My new Cargoh shop

For the past several years I've been trying to sell my artwork on Etsy. Etsy has become a HUGE marketplace for handmade goods and the competition is fierce. I've tried out various other sites to see if I might have some more visibility and in turn better sales. I have found  Etsy to be my most reliable site to be seen although a bit lacking for actual sales. A little while back I took a chance on a local handmade site. I had heard about Cargoh from some other local sellers who were very impressed with their vendor support.I thought that because it was a new site I would have limited competition. While I haven't made a sale on Cargoh yet, I've had some good views.

For a little while now though I've been considering that I should offer something totally different in my Cargoh shop. As of last week I've started listing my polymer caly pieces. These pieces are all one-of-a-kind items that I've created to feed my need to master this medium. I will be offering earrings, pendants, rings and possibly a few other ideas I have cooking.Please feel free to check out what I have listed so far. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Polymer clay collograph

This summer, since I've shut my shop, I've been spending my time focusing on learning new things without worrying about creating something "sellable". I've been messing around with my Bamboo tablet and enjoying the freedom I have to make as many mistakes as I want. I've also been dabbling in knitting, crochet, and polymer clay. All of them have been great past-times because I haven't been concerned with the outcome.

While experimenting with the polymer clay and using stamps to create textures and patterns, I began to wonder if anyone had ever used the material to print with. I thought that once the clay had been baked it would  still have some flexibility and therefore, would make it possible to be applied to a collograph plate and sent through a press without damage. I started to all sorts of possibilities and felt like a mad scientist when I created my plate. I had to create ant least thre different plates before I got one to print the way I wanted it to. I haven't seen anyone else use this technique so I thought I would list off what i learned and perhaps you would like to give it a try too.

I will be hand coloring these with watercolor

1. Once baked polymer clay has a slight texture and will print as a mid-tone grey. If you want to create whites or lighter greys you have to have to either adhere something smooth like plastic or varnish the area. Take note that the varnish doesn't stick well to polymer clay and it breaks down over each consecutive pull. I varnished my plate again half-way through the edition. I've been experimenting with various wet/dry sandpapers to create a smoother surface.

2.It's very easy to create a bevelled and level plate with the polymer clay.Unbaked polymer clay is so manipulative that it's very appealing in its' ability to be "drawn into".

3. The clay can hold very deep lines which can be advantagous or a problem when wiping the plate. If you don't push in enough ink the lines will appear white. It's surprising how little depth you need in your plate lines for them to print well.

4. This technique can be used to create relief  prints and/or embossed images.

You can see ink and oil that has accumulated under the plastic I used for the torso and face.

This gives you an idea for the depth of my plate pattern. Can you see the pattern I scribed into the plastic for the dress?

A Sneak Peak of my latest creation.

Today I thought I would show you a sneak peek of what I've been working on. I've been finding myself a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of ideas popping into my head lately and each project seems to stirring up more ideas. A little while back I had the idea that I would like to create an art doll using some sort of printmaking technique. I had a couple problems because I've never printed on fabric with anything by silkscreens and I'm not a great sewer. You may have seen in my previous post that I've figured out how to reclaim my ability to silkscreen at home with inexpensive materials. Here come the ideas....

For this project though I wanted a linocut look to my doll and I was fully prepared to figure out how to use my press to print on fabric with a thin lino plate. Instead I did my image planning with my new Bamboo tablet, created a black canvas and treated it like a virtual lino block using the scratch tool as my cutter. The biggest advantage was being able to redo my "plate" and fix up any wayward "cuts". This doll went through numerous changes because I found that even though my initial image was fine 2-D, it was horrible when it went to 3-D. I made numerous trial dolls and it was great that I failed so often because I got to learn so much about sewing. Later I decided that my dolls needed some embroidery so I took to learning some of that too. But my dolls needed some pretty buttons and beads in their hair so I took to learning about polymer clay so I could make some of my own. I've now grown an obsession with polymer clay so don't be surprised to see some of it pop up here. Can you see how my brain is getting filled with ideas?

In the end I created five one-of-a-kind art dolls complete with embroidery, beadwork, individual skirts, handmade buttons and beads.  My girls wanted to play with these dolls but with all the small pieces on them they really are just for display.  Of course I already have other doll ideas in my head. I will be trying to sell these at an up-coming craft show in Vancouver next month.
I would love to hear your opinion of them.