Cthulhu Pendant

I’m back after a rather long hiatus. Had to attend to matters of consequence – and oh, ye, I learned a lot of new things during that hiatus. Maybe I’ll share them here one of these days. Today, I’m sharing my very first Cthulhu project.

Curiosity is what usually drives my creativity. I’m always curious how something will come out. I said, “I’d like to try making a Cthulhu pendant. Let’s see what happens.”

Using my favorite creativity medium, polymer clay, I mixed a few colors to form a dark greenish glob. Without a specific design to work with, other than the mental collage of various image renditions of the Lovecraft creature that I saw online, I let my fingers bring the clay to life.

Head shape here, tentacles there, texturing here, and... Oh look! I’ve created a monster!

After baking the clay, I used dark acrylic paint to add shades to the texture. When the paint dried, I coated the piece with Mod Podge to seal the colors in. Then I glued a pendant hanger to the back.

  

 And here’s my Cthulhu necklace #1! 

 

I took the project a little further by molding a silicone cast of the pendant, for if I become curious about what else I can make from it. My first try at using the silicone cast was with plaster, which was a fail because the tips of the tentacles broke off.

Next time I’ll try resin. Just curious.

Resin and Polymer Clay Bracelet Inspired by The Hobbit

Am I evolving into a mixed media artist? Certainly felt like it when I got my first resin casting kit a few weeks ago. Creations with polymer clay and resin – should be fun, right? I had to give it a try. Throw in the Hobbit theme, and voila!

For those curious about how I did it, here’s the story.

First, let me share my first-try pieces with resin. Not bad. The process is easy enough.

Suddenly, I had this design in my head of a Hobbit-inspired bracelet combining polymer clay, resin, and cord knotting. Since there would be 12, no, 13 pieces, each element had to be small enough to complete a bracelet that wouldn’t be too bulky. I started making circles with polymer clay. Bake clay, then on to the next step.

I had printed out a photo of the dwarves when I first started making Thorin’s scalemail armor, so that would be the source of my bracelet photos.

Long story short, I prepped the dwarf faces, glued them onto the round setting, sealed them with Mod Podge (this step is essential because without the seal, the resin will eat up the photo), and delicately covered each photo with resin one drop at a time.

No matter how slowly you stir the resin mixture, bubbles will appear in the pour. So I had to tend to the pieces for a few hours, checking to see if bubbles are forming.

To remove the bubbles, I used a butane lighter. I just swiped the flame very quickly a few inches over the bubbly piece to create enough heat to pop the bubbles. Some crafters blow through a straw, but that’s tedious (and your breath moisture could create droplets that will end up on the piece); others use a heat gun (which I don’t have) or a hair dryer (which some don’t recommend because the air flow is hard to control and it could kick up dust/debris that will stick to the piece).

 I covered the curing pieces to protect them from dust and lint.

While the resin was curing (this is the toughest part for me -- the resin requires two days to harden), I molded the back pieces – the thingies that would help me string the bracelet. Nothing fancy, just has to do the job. Baked, then after the resin hardened, glued them on.

It was a little tricky knotting the band of dwarves but I got it together. And here’s the knotting effort:

And the finished product. Who can tell me why my OCD is nudging me to redo the final step?

Ruby Beads

Come on down to my new blog: Ruby Beads!

It's all about my handcrafted jewelry hobby. Lots of photos and interesting stories. I'll see you there!