A Piece of Lisa: red white and blue

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Uncle Sam

Following a theme this week, with the upcoming 4th of July holiday, today I will show you my VERY FAVORITE patriotic piece. I know I say that alot. Each time I make a new design, I think "I like this one the best." Well, it is sort of true. I enjoy my work, and 99% of the time I'm very pleased with the finished product. This one, however, truly is one of my favorites.

Meet Uncle Sam.

Uncle Sam is rather tall and skinny. I thought long, thin legs would accentuate his striped pants. The stripes are not painted on....they are long, skinny strips of red clay placed on his white pants. Same with his tall hat. (LOVE IT!)

I searched high and low trying to find a flag that was the right size and proportion for this piece. NOTHING! Everything was either way too big, or the wrong shade of blue. So finally, I bought some red and white striped fabric, and some solid blue and made my own! The 'stars' are handpainted little dots. Yes, there are fifty!

I tried to give Uncle Sam all the details you expect to see....a red bow tie, a white goatee, a blue jacket. This piece is full of the little extras I love to put in my work.

You can visit Uncle Sam in my etsy shop, along with many other wonderfully whimsical pieces. I hope you take a minute to have a look!

Happy 4th of July!

Lisa

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Polymer Project---Patriotic Pins

Fourth of July is right around the corner. (Where has the year gone??) I thought it might be fun to share a simple little patriotic polymer clay project with you all. Whip up these two easy pins and show your patriotism as we celebrate our nation's birthday.

You will need to gather the following supplies:

(I tried at least 10 times to rotate this picture properly. I took it horizontally. It's stored in my file horizontally, but for some reason, it would only download vertically. WT*!! I finally gave up....you get the gist!)

Red, white and blue polymer clay (I used Premo Pomegranate, Premo White, and Sculpey III Blue with a bit of black mixed in to make it a bit darker)

2 one inch bar pins

super glue (I prefer the gel variety)

index card to cut patterns (the square is 1-1/2", I drew a heart freehand and cut it. You could also use a cookie cutter)

Don't think you need fancy tools to work with polymer clay. I've been working with clay for over twenty years and have never felt the need to buy a pasta machine! Go figure! Here are the basic tools you will need for this project:

an x-acto knife, a needle tool (a pin will work just fine), tiny star cutters (or cut a pattern from the index card), a rolling pin (mine is actually a tall skinny glass bud vase I bought for a buck at Walmart! Anything smooth and flat will work---a glass, a bottle, etc.)

You will also need something to bake on. I have a pyrex pie plate that I use exclusively for clay. You won't want to cook with whatever you use, unless you line it with parchment paper. A ceramic tile would work just fine.

Start by conditioning the clay. Just twist and knead and pull and squeeze until it's consistently soft and you feel you can work with it easily. It might take a few minutes.

Next, roll out the red clay to about 1/8" thickness.

Place your heart pattern on the clay and cut around it with your x-acto knife.

Roll an even thinner slab of the blue clay and cut another heart.

Cut this heart off about 1/3 the way down, at a diagonal. You won't need the pointy end.

Place your blue piece on top of the red heart so it matches up nicely. Trim around it if necessary.

Roll out a thin slab of white clay and cut three long skinny stripes. I just eyeball mine. You could use a ruler or straight edge of a card if you are not confident in cutting a straight line freehanded.

Place the stripes evenly spaced along the red field.

Trim off the excess. Then cut a little star from the white clay.

Place the star on the upper left side of the blue field.

You can stop now it you like, but I like to add a little bit of detail with my needle tool--put some little stitch marks along the edges of the stripes and along the bottom of the blue, and put little dots on the edge of the star.

Now bake your pin at 275 degrees for 20 minutes. Once it has completely cooled, glue the pin to the back with super glue. (Don't want a pin? Put a magnet on the back instead!)

To make this cute little square flag pin, follow the same instructions as above, but use your 1-1/2" square pattern, cut a 3/4" square for the blue field, and use the larger of the two star cutters.

I hope you found my instructions simple to follow and you now have a couple of really cute pins to wear for the holiday!

God Bless America!