Life is A Beautiful Ride Assemblage

Iris Rodiguez recently shared a tutorial for this wonderful assemblage project complete with a tree made with Makin's Clay®.

Assemblage Under the Sea

Assemblage Under the Sea by Bea Grob

Today I come to you with an assemblage project. I had these artifical fish laying around since a while and I knew that I want to make an assemblage, but just those fish is a little boring, and finding the right things to go with it, seemed impossible. That's exactly when the Makin's Clay®  comes in handy. You can make anything you need with it. So I grabbed some black clay and started to make some underwater flowers to go with my theme.

Materials: 

Makin's Clay® - Black 

Makin's® 

• Sea Shells Push Mold
• Clay Tools 

Cigar box 

Adhesive 

Patterned papers 

Wire

Mica powder 

Faux fish, fabric, beads 

Scissors

Instructions:

I used about a walnut size of black or white clay for my flowers. I formed first a ball and then flattened it to a more or less circular shape.

Next, I placed it on my knuckle to form it into a cup shape and set them aside to dry. I let them dry overnight.

  

I have poked a piece of wire in the middle, just in case I would need it.

The next day I started covering the cups.  I rolled balls and flattened them to make covers for the cups.  Before I added them I added some holes with a ballpoint tool. I simply poked and swirled around a bit.

I made the shape slightly oval and then simply pressed the uncured clay the already cured clay and smoothed it out a bit. No need for extra glue it sticks together just like that.   If you do have issues with fresh clay adhering to cured clay, a bit of clear drying adhesive can be used. 

When everything was dry, I  added acrylic paints, embossing powders and Mica Powders. There are so many ways to give the clay the colors and shine I want.

Next, I prepared the cigar box with some old bookpages, maps and patterend paper and started assembling everything. I usually have more things on my table then what I use in the end.

The starfish you can see I made in May in the claycamp in Goldbar, also with Makin's Clay® of course.

 

I have used modelling paste and/or glue to attach all the flowers and embellishments.  For the hanging fishes and the anchor I did drill holes and then used wire to attach it.

To cover up the wire ends I used the Sea Shells Push Mold to make shells with the clay, and accented with mica powder, and then simply put them still uncured onto the top. 

And, I did apply little balls of black clay to the "anchor“ as those gaffs are quite sharp.

I have also added some fabric and beads to complete the look I was after.

Free Your Mind Assemblage

Design Team Member Iris Rodriguez recently shared this Mixed Media Assemblage piece here on her blog.  Iris used Makin's Clay® to create her dimensional textured background elements.

Love Never Rusts Assemblage

Design Team Member Iris Rodriguez recently shared this creative assemblage project featuring Makin's Clay® - "There are times in my mixed media projects, I am in need of special effect. Although, manufactured embellishments are great, I use them all the time, you can't reshape them. So this is when Makin's Clay® comes in super handy. For this project I sculpted the heart, then cut out the center, painted it and glued to the box."  Find out more about how Iris created this project here on her blog.

Always Wear Your Invisible Crown Shadowbox Assemblage

Always Wear Your Invisible Crown Shadowbox Assemblage
by Iris Rodriguez

Hello Makers!

I like inspirational quotes. I’ve always thought of a quotes as tiny burst of wisdom wrapped in a phrase; that pack a big punch of sense. So that is why I got inspired to make a little assemblage piece with a quote.

Materials:

Small Shadowbox
Makin's Clay® Red, Brown, Blue, Natural, Yellow, Green, Black
Makin's® 

• Florals Push Mold
• Roller and Cutter Set

Makin's Professional® Cutting Mat
Cardstock Paper
Black Inkpad
Gold Mica Powder
Blue Mica Powder

White Gesso

Blue and White Acrylic Paint

Clear drying adhesive 

Paint brush

Making the Shadowbox

Use a small box, box lid or small shadowbox, I used a lid from a box, measuring 5” x 5”. Paint the box with white gesso and blue acrylic paint.

Making the Bird

To determine roughly how much clay you will need to make the bird, take a small chunk of clay, make a quick teardrop shape and measure it inside the box. Add or break off clay as desired. Then sculpt the bird. I used a picture for reference. The basic idea for sculpting a bird is as follows: 

1. Start out by making a teardrop shape
2. On the pointed part of the teardrop sculpt the tail
3. On the rounded end of the teardrop, shape the head by sculpting a mound upwards
4. On the head, sculpt the mouth, by simply making triangle shape
5. For the eye roll a tiny piece of black clay into a round shape and place on head

6. For the wing, make a teardrop, then flatten with the clay roller

Note:  Fresh clay sticks to fresh clay without additional adhesive.  If needed, moisten clay with a touch of water before adhering, or if preferred, use a clear drying adhesive. 

Making the Crown

To make the crown, roll out a small piece of yellow clay using the clay roller.

Measure the circumference of crown on the bird.

Cut the length and width to size.

Then with a sharp cutting tool, cut out the triangles or zig zag shapes.

To give the crown some bling, dust on some gold mica powder.

Making the Tree and Flowers

To make the tree, roll three different size log shapes of various sizes with brown clay. Always use odd numbers for branches.

Using the logs, measure them inside the box, until the tree shape and size is satisfactory. Then attach the logs (branches together), by blending together with a little water.

To make a bark texture, use the dull size of a cutting tool to make striations.

For the flowers, push the clay into the Floral Push Mold.  The molds are flexible, so you do not have to wait until the clay has dried to remove the elements.  Trim any excess clay from your molded shapes.

To make pink clay, blend Natural or White with Red.

Let all your pieces cure for at least 24 hours.

Putting it all Together

Print the quote on cardstock, or stamp it. The quote looked lonely at the bottom, so I decided to jazz it up with the baroque (swirl) shape from Makin's Clay® Florals Push Mold. I used part of the shape and cut out the rest. I also brushed on some blue Mica Powder.

Assemble and glue all the pieces together.