or (possibly) spooky themes, like Gothic. Scroll further up the page for a list of photos of Claypen photos (such as Autumn).

10. If you can learn by photos alone (or if you can read Russian... or whatever language this is-- the Cyrillic alphabet throws me for a loop!), take a look at this scull and crossbones cane by cloud777. Thanks to the numerous photos, the process seems pretty clear-- and the results would be great for Halloween-themed projects.